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J. B. Lightfoot on Colossians 4:15-16

St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon (1875). Browse this work.

Colossians4:15-16

ἀναγνωσθῇ παρ’ ὑμῖν ἡ ἐπιστολή, ποιήσατε ἵνα καὶ 16. ἡ ἐπιστολή] ‘_the letter_’, which has just been concluded, for these salutations have the character of a postscript; comp. Rom. xvi. 22 Τέρτιος ὁ γράψας τὴν ἐπιστολήν, 2 Thess. iii. 14 διὰ τῆς ἐπιστολῆς, _Mart. Polyc._ 20 τὴν ἐπιστολὴν διαπέμψασθε. Such examples however do not countenance the explanation which refers ἔγραψα ὑμῖν ἐν τῇ ἐπιστολῇ in 1 Cor. v. 9 to the First Epistle itself, occurring (as it does) in the middle of the letter (comp. 2 Cor. vii. 8). ποιήσατε ἵνα] ‘_cause that_’; so John xi. 37, Apoc. xiii. 15. In such cases the ἵνα is passing away from its earlier sense of _design_ to its later sense of _result_. A corresponding classical expression is ποιεῖν ὡς or ὅπως, e.g. Xen. _Cyr._ vi. 3. 18. A similar charge is given in 1 Thess. v. 27. The precaution here is probably suggested by the distastefulness of the Apostle’s warnings, which might lead to the suppression of the letter.

J. B. Lightfoot, St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon (1875), Colossians 4:15-16. Public domain.

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