204 christina m. kreinecker
very phrase as a translation for latin terminology makes these examples
very unlikely as evidence for everyday spoken language.18
To sum up again, evidence from documentary papyri shows that ἐρωτῶ
as a request formula is used particularly in a private context. The examples
point towards the conclusion that ἐρωτῶ is used when there is a strong
bond and relationship between the sender and recipient. Quite often a
personal concern can be seen, due either to the closeness of the people
involved or to the content of the request (e.g., food situation in a camp
and the correspondence between officials). In sum, personal interest,
closeness, involvement and sometimes urgency seem the obvious charac-
teristics of the use of ἐρωτῶ in documentary papyri.
Requests with ἐρωτῶ in the Undisputed Pauline Epistles
within the undisputed pauline epistles, only three instances of ἐρωτῶ/
ἐρωτῶμεν can be found. all of them are towards the end of the letter (phil
4:3 and 1 Thess 4:1 and 5:12) and—unlike 2 Thessalonians—are never the
first request in a letter.
In phil 4:3 the ἐρωτῶ-request follows another request, which takes
παρακαλῶ in 4:2. paul asks two women, euodia and syntyche, to be “of the
same mind”—Εὐοδίαν παρακαλῶ καὶ Συντύχην παρακαλῶ τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖν
ἐν κυρίῳ. In order to make this attempt work, paul asks a third person
to help. This personal request takes ἐρωτῶ together with an emphatic
note19—ναὶ ἐρωτῶ καὶ σέ, γνήσιε σύζυγε, συλλαμβάνου αὐταῖς, αἵτινες ἐν τῷ
εὐαγγελίῳ συνήθλησάν μοι μετὰ καὶ Κλήμεντος καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν συνεργῶν μου,
ὧν τὰ ὀνόματα ἐν βίβλῳ ζωῆς (“yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion
[syzygos?],20 help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the
work of the gospel, together with clement and the rest of my co-workers,
whose names are in the book of life”). This sort of request is very similar
to at least one example from documentary papyri given above, when the
sender of o.claud. I 152 (ca. 100–120 ce) asks heras together with all other
recipients of his letter to help a certain hermogenes with his task (ll. 8–11).
18 even so, it remains an interesting observation when looking at the author’s choice of
language, cf. kreinecker, 2. Thessaloniker, 66–72.
19 documentary papyri give two attestations of the sequence παρακαλῶ—ἐρωτῶ, both
within private letters: p.mich. VIII 487 (II ce) with παρ[α]καλῶ in l. 7 and ἐρωτῶ l. 11 and
sB I 3939 (time unknown) with παρακαλῶ in l. 18 and ἐρωτῶ in l. 23.
20 cf. ulrich B. müller, Der Brief des Paulus an die Philipper (Thhk 11/I; leipzig: evange-
lische Verlagsanstalt, 1993), 193, and wilfried eckey, Die Briefe des Paulus an die Philipper
und an Philemon: Ein Kommentar (neukirchen-Vluyn: neukirchener Verlag, 2006), 141, for
the possibility of a vocative of the proper name syzygos.