Beschreibung:
The first three chapters of Revelation, the epistles to Philemon and the Colossians, and various notices in Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History enable an internally consistent picture of the beginnings of Christianity in the Lycus Valley to be constructed. The foundation of the church at Laodicea may be due to Philemon; that at Hierapolis, to the daughters of the apostle Philip; that at Colossae, to Epaphras. Laodicea was the place where the first deutero Pauline letter, Colossians, was written, where the first martyr-bishop, Sagaris, was killed and where the first council of some Asian churches on the Quartodeciman issue was held. During the second century the church of Hierapolis came to the fore, particularly in the persons of Papias and Claudius Apolinarius, its bishops.