Colossians 4:16

Cause that it be read also. Such a custom must have been general by early Christians. History indicates that the NT writings were copied and recopied and that they had a wide circulation.

The epistle from Laodicea. This does not mean that the epistle was written “from Laodicea,” but that having been written to Laodicea, it should be carried over to Colossae “from Laodicea.” Thus it would be “from Laodicea” as far as the Colossian church was concerned. As to the identity of this epistle nothing definite is known. Many hold the theory that the letter to the Ephesians is the one to which allusion is here made. Paul wrote Ephesians at about the same time that he wrote Colossians, perhaps even on the same day. Both were entrusted to the same messenger, Tychicus (cf. Eph. 6:21; Col. 4:7). But this is only a conjecture. For a discussion of the problem of the authorship of Ephesians see Vol. VI, pp. 993, 994.