E. Greetings from Paul’s companions (16:21–23 [24])
E. Greetings from Paul’s companions (16:21–23 [24])
Paul sends greetings from various friends who are with him at the time of writing.
21. Timothy. A native of Lystra, a convert of Paul’s, whom he chose as assistant and colleague in his ministry (Acts 16:1–3). In him Paul found a peculiarly like-minded companion, a fidus Achates, who (he said) ‘as a son with a father … has served with me in the gospel’ (Phil. 2:22). According to Acts 20:4, he was in Paul’s company along with others on the eve of his setting out for Jerusalem.
Lucius. If ‘my kinsmen’ applies to all three who have just been mentioned, Lucius would be a Jewish Christian. An identification with Lucius of Cyrene (Acts 13:1) cannot be made out. What of A. Deissmann’s view that he was Luke the physician?22 It is plain from the record of Acts 20:5–21:18 that the narrator accompanied Paul to Jerusalem, but he includes no Lucius among Paul’s fellow-travellers. Luke the physician was a Gentile Christian (this is indicated by Col. 4:14 in the light of Col. 4:10, and is borne out by the internal evidence of Luke-Acts). Here it would be possible, but unnatural, to punctuate after ‘Lucius’ so as to leave only Jason and Sosipater to be described as Paul’s ‘kinsmen’. There is evidence that Lucas was used as an equivalent of Lucius, but Paul elsewhere refers to the physician as Luke (Gk. Loukas, Lat. Lucas); why should he change his usage and call him Lucius?
Jason. Perhaps the Jason who was Paul’s host on his first visit to Thessalonica (Acts 17:6–7, 9); he is not listed, however, as a Thessalonian delegate among Paul’s companions in Acts 20:4.
Sosipater. Probably ‘Sopater of Beroea, the son of Pyrrhus’ who, according to Acts 20:4, was also in Paul’s company at this time. On Paul’s preference for formal names see comment on verse 3 (p. 271).
22. I Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you. Paul regularly employed amanuenses to write his letters, but Tertius is the only one known to us by name. Whether he sent his greetings personally on his own initiative or at Paul’s suggestion, Paul would certainly approve of his sending them. Perhaps he was a professional amanuensis; he was evidently a Christian, since he sends his greetings in the Lord.
At this point Tertius may have handed the pen to Paul. The sender of a letter in antiquity, after dictating most of it, frequently wrote the last few words in his own hand. Such an autograph (not necessarily, and indeed not usually, his signature) was Paul’s authenticating mark in all his letters (2 Thess. 3:17). We may, then, envisage Paul writing the remainder of the letter himself, perhaps in the ‘large letters’ to which he draws attention in Galatians 6:11.
23. Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church. There is much to be said for the identification of Gaius with Titius Justus, who extended the hospitality of his house to Paul and his hearers when they were expelled from the synagogue next door (Acts 18:7). ‘Gaius Titius Justus’ would then be his full designation (praenomen, nomen gentile, and cognomen) as a Roman citizen (a citizen of the Roman colony of Corinth).23 Gaius was, in any case, one of Paul’s first converts in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:14).
Erastus, the city treasurer. He has been identified with the civic official of that name mentioned in a Latin inscription on a marble paving-block discovered at Corinth in 1929 by members of the American School at Athens: ‘ERASTVS. PRO. AED. S. P. STRAVIT’ (‘Erastus, in return for his aedileship, laid this pavement at his own expense’). The aedile (‘commissioner for public works’) was a responsible magistrate in a Roman city. The office of oikonomos, perhaps ‘clerk of works’ rather than ‘city treasurer’, was a much humbler one (Lat. arcarius.). Since the pavement seems to belong to a later part of the first century, it might be inferred that Erastus acquitted himself so satisfactorily in the inferior office that he was promoted to the higher magistracy, and showed his appreciation of the honour thus done him by presenting the city with a marble pavement. He need not be identified with the Erastus of Acts 19:22 or 2 Timothy 4:20; the name was common enough.
Our brother Quartus. He is otherwise unknown. RSV assumes (like NEB and NIV) that ‘brother’ means ‘brother in the Lord’; in that case why is he singled out to receive a designation which was common to all those mentioned? If the word means ‘brother in the flesh’, whose brother was he? Erastus’s, since his name immediately precedes? Or, since Quartus is Latin for ‘fourth’, and Tertius for ‘third’, would it be excessively far-fetched to think of him as Tertius’s brother, born next after him?
(24). At this point, as RSV margin says, ‘Other ancient authorities insert verse 24, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.’ The western text, which lacked the doxology (verses 25–27), brought the letter to an end with this benediction (omitting that in verse 20b). The Byzantine text (followed by the Received Text and AV) took over the western benediction here as well as the earlier one in verse 20b. A few witnesses (codices P 33 104 365 436, with the Syriac Peshitta and Armenian versions, and Ambrosiaster’s Latin text) put this benediction after the doxology (as verse 28) and not before it (as verse 24). In its present position the benediction should not be too readily dismissed as unauthentic; if the doxology is not original (either absolutely or in its position at the end of chapter 16), the benediction forms a very fitting conclusion to the letter.24