C. Closing Greetings (4:21-23)
C. CLOSING GREETINGS (4:21-23)
21 Greet all the saints in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me send greetings. 22All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar's household.
23The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits,1
As with most of his letters, and in keeping with the conventions of letter-writing in the Greco-Roman world, Paul concludes with the standard greetings (vv. 21-22) and a grace-benediction (v. 23).2 In this letter these are notably brief, most likely because of the nature of the preceding promise (v. 19) and doxology (v. 20) — after which anything longer would be intrusive.
Although the closing greetings take a variety of forms in Paul's letters, frequently including the mention of people by name, cumulatively there are three basic components, all three of which occur here in their tersest expression:
1. The imperative to greet "all the saints" (which is his greeting to each of them).3
2. Greetings from his immediate companions.4
3. Where appropriate, greetings from other "saints" in his present location.5
The only elaboration, and only surprise, is the inclusion of "those who belong to Caesar's household" in the final greeting. These kinds of greetings are one of the ways (the collection for the poor in Jerusalem was another) that Paul used to keep the various churches aware of and in touch with one another. In its own small way, therefore, it functions as a part of his concern for the "unity of the body of Christ."
21a The imperative to "greet6 all the saints in Christ Jesus" is notable both for its uniqueness and brevity. For a community with whom he is on such friendly terms, one might have expected more. But the brevity is explicable both in terms of friendship — such letters in the Greco-Roman world are notable for their laconic closing greetings — and the preceding theologi-cal-doxological conclusion. Just as friends do not need to express thanks, neither do friends need elaborate greetings. And further greetings would detract from the words he most wants to leave with them — God's glory out of which he lavishes riches on them in Christ Jesus, to whom all glory is now due.
On the meaning of "saint(s)" see on 1:1. Although it is arguable that at the end they come out at the same place, Paul does not in fact say, as the NIV has it, "greet all the saints"; rather, he has, "greet every saint."7 Since he regularly uses the plural when he intends to refer to a congregation or group as a whole, his use of the singular here is deliberate, functioning in a kind of "distributive" way. The greeting is not to the community lumped together as a whole, but to each member of the community individually. He does not single anyone out, but he does greet each of them in this fashion. Thus, "greetings to each one of God's people" (GNB).
What is less clear is the meaning of "in Christ Jesus," which is similar to the ambiguous "in the Lord" in 1:14. Does Paul intend, "greet each of God's people who belong to Christ Jesus" (GNB), or "give my greetings in Christ Jesus to every member" (NAB, cf. REB)? As in 1:14 the word order would seem to favor the former; but as there, that also creates an unusual — and unnecessary — redundancy. To be a "saint" is to be "in fellowship with Christ Jesus." On the other hand, this phrase, which is especially frequent in this letter, usually modifies the verb in its sentence (although 4:19 is a notable exception). Most likely, therefore, Paul intends the greeting to find its locus "in Christ Jesus,"8 just as he has twice urged them to "rejoice in the Lord" (3:1; 4:4). In sum: Paul is sending his own greetings to each member of the believing community; they are to pass it on to one another for him, and the greeting is to be "in Christ Jesus," who is both the source and focus of their common life together.
21b The next greeting comes from his immediate circle of associates, "the brothers who are with me." His failure to mention names in this case has led to considerable speculation, especially since he mentions several by name in two other letters (presumably) from this captivity.9 We have already suggested on 2:20-21 and 4:3 that Luke had probably returned to Philippi. As to the others, we know nothing; indeed, we cannot be sure even about Luke. And speculation is not terribly helpful here, since we cannot be sure why he mentions names in other instances. In some cases it is almost certainly because they were known to the recipients; but that is not likely in every case.10 All we know is that just as he does not mention anyone in Philippi by name, neither does he mention any of his companions, even though this greeting makes it clear that some of them are still with him.11 In any case, it is in keeping with the terseness of these greetings.
22 The third in the series of greetings reaches out to the broader circle of believers in Rome. Here he does indeed say, "all the saints," and he surely intends that, even if many of them would not so much as know they were being included — and in light of 1:15 and 17 some of those might not wish to be included! But they are all included simply because they all belong to one another, those in Rome to each other and those in Rome to those in Philippi as well.
