Up to now the Letter to the Colossians, one of the writings
of the New Testament, has been the major evidence of the existence of the early
church of Colossae and its links with Laodicea and Hierapolis. While parallels
have been drawn to other Christian communities founded by St Paul at Ephesus
and Corinth, the digging of Colossae may reveal new insights into the establishment
and development of the church there.
There
was probably a fairly large Jewish population in the cities of the Lycus.
Some have estimated that as many as 7500 Jewish freemen were in the district
based upon the amount of Temple tax confiscated by the proconsul Flacus in
Laodicea in 62 B.C. (see Cic. Flac. 28.68).Antiochus II in the tradition of
the Seleucids offered free citizenship to Jews for they were considered useful
in bringing money and trade to any place they settled. Antiochus III transported
2000 Jewish families from Babylon and Mesopatmia. They prospered as expected
and attracted their fellow country folk bringing the Jewish population in
the region up to possibly 50,000 in the time of Paul. This historical background
suggests that Jewish and Gentile Christians would have been intimately involved
at Colossae and influenced its social world.
The
lack of inscriptions from the unexcavated site make it difficult to reconstruct
any detailed history of the city. A number of Colossian coins, however, help
to create some impressions about the city, especially concerning the gods
worshipped at Colossae. Evidence from the study of coins (numismatics) points
most frequently to the worship of the Ephesian Artemis and the Laodicean Zeus,
but also to Artemis (the huntress), Men, Selene, Demeter, Hygieia, Helios,
Athena, Tyche, Boule, as well as the Egyptian dieties Isis and Sarapis (Head
1906:154-157).
