Additional Notes §33
§33 Final Greetings (Phil. 4:21–22)
The letter closing was probably penned by Paul himself.
It was no uncommon thing in antiquity for the sender of a letter, after dictating most of it, to write the last sentence or two in his own hand. It was not usual to append one’s personal signature, although Paul does so—probably for special reasons—in 1 Corinthians 16:21; Colossians 4:18; 2 Thessalonians 3:17 (see also his signed I. O. U. in Philem. 19a). It was his autograph, not his signature, that was his authenticating mark in “all my letters” (2 Thess. 3:17); thus he starts the last section of his letter to the Galatians with the words: “See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!” (Gal. 6:11).
4:21 / Paul greets all the saints in Christ Jesus (for the designation cf. 1:1). Indeed, in Christ Jesus might well be construed with “greetings” (“greet them in Christ Jesus”—as fellow members of Christ) were it not for the analogy of 1:1, where “in Christ Jesus” undoubtedly goes with “all the saints.” Greet all the saints, says Paul; since the greetings are extended to all the believers in Philippi, who are addressed in the verb greet (imperative plural)? Perhaps the “overseers and deacons” who are specially mentioned in 1:1; it would be for them to see to it that the letter was read, and the greetings conveyed, to the whole church.
It is not only Paul who sends his greetings; the brothers who are with him do likewise. Since the brothers who are with me are mentioned separately from all the saints, who also send greetings (v. 22), they are probably Paul’s co-workers.
4:22 / Among the “saints” in the place where Paul is, all of whom send their greetings, special mention is made of those who belong to Caesar’s household. Caesar’s household included not only members of the imperial family in the narrower sense but also a great number of slaves and freedmen. From the ranks of the freedmen the imperial civil service was staffed. These were to be found far and wide throughout the provinces, but nowhere was there such a concentration of them as in Rome—a concentration large enough to include a significant proportion of converts to the Christian faith.
If this letter was sent from Rome, and the greetings in Romans 16:3–16 were sent to Rome (three or four years earlier), it might be asked if any of the saints in Caesar’s household were included among the recipients of greetings in the earlier letter. Two groups in particular are mentioned that could well have belonged to the imperial household: “the household of Aristobulus” and “the household of Narcissus” (Rom. 16:10, 11). The family of Narcissus has been thought by many commentators from John Calvin onward to have comprised the slaves of Tiberius Claudius Narcissus, a wealthy freedman of the Emperor Tiberius who exercised great influence under Claudius but was executed soon after Nero’s accession in A.D. 54, at the instance of Nero’s mother Agrippina. His goods were confiscated, and his slaves would have become imperial property, being distinguished from others in the imperial household by the designation Narcissiani. More speculative is the position of the family of Aristobulus. J. B. Lightfoot and others have suggested that this Aristobulus was identical with a grandson of Herod the Great (Aristobulus by name) who is known to have lived in Rome as a private citizen and, like his elder brother Herod Agrippa I (“King Herod” of Acts 12:1), enjoyed the friendship of Claudius. If, on his death, he bequeathed his property to the emperor (we have no express evidence that he did so, although this was not an uncommon procedure), his slaves would have been distinguished in the imperial household as the Aristobuliani. Herodion, whom Paul mentions in Romans 16:11 between the Aristobuliani and the Narcissiani, may also have had some association with the Herod family. At an earlier date Herod Agrippa I himself is described by Philo, in exactly the same phrase as Paul uses here, as a member of Caesar’s household (Flaccus, 35).
4:21 / On Paul’s letter closings see H. Gamble, The Textual History of the Letter to the Romans, pp. 56–95, 143, 144, and for remarks on Philippians, pp. 88, 94, 145, 146.
The brothers who are with me: they are identified with Paul’s companions or co-workers by J. B. Lightfoot (ad loc.) and E. E. Ellis, “Paul and his Co-Workers,” NTS 17 (1970–71), p. 446.
4:22 / Caesar’s household (Kaisaros oikia) is called domus Caesaris by Tacitus (Histories 2.92); an inscription of A.D. 55 refers to the populus et familia Caesaris at Kilia in the Thracian Chersonese. Guilds (collegia) of the “freedmen and slaves of our Lord Augustus” are recorded on a second-century inscription from Ephesus (J. T. Wood, Discoveries at Ephesus [London: Longmans, 1877], Inscriptions from Tombs, Sarcophagi, etc., No. 20).
For possible references in Rom. 16:3–16 to some of the “saints in Caesar’s household” see J. B. Lightfoot, Philippians, pp. 171–78. For Narcissus see Tacitus, Annals 13.1.4; Dio Cassius, History 60.34; also Juvenal, Satire 14.329 (Narcissiani are mentioned in CIL 3.3973; 6.15640). For Aristobulus see Josephus, War 1.552; 2.221; Ant. 18.133, 135, etc.