GREETINGS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT EPISTLES

It is instructive to compare the various letters in the New Testament in terms of the relative emphasis they give to the standard components of such ancient documents: opening greetings, prayer of thanksgiving, body of letter, closing greetings, doxology, benediction, etc. Thus, the Letter to the Galatians omits the thanksgiving section entirely, indicating Paul's displeasure with that church. But another instructive exercise is to take only one of the parts of the standard format and compare that portion as it appears in the various letters. As an example, let us consider the portion of the opening greetings in which the sender and recipient are identified since these beginning words are often ignored by preachers and commentators. I will be quoting from NRSV, although most other translations read similarly.

Romans

This letter has the most extensive opening salutation of any in the NT. It begins, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.” and ends in v. 7 with “To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints.” Note that both Paul and his audience are marked out as being “called.” Elliot points out that key words such as “servant,” “called,” and “set apart” are also characteristic marks of Old Testament prophets (Isaiah 6:8; Jeremiah 1:5,7; Ezekiel 2:3-4; and Amos 7:4). So we as fellow saints are in very good company here.

The theologically loaded introduction is a tip-off that this will be the closest thing to an exhaustive theological treatise that we have from Paul.

I Corinthians

“Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes. To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.” Note especially the third use of “call” in these verses. It reminds us that each one of us has individual calling from God as well as a unique ministry in mind for us. Actually, “call” is a key concept for Paul's theology since Greek words translated as call, called, or calling appear 18 times in this epistle.

“If he is the same person, Sosthenes plays a different role here from that in Acts 18:17.” (Horsley) That is rather an understatement since the Sosthenes there was actually the chief ruler of the Corinthian synagogue who is beaten by the Hellenistic Greeks after opposing Paul's ministry in the city.

Geldenhuys notes, “An inscription was found at Corinth which reads “Synagogue of the Hebrews.” It is Geldenhuys' opinion that Sosthenes had apparently converted and left the city earlier. Paul is either (a) conveying his greetings to the Corinthians or (b) indicating that Sosthenes is the co-author of the letter. The latter is unlikely since Paul writes the letter in the first person singular exclusively here.

II Corinthians

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother. To the church of God that is in Corinth, including all the saints throughout Achaia.” Wan feels that Paul departs from his usual practice of calling Timothy “my beloved child” (as in I Corinthians 4:17) in order to convey “a sign of respect.”

Galatians

“Paul an apostle – sent neither by human commission nor from human authority, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead – and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia.”

There is no doubt why Paul began his letter to these churches in this rather unusual manner. It is obvious from the body of the epistle that they had departed greatly from Paul's teachings due to the influence of false teachers who had begun to throw doubts on Paul's apostolic status. Look at Galatians 1:16-20; 2:1-2,9 for other examples of Paul's apparent need to defend himself. And to bolster his authority, Paul includes in his greetings a number of unnamed brothers who are “with me,” indicating that Paul is not just some renegade teacher.

Ephesians

There is nothing particularly unique in the opening words of this letter (“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.”) other than the word “faithful.” There is probably a literary reason for its inclusion since it functions along with a second mention of someone being “faithful” at Ephesians 6:21 in the closing greetings as a pair of bookends for the whole letter. Note that the specific phrase “by the will of God” also appears in I and II Corinthians.

Philippians

“Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.” This might be a good time to point out that almost always when the word translated as “servant” is used, it could equally be translated as “slave,” perhaps better indicating what Paul thought about his personal relationship with his Lord.

The unusual feature about this greeting is that it is also addressed to specific church leaders. Osiek notes, “These functions are not yet the church offices they will later become.” But rather than being a anachronistic note or indicating that this letter was actually composed generations afterward, the Anchor Bible simply translates the Greek words as “overseers and agents” instead.

Reumann says, “1:1 provides rich theological identity, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, and geographical identity, who are in Philippi.”

