298 philip l. tite
establishes the potential threat prompting the letter, the body closing
antithetically stresses the ideal condition that the recipients are exhorted
to hold to: a shared love and being of one mind. Just as Ps.-Paul’s apostolic
claim (v. 1) and gospel (v. 4) are divinely grounded, so also is the unity of
the laodicean church based on divine mercy (misericordiam suam). thus,
body opening and body closing antithetically set forth the motivation for
writing, with the body middle explicating this motivation.
the body middle is delimited to vv. 5 to 8 by the opening and closing.
Beyond this delimitation, the compositional structure of the body middle
cannot be determined by epistolary formulas.21 an inductive analysis of
the letter, however, does reveal possible internal structuring mechanisms
for the body middle. specifically the repetitious use of et to begin a new
thought results in three major subsections of the body middle.22 these
compositional markers result in two possible, though not exclusive, liter-
ary structures that we can read in the letter body.
the first literary structure is a two-fold thematic focus on the condition
of the letter writer and the condition of the recipients. In vv. 4 and 5, Ps.-
Paul explicates the community situation. he sets in antithesis those who
challenge his gospel with the veracity of that gospel (quorundam vanilo-
quia insinuantium in contrast with veritate evangelii quod a me praedica-
tur). although v. 5 is likely corrupt, rendering the reading of this verse
uncertain, the general sense seems to be that those who come from Ps.-
Paul (ut qui sunt ex me) are engaged in legitimate Christian work, as they
are the extension of the apostle’s divinely authorized work (deservientes
et facientes benignitatem operumque; v. 5b; cf. v. 3 where a similar descrip-
tion of the recipients emerges with et perseverantes in operibus ejus—
which effectively aligns co-workers with the recipients).23 a possible
21 White, Form and Function, 53–54; cited by Martin, “Investigating the Pauline letter
Body,” 193, who uses this observation to explicate the central methodological problem in
studying the Pauline letter body.
22 that is: et nunc... (“and now”; v. 5); et nunc... (“and now”; v. 6); and, finally, et
hoc... (“and this”; v. 7).
23 Contra Magee, “exalted apostle,” 126, who fails to read laod 4 in light of v. 5 and
thus dismisses the theme of proclamation as holding no purpose: “In Ep. Lao. 4, the addi-
tion of the words ‘which is preached by me’ serves no obvious purpose. following on the
heels of a warning against succumbing to false teaching, one might have expected instead
‘which was preached to you’ as a means of redirecting the readers to their original accep-
tance of the truth.” By reading ut qui sunt ex me in v. 5 as an extension of the theme in v. 4,
veritate evangelii quod a me praedicatur makes a great deal of sense. not only is the call to
remembrance that Magee seems to insist on implicitly underlying these verses, but, more
importantly, the rhetorical purpose is explicitly focused on the moral authority of the gos-
pel that Ps.-Paul proclaims. With v. 5, this gospel or proclamation is presented as con-