The significance of communication within the early church within Asia-minor can not be overstated. As there were numerous nationalities, languages, cultures, traditions, and religious commitments within the Greco-Roman empire located further East of Rome, the distribution of populations beyond Judea grew more widespread. Until the 19th century, the traditional perspective was that Paul traveled through Northern Galatia in 56 A.D as the Gauls inhabited it. The inhabitants of Southern Galatia were Galatian in name only as Roman imperialism and its populace consisting of different ethnicities occupied the area. They were not ethnically Gauls. By comparison, the biblical record explicitly identifies Derbe, Iconium, and Lystra as the towns Paul visited with the gospel. While there is no record of his visitation to North Galatia that consisted of ethnic Gauls, churches formed in Southern Galatia would have been supported by correspondence as read from his letters to the Galatians. To conclude that Paul was writing to a Galatian church in the North is to speculate from silence and an absence of specific revelatory detail and the historiographical record. Paul specifically wrote to the Galatian people of Southern Galatia, which likely made its way to Northern Galatia.
By comparison, as Paul wrote to the believers at Ephesus, the introduction of the letter itself was explicit concerning its intended readership. The letter was written to the saints who were at Ephesus. The text doesn’t specify “the Church” or the equivalent in Greek by way of introduction. Further along in the body of the letter, there are various references to the church, but not as a directed reading of the saints at a specific assembly in Ephesus per se. The assemblies in Ephesus are inclusive of the language and terminology of the church as it concerns Paul’s apostolic instruction. Early manuscripts that do not specify the population of believers in Ephesus don’t expressly exclude them by inference. If Paul’s letter was copied to form another early manuscript and circulated to exclude the locale at Ephesus, it would serve as a circular letter among congregations of saints in Asia-minor without a specific target audience for more widespread instruction and applicability.
The biblical text doesn’t indicate that the letter was initial correspondence to the saints at Ephesus or that it was intended for eventual circularity at the outset. To conclude otherwise that there is evidence is simply a matter of historical theory outside the authority of scripture itself. Conversely, whether corroborated or not by other literary means, it is reasonable to conclude that all letters were eventually shared and served as a basis for apostolic instruction toward Godly living, doctrine, discipleship, and many other matters of pertinent interest and truth. Paul’s letter from Laodicea specified in Colossians doesn’t specify it as the letter written to the saints in Ephesus (Col 4:16). There is a compelling rationale about the nature of the letter’s intended circularity, and a reader could surmise its origin from Ephesus. Still, there isn’t explicit certainty, or biblical proof, that it was intended as a generic letter or from a template for broader consumption later in time.
More distinct from other correspondence, Paul wrote to the believers of Colossae about false teaching (Col 2:8) as the Colossian heresy formed and threatened to produce a corrosive effect. These believers were exposed to gnostic Judaism or at least primitive gnostic thought that inferred that the redemptive work of Christ and the grace of God wasn’t enough. More specifically, and according to F.F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Free Spirit, false teachers from the synagogues of Phrygia were the source of Hellenistic Judaism that produced false and speculative beliefs that didn’t have a place for the gospel and Christ as a salvific necessity. As a form of syncretism took shape and found its way to believers in Colossae, specific emphasis was placed upon the angels and their agency responsible for creation. As elemental beings (stoicheia), they were to be feared and served through asceticism. Christ Himself was subject to the spiritual world’s divine plenitude (plērōma), or principalities and powers according to the spiritual élite presented as advanced and progressive wisdom and knowledge (gnōsis). Essentially, through false teaching, Christ wasn’t enough.
By comparison, Paul’s defense of the gospel to the Judaisers of Ephesus with different circumstances. He contended with Jewish Christians who held bodily circumcision as necessary to attain right standing before God. As an inclusive requirement of the new covenant, it was asserted that Gentiles must become circumcised to share in the fellowship of those who belong to Christ. As concluded of the Colossian heresy, Christ again wasn’t enough, but for different reasons. Through false teaching, Christ wasn’t sufficient.
While correspondence continued, in various locations within the Eastern Anatolian peninsula of Asia, several churches were planted that were undergoing spiritual development. They were under the apostolic leadership of Paul and his fellow laborers in the gospel of Christ. Their instruction delivered in oral and written form originated from shepherds appointed, and letters read for the purpose of teaching, rebuke, correction, and training in righteousness. In such efforts, written correspondence and spiritual gifts were given among people for God’s glory and growth in well-being. To that purpose, the distribution of letters interspersed included letters “coming from Laodicea.” In contrast, they would pass from the saints at Ephesus, the saints of Asia as a circular letter, or from Hierapolis and Laodicea itself (c.f. Col 4:16). Concerning the specific reference to Colossians 4:16, where Paul wrote, “see that you also read the letter from Laodicea” (ESV), some would reference it (without conclusive evidence) as the circular letter to the Ephesian believers. While others could surmise that the letter was directed explicitly to the Laodicea church – a letter now lost and absent from the canon of scripture. The perspective that the letter was yet additional correspondence circulated among the various churches in Asia is another theory of interest. It indicates a corpus of texts that served multiple purposes over some time. As needs and coordination for instruction, guidance, travel logistics, supplies, and support became a necessity for a network of churches, the body of believers in Asia had to rely upon a means of communication involving Paul and his variously named helpers.
