Colossians 4:15

Νύμαν. See Commentary.

τὴν κατʼ οἶκον αὐτῆς ἐκκλησίαν. αὐτῆς is read by B 67**, ejus Old Lat. Vulg. Syrpal. αὐτοῦ Text. Rec. with DFGKL, etc., Pesh. Chr. The Syriac versions have the singular (see Lightfoot). αὐτῶν אACP memph (see Lightfoot). See Commentary.

15. Ἀσπάσασθε, as from St Paul and Timothy.

τοὺς ἐν Λαοδικίᾳ�. Probably but few compared with those in Colossae if they were under the charge of Archippus (vide infra).

καὶ Νύμφαν. Lightfoot reads Νυμφᾶν (DcLP), a rare masculine form contracted probably from Nymphodorus. He rejects Νύμφαν (B Euthalcod) the feminine (compare αὐτῆς infra) on the ground that although the name Nymphe, Nympha, Nympa occurs from time to time in Latin inscriptions, the Doric form of the Greek name here seems in the highest degree improbable (Martha, John 11:5, and Lydda, Acts 9:38, are, strictly speaking, Shemitic words).

But Moulton (Gram. Proleg. 1906, p. 48) thinks that “as μάχαιρα produced μαχαίρης on the model of δόξα δόξης, so by a reverse analogy, the gen. Νύμφης as a proper name produced what may be read as Νύμφᾰ Νύμφᾰν in nom. and acc.” He also compares Δοῦλα as a proper name, and Εἰρῆνα in a Christian inscription. So perhaps we are warranted in accepting αὐτῆς infra, and recognising in Nympha the lady of the house. Nympha doubtless lived in Laodicea or its immediate neighbourhood. To suppose that she lived at Colossae, or even Hierapolis, would involve an awkward insertion between two references to Laodicea. There is no other reference to Nympha (or Nymphas) in the N.T. and there are no early traditions. In the Coptic fragments of the Acts of Paul Hermocrates and his wife Nympha are mentioned as two of St Paul’s converts at Myra (Hennecke, Handb. zu den N.T. Apokryphen, 1904, pp. 362, 364).

καὶ τὴν κατʼ οἶκον αὐτῆς ἐκκλησίαν. For the authorities for αὐτῆς, αὐτοῦ, αὐτῶν see the notes on Textual Criticism. If αὐτῶν were genuine here, to what would it refer? Hardly to “the brethren in Laodicea” on the one side and Nymphas (or Nympha) on the other, for the house would not easily be under such dual control. Probably therefore to Nymphas (?) and those with him, particularly his wife (cf. 1 Corinthians 16:19; Romans 16:5). But the commentators adduce no indisputable examples of such a usage.

“The Church at their house” will be that section of believers who found it convenient to use their house as a meeting place for prayer and praise. “It seems pretty clear that St Paul’s language points to a practice by which wealthy or otherwise important persons who had become Christians, among their other services to their brother Christians, allowed the large hall or saloon often attached to (or included in) the larger sort of private houses, to be used as places of meeting, whether for worship or for other affairs of the community. Accordingly the Ecclesia in the house of this or that man, would seem to mean that particular assemblage of Christians, out of the Christians of the whole city, which was accustomed to meet under his roof” (Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, pp. 117 sq.). So besides Nympha at Laodicea we have Philemon at Colossae (Philemon 1:2), as well as Aquila and Priscilla at Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:19) and the same pair later on at Rome (Romans 16:5). Compare Pearson, On the Creed, p. 338.