According to the conventions of early letter writing in ancient Greece, greetings were generally found in two places, the opening and closing verses. And the epistles of Paul are no exception to this rule. But his writings elevate the form to new heights, including even this usually mundane portion of a letter. Often the beginning and conclusion in Paul's hands become a matched pair in which opening phrases and concepts are repeated at the end. A prime example of this literary technique, called an inclusion or inclusio. is seen in the Epistle to the Colossians.
For one thing, Paul begins with a rather general greeting to his audience in Colossians 1:1-2 but then concludes his letter with a more extended set of greetings to specific people in that congregation. And the parallels between these two bookend sections are enhanced by specific verbal repetitions, enumerated below:
Parallel Wording Opening Greeting Closing Greeting
Paul 1:1a 4:18a
Christ Jesu 1:1b 4:12a
will of God 1:1c 4:12b
brother 1:1d 4:7,9
faithful brethren/brother 1:2a 4:7,9
to the brethren...at Colossae/Laodicea 1:2b 4:15
in Christ/the Lord 1:2c 4:17
grace 1:2d 4:18b
Note that the opening words begin with “Paul” and end in “grace.” In the same sort of manner, the closing verse of the letter contains these same two elements in the same order, serving to tie together the whole epistle.
There is one other possible parallel between these two passages. In 1:1, Paul calls himself an apostle, and in 4:8, Paul says that he has sent Tychicus to the church to encourage them. Vine explains that apostello literally means “to send on service, or with a commission.” The verb in 4:8, on the other hand, is pempo. “Pempo is a more general term than apostello; apostello usually 'suggests official or authoritative sending' (Thayer). A comparison of the usages...shows how nearly (in some cases practically quite) interchangeably they are used, and yet on close consideration the distinction just mentioned is discernible.” Thus, we could say that Paul was given a more authoritative role by Jesus Christ than Tychicus was given by Paul, but both were “sent” on important missions.
Below are some comments relating to the key terms above in their parallel contexts:
“Paul”
In Acts, he is sometimes called Saul, but in his role as apostle to the Gentiles he always refers to himself as Paul instead. Tellingly, he only identifies himself by name at the start and conclusion of his letter.
“Christ Jesus”
This simple designation has been the center of controversy among Bible scholars. For example, James Dunn says that “it may be relevant to note that in Colossians the word order is consistently 'Christ Jesus,' rather than 'Jesus Christ'...” This is in contrast to the reversed order Christ Jesus being the more usual order in his other letters. But it should be noted that those two designations only appear alone together three places in this epistle: 1:1,4 and 4:12. And although all three have 'Christ Jesus,' the reverse order appears (with 'Lord') in v. 3. This is really too small a data sample in which to make any hard-and-fast conclusions regarding the authenticity of Paul as its author. This especially true since (1) Paul does utilize “Christ Jesus” on occasion in his other letter and (2) there are textual variations in his epistles which cause uncertainties to arise as to which was the original wording. As an example of the latter complicating factor, in Colossians 4:12 we have ancient manuscripts reading either “Christ,” “Christ Jesus,” or “Jesus Christ.”
“will of God”
Ashby: “Introducing himself as an apostle 'by the will of God' he acknowledges his call as an act of unmerited divine grace. If he does stress his authority here it is not because it has been challenged as in Galatia, but because he is presenting his credentials to Christians unknown to him personally...”
But Guthrie sees “this as a reflection of his deep awareness of his high calling.”
“Paul's apostleship... was 'by the will of God.' The phrase was to remind the readers of the divine call on his life. His was an apostleship by God's initiative, not by his own efforts. Thus two ideas converge in this designation. First, Paul's apostleship contained all the elements associated with the office. Second, God called him to the office. The first description, therefore, combines both authority and humility.” (Melick)
Wright states: “The supporting claim, that this apostleship came about by (literally 'through') the will of God, is not merely an indication of the ultimate source of the authority, but a linking of Paul's task to the over-ordering divine plan of salvation...”
As to the nature of that plan, McKnight says, “The will of God is God's holistic redemptive plan to include Gentiles in the people of God...”
