Apocrypha
Epistle to the Laodiceans
Lost Epistle
3 chapters · read and listen
Reading note
An apocryphal or pseudepigraphal text — outside the canon of the Western churches, yet widely circulated among ancient Jews and Christians. Published here from a public-domain translation, edited for continuous reading.
Chapters
Dossier
A letter of twenty verses, assembled from phrases of Paul, which exists because of one loose line in Colossians: read also the letter that will come from Laodicea.
Where this text comes from
Latin, probably 3rd or 4th century AD. It is an early attempt to fill the gap created by Colossians 4:16 — the original letter, if it existed, was never found.
Why it is not in the Bible
Rejected, but with a remarkable afterlife: although the Muratorian Fragment already denounces it as a forgery, it was copied into more than a hundred Vulgate manuscripts through the Middle Ages and even appeared in printed Bibles.
What you will find
- Almost the entire text is assembled from lines taken from Philippians and Galatians.
- There is no new doctrine anywhere in it — which is itself the ancient argument against its authenticity.
- It is the clearest case of a loose reference in the New Testament generating an entire book.
Frequently asked questions
- Is there a letter of Paul to the Laodiceans?
- Colossians 4:16 mentions a letter coming from Laodicea, but it did not survive. The text circulating under that name is a later composition, recognised as a forgery already in antiquity.