But in this case Paul adds the intriguing, "especially12 those who belong to Caesar's household." Two matters are noteworthy. First, despite objections from those who hold a different view, this little phrase joins with the mention of "Praetorian Guard" in 1:13 as the strongest kind of evidence for the Roman origins of this letter. All objections to this must take the form of trying to gainsay a simple historical reality, namely, that both of these groups are especially "at home" in Rome; whereas one must look under all kinds of "stones" to turn up evidence for their existence in Ephesus or Caesarea.13 And to argue, as some do, that this does not necessarily mean the presence of Caesar's household as such, but of people who were at one time members of that household, is both an unnatural reading of the text and fails to grasp the significance of this notation, which is the next point.
Second, and related to the first, the significance of this greeting could hardly be lost on the Philippian believers, opposition to whom in part at least stems from the fact that Philippi is a Roman colony, where devotion to Caesar had a long history.14 Besides having the gospel in common, and now suffering for Christ in common, Paul and the Philippians also have a common source of opposition. While the Philippians suffer at the hands of Roman citizens loyal to Caesar, Paul is an actual prisoner of Caesar. But in making him a prisoner at the heart of the empire, Rome has brought in a member of the "opposition" who is in the process of creating a "fifth column" within the very walls of the emperor's domicile. Paul either has found15 or has made disciples of the "Lord" Jesus among members of the imperial household,16 who are thus on the Philippians' side in the struggle against those who proclaim Caesar as Lord!
Paul is an indomitable apostle of Christ Jesus. Let him loose and he will be among those "who turn the world upside down" (Acts 17:6; a charge of sedition!) for his Christ; incarcerate him too close to home and he will "turn Caesar's household upside down" as well. Thus, here is a word of encouragement to the Philippians in the midst of their present struggle. The "word of life" to which they hold firm in the midst of their "crooked and perverse generation" (2:15-16) has already penetrated the heart of the empire. They have brothers and sisters in Caesar's own household, who are on their side and now send them greetings; and therefore the Savior whom they await (3:20) in the midst of their present struggle will gather some from Caesar's household as well as from Caesar's Philippi when he comes.
23 In all of the extant letters that bear Paul's name, he signs off with this, or a similar, grace-benediction. The standard "good-bye" in Greek letters was errōso (lit., "be strong"), found in the NT in the letter of James (Acts 15:29). As with his salutations, Paul's closing greetings are thus "christianized." It is "grace," the favor of God that is theirs through "the Lord Jesus," that he wishes for them.17 What is common to all his letters is that the "grace," when qualified,18 is from "our Lord Jesus Christ." Although "grace" is primarily from God in Paul's letters,19 on a few occasions he attributes grace directly as from Christ.20 But in the grace-benedictions, it is invariably "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ" that he "prays" will be with them. Thus the final grace serves to "book end" his letters, which begin with "grace (and peace)" as part of the greeting (see on 1:2). It is of some interest that where he also includes the wish of "peace" at the end, Paul always connects that with God the Father, as in 4:7 and 9.21 In effect, therefore, the "grace and peace" that appear as the opening greeting as "from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" are distinguished at the end as "the peace of God" and the "grace of our Lord Jesus Christ."
This is one of four letters22 in which the ordinary "be with you" appears in the form "be with your spirits."23 Reasons for this substitution are difficult to find. Three of the letters (Philemon, 2 Timothy, and this one) have in common that they are the most overtly affectionate of his letters. But that hardly accounts for its usage in Galatians(l), unless it is there as a kind of final offer of affection in a letter that otherwise bristles with distress. In the final analysis we must admit to not knowing why. What we do know is that the distributive singular, "with your (pi.) spirit (sing.)," in effect, as with the first of the greetings in v. 21, individualizes the grace-benediction, so that each of them (in the "spirit" of each) will experience the desired grace that is here prayed for.
On this note the letter comes to an end. One would hesitate to draw out too much theology from these more conventional closing formulas. But as noted at the beginning and elsewhere (e.g., 4:8, 11-13, 15-16) in Paul's hand conventions are never merely conventional. Eventually everything, including these conventions, is brought under the influence of Christ and the gospel. Thus the final greetings, which by their threefold elaboration presuppose the church as the body of Christ, are to be given and received as "in Christ Jesus." And the final grace is also "from the Lord Jesus Christ," so that everything in this letter, from beginning to end and everywhere in between, focuses on Christ, who as Paul's life (1:21) is magnified both in his language and in the two narratives that point specifically to him (Christ's in 2:6-11 and Paul's in 3:4-14). To miss this central focus on Christ is to miss the letter altogether, and to miss the heart of Pauline theology in particular.
