St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon / A revised text with introductions, notes and dissertations

by J. B. Lightfoot

(b) Some companion of St Paul (Epaphras or Luke);

(c) St Paul himself;

(i) A lost Epistle.

(ii) One of the Canonical Epistles.

(α) Hebrews;

(β) Philemon;

(γ) Ephesians.

(iii) The Apocryphal Epistle.

In this maze of conflicting hypotheses we might perhaps be tempted to despair of finding our way and give up the search as hopeless. Yet I venture to think that the true identification of the epistle in question is not, or at least ought not to be, doubtful.

1. An epistle written by the Laodiceans.