I-II Thessalonians

These early matching epistles have practically identical opening greetings: “Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the/our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” The question of authorship is the prime consideration here. Most of the time, the co-workers in Paul's opening addresses are mentioned as a matter of courtesy even though they had no part in the actual composition of the letters. But that may not be the case here.

For one thing, these letters employ the second person throughout (we, our, us) rather than the usual I, me, and my of Paul's other compositions. In addition, Silvanus (i.e. Silas) is mentioned as the amanuensis of I Peter, and that letter has some unusual structural features in it that are also found in I and II Thessalonians (see posts on “I-II Thessalonians: Introduction to the Literary Structure” and the companion piece on I Peter). Therefore it appears likely that Silas helped to shape the form of these letters, utilizing Paul's wording.

I Timothy

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, To Timothy, my loyal child in the faith.” Interestingly, we are used to the designation of Jesus Christ as Savior, but here we are reminded that it was only because God sent Him that salvation is possible. In this first of the Pastoral Epistles, look at the familial way Paul refers to Timothy as his son.

II Timothy

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my beloved child.” This greeting is quite similar to the one found in I Timothy with the notable addition of the reason behind Paul's calling – “for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus.” In other words, it was so that Paul could share the Good News with others.

Not surprisingly, this main thrust of the letter is expressed in a number of different ways. Paul encourages Timothy in his part in the ministry by offering his own example of perseverance in the face of opposition, cautioning him not to get embroiled in futile disputes or earthly entanglements that ould distract from his work, and above all reminding him that the judgment time was always looming.

On the positive side, the opening note of “promise” is sounded again and again in this short letter:

    1:10          promise of immortality through Christ

    1:12          assurance of salvation “on that day”

    2:10-12     promise of eternal life and glory

    4:1            reminder of the coming judgment

    4:8           assurance of the crown of righteousness “on that day”

    4:18         Paul's assurance that God will “save me for his heavenly kingdom”

Titus

I will only quote part of this lengthy opening, which is about as long as that for Paul's major opus Romans: “Paul, a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and the knowledge...To Titus, my loyal child in the faith we share.” Without going into detail encapsulated in this rich section, I will just quote Mitchell, who characterizes Titus 1:1-4 as “a theological expansion reminiscent of Rom 1:2-6.”

As to the question why such a short letter would be prefaced with such a relatively long opening, Quinn attempts to explain that I-II Timothy and Titus were originally circulated as one document written by someone using Paul's name, and Titus was presented as the first of the three. Therefore, “The elaborate, sixty-six-word epistolary prologue of Titus 1:1-4 sounds like a preface to the collection, not only to the short letter that follows.” But this theory is really presented without any persuasive supporting evidence.

Donald Guthrie proposes a much more evangelically acceptable analysis: “But the difficulties of construction and slight obscurities of thought are more in favor of Pauline authorship than against it; and in the view of some the formal character of the introduction is due to the semi-official character of the contents.”

Philemon

“Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our dear friend and co-worker, to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house.” Note the unique mention of Paul's imprisoned status, the somewhat flattering words toward Philemon, and the fact that Paul wanted others in the church to be hearing Paul's plea. All of these elements are carefully designed, as is the remainder of the letter, for the express purpose of convincing Philemon to free his slave Onesimus and/or release him to serve Paul in jail.

Hebrews

The most notable fact concerning the opening greetings here are that there are none; instead the author starts right in with his exhortation. Ellingworth outlines the two main possibilities for this anomaly:

    Hebrews is a sermon to which a closing salutation has been later added, or

    Hebrews is a letter in which the opening greeting has been accidentally lost at an early stage in the letter's transmission.

Ellingsworth leans toward the second option, but we will probably never know for sure.

James

This letter begins: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion.” It is obvious from James' simple self-description that he must have been very well known already to his audience, which would certainly fit the traditional identification of James as the half-brother of Jesus and the leader of the Jerusalem church. The recipients of the letter are somewhat more in question. There is no space to discuss the issue in any depth, but the two points of view are that (a) he is writing to a strictly Jewish audience in light of the reference to the twelve tribes, or (b) as elsewhere in the NT, the historically Jewish terms for the people of God were co-opted by the early church and used to describe all believers in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile. Any good commentary on James will discuss the pros and cons of each possibility in detail.

