Epaphras

Epaphras was the founder of the church at Colosse and its representative to Paul during his imprisonment. A native of Colosse (Colossians 4:12), he appears to have been converted through Paul's Ephesian ministry and then returned to his home city to preach the gospel, planting the congregation there. His name is a contraction of Epaphroditus, though most scholars regard him as distinct from the Epaphroditus of the Philippian letters.

Paul speaks of him in the highest terms: a beloved fellow servant, a faithful minister of Christ, and one who labored earnestly in prayer for the Colossians, Laodiceans, and Hieropolitans that they might stand mature and fully assured in the will of God (Colossians 4:12–13). In Philemon 23 Paul refers to him as a fellow prisoner, suggesting he shared Paul's captivity voluntarily or was himself detained. The church in Colosse likely depended on Epaphras's communication with Paul as the channel through which the Colossian letter was generated and its specific errors addressed.