§34 Grace-Benediction (Phil. 4:23)
§34 Grace-Benediction (Phil. 4:23)
The grace-benediction is the most regular feature of Paul’s letter closings. There are variations of wording, but the sense is uniformly the same. Outside the Pauline corpus, the NT has grace benedictions in Hebrews 13:25 and Revelation 22:21; the Letter of Clement of Rome also ends with one (1 Clem. 65:2). This form of words may have been imported into epistolary usage from the blessing pronounced at the end of Christian services of worship.
4:23 / Be with your spirit; here your spirit is simply a more emphatic way of saying “you” (equivalent to “yourselves”). Compare the liturgical versicle and response: “The Lord be with you / And with your spirit” (see also 2 Tim. 4:22).
The wording here is identical with that in Philemon 23, and similar to that in Galatians 6:18, where the pronoun “our” qualifies “Lord Jesus Christ” and the vocative “brothers” (with a concluding “Amen”) is added at the end.