Colossae in Space and Time

The ancient site of Colossae in south-west Turkey has been sorely neglected by archaeologists and biblical commentators. It has never been excavated. Modern scholarship in general has been content to repeat nineteenth century assessments, especially those of J.B. Lightfoot and W.M. Ramsay. This is the first modern contribution to gather the archaeological, historical, classical and biblical materials related to the site and its region, some of which is published in English for the first time. It marks a major step forward in scholarship on Colossae, and is designed to restore Colossae to time and space, to its material and comparative significance. Colossae emerges as a site of uninterrupted human activity in dynamic interaction with its neighbours from before the Achaemenid period to beyond the end of Byzantine control. Evidence of a chalcolithic origin of Colossae is presented along with an assessment of the relationship of the site to the modern city of Honaz. An array of international scholars have brought their specialisations in various periods and disciplines to yield a radically new assessment of the history and importance of the site. All future scholarship will be able to use this volume as the necessary foundation for research. The volume includes the first chronology of the ancient site and the first English translation of the key Byzantine text centred on the ancient city, as well as major new insights into the text of the Epistle to the Colossians.

Alan H. Cadwallader is a Research Professor at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture at Charles Sturt University in Canberra. Recent monographs have been Beyond the Word of a Woman (ATF, 2008), Fragments of Colossae (ATF, 2015), The Politics of the Revised Version (T&T Clark, 2019). He has edited a number of volumes on the interface of early Christianity, ancient culture and contemporary issues: Colossae in Space and Time (V & R, 2011), Pieces of Ease and Grace (ATF, 2013), Where the Wild Ox Roams (Sheffield Phoenix, 2013), and Stones, Bones and the Sacred (SBL, 2016), The Village in Antiquity and the Rise of Early Christianity (T&T Clark, 2023). He holds memberships of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, Society of Biblical Literature, the Australian Classical Studies Association, the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, and the Fellowship of Biblical Studies. He is the New Testament Editor for the Australian Biblical Review.