Letters in the Greco-Roman world had a fairly standard form. They would begin with a salutation, followed by a conventional thanksgiving (often in the form of a prosaic prayer). Next came the body of the letter, often followed by parenesis (concrete directions), and then the closing of the letter. The salutation itself normally contained three parts that first named the sender, then named the recipient, and finally offered a greeting.

A typical non-Christian letter from Paul’s day might open as follows: “Gaius, to Quartus, greetings.” The salutations in Paul’s letters are rarely so concise. Rather, Paul modified the form of the salutation by expanding it and giving it a distinctively Christian cast. Even when Paul’s salutation is brief, as it is in 1 Thessalonians, it has a clearly theolo…