Colossians Chapter 4 verse 16 Holy Bible

ASV Colossians 4:16

And when this epistle hath been read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye also read the epistle from Laodicea.
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BBE Colossians 4:16

And when this letter has been made public among you, let the same be done in the church of Laodicea; and see that you have the letter from Laodicea.
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DARBY Colossians 4:16

And when the letter has been read among you, cause that it be read also in the assembly of Laodiceans, and that *ye* also read that from Laodicea.
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KJV Colossians 4:16

And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.
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WBT Colossians 4:16


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WEB Colossians 4:16

When this letter has been read among you, cause it to be read also in the assembly of the Laodiceans; and that you also read the letter from Laodicea.
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YLT Colossians 4:16

and when the epistle may be read with you, cause that also in the assembly of the Laodiceans it may be read, and the `epistle' from Laodicea that ye also may read;
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Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 16. - And when this letter has been read among you, see to it (literally, cause) that it be read also in the Church of (the) Laodiceans (1 Thessalonians 5:27). For these two Churches were closely allied in origin and condition, as well as by situation and acquaintanceship (Colossians 2:1-5; Colossians 4:13). The leaven of the Colossian error was doubtless beginning to work in Laodicea also. The words addressed to Laodicea in the Apocalypse (Revelation 3:14-22) bear reference apparently to the language of this Epistle (Colossians 1:15-18); see Lightfoot, pp. 41, etc. The phrase, "Church of Laodiceans," corresponds to that used in the salutation of 1 and 2 Thessalonians, but is not found elsewhere in St. Paul. And that ye also read the letter from Laodicea. What was this letter? Clearly a letter from St. Paul which would be received at Laodicea, and which the Colossians were to obtain from there. The connection of this sentence with the foregoing, and the absence of any other definition of the words, "the letter (from Laodicea)," make this evident. Nothing further can be affirmed with certainty. But several considerations point to the probability that this missing Epistle is none other than our (so-called) Epistle to the Ephesians. For: (1) Both letters were sent at the same time, and by the same messenger (Ephesians 6:21; Colossians 4:7). (2) The relation between the two is more intimate than exists between any other of St. Paul's writings; they are twins, the birth of the same crisis in the condition of the Church and in the apostle's own mind. Each serves as a commentary on the other. And there are several important topics, lightly touched upon in this letter, on which the writer dilates at length in the other (comp. Colossians 1:9 b and Ephesians 1:17, 18; Colossians 1:23 b-25 and Ephesians 3:1-13; Colossians 1:18 a, 24 b, 2:19 and Ephesians 4:4-16, 5:23-32; Colossians 1:21, 27, 2:11-13, 3:11 and Ephesians 2; Colossians 1:18 ("Firstborn out of the dead"), 2:12 b and Ephesians 1:19-23; Colossians 3:12 ("God's elect") and Ephesians 1:3-14; Colossians 3:18, 19 and Ephesians 5:22-33). On the other hand, the main arguments of the Colossian letter are, as it seems, assumed and presupposed in the Ephesian (comp. Ephesians 1:10, 20 b-23, 2:20 b, 3:8 b-11, 19 b, 4:13 b with Colossians 1:15-20, 2:9, 10; Ephesians 4:14 with Colossians 2:4, 8, 16-23). (3) The words ἐν Αφέδῳ in Ephesians 1:1 are of doubtful authenticity; and there is much in the internal character of that Epistle to favour the hypothesis, proposed by Archbishop Usher, that it was a circular letter, destined for a number of Churches in Asia Minor, of which Ephesus may have been the first and Laodicea the last (compare the order of Revelation 2:3.). In that case a copy of the Ephesian Epistle would be left at Laodicea by Tychicus on his way to Colossae. (See Introduction, § 6; compare that to Ephesians.) . . .

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(16) When this epistle.--In the implied direction to read this Epistle in the Church--a direction expressly given under like circumstances to the Church at Thessalonica (1Thessalonians 5:27)--we discern the method of first publication of the Apostolic Epistles; in the direction to interchange Epistles with the Laodicean Church, we trace the way in which these Epistles became more widely diffused, and recognised as authoritative in the Church at large. Thus it was that they were "canonised," i.e., accepted as a part of the "canon" or rule of divine truth. The likelihood, or unlikelihood, of this public reading has an important bearing on the question of the authenticity of some of the books, which were placed among the "doubtful" by Eusebius and other ancient authorities. The fact that other books (such as our so-called Apocryphal books) were also publicly read was the cause of their being wrongly confused with the books of Holy Scripture.The epistle from Laodicea.--The question, What was this "Epistle from Laodicea"? has given birth to a crowd of conjectures, of which an admirable and exhaustive examination will be found in Dr. Lightfoot's Excursus on this verse. But many of these may be at once dismissed. It seems perfectly clear, from the obvious parallelism of this Epistle from Laodicea with the Epistle to the Colossians itself, that it was a letter not from the Laodicean Church, not from any other Apostle, or Apostolic writer, but from St. Paul himself, either written at Laodicea, or (as is more likely) written to the Laodicean Church, and to be sent "from Laodicea" to Colossae. Hence the question is narrowed to a single alternative--(1) Is it an Epistle which has been lost, or, at any rate, not found in the canon? This is, of course, possible; it cannot be necessary, as it is certainly difficult, to suppose that all St. Paul's Epistles have been preserved to us in Holy Scripture. Now, there is extant an "Epistle to the Laodiceans," circulated in the West, and known only in the Latin, although it has been thought to bear traces of translation from a Greek original. This letter (for which see Excursus B.) is obviously a forgery, probably not of early date, being little more than a tame compilation of phrases from St. Paul's Epistles. Putting this unhesitatingly aside, we may suppose the letter to have been lost. But this is a supposition merely arbitrary, and not to be adopted, except in default of something which has a better claim to attention. (2) Is it some other of St. Paul's known Epistles? The only letter which is noticed in our ordinary copies of the Greek Testament as written from Laodicea is the First Epistle to Timothy; but this is put out of the question, both in date and character; and, moreover, the very idea of a letter written from Laodicea at this time is negatived by St. Paul's declaration (Colossians 2:1) that the Laodiceans had not seen his face in the flesh. A fourth century tradition declares our "Epistle to the Hebrews" to have been written to the Laodiceans; but (setting aside all question of the authorship) the whole character and argument of the Epistle make this extremely unlikely. Far the most probable supposition identifies it with our "Epistle to the Ephesians." For the reasons for supposing this an encyclical letter, see Introduction to that Epistle. In particular it should not be forgotten that Marcion expressly calls it an "Epistle to the Laodiceans." Laodicea lay lower down the valley, and was the larger town: an encyclical letter might well be left there to be sent on to Colossae. The two Epistles, as we have seen, have both strong likeness and marked distinction. Nothing could be more natural than that they should be interchanged, according to the direction of the text.