The Geography of Colossae in the Times of Paul Essay example

Introduction This essay will basically look at the geography of Colossae in the times of Paul, study on the word which is â€Å"handwriting† (Colossians 4:12) found in Pauls’ epistle and to apply the hermeneutics to the interpretation of the text. Geography of Colossae Colossae is also one of the church in Asia Minor which Paul did not visit or been there but he wrote epistle to the church. Colossae is about 100 miles east of Ephesus. It lay on the south bank of the Lycus River which is a tributary of the Maeander River, not far from the larger and wealthier towns of Laodicea and Hierapolis. It is 10 miles southeast of Laodicea and Hierapolis was 6 miles north of Laodicea , but Colossae is resting at the foot of Mount Cadmus . In the fourth†¦show more content†¦In Paul’s epistle he said that Epaphras is his fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ (Col 1:7). Epaphras was the one who established the church in Colossae. Through his ministries in Colossae he could found it hard to encounter the philosophy of other men. So he went to see Paul imprison in Rome to help me encountered the new philosophy which the church in Colossae were facing. Therefore, Paul wrote his epistles to Colossae church to encourage them to stay firm in their faith. In his epistle, he wrote in chapter 2 verses 14 which say, â€Å"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinance that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing to his cross† However, this research is basing more study only on the word, ‘Handwriting’. Furthermore, the word handwriting in Greek is χÎ µÃŽ ¹Ã Ã¡ ½ ¹ÃŽ ³Ã ÃŽ ±Ãâ€ ÃŽ ¿ÃŽ ½ which translated as cheirographon. It is a noun, accusative, neuter and singular. We can see it now that the word cheirographon is acting as a subject in the sentence and it also used as a metaphor in the sentence. The meaning for this word is the handwriting, bond or a legal document, certificate of debt . If we look in the four different version of the bible we could see the broader meaning for the word cheirographon. For instance, in the King James Version says, the blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary us, and took it of the way, nailing it to his cross, in