Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 26:2 (Spring 2012)
Article: Hostess Nympha In Laodicea: Gathering Household And Neighbors
Author: Beulah Wood

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PP 26:2 (Spring 2012) p. 12

Hostess Nympha In Laodicea: Gathering Household And Neighbors

Beulah Wood

Beulah Wood, a New Zealander, has worked for extended intervals in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh since 1968. She now lectures and writes at the South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies, Bangalore, South India. This article is adapted from her recent book The People Paul Admired: The House Church Leaders of the New Testament (Wipf & Stock, 2011).

Background

What we know of Nympha as a person springs primarily from two small verses written by Paul about AD 58 to 60: “Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea” (Col 4:15-16).

The quotation still leaves questions. We do not have a letter written at this stage either to or from Laodicea, though we do have John’s letter to Laodicean believers in his Revelation more than twenty years later (Rev 3:14-22). Today, Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis (then a bustling Roman spa town because of its natural hot water springs and white silica terraces) are uninhabited ruins not far from one another in a broad valley. Tourists stay at modern Pamukkale down the slope from Hierapolis, where excavations reveal the Roman town. The modern museum in Hierapolis has many exhibits from Roman times, and modern tourists have stepped barefoot across the beautiful white silica terraces. Earthquakes have damaged the terraces, too. There was an earthquake in AD 60, perhaps shortly after the mention of Nympha in the letter to Colossae.

Nympha as a householder had a large enough home for family and probably resident staff, perhaps a steward like Deniz and his wife Almas, and other workers. Almas could tell about Laodicea and the possible household workings of their patron, Nympha.

A View From Laodicea

I am pleased to tell you about Laodicea, for it is a grand place with a wonderful view. Our city was founded by Antiochus II more than two hundred years ago and named after his wife Laodicea. I stand here on the flagstone slabs of the road between the houses where our town perches atop a broad spur between two streams flowing down to the wide valley when we look across to the south. To the east, seven miles away, the surprising splash of white on the dark hillside marks the white terraces of Hierapolis. Up the hill behind us to the north, ample common land and trees slope to the valley floor. The Roman road running through here and down the wide valley to Ephesus on the coast is a necessity for our ...

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