§54 Final Remarks (1 Cor. 16:19–24)
Paul passes closing greetings in verses 19–20. Then, the last lines open with Paul’s autograph before issuing a quick series of energetic final declarations. These verses could be viewed as six or more separate but related statements, since Paul does not string the statements together with a series of conjunctions. Such a serial closing is not in strict keeping with the normal conventions of ancient letter writing, although Paul’s letters generally demonstrate a penchant for ending with a set of brief final remarks.
16:19 / Paul mentions the churches in the province of Asia (lit. “the churches of Asia”), thus clustering the distinct assemblies in a distinct geographical region into a network of congregations. Aquila and Priscilla also send greetings through Paul to the Corinthians, so that the reader learns that these former residents of Rome and Corinth, whom Paul met in Corinth, are now present with him in Ephesus as companions and fellow workers. Above all, however, Paul passes greetings to the Corinthians from the church that meets at [Aquila’s and Priscilla’s] house. This reference both locates Paul and his co-workers in the context of the church and recognizes that Aquila and Priscilla were house hosts to the Ephesian congregation. The reader of Paul’s letters will once again hear of this couple in Paul’s letter to Rome (Rom. 16:3), where Paul sends greetings to them, not from them.
16:20 / Paul offers a general greeting (All the brothers here, a manner of reference that would have included both the men and women in the Ephesian church), and then he mentions an enigmatic form of greeting, a holy kiss. Though many have guessed what this “holy kiss” was, no one really knows. Nevertheless, the suggestion that this greeting was similar to “a passing of the peace” seems reasonable in light of later references to this practice in subsequent Christian writings. Here, however, the “holy kiss” is a congregational activity, apparently meant to be done vicariously among one group in recognition and solidarity with another group of acknowledged believers who were not present at the greeting.
16:21 / This line and the ones that follow are Paul’s autograph. A scribe had written for Paul to this point, but now Paul takes pen in hand and gives the letter a truly personal touch.
16:22 / As Paul writes these final lines, he declares a hex (a curse; Gk. anathema) on anyone who does not love the Lord, a probable reference to those who opposed the Lord by resisting the work of the early church—the agency through which the Lord was understood by Christians to be at work in the world. Whether Paul intends to pronounce this anathema on someone in or outside the church is impossible to determine. Then, Paul makes an eschatological cry for the Lord to come (Come, O Lord; Gk. marana tha), a calling out that declares what Paul must have regarded as a proper attitude toward the Lord. The anathema is in good Greek and the eschatological call is Aramaic that has been transliterated into Greek, yet the words form a sound pair that contrast spiritual discord and spiritual concord.
16:23 / The greeting is the typical fashion in which Paul concluded his letters, The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. At times this element of final greeting is expanded with an explicit mention of God and, less frequently, of the Spirit. Throughout this letter Paul’s concern has been with the reality and the experience of grace in the life of the Corinthian church, and while the letter is thoroughly theological, Paul has given a christological cast to the main lines of his reflection. Thus, this particular ending is highly appropriate for this epistle.
16:24 / The last line of the letter is remarkable, for Paul ends with an unusual assertion of his love for all the Corinthians in Christ Jesus; he sends his love to all of the Corinthians. Even this moving declaration of love, however, is qualified as being in Christ Jesus, so that Paul ends on the note of emphasis that he has sounded regularly if not constantly throughout the letter. This location and relationship is the most important aspect of Christian life for Paul in regard to all of Christian faith, belief, and practice.
16:19 / The way Paul meets Priscilla and Aquila in the story in Acts 18 suggests that they were Christians at the time that Paul met them in Corinth. The explanation in Acts that the couple came to Corinth after the emperor Claudius expelled “the Jews” from Rome is probably an indirect recognition that the preaching of the gospel had made its way to Rome by the late 40s and that the controversy it produced required Roman intervention to keep the peace—a kind of story often heard in Acts and alluded to by Paul in his letters.
16:20 / References to the holy kiss occur in such diverse places in the NT as Rom. 16:16; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26; 1 Pet. 5:14; and in subsequent early Christian literature: Justin Martyr, First Apology 65.2; Clement of Alexandria; and Tertullian.
16:21 / Paul mentions his “autograph” in Gal. 6:11; Col. 4:18; 2 Thess. 3:17. It would not have been necessary for Paul to declare that he was writing in this way, since the readers could easily distinguish his untrained hand from the refined writing of the scribe who had been taking down Paul’s words in dictation (see Rom. 16:22). That he does so here may indicate that he anticipated the reading of this particular letter to the assembled congregation.
16:22 / Cf. Rev. 22:20, where the same style declaration is made in Gk. The cry is clear in basic intention, but still enigmatic; since the Aramaic could be read as a perfect (“our Lord has come”) or an imperative (“Come, our Lord”). The use of this declaration in the closing of this letter, near the end of Rev., and apparently as an eschatological cry in corporate worship, probably indicates the imperative sense of the statement (see further, Didache 10.6).
Some interpreters have suggested that both elements of this verse, the curse and the call, were liturgical declarations that Paul incorporated into the conclusion of his letter. This understanding is possible, and if so the Corinthians would probably recognize the materials for what they were, but nothing in the letter indicates that this pair of statements is quoted material in its entirety (see J. A. T. Robinson, “The Earliest Christian Liturgical Sequence?” in Twelve New Testament Studies [London: SCM, 1962], pp. 154–57; compare C. F. D. Moule, “A Reconsideration of the Context of Maranatha,” NTS 6 [1960], pp. 307–10).
16:24 / The NIV concludes with an Amen, included in many manuscripts, but the omission in a few crucial ancient witnesses (e.g., Codex Vaticanus) probably means that this final word was by a copyist and was a liturgical addition to the original text of the letter.