Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 141:561 (Jan 1984)
Article: Colossian Problems Part 1: Jews and Christians in the Lycus Valley
Author: F. F. Bruce

BSac 141:561 (Jan 84) p. 3

Colossian Problems
Part 1:
Jews and Christians in the Lycus Valley

F. F. Bruce

[F. F. Bruce, Emeritus Professor, University of Manchester, Manchester, England]

[Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of four articles delivered by the author as the W. H. Griffith Thomas Memorial Lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary, November 1–4, 1983.]

In antiquity several rivers in Asia Minor were called the Lycus River.1 The Lycus River pertaining to Colossians watered part of southwestern Phrygia and flowed into the Maeander River. When one speaks of the cities mentioned in the Book of Colossians: Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis (Col 2:1; 4:13). Of these three, Colossae was by far the of the Lycus Valley, he usually means the three which are oldest; it was a city when Xerxes and his army passed that way in 480 B.C.2 Laodicea was founded by the Seleucid King Antiochus II (261-246 B.C.); Hierapolis received the constitution of a city from Eumenes II, king of Pergamum (197-160 B.C.).

The region formed part of the Persian Empire from Cyrus’ overthrow of Croesus, king of Lydia, in 546 B.C. to Alexander the Great’s conquest of Asia Minor in 334 B.C. For the next century and a half the Lycus Valley was ruled by Alexander and his successors, but by the Peace of Apamea, imposed by the Romans on Antiochus III in 188 B.C., it was taken from the Seleucids and added to the kingdom of Pergamum, which was in alliance with Rome. In 133 B.C. the last king of Pergamum bequeathed his realm to the Romans, who four years later reorganized it as the province of Asia. The Lycus Valley was then incorporated in the Roman Empire, and remained so for many centuries.

The cities of the Lycus Valley enjoyed economic prosperity in spite of the severe damage they suffered from time to time because of earthquakes. Their prosperity was based on their

BSac 141:561 (Jan 84) p. 4

principal industry—the manufacture and preparation of woolen fabrics, which were carried by river to the Aegean coast and exported to various parts of the ancient world.

Jewish Settlers in Phrygia

Some Jewish settlement in western Asia Minor can be traced back to the sixth century B.C.; apparently Jewish exiles were in the Lydian capital, Sardis, at the time of the Prophet Obadiah.3 Josephus said Seleucus I (312-281 B.C.) granted Jews full civic rights in all the cities he founded.4 (It is wise to con...