the imitation hypothesis 213
away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the
tradition that they received from us”). on one hand, this command refers
to the special situation of the very community the author is addressing,
although the meaning of ἀτάκτως (“idly”) is not further explained. on the
other hand it emphasizes the authority of the author, who is not only in
the position to give such commands but also makes use of it. The back-
ground to this relationship between the author and the community is
given in 2 Thess 3:10, when the author mentions a previous visit to the
community during which he had given the instruction that nobody should
eat who does not work—καὶ γὰρ ὅτε ἦμεν πρὸς ὑμᾶς, τοῦτο παρηγγέλλομεν
ὑμῖν, ὅτι εἴ τις οὐ θέλει ἐργάζεσθαι μηδὲ ἐσθιέτω. Together with the emphatic
request-command in 2 Thess 3:12, these constitute the four occurrences of
παραγγέλλω at the end of the middle part of the letter corpus. all of them
place a strong emphasis on the authority of the “apostle” as the sender
and his commands, yet the modern reader is left in the dark about the
actual situation in the community.
The Verb παραγγέλλω in Documentary Papyri
In documentary papyri the form παραγγέλλω is primarily found in a juridi-
cal context: in lawsuits, in orders from high officials, and in clauses and
contracts. These backgrounds show a close connection of the verb to
authority and hierarchy.35 only once is παραγγέλλω attested in a private
letter, dating from the third century ce, p.oxy. VI 937, in which a cer-
tain demarchos is deeply concerned about an object.36 The combination
35 cf. r. e. kritzer in artz-grabner et al., 1 Korinther, 269; amphilochios papathomas,
Juristische Begriffe im ersten Korintherbrief des Paulus: Eine semantisch-lexikalische Unter-
suchung auf der Basis der zeitgenössischen griechischen Papyri (Tyche. supplementband 7;
Vienna: holzhausen, 2009), 117–18.
36 demarchos commands his sister Taor to take care of a stone bowl to prevent it
from being taken by a certain agathinus. for this purpose she shall go to philokyros and
Zosimos to warn them—ll. 8–18 with Bl VII 133: κἂν νῦν οὖν παραγ|γέλλω σοι, ὦ κυρία μου
ἀδελ|φή, ἵνα παραβάλῃς πρὸς τῇ | πλατείᾳ τοῦ θεάτρου καὶ | μάθῃς περὶ τῆς φιάλης | τῆς λιθίνης
ἐν <τ>ῷ πλοίῳ | καὶ παραγγείλῃς πᾶσι τοῖς | ἐκεῖ, Φιλοκύρῳ καὶ Ζωσίμῳ, | παρατηρεῖσθαι αὐτὴν
μὴ | δόξῃ αὐτῷ ⟦λαβ̣⟧ τῷ ’Αγα|τείνῳ (l. ’Αγαθίνῳ) λαβ̣ῆ[σ]αι τὴν φιάλην (“and now I com-
mand you, oh my lady sister, that you go to the street of the theatre and find out about
the stone bowl in the boat and to warn all there, philokyros and Zosimos, in order to
watch it, so that agathinos does not get the idea to take the stone bowl”). This letter is not
only unusual for being the only attestation of παραγγέλλω in a private letter, but also its
rather rare address of the sister with ὦ before the vocative, which might suggest a certain
distance between brother and sister. further examples of such addresses in documentary
papyri are the private letter Bgu II 665 (I ce) in col. III 7–8: ἐρρῶσθ[αί | σε] εὔχ(ομαι),
ὦ πάτερ (“I pray that you are well, oh father”); the petition p.oxy. IV 705 (after 202 ce),
addressing the emperors septimius severus and caracalla in ll. 69–70: ὦ φιλανθρωπότα|τοι