Guide · Medium · 7 min
What is the Epistle to the Laodiceans?
Understand the Epistle to the Laodiceans, its relation to Colossians 4:16, and its place among Christian apocryphal texts.
# What is the Epistle to the Laodiceans?
Quick summary
The Epistle to the Laodiceans is a short Christian apocryphal text associated with the mention of a letter from Laodicea in Colossians 4:16. It is not part of the New Testament canon in the major Christian traditions.
Why people ask about it
Colossians 4:16 refers to a letter “from Laodicea.” This created interest in whether such a letter survived. The text known as the Epistle to the Laodiceans appears later and is usually understood as a secondary composition drawing on Pauline language.
What is in the text?
The work is brief and resembles a patchwork of Pauline phrases and themes. It does not contain a developed argument like Romans or Galatians.
Reception
The letter circulated in parts of the Latin West and appears in some medieval manuscript traditions. Still, it was not accepted into the New Testament canon by the main Christian traditions.
How to read it
It is useful as a witness to reception history: how later Christians imagined or supplied a missing apostolic letter. It should not be treated as a secure writing of Paul.
Read also
- What are biblical apocrypha?
- What is the biblical canon?
- What are Epistles?
- Were books really removed from the Bible?
Sources and recommended reading
Editorial note: this article is written in an informational, non-confessional tone. Where traditions disagree, the page should describe differences of reception, use, and canon without presenting one tradition as the universal default.