What events led to the writing of Colossians?
Writing a letter, even one that seems relatively short in comparison to letters such as the one Paul wrote to the Romans, was a rather laborious task in the 1st century. We are so conditioned to computers that generate documents rather easily that we tend to forget that to sit down and write a letter by hand on parchment (animal skin) or papyrus (the center of reed plants that had been pressed out and dried) was a difficult task. Therefore, it was not something that was done lightly. Usually some event or series of events took place that led up to the producing of such letters. In the case of Colossians, two things happened that led to Paul’s writing this letter: 1. Paul received a visit while he was in prison in Rome from a man named Epaphras. We will come across that name in Colossians 1:7 where Epaphras is described as the person who first shared the Gospel with the people in Colossae. He is mentioned again in Colossians 4:12 being described there as “…one of your number…” meani