I Peter

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the exiles of the Dispersion in...who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with blood.” I will just point out three things here:

    The key words “obedient/obedience” are also prominently mentioned in 1:14 and 1:22.

    The same dispute as to whether a Jewish or mixed Jewish/Gentile audience is in mind here. It is probably even more likely than the case of the Letter of James that there is a mixed group in view.

    Notice that the dual mention of God and Christ found in other NT epistles is here joined by the Holy Spirit as a clear reference to the Holy Trinity.

II Peter

“Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.”

The key word “righteousness” is the first of five appearance of the same Greek root in this letter.

The trend begun in I Peter toward defining the Trinity continues here in actually identifying Jesus Christ as God Himself, although one must admit that there are alternative ways of understanding the original Greek.

The unusual designation “Simeon Peter,” only found again in Acts 15:14, has been explained in two diametrically opposed fashions. One school of thought sees this archaic form of the name as a definite mark of authenticity of Peter's authorship, while the opposite view feels that it is a somewhat clumsy attempt to add authenticity to a pseudonymous document. (M. Green) The evidence seems to favor the first, and more orthodox, view.

I John

This is another “epistle” that has no opening greetings. Instead the first two verses appear to paraphrase John 1:1-18. So is it really a letter at all?

Grayston says, “I John is neither epistle nor treatise but an enchiridion, an instruction booklet for applying the tradition in disturbing circumstances.”

Marshall: “In contrast to 2 and 3 John, 1 John lacks the typical stylistic features of a letter. Nevertheless, it is not to be regarded as a literary or fictitious 'epistle,' or even as a 'catholic' epistle, written to all Christians everywhere...It is probably best to regard it as a tract written to deal with a specific problem; it is a written sermon or pastoral address.”

II John

“The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever.” 'Truth' appears also in vv. 3,4, and 'abide' is used twice again in v. 9.

F.F. Bruce: “We are confronted immediately by the twin problems of the identity of the writer and that of the recipients.” His considered conclusion of the author's identity is that he was called 'the elder' “both because he was older than the other members of the circle and because his personal knowledge of the Way went back much further than theirs.” Akin and others point out one person who meets those requirements admirably: “The fact that the apostle John was by now an old man and that he also held a special position and authority as the last surviving apostle makes this title especially fitting.”

As to the recipient, due to the lack of any distinguishing features of 'the elect lady' “many interpreters feel it is best to understand the term 'as a corporate personality. If this interpretation is followed here, then 'the elect lady' is a local church (not the Church Catholic, for the Church Catholic has no sister), 'her children' (tekna) are the members of that church', and the 'children of her elect sister' (v. 13) are members of the local church in the place where the writer is resident.” (Bruce) Despite this reasonable interpretation, there are others who without any supporting evidence claim that the Elect Lady was in fact John's wife.

III John

This short letter begins: “the elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.” The author's favorite word “truth” is utilized again in vv. 3,4,8,12a, and “true” appears in 12b. This is in contrast to the false charges being made against John (see v. 10).

As to the identity of the recipient, he appears to be a member of a church over which John exercises some sort of authority. Marshall says, There are no positive reasons for identifying him with any of the other bearers of the same name in the New Testament [ Gaius was about as common a name then as John or James are today], although this has not stopped other commentators from offering guesses.”

Jude

The opening greeting reads, “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, who are beloved in God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ.”

Michael Green notes the utter humility of these words since Jude could have easily and correctly called himself the brother of Jesus Christ. Instead, he treats himself as Christ's servant and only dares claim that he was the brother of the noted James, head of the Jerusalem church. Green points to the drastic attitude change since the time when Jude and James scoffed at Jesus' apparent pretensions (see John 7:1-5). In addition, Green points out that the same three adjectives “called, beloved, and kept” appear in the Suffering Servant Songs of Isaiah.