dusting off a pseudo-historical letter 305
Both static and dynamic commands are present in the paraenesis in
order to direct moral behaviour.35 By drawing the recipients’ attention
to what they had received and accepted beforehand, Ps.-Paul exhorts the
laodiceans to “hold fast” to that teaching in vv. 10b, 14b, and 16b with the
imperatives retinete and estote firmi. the first static command is comple-
mented with the dynamic command “and do” (et facite; v. 10b, see also
v. 12). these imperatives refer to the call to remembrance, thus enjoin-
ing the recipients to actively hold to and do what Ps.-Paul had previously
taught them (i.e., the “true gospel”). there are three such “hold fast” com-
mands in this section, which build on, though without directly paralleling,
the call to unity in the body closing (ut eandem dilectionem habeatis et sitis
unianimes). for Ps.-Paul, social cohesion needs to be maintained within
the laodicean church, with the foundation of that unity being the “true
gospel” that he brought to them. Indeed, it is only by means of “holding
fast” that their petitions in v. 14a can be fulfilled. these petitions echo
their prayers in v. 7 (again evoking the verb factum as the indicative
counterpart for the dynamic imperatives facite and estote firmi in the
paraenesis). the dynamic imperative facite in v. 15 shifts the focus from
the past to the future by means of the virtue list. the five virtues that the
recipients are exhorted “to do” embody the Christian lifestyle that only
the true gospel can enable.
as every virtue list should have a vice counterpart, even if only implic-
itly, v. 15 indirectly warns the recipients that to follow any other teaching
would lead them to vice rather than virtue. With the virtue list, Ps.-Paul
exhorts the laodiceans to continue living a life exemplary of the gospel
that he preaches. thus, by means of static and dynamic commands, the
author interlinks the recipients’ past, present, and future adherence to
his teaching.
finally, the moral exhortation is supported by two paralleled motiva-
tional clauses (vv. 10c and 16c). Motivational clauses are important per-
suasive devices in moral exhortation, functioning to substantiate ethical
propositions.36 In order to support the exhortation to hold fast and to do
35 starr’s third aspect of paraenesis is that it attempts to direct moral behaviour. Within
the paraenesis of laodiceans, this function is accomplished by what attridge calls dynamic
and static commands (see harold attridge, “Paraenesis in a homily (λόγος παρακλήσεως):
the Possible location of, and socialization in, the ‘epistle to the hebrews,’ ” Semeia 50
(1990): 211–26.
36 tite, Valentinian Ethics, 191; lorenz nieder, Die Motive der reigiö-sittlichen Paränese in
den Paulinischen Gemeindebriefen (Munich: karl Zink, 1956), 104–45; ferdinand hahn, “die
christologische Begründung urchristlicher Paränese,” ZNW 72 (1981): 88–99, especially 99;
John g. gammie, “Paraenetic literature: toward the Morphology of a secondary genre,”