dusting off a pseudo-historical letter 311
of Christ” (sensu Christi) at v. 14. thus, they are to be “likeminded” not only
with each other, but also with and by means of the “mind of Christ”;
laod 14, in turn, parallels laod 11, est enim Deus qui operatur in vos, thus
evoking the full source of the Pauline grace and peace wish.
In the paraenesis, the motivational clause qualifies the eschatological
“peace” as being conditional on the recipients’ continued adherence to
what they had “heard and accepted.” thus, so also is the “grace” of the
closing conditioned on such adherence. given the remembrance aspect of
the paraenesis, Ps.-Paul’s wish has already been fulfilled and it is his hope
that grace and peace will continue in the community’s life. thus, the grace
and peace benedictions are designed to integrate the letter closing with
earlier content in the letter.
the greetings in laodiceans are a bit more complicated due to a variant
in the manuscript tradition. Verse 17 does not appear in some manuscripts,
most significantly Codex fuldensis, which begins the letter closing at
v. 18. a third-person type of greeting is found in v. 18 (salutant vos sancti),
whereas a second-person type of greeting is found in v. 17 (salutate omnes
fraters in osculo sancto).46 each greeting contributes to the philophronetic
relationship between Ps.-Paul and the laodicean Christians, specifically
as such interpersonal relations are encompassed in a broader, Christian
community.
the third-person greeting reminds the laodiceans that Ps.-Paul is not
alone in sending this letter, but rather stands in continuity with “the
saints”; indeed, by passing along such greetings, Ps.-Paul indirectly uses
the other Christians with him as a testimony to the veracity of his “true
gospel” and thus of his moral exhortation to the laodiceans. such rhetori-
cal backing is not argumentative, but presented as a supporting subtext.
46 Weima, “sincerely, Paul,” 328, observes that the Pauline letters tend to utilize three
types of greetings. (1) the first-person type, when the letter writer sends greetings to the
recipients (“I greet”). this type only appears in rom 16:22 (and is given by tertius, not
Paul). (2) the second-person type of greeting “enlists the help of his readers in passing on
greetings to specific individuals in their church community.” although those being greeted
would likely be included among the letter’s recipients, Weima suggests that Paul often
uses this indirect method of passing along personal greetings with rhetorical purpose: “the
answer seems to be that the involvement of the congregation as a whole in passing on
his greetings to others expressed a stronger sense of public commendation for those indi-
viduals being specifically greeted by the apostle.” thus, the second-person type of greet-
ing functioned to build solidarity within the community, specifically in connection with
particular key figures. (3) Paul uses the third-person type of greeting, where he passes on
greetings to the recipients from others who are with Paul. all three types are constructed
around three components: the greeting verb, the person passing along greetings, and the
recipients of the greetings.