54 R. Bentley conjectured πϱεσβευτής here.
53The word here is πϱεσβύτης, whereas the word normally used for “ambassador” is πϱεσβευτής (cf. the verb πϱεσβεύω in 2 Cor. 5:20; Eph. 6:20).
54R. Bentley conjectured πϱεσβευτής here.
55J. B. Lightfoot and E. Lohmeyer (ad loc.) adduce examples of the use of πϱεσβύτης in the sense of “ambassador”—e.g., 1 Macc. 14:22 ℵ, πϱεσβῦταɩ ’Ioυδαίων (”ambassadors of the Jews”); Clem. Horn., Ep. Clem. 6, ὁ τῆς ἀληθείας πϱεσβύτης (“the ambassador of the truth”).
56πϱεσβεύω ἐν ἁλύσεɩ (cf. p. 413).
57In classical usage παϱαϰαλῶ σε πεϱί τoῦ ἐμoῦ τέϰνoυ would mean “I beseech you concerning my child”; but J. Knox points out that “study of the relatively infrequent cases in which παϱαϰαλῶ was followed by this preposition [πεϱί] in late Greek will show that πεϱί often, if not usually, designated the content of the request” (Philemon among the Letters, p. 19). He quotes Appian’s statement (Punic Wars 136) that the poor of Rome asked Caesar for land on his return to the capital (τῶν ἀπóϱων . . . πεϱὶ γῆς παϱαϰαλoύντων), and mentions similar instances from the papyri.