Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Colossians 4:7-18, Tychicus, Onesimus, Nympha's house and the letter from Laodicea
Paul sends the letter with Tychicus and Onesimus, passes on greetings from Jewish and Gentile co-workers, greets Nympha and the church in her house, asks for this letter to be read at Laodicea and the Laodicean letter at Colossae, and signs off in his own hand.
Colossians 4:7-18, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul sends the letter with Tychicus, along with Onesimus, a member of their own church. He passes on greetings from co-workers, among them Aristarchus, Mark, Epaphras, Luke and Demas, and greets Nympha and the church that meets in her house. He asks for this letter to be swapped with one sent to Laodicea, then signs off in his own hand and asks them to remember he is in chains.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/letters-and-letter-carriers\/","n":"Letters, scribes and carriers","s":"Letters were usually dictated to scribes, carried by trusted travelers because there was no public post, and read aloud to the people they were sent to.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/slavery\/","n":"Slavery and slave managers","s":"Slaves were everywhere in the Roman world, from field hands to stewards who ran whole estates and handled their master's money. A master away and slaves left in charge was a familiar story.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/house-churches\/","n":"House churches","s":"For their first three centuries Christians met in homes, the way some Jewish groups and private clubs did. A host with a large house gave the church its room, its table and often its protection.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/letters-of-recommendation\/","n":"Letters of recommendation","s":"A traveler often carried a letter from someone his hosts trusted, vouching for him and asking them to receive him. Such letters opened homes, synagogues and churches.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/roman-custody\/","n":"Prison, chains and Roman custody","s":"Roman prisons held people until trial or execution; they were not a punishment in themselves. How a prisoner was kept, in the stocks of an inner cell or lightly chained to one soldier, depended on his rank.","r":""}
Letters went whenever someone happened to travel, and Paul sends Tychicus on purpose (Keener and his notes), probably with Ephesians and Philemon (the ESV Study Bible; Wright). Onesimus is probably the slave of the letter to Philemon (Keener and his notes; Wright); where he had fled is read differently, Ephesus for Wright and Rome, "the frequent goal of such fugitives", for the Zondervan dictionary. Wright thinks the church may have numbered "no more than a dozen or so". Hierapolis had a large Jewish community (the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener), and Price and House cite an undated inscription there naming the community of the Jews of Hierapolis. Nympha may have been widowed or divorced, and the feminine form is probably original (the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener), though the Zondervan dictionary notes that the accent and some manuscripts leave it uncertain whether a man or a woman is meant. Whether the letter from Laodicea survives is debated: perhaps Ephesians sent as a circular (the cultural backgrounds notes; Wright and Bird; Wright; the CSB Study Bible; the Zondervan dictionary), or a lost letter (the ESV Study Bible; Keener; Carson, Moo and Morris, since no copy is addressed to Laodicea).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to Colossians 4:7-18, and on Colossians 4:7-8, 4:9, 4:11, 4:13, 4:14, 4:15 and 4:16
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Colossians 4:13, 4:15 and 4:16
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Colossians 4:7-8 and 4:16
- CSB Study Bible, note on Colossians 4:16
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 20, The Argument of Colossians
- N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography, ch. 11, Ephesus II
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters, comment on Colossians 4:2-9 and 4:10-18
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entries Onesimus, Nympha and Laodiceans, Epistle to the
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, Colossians 4:13, Evidence of Christianity in Hierapolis
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 11, Ephesians, Destination
