dusting off a pseudo-historical letter 295
the temporal qualification is the contrast drawn between the recipi-
ents’ present status as remaining steadfast in relation to the recipient of
thanksgiving (i.e., the deity) (quod permanents estis in eo, et perseverantes
in operibus ejus) and a future condition of eschatological judgment (prom-
issum expectantes in diem judicii). this elaborate temporal qualification,
which serves as an explanatory clause for the thanksgiving, is both the
reason for thanksgiving (i.e., the motivation element) and an indication of
the occasion for the letter. Ps.-Paul writes because he has received infor-
mation regarding the laodicean Christians, specifically that they have not
been swayed by “false” teachers. they have remained firm to his teaching.
With this eschatological promise, the author exhorts the recipients to con-
tinue to remain in their current state of both static “firmness” and active
“persevering in his labours.”
the author’s praise builds on the prescript, where the author utilized
familial language in order to establish a positive and mutual relationship
between writer and recipients. furthermore, the implication that Ps.-Paul
has received news of the condition of the recipients likely evokes the
philophronetic quality that underscored the remembrance motif in other
ancient letters. Indeed, to compare laodiceans with Peter arzt-grabner’s
treatment of the Pauline thanksgiving,13 we find a thanksgiving element, a
prayer report (per omnem orationem meam), and this remembrance motif
(implied by both the prayer report and the present tense condition of the
recipients).
Within the context of laodiceans, this thanksgiving serves the over-
all purpose of the letter opening, which is, without doubt, to discursively
reinforce the positive relations between Ps.-Paul and the recipients.14
It was noted that in the prescript Ps.-Paul does not offer expansions
in the adscriptio, though he does evoke familial language in describing
the recipients. the positive relations touched upon in the adscriptio are
more fully developed here in the thanksgiving period. By shifting such
13 arzt-grabner, “Paul’s letter thanksgiving,” 129–58.
14 the function of the thanksgiving period in laodiceans effectively fits the function
of ancient thanksgivings, as established by Paul schubert, The Form and Function of the
Pauline Thanksgiving (Berlin: alfred töpelmann, 1939), 180. schubert’s position has been
confirmed in subsequent scholarship, the most important being o’Brien, Thanksgivings.
so also karl olav sandnes, Paul—One of the Prophets? A Contribution to the Apostle’s Self-
Understanding (Wunt 2.43; tübingen: Mohr siebeck, 1991), 91: “the significant and pri-
mary function of the Pauline thanksgiving is not to form an ornamental introduction; they
are, rather, a functionally essential constitutive element of the Pauline epistle. their pur-
pose is to indicate the occasion for the contents of the epistles which they introduce.”