To live is Christ; to die is to gain Christ; and for the sake of such "gain," namely the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus as one's own Lord, all else is merely refuse. Thus, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all the readers of this letter, and with those who use this commentary to help better understand it as the Word of Christ.
1 . Apparently uncomfortable with this distributive singular, and perhaps with the language itself, later scribes (Ν2 Ψ Maj sy) changed Paul's τοΰ πνεύματος to πάντων (= with you all).
2 . Galatians, Ephesians, and 1 Timothy, each for its own reason, are the exceptions with regard to the closing greetings. All the letters have the concluding grace-benediction.
3 . This component takes two basic forms: either Paul calls on his readers to "greet one another with a holy kiss" (1 Cor 16:20; 2 Cor 13:12), or as here he calls on them to "greet the saints (or its equivalent)" (Col 4:15 [the brothers and sisters in Laodicea!]; Tit 3:15; 2 Tim 4:19); both appear in Rom 16:16 and 3-15. In three instances his personal greeting takes the form of personal note ("my greeting in my own hand"; 2 Thess 3:17; 1 Cor 16:21; Col 4:18). In all of these cases, including those where the imperative is to "greet one another," one may assume that this is Paul's way of greeting the whole community (except, of course, Rom 16:3-15 and 2 Tim 4:19, where individuals are singled out).
4 . This occurs in 1 Cor 16:20 and Tit 3:15, as here, without mentioning names; elsewhere, where this dimension of greeting occurs, he includes names (Rom 16:21-23; Col 4:10-14; Phlm 23-24; 2 Tim 4:21).
5 . See 1 Cor 16:19; 2 Cor 13:12.
6 . Gk. άσπάσασθε. The question is sometimes raised (e.g., Müller, Beare, Hawthorne, O'Brien) as to whom this is addressed, since it is assumed that the church cannot greet itself, as it were. Thus many see it as addressed to the "overseers and deacons" of 1:1. But as we pointed out on that verse, the letter is addressed in the first instance to the whole community collectively, among whom the leaders are also mentioned. It is our own sociology (sense of logic?) and need for precision that both raises and answers the question in this way. In fact the greeting is from Paul to the whole church, not from Paul through others to the rest. If that is not precise to our thinking, it is surely what Paul intends, and keeps one from the eccentricity of having this singular instance of the second plural imperative addressed to others than those to whom the whole letter is addressed. Incidental evidence for this understanding is to be found in Rom 16:3, where Paul singles out Prisca and Aquila as first to be greeted (άσπάσασθε), in a letter that was very likely to be read first in their own house church by one of them (on the grounds that the letter was being carried by Phoebe, one of their [assumed] friends from nearby Cenchrea, who would almost certainly go to their house first, as Paul's order of greeting implies).
7 . Gk. πάντα αγιον; for a discussion of this usage of πάς, see Moule, Idiom Book, 94-95. Grammatically, the alternative is not between "all the" and "every," but between "the whole" (apparently a semitism) and "every." There does not seem to be any grammatical justification for the plural of the NIV. Nor does "every" mean "of every kind," as Plummer (107) supposes.
8 . Esp. so in light of I Cor 16:19, where "in the Lord" functions in the same way (pace Müller, Collange). So Lightfoot, Meyer, Kennedy, Jones, Plummer, Lohmeyer, Bonnard, Beare, Martin, Silva. Those who think otherwise (Vincent, Müller, Collange, Loh-Nida, Kent, Bruce, Hawthorne, O'Brien) point to the usage in 1:1.
9 . This assumes the traditional view also to be correct regarding Colossians and Philemon.
10 . E.g., in Phlm 23 he sends greetings from Epaphras, who has recently come from Colossae; but in v. 24 he isolates apart from Epaphras four others: Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke. Does he do so because even though not known to Philemon, the five of them are the only companions currently with him? Likewise, it is unlikely that the church in Rome knew Tertius (Rom 16:22; but this is more complicated because the letter is being written from Corinth and the first house church to receive it [apparently] will be that of Prisca and Aquila [16:3-5], who are well known in Corinth and thus would presumably have known Tertius).
11 . And very likely some of these are known to them. For example, Aristarchus, mentioned in Col 4:10 and Phlm 24, is noted in Acts 20:4 as from Thessalonica.
