Salutation

The letter begins with the standard form of salutation found in almost all the letters from the Greco-Roman period. Where such a letter in our time would have begun, “Dear Timothy,” and concluded something like, “Your affectionate father in Christ, Paul,” ancient letters began with the name of the writer, followed by the addressee and a greeting. Usually these were terse: “Paul, to Timothy, greetings.” Such a terse greeting may be found in Paul’s earliest existing letter (1 Thessalonians), but as time went on, each part of the salutation tended to become elaborated (“Christianized”) in a variety of ways. These elaborations, especially the longer ones, often reflect the urgencies of the letter in hand. This seems to be true of our letter.

1:1 Paul regularly calls himself an ap…