Colossians: Colossians 4:16-Paul Orders Colossians to Exchange Letters with the Laodiceans

When this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and you, for your part read my letter that is coming from Laodicea. (NASB95)

Now, after this epistle has been read in the presence of each one of you, I solemnly charge all of you to have it read in the Laodicean assembly. Likewise, I solemnly charge all of you to have the one from Laodicea read publicly by each one of you. (My translation)

After requesting that the Colossians pass along his greetings to the Laodicean Christian community and to a woman named Nympha and the believers who met in her private home, the apostle Paul in provides the Colossians instructions regarding the epistle he is writing directly to them.

He solemnly commands them to have this epistle read publicly in the Laodicean public assembly after it was read in the presence of each one of them.

He then issues another solemn command in which he orders them to read the letter he wrote directly to the Laodicean Christian community, thus, we can see that he wanted them to exchange letters.

Notice that Paul wants these epistles to be publicly read in both the Colossian and Laodicean assemblies.

In , Paul ordered Timothy to be occupied with the public reading of Scripture.

Until I do arrive, continue making it your habit of being occupied with the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. (My translation)

“The public reading of Scripture” is the noun anagnosis, which refers to “reading aloud” or “the public reading” of the Old Testament and Paul’s epistles in the local assemblies that met in various homes or school rooms or other public settings in Ephesus.

It refers to the public reading of the Old Testament and Paul’s epistles in the corporate worship setting.

When Paul wrote, First Timothy, that which would be publicly read aloud in Ephesus would be the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew bible since the Ephesian church was Gentile and not Jewish.

They would also have read Paul’s epistles which is indicated by the fact that in , Paul commanded that his letters to the Colossians be read to the Laodiceans.

Also, Paul commanded the Thessalonians to have First Thessalonians read to every Christian ().

Therefore, he considered his epistles to be essential for the life of the churches he planted and ministered to throughout the Roman Empire.

The reading of Scripture in the public worship setting would provide the foundation for pastor-teachers communicating to the church their application.

Also, these pastors would teach the church from that which was read publicly from this public reading of the Scriptures.

This would provide the individual members of the church with an understanding of who they are in Christ.

It would in other words it would define their identity in Christ as individuals but also as a corporate unit.

Therefore, the public reading of Scripture and communicating their application to the church and teaching the church from them would not only answer the believer’s question as to who they were but also answer their question as to how they should live in light of this identity in Christ.

It would also resolve disputes, especially between Jewish believers and Gentile believers with regards to such things as the dietary restrictions of the Mosaic Law and circumcision.

Now, not only does Paul want Timothy to be occupied with the public reading of Scripture but also the pastors in Ephesus.

Those who were faithful, to encourage them to continue and those who were unfaithful to get them back on track.

Philip Comfort has the following excellent comment, he writes “According to the custom of the day, the amanuensis or secretary of official documents was often the same person who carried the document to its destination and read it aloud to its intended audience. Since this person had been present at the time of writing, he could explain to the hearers anything that needed explaining. Since most people were not literate (on average, only 10 percent of the population in hellenistic times could read), they depended on oral reading for communication. Thus, for example, some of the epistles written by Paul could have been delivered by his amanuensis, who would then read the letter to the church and explain anything that needed explaining. In this light, it is possible that Tychicus was Paul’s amanuensis for Ephesians (see ) and Colossians (see ). He wrote down the epistles for Paul, as Paul dictated, and then delivered them to the Ephesians and Colossians. Most likely, the letter to the Ephesians is the encyclical epistle that traveled with Tychicus to Ephesus, Laodicea (see ), and other churches in the Roman province of Asia Minor. (See commentary on in chap. 7.”[1]

More than likely, this epistle from Laodicea mentioned by Paul in is the epistle we now know as Ephesians, which was a circular letter intended for all the churches in the Roman province of Asia, including Laodicea, Colossae, Ephesus.

Paul’s language in indicates that it would be coming from Laodicea to Colossae and then probably on to Ephesus, its final destination.

Tertullian believed that this Laodicean epistle mentioned in was in fact Ephesians.

In the heretic Marcion’s canon, the letter to the Ephesians was entitled “to the Laodiceans.”

He probably knew Ephesians in a form which lacked the word “at Ephesus” in the prescript and found what seemed to be a pointer to its destination in .

Again Comfort writes “This epistle is probably one and the same as the letter Paul mentions in , where he tells the Colossians, ‘See to it that you also read the letter from Laodicea.’ This language indicates that a letter (presumably written by Paul) would be coming to the Colossians from Laodicea. Since it is fairly certain that Ephesians was written and sent at the same time as Colossians (Tychicus carried both epistles and was very likely Paul’s amanuensis for both—see ; ), it can be assumed that Paul would expect that the encyclical epistle known as Ephesians would eventually circulate from Colossae to Laodicea. Coming from Rome, Tychichus would have first arrived at Ephesus along the coast, then traveled north to Smyrna and Pergamum, then turned southeast to Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea—and then on to Colossae (as perhaps the last stop). We can surmise that this circulation route would have been similar to the one for the book of Revelation (1:11), which was also sent to the churches in Asia Minor. (The book of Revelation was circulated from Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamum to Thyatira to Sardis to Philadelphia to Laodicea.) Just to the southeast of Laodicea was Colossae, thereby making it the next logical stop. Thus, Ephesians was an encyclical for the churches in Asia Minor.”[2]

What Paul wants the Colossians to do is make copies of this letter written directly to them and then have them send these copies to the Laodiceans who in turn would make copies of these copies and pass them along to the next Christian community in the Roman province of Asia.

The Colossians would keep the original Colossian epistle and the Laodiceans would keep the original of the epistle written directly to them which we now call “Ephesians.”

Paul wanted this exchange of letters because he believed the contents of the Colossian epistle would benefit the Laodicean Christian community and likewise he believed the contents of the Laodicean epistle would benefit the Colossians.

The problems with the Judaizers and their incipient form of Gnosticism which the apostle addresses in would benefit the Laodiceans since they were only a few miles down the road from Colossae.

Thus, the Laodicean Christian community was more than likely exposed to this same group of false teachers.

The aorist imperative form of the verb poieō in expresses Paul’s urgency that this exchange of letters to take place immediately because of the presence of the false teachers in the Roman province of Asia.

[1] Comfort, P. (2005). Encountering the manuscripts: an introduction to New Testament paleography & textual criticism (pp. 50–52). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman.

[2] Comfort, P. (2005). Encountering the manuscripts: an introduction to New Testament paleography & textual criticism (p. 346). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman.