I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.
Near the end of a long letter full of correction, Paul takes the pen from the person writing for him and adds a greeting in his own handwriting. Why did he need to sign at all? What did that signature prove? And does a dictated letter carry less weight than one he wrote out himself?
A signature at the end of a dictated letter
Paul rarely wrote his letters out himself. One writer sets out his usual practice:
Our Father's WillIt was Paul's custom to employ a secretary to write his letters (see Romans 16:22), though he wrote to the Galatians himself (Gal. 6:11). But at the end he wrote a few words with his own hand, or, we suppose, signed his name, so that it might be a token to them of its genuineness.
The mark that guarded against forgery
A handwritten greeting was not decoration. It answered a real danger:
William KellyThe second of these letters [to the Thessalonians] exposes the fraud of a letter pretending to have come from the apostle. It had deceived some at least. From then on his greeting with his own hand in every letter is the token to guard the saints.
Authority carried by the pen
Earlier in this letter Paul had called his instructions the Lord's commands. His signature stands behind that claim:
J. N. DarbyFor letters which had the character of commandments of the Lord (1 Cor. 14:37) this was important. The greeting at the end came from his own hand, which verified all that was in the letter as his, that is, as of apostolic inspired authority. We see what he thought of his own letters. He counted accuracy important, just because they were not his, but from the Lord.
So what did that signature guarantee — the letter as a whole, or every word in it? The same writer answers:
J. N. DarbyHe verified his letters to the assemblies by writing the greeting at the end with his own hand. That marked the importance he attached to the exact wording, and it confirmed the principle of an exact inspiration.
The human hand and the divine word
If Paul says this mark appears in every letter, how many did he write out in full himself? One writer says we cannot settle the number. He adds that the question does not touch the worth of what we read:
Arthur PridhamThis handwritten greeting is called "the sign of genuineness in every letter," yet it is added in that formal way to only three. So we are still in doubt about how many were written in his own hand. We are certain only about two. And God's words do not vary in value for the heart of the believer, whether the hand that first wrote them was that of Tertius or of Paul.
Tertius was the secretary who wrote out Paul's letter to the Romans while Paul spoke it.
What that hand wrote next
What Paul wrote by his own hand next is startling. The sternest warning in the letter sits beside his love for these people:
William KellyThe apostle, then, adds his greeting with his own hand. Here, as usual, the body of the letter was not in his own writing. But he also adds the sternest condemnation of anyone who did not love the Lord... yet this did not clash in the least with the love that stirred and filled his heart, as one sees from verse 23, and especially 24. Indeed, we may doubt whether love can be genuine without hating evil.
Another writer names the motive behind all Paul's correction:
Hamilton SmithHowever faithfully he may have written to them, love was the motive; so he carried out his own exhortation to them, "Let all that you do be done in love."
Summary
- The hand that signs. Paul dictated his letters to a secretary. He then wrote the closing greeting himself, as a token that the letter was genuine.
- The hand that guards. Someone had once forged a letter in his name. From then on his own handwriting guarded the churches.
- The hand that authorises. He took this care because the letters were not his own. They carried the Lord's commands, so every word had to be exact.
- The hand that does not diminish. Nobody can say how many letters Paul wrote out in full. It makes no difference to their value: the words are God's, whether the hand was that of Tertius or of Paul.
- The hand that loves. The same hand wrote the sternest warning against anyone who did not love the Lord, and wrote out of a heart full of love. Faithfulness and affection came from one pen.