Verse 17
17. With mine own hand So far by amanuensis; now by autograph.
Token in every epistle His first epistle was without such authentication; but the forged or pretended epistle of 2 Thessalonians 2:2, had warned him to guard against imposition.
Every epistle needing authentication, whether written to the Thessalonians or to others, was to receive its autographic token henceforth. Of those so explicitly authenticated are Colossians, (Colossians 4:18,) and 1 Corinthians, (1 Corinthians 16:21,) Galatians being entirely autographic. In Romans the concluding doxology may have been autographic; as Ephesians 6:24, and Philippians 4:23. Several epistles may not have needed authentication, as 2 Corinthians, which was sent by Titus; and those written to individuals, as Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, which were either autographic or known by circumstances to be genuine.
So I write This is my penmanship. Grotius, ingeniously, but incorrectly, supposes that Paul appended a complex monogram as his mark. The apostle’s autograph probably included 2 Thessalonians 3:17-18.
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