1 Thessalonians 5:25-28

VConclusion of the Epistle with Salutation and Benediction

1 Thessalonians 5:25-28.

25, 26, 27Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I charge [adjure]59 you by the Lord, that this [the, τήν] epistle be read unto all the holy60 brethren. 28The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.61

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. (1 Thessalonians 5:25.) Brethren, pray for us (καὶ περί, B. D.1, is unsuitable [Lachmann inserts the καί in brackets.—J. L.]). The closing words are concise and hearty. First, he solicits intercession in behalf of his apostolic calling; this he frequently does, laying stress upon it, and humbly suing for it (2 Thessalonians 3:1; Romans 15:30; Colossians 4:3; Ephesians 6:18-19; Philemon 1:22).62 Bengel notes that in the Epistle to the Galatians and in the First to the Corinthians he does not do so, because he was there compelled to admonish his readers with fatherly severity.63

2. (1 Thessalonians 5:26.) Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss; φίλημα, a love-token (Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12); φίλημα (1 Peter 5:14); in the Latin Fathers, and first Tertullian, osculum pacis [signaculum pacis.—J. L.], also simply pax. The kiss, a general mark of salutation, especially in the East, was here to be hallowed as an expression of brotherly love, and of the common joy in the Lord. It had its place especially after prayer, and before taking the Holy Supper, &c. According to Tertullian it was omitted on Good Friday (on account of the kiss of Judas). Later ecclesiastical rules (with a view particularly to cutting off every pretext for heathen calumnies) insisted that only men should kiss men, and women women. The custom remained till the middle ages, and it still prevails in the East at Easter (comp. Augusti, Handbuch der chr. Archäol., II. p., 718 sqq.). Because in the other Pauline passages it is said: ἀσπάσασθε , but here: τοὺς , De Wette and Lünemann infer that the Epistle, received and read in public by the presidents, requires them, first of all, to salute and kiss all the brethren in the Apostle’s name. Ewald even asserts that 1 Thessalonians 5:25-27, beginning so abruptly, were plainly added by Paul in his own hand for the authentication of the letter, according to 2 Thessalonians 3:17 (in pursuance of the untenable hypothesis, that our First Epistle was rather the Second); and that these words, accordingly, were intended first for the presidents; Timothy having probably informed him that our Second Epistle (which was rather the First) had not been duly read in public before the assembled church. But even the appeal to 3 John 1:9 has no power to lift all this out of the category of utterly groundless hypotheses. In opposition to it Hofmann properly reminds us, that the invitation in 1 Thessalonians 5:25 is addressed to all the Thessalonians, and therefore also the next 1 Thessalonians 5:26; hence: Deliver my salutation (in connection with the holy kiss) to all the brethren—this the Thessalonians did collectively, when on hearing these words they kissed one another.

3. (1 Thessalonians 5:27.) I adjure you, &c.; δρκίζω or ἐνορκίζω has also a different construction from

Footnotes:

1 Thessalonians 5:27; 1 Thessalonians 5:27.—A. B. D.1 E. ἐνορκίζω, [found nowhere else]; Sin. and most others, ὁρκίζω which is, indeed, more common in the New Testament [Mark 5:7; Acts 19:13;—the only other instances], and therefore, perhaps, in the present instance merely a correction. [Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott edit ένορκ.—Nearly all versions and commentaries give the full force of the Greek verb, as E. V. does in the other instances, and here in the margin.—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 5:27; 1 Thessalonians 5:27.—ἁγίοις is wanting in B. D. E. F. G. and in Sin. primâ manu; but is found in A. K. L., Sin. secundâ manu, and in most of the versions. De Wette is probably right in holding, that it was omitted as being unusual and apparently superfluous, rather than it was added; it is found also at Hebrews 3:1. [It is omitted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford. Riggenbach brackets it in his version.—J. L.]

1 Thessalonians 5:28; 1 Thessalonians 5:28.—ἀμήν at the close is wanting in B. D.1 F. G.; most of the authorities have it, and so Sin. [The critical editors generally omit it; Riggenbach brackets.—J. L.]

[62][Comp. 2 Corinthians 1:11; Philippians 1:19; Hebrews 13:18.—J. L.]

[63][Bengel also remarks that this request is wanting likewise in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, either because Paul addressed them as his sons, or because he could already count on having their intercession.—J. L.]