“brother(s)”
“To avoid the gender-specific 'brothers,' NRSV translates such references as 'brothers and sisters.' In a historic text, however, it is better to retain the original usage, while noting that women within these congregations would have understood that the term included them: to that extent it was not gender specific.” (Dunn)
“The term 'brother' here indicates spiritual or fictive kinship in the church-as-family...We see here not a hierarchy but coordination in a mutual calling to the gospel; if anything, calling him 'brother' elevates Timothy to Paul's status...Paul used only the generic 'brothers,' though the context makes clear he's writing to all the Christians, men and women and children and slaves, in the church at Colossae.” (McKnight)
At this point, there may be some who would argue that Paul was only addressing the men in the congregation, but not the women. In the first place, that would be a misunderstanding of how the word was utilized during that time period. Secondly, there is a real possibility that specific women are addressed at the end of the letter. As one example, the obviously female name Apphia appears in 4:17. In addition, the church leader Nympha in 4:15 not only has a feminine name but the church is said to have met in her house.
But despite those facts, there are still some scholars who opt for her being a man. As Seitz states, “a text-critical variant makes the female Nympha a man instead. This is the more difficult reading and so now widely preferred in modern translations.” I find it very hard to understand where Seitz came up with that last statement since a review of modern translations such as NRSV, AB, NEB and JB as well as the consensus of textual scholars such as Comfort and Metzger shows complete agreement in considering Nympha to be a woman.
“faithful (brethren/brother)”
Guthrie says, “Paul's high opinion of Tychicus [in 4:7] is reflected in the adjectives used here (beloved and faithful, the same used of Onesimus in v. 9 and of Epaphras in 1:7), obviously a favorite expression with the apostle.”
“The parallel term, 'faithful,' stressed their consistency in spite of the heresy that threatened. The term may suggest that the heresy was impending rather than actually present in the church.” (Melick)
And Wright explains, “The word 'faithful' is probably not to be taken in the sense of 'having Christian faith' – one could have deduced that from the fact that Paul calls them 'brothers' – but in the sense of 'firmly committed', 'steadfast.'”
“in Christ”
“Their brotherhood was not one of blood relationship, but rather the spiritual bond of the shared experience of believing in Christ Jesus and knowing that they were accepted by and through him...at the root of the phrase there seems to be a sense of intimate and existential relationship with Christ.” (Dunn)
“Their spiritual location, 'in Christ,' demonstrated a tie to a higher society, the Christian community...The Colossian church should have been beyond the heresy that threatened them since they were 'in Christ.'” (Melick)
“Paul's commission to be an apostle of King Jesus comes about 'by [or through] the will of God,' which signaled God's providential shaping of history and appointment of Paul to a designated task in God's purposes...God's will can be more general as well, which is seen at 1:9 and 4:12...One can say that all of Paul's theology is contained in this expression, and within that very circle of 'in Christ' we can locate even the doctrine of justification.”
“to the brethren...at Colossae/Laodicea”
It was perhaps the reference to the nearby sister church at Laodicea at the end of this epistle that prompted an unknown author to years later pen the Epistle to the Laodiceans, not accepted as part of the canon by any church denomination.
“grace to/(be with) you”
In regard to the final verse in the letter, Martin states: “With extreme brevity and economy of words he expresses the confidence that God's grace will sustain and defend his church.”
At the end of the letter Paul will use the more mundane word for greetings – aspazomai (4:10, 12, 14, 15)...But what makes me think that these terms have more than ordinary weight is that Paul shifts this greeting significantly by adding 'from God our Father.' In doing so, Paul turns himself and Timothy into mediators of God's grace and peace, and these terms are no longer simply a human greeting one to another but divine greetings.” (McKnight)
Seitz says in conclusion, “Paul's final 'grace be with you' will of course have in view the Colossian Christians he has been addressing. It will be a grace heard and received by the Christians at Laodicea when they hear the letter read to them. But it will also reach...the present reader, you and me, and every reader in every church throughout the world in time and space.”
And Wright summarizes the letter by stating that “the greetings remind us that we are dealing not with an abstract theological treatise but with a real letter to real people...From one point of view, grace has been the subject of the whole letter. Paul has written in order to emphasize the undeserved love of God in Christ, and all that follows from it. From another point of view, grace has been the object of the letter: Paul has written in order to be a means of grace, not merely to describe it. The letter closes as it began, in grateful prayer.”
Melick similarly closes with these words: “Paul reminded them of God's grace. He ended where he began. In a sense, the entire epistle argues for the principle of grace, that God supplies his salvation freely, that he requires nothing but a trust in the work of his Son, Jesus, and that grace sustains the Christians' lives. If God's grace is with them, they need nothing else.”
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