ΣΑΜΟΣ: Colossae

May 19 - We drove from Egirdir, in the Turkish Lake District, to Pamukkale, the gleaming white cliffs with the blue pools of water cascading down. Last August, when we were here, we visited the newly excavated ruins of Laodicea, which are located near the freeway interchange. This time, we decided to hunt up what remained of Colossae.

The ancient city of Colossae is located just east of the modern town of Honaz, about 10 miles south of Laodicea. It rests at the foot of 8,000' Mt. Cadmus, the highest mountain in western Turkey. The Lycus River, little more than a creek by our standards, runs to the north. The old Greek city has never been excavated, so all we see today is a huge 100' high mound with a dirt road along one side and small vineyards and cherry orchards on the other. It is a very fertile nook of this valley due to the abundant water. We bought a kilo of cherries from a roadside farmer for 6 Turkish lira, or about $2.00 US.

Colossae was the preeminent city in the upper Lycus Valley throughout the Persian era, 600 BC to 350 BC. Xerxes stopped here for several days in BC 480 on his way to the Greek settlements along the Aegean coast. After Alexander the Great conquered the region around BC 330, the Greeks started constructing cities further up the river valleys of western Anatolia, including the cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis. They soon eclipsed Colossae, and by the time Paul was preaching in Ephesus, Colossae was a cultural backwater.

Paul wrote to the Colossian saints from his imprisonment in Rome shortly after AD 60. Tacitus records in the Annals that Laodicea had been destroyed by an earthquake in the 7th year of Nero, who reigned from AD 54 to AD 68 (Chapter 14). This would be approximately AD 61 by our reckoning. It appears that the neighboring city of Colossae was also toppled by the same earthquake but, unlike Laodicea, it was never rebuilt. When John received his revelation in the later years of the 60's, he lists Laodicea among the seven Christian churches in Roman Asia but he did not mention Colossae, which no longer existed.

We read about a church in Colossae, which met in the home of Philemon, and another in nearby Laodicea (Col. 2:1, 4:16, Phil. 1). There were also a few believers in Hieropolis, the holy city that lies directly above the travertine pools of Pamukkale (Col. 4:13). These Christians had been exposed to the Judaizing of the Galatians who lived less than 100 miles to the east. "Let no man therefore judge you in meat , or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath day ........." (Col. 2:16). They also had been influenced by the angelology of Jewish mysticism. "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind ....." (Col. 2:18).