296 philip l. tite
expansions from the prescript to the thanksgiving, Ps.-Paul evokes a simi-
lar positional move as that taken in romans. as I have argued elsewhere,
the brevity of the adscriptio in romans is carefully designed to identify
the voice of the recipients with that of Paul.15 With laodiceans, a similar
positional move is made through the familial language and the use of the
thanksgiving period. such a positional move stands in sharp contrast to
the discursive moves in galatians.
Whereas the recipients of galatians are rebuked for breaking the tri-
adic relationship of writer-recipients-deity, the thanksgiving period in
laodiceans offers praise and worship due to the recipients’ continuing
status within the Pauline triadic relationship. It is on this basis that Ps.-
Paul can identify with them as “brethren” in the prescript. Consequently,
those who have broken with the harmony of the triadic relationship are
not the recipients, but rather the “false” teachers that the author refutes
and warns the community about and who are excluded from the actual
conversation.
the eschatological finale in the thanksgiving is not designed as a warn-
ing, but rather as a promise; a promise that should motivate the recipients
to continue to live as they do. given these positive elements in v. 3, the
thanksgiving certainly carries a paraenetic quality that is picked up later
in the letter. Indeed, the thanksgiving period effectively fits the functional
aspects established by schubert for thanksgivings: i.e., laod 3 concludes
(and develops) from the prescript, suggests the purpose of the letter, and
establishes key themes that are more fully developed in the letter body.16
Letter Body
Building on John White and troy Martin’s work on the Pauline letter body,
we can analyze laodiceans by identifying the body’s opening, middle, and
closing.17 the opening and closing function to articulate the motivation
for writing, while the middle unpacks that purpose.
the body opening and closing can be discerned in laodiceans by
identifying transitional devices. With this opening, Ps.-Paul discloses his
15 tite, “how to Begin, and Why?” 96–97.
16 schubert, Form and Function, passim.
17 White, Form and Function; White, “epistolary literature,” 1739; troy W. Martin,
“Investigating the Pauline letter Body: Issues, Methods, and approaches,” in Porter and
adams (eds.), Paul and the Ancient Letter Form, 185–212; Martin, Metaphor and Composition
in 1 Peter (sBlds 131; atlanta: scholars, 1992), 69–75.