Section 43
7The reading “our” (ἡμѽν) has in its favor the formidable combination of P46 and the Alexandrian and Western authorities; the Byzantine reading “your” (ὑμѽν) is attested in C Ψ and the Latin, Syriac, and other versions. In a context where either reading gives good sense, the weight of the textual evidence should be decisive. Yet UBS3 and NA26 prefer ὑμѽν. There is constant confusion in Greek MSS between the various forms of 
(“we”) and the corresponding forms of 
(“you”), partly because of the identity of pronunciation of the two pronouns in later Hellenistic Greek and partly because of the rhetorical preference for the inclusive “we” over “you.” In a case like the present one the confusion may well go back beyond our earliest textual evidence—even (conceivably) to the author’s dictating the one form and the copyist’s writing down the other.
8Cf. P. Schubert, Form and Function of the Pauline Thanksgivings (Berlin, 1939); P. T. O’Brien, Introductory Thanksgivings in the Letters of Paul (Leiden, 1977), pp. 62-104. For epistolary thanksgiving to a deity immediately after the opening salutation cf. BGU 11.423, as quoted by A. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, E.T. (London, 21927), pp. 179-83 (thanksgiving to “the Lord Serapis”).
9Cf. Rom. 1:8-9; 1 Cor. 1:4; Eph. 1:16; Phil. 1:3-4; 1 Thess. 1:2; 2 Thess. 1:3; Philem. 4.
10Cf. G. P. Wiles, Paul’s Intercessory Prayers (Cambridge, 1974). For the assurance of unceasing prayer in such contexts cf. Rom. 1:9; 1 Cor. 1:4; Eph. 1:15; Phil. 1:3-4; 1 Thess. 1:2; 3:10 (νυϰτòς ϰαὶ ἡμέϱας); 2 Thess. 1:3, 11; Philem. 4.