Epaphras

New Bible Dictionary
Epaphras . In Col. 1:7; 4:12; Phm. 23, one of Paul’s friends and associates, called by him his ‘fellow slave’ and ‘fellow prisoner’. The name is abbreviated from Epaphroditus, but Epaphras is probably not to be identified with the Epaphroditus of Phil. 2:25; 4:18 (as he is by T. R. Glover, Paul [326] of Tarsus, 1925, p. 179). We gather that Epaphras evangelized the cities of the Lycus valley in Phrygia under Paul’s direction during the latter’s Ephesian ministry, and founded the churches of Colossae, Hierapolis and Laodicea. Later he visited Paul during his Roman captivity, and it was his news of conditions in the churches of the Lycus valley that moved Paul to write the Epistle to the Colossians.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. J. B. Lightfoot, St Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 1879, pp. 29ff.
F.F.B.