EPAFRAS (Volg. Epaphras). — Disciple and collaborator of Paul (Col. 1:7; 4:12; Philem. 23).
That his name (Ἐπαφρᾶς) Epaphroditus (v.) seems certain; but the opinion that would make the two a single person, designated now by the full form and now by the diminutive, cannot be affirmed with equal certainty. The distinction is required by the different environments in which the two operated and by their relations with Paul.
E. had instructed (Col. 1:7; cf. 2:6 ff.) the faithful of Colossae (v. COLOSSESI, EPISTOLA ai). In Col. 4:12 f. E. greets the community to which he belongs, as a native of the same city of Colossae and as its principal organizer. Paul calls him a “servant of Christ Jesus,” ever anxious (“struggling,” ἀγωνιζόμενος, in prayer) for the good not only of the Colossians, but also of the faithful of Laodicea and Hierapolis. It is probable that he was also responsible for the foundation and evangelization of these two communities. That E. was an ethnic Christian follows from the decisive manner in which he is distinguished from the group named immediately beforehand (Col. 4:10 f.) as “those belonging to the circumcision.”
While Paul was imprisoned for the first time at Rome (with little probability, others think rather of Caesarea: V. PRIGIONIA, EPISTOLE della), E. came to visit him and to bring him generally reassuring news concerning the condition of the community of Colossae (Col. 1:4–8). It seems, indeed, that his love for the Apostle, who calls him his “beloved fellow servant” (Col. 1:7), prompted him to remain with him, almost as a voluntary prisoner; hence the title “fellow captive” in Philem. 23. His stay in Rome must have been prolonged, since the bearers of the Letter to the Colossians — perhaps suggested by E. himself — and of the Letter to Philemon were Tychicus and Onesimus. The Martyr. Romanum commemorates him on 19 July as bishop and martyr of Colossae.