Paul's Letter to the Colossians This Letter belongs to the same group as those to the Ephesians and Philemon, and was probably written from Rome about 63 A. D. Colossae was a town in Phrygia (Roman Asia), on the river Lycus, and was destroyed by an earthquake in the seventh year of Nero's reign. The Church there was not founded by Paul himself (Col 2:1), but by Epaphras (Col 1:7; 4:12), and this Letter arose out of a visit which Epaphras paid to the Apostle, for the purpose of discussing with him the development, at Colossae, of certain strange doctrines which may possibly have been a kind of early Gnosticism. Paul here writes to support the authority and confirm the teaching of Epaphras.