12 . Gk. μάλιστα, the superlative of the adv. μάλα, which means "most of all"; in a context like this it has the effect of singling out a few from among a larger group (cf. Phlm 16, of Onesimus, "most of all to me, but even more so to you"; 1 Tim 4:10; 5:17; Tit 1:10; 2 Tim 4:13). This is another usage, incidentally, which this letter has in common with the Captivity and/or Pastoral letters, but not with others in the corpus.
13 . Such evidence can be found for Ephesus (see Duncan, Ephesian Ministry, 110; although it is not at all clear that the inscriptions he notes refer to residents of Ephesus who would be ordinarily included under the rubric "household of"); it must be hypothesized for Caesarea. Intent on maintaining an Ephesian origin for the letter, Collange incautiously asserts (155), "so the reference here to 'those of Caesar's household' in no way supports the thesis of a Roman imprisonment." That is to put it exactly backwards! Whatever else, it does in fact support a Roman provenance for our letter; what others must do is to "discover" evidence that such language was used of people living outside Rome.
14 . On this matter see the Introduction, pp. 30-32; cf. the discussion at various points in the commentary, esp. on 1:12-18, 22, 27-28; 2:9-11.
15 . As Lightfoot (173) believes (cf. Vincent, Plummer), perhaps rightly so.
16 . Gk. ol έκ της xαίσαρος οικίας; noting that this refers to Nero's household, Calvin (295) writes, "for it is no common evidence of divine mercy that the Gospel had penetrated that sink of all crimes and iniquities." What it meant for the gospel to have penetrated that "sink" has been the subject of all kinds of (often wild) speculation. Although it could include relatives and people of note, most likely it refers to slaves and freedmen attached to the palace. For the extent of the imperial household and the number and kinds of functionaries it included, based on funerary inscriptions, see the excursus in Lightfoot (171-78), who also notes the large number of correspondences between these names and those listed in Rom 16:6-16.
17 . Some would wish to make the supplied verb indicative (G. Delling, Worship, 75); but since it takes the place of the standard έρωσσο, most likely an optative is intended. After all, this final word functions as a benediction or blessing.
18 . In Colossians and the Pastoral Letters it is shortened simply to "grace be with you."
19 . See. e.g., 1 Cor 1:4; 3:10; 15:10; 2 Cor 1:12; 6:1; 8:1; 9:14; Gal 2:21; Rom 5:15; Col 1:6; Eph 3:2, 7; Tit 2:11.
20 . See 2 Cor 8:9; Gal 1:6; Rom 5:15; 1 Tim 1:14.
21 . See 2 Thess 3:16; Rom 15:33; cf. 1 Thess 5:23; 2 Cor 13:11. In Gal 6:16 the peace benediction appears without a qualifier.
22 . Cf. Gal 6:18; Phlm 25; 2 Tim 4:22. On this matter see the discussion of Gal 6:18 in Fee, Presence, 468-69.
23 . R. Jewett (Anthropological Terms, 184) has made a considerable point out of the singular of πνεϋμα occurring with the plural pronoun, asserting that "since the word 'spirit' is in the singular, reference is clearly being made to the single divine spirit rather than to the various human spirits with which the members of the congregation could have been thought to have been born." He adds: "But one thing is certain: the tradition which shaped this formula did not distinguish between the divine spirit and the spirit which a man could possess." But this is not nearly as "clear" and "certain" as Jewett would have it. In fact, this use of the plural pronoun with a singular noun is but another reflection of Paul's (Semitic) preference for a distributive singular, wherein "something belonging to each person in a group of people is placed in the singular" (N. Turner, MKT, 3.23; for this usage in Paul see [with σώμα] 1 Cor 6:19, 20; 2 Cor 4:10; Rom 6:12; 8:23; [with καρδία] 2 Cor 3:15; Rom 1:21; Eph 1:18; 4:18; 5:19; 6:5). Therefore, Paul almost certainly does not intend by this usage to refer to "the single divine spirit," nor is he thinking of the Spirit as apportioned to each of them and in effect taking the place of the human spirit, as Jewett maintains. Paul simply means "be with your spirits," which he here substitutes for the more common "with you" that appears elsewhere. Even more improbable, in that it ignores Pauline usage, is the suggestion by Jones (78) that it might go back to the "one spirit" in 1:27 (a text on which he misses Paul's usage as well).