ant a place as Laodicea, for example, (_b_) Then further,
the provision which S. Paul made at this very time for communicating with
the Churches of Asia which he did not separately address is found to have
been different. The Laodiceans were to read in their public assembly S.
Paul's "_Epistle to the Colossians_," which the Colossians were ordered to
send them. The Colossians in like manner were to read the Epistle,--(to
whom addressed, we know not),--which S. Paul describes as {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH VARIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}
{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}.(175) If then it had been S. Paul's desire that the Laodiceans
(suppose) should read publicly in their Churches his Epistle to the
Ephesians, surely, he would have charged the Ephesians to procure that
_his Epistle to them should be read in the Church of the Laodiceans_. Why
should the Apostle be gratuitously assumed to have simultaneously adopted
one method with the Churches of _Colosse_ and Laodicea,--another with the
Churches of _Ephesus_ and Laodicea,--in respect of his epistolary
communications?

(2) (_a_) But even supposing, for argument's sake, that S. Paul _did_ send
duplicate copies of his Epistle to the Ephesians to certain of the
principal Churches of Asia Minor,--why should he have left the salutation
_blank_, ("carta bianca," as Bengel phrases it,(176)) for Tychicus to fill
up when he got into Asia Minor? And yet, by the hypothesis, nothing short
of _this_ would account for the reading of Codd. B and {~HEBREW LETTER ALEF~}.

(_b_) Let the full extent of the demand which is made on our good nature
be clearly appreciated. We are required to believe that there was (1) A
copy of what we call S. Paul's "Epistle to the Ephesians" sent into Asia
Minor by S. Paul with a blank address; i.e. "with the space after {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}
{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH PSILI AND OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~