F. Final greetings (16:19–24)
F. Final greetings (16:19–24)
19. Asia is, of course, the Roman province of that name, roughly the western third of what we now call Asia Minor. Paul sends greetings from the churches of this region. Aquila and Priscilla (the lady’s name is always ‘Prisca’ in Paul’s letters, but for some reason NIV always uses the form Luke prefers) were a devoted couple. Aquila was a Jew, originally from Pontus (on the southern shores of the Black Sea), but he had evidently settled in Rome. When the Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome, he and his wife Prisca went to Corinth. When Paul first came to that city he lodged and worked with them (Acts 18:1–3). They evidently had the habit of using their home in the service of the Lord, for they had a church in their house when they were in Rome (Rom. 16:5), just as they did at Corinth. Such a church would be small. R. Banks says ‘The entertaining room in a moderately well-to-do household could hold around thirty people comfortably’ (Paul’s Idea of Community [Anzea, 1979], pp. 49f.; cf. also SPC, pp. 153–158; see Fig. 3, p. 236, for the plan of a house in Corinth). Aquila and Prisca were courageous, for they risked their lives for Paul, though we know no details (Rom. 16:4). They were able, for they instructed no less a personage than Apollos in the correct understanding of the faith (Acts 18:26). An interesting point is that, in four of the six places where this couple is mentioned, Prisca’s name comes first. Evidently she was an outstanding person in her own right. Greet you warmly in the Lord goes beyond a normal polite greeting. It expresses a depth of Christian affection.
20. It is not clear who all the brothers were, but the expression is comprehensive. The custom of kissing was rather more widespread in the ancient world than in the modern West. Several times Paul suggests a holy kiss as a proper mode of greeting for Christians (Rom. 16:16; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26; cf. ‘kiss of love’, 1 Pet. 5:14).1 Such a warm greeting at Corinth would itself be a rebuke to all cliquishness. The New Testament passages refer to a greeting, not to the liturgical ‘kiss of peace’ (a kiss exchanged during Holy Communion). Doubtless passages like this led in time to the liturgical practice.
21. It was Paul’s custom to dictate his letters to an amanuensis, who wrote them down. But as a letter drew to its close the apostle would take the pen and write a few words himself. His handwriting, he says, ‘is the distinguishing mark in all my letters’ (2 Thess. 3:17; see note in TNTC), i.e. it is his custom to authenticate his letters in this way. Sometimes he draws attention to this (Gal. 6:11; Col. 4:18; 2 Thess. 3:17; Philem. 19), sometimes he does not. But, as he says it was his custom, we should understand that he did it in the other letters also. Deissmann cites a letter dated 12th September AD 50, in which the writing is in one hand, and the final greeting and date in another, clearly that of the author, though there is no mention of his taking the pen (LAE, pp. 170ff.). This is interesting contemporary evidence of Paul’s practice.
FIG. 3. A TYPICAL VILLA AT ANAPLOGA, IN CORINTH
If a house church met in a villa like this, it would use the triclinium and the atrium. Murphy-O’Connor argues from the dimensions that fifty people ‘would have meant extremely uncomfortable overcrowding’ in this villa (SPC, p. 158). Thus a house church would necessarily be small. We are left wondering where ‘the whole church’ (14:23) would meet. if there were several house churches in Corinth it might have made it easier for cliques to develop.
22. Paul calls down a solemn curse on anyone who does not love (phileō; again in Paul only in Titus 3:15) the Lord. He does not speak of the absence of some special degree of love, but of the lack of love for Christ at all. Love is of central importance for all Christians. For curse (anathema) see note on ‘cursed’ in 12:3. The strong expression (immediately following Paul’s taking up the pen himself) shows the depth of the apostle’s feelings on the importance of a right attitude to the Lord. If anyone’s heart is not aflame with love for the Lord, the root of the matter is not in him. He is a traitor to the cause of right. Paul cannot contemplate such a person calmly.
He follows with the Aramaic Maranatha (which NIV translates Come, O Lord!). Being Aramaic, the expression cannot have originated among the Greeks, but must go back to the early days of the church in Palestine. Moreover it must have expressed a sentiment that the early church regarded as very important, else the foreign word would never have been taken over in this way by Greek-speaking Christians (we still use words like Hallelujah and Amen). It is not certain how we should understand the expression. The first part is the word Mar which means ‘Lord’, and we should not overlook the importance of the ascription of this title to Jesus in the early days of the Palestinian church. ‘Our’ is conveyed in Aramaic by the addition of an or ana. The latter part of the expression is from the verb ’atha, ‘to come’. If we read atha it might mean ‘has come’, in which case there is a reference to the incarnation as Chrysostom held. Or it could mean ‘comes’ (cf. Matt. 18:20). It might even be future, ‘Our Lord will come’ (so Edwards; Conzelmann says this is impossible; Caird refers to Phil. 4:5). Probably the best way of taking it is to divide the expression as Marana tha and take the verb as imperative, ‘Our Lord, come’ (a prayer like that in Rev. 22:20, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’). It would then express the eager longing felt by the church in those early days for the speedy return of the Lord. Others have suggested that the words mean ‘the Lord art thou’, or ‘Our Lord is a sign’, but both seem improbable.
23. Paul’s invariable conclusion to a letter is a prayer for grace for his readers. He can expand this (as in the well-known formula in 2 Cor. 13:14), while the shortest form is ‘Grace be with you’ (Col. 4:18). But he always has a prayer for grace.
24. This time Paul closes on an especially tender note; he sends his love to them all, an ending he has only here. Despite everything, there is not the slightest doubt that Paul regarded the Corinthians with tender affection. So he finishes his letter by sending his love to all the members of the church (cf. 2 Cor. 11:11:‘God knows’ that he loves them). Notice the all. He had some doughty opponents at Corinth, and there were some whom he had had to rebuke sharply. But he bears no malice. He sends his love to all of them, a love in Christ Jesus. Paul’s last word to the Corinthians is Jesus.