at he should have omitted at the close
all salutations. To account for this various hypotheses have
been proposed. The words "_in Ephesus_" are omitted in the Sinai
and Vatican manuscripts, and there is reason for believing that
they were wanting in some other ancient manuscripts not now
extant. See the quotations from Basil the Great, and other
fathers in Alford, Ellicott, Meyer, and other critical
commentators. On this ground some have supposed that the present
epistle was intended to be _encyclical_--an epistle for general
circulation among the churches; others, that it is the
_Laodicean epistle_ referred to in Col. 4:16. But in favor of
the words "in Ephesus" there is an overwhelming weight of
evidence. They are sustained by all the versions and all the
manuscripts except the above. Besides, as every Greek scholar
knows, if these words are omitted, it compels the omission from
the original of the two preceding words which are found in every
manuscript and version--unless, indeed, we adopt the far-fetched
hypothesis that the apostle furnished Tychicus with two or more
copies of the epistle for different churches, leaving a _blank
space_ to be filled as occasion should require; and then it
becomes impossible to explain how the reading "in Ephesus"
should have been so universal in the manuscripts and versions.
There is no occasion for any of this ingenuity. The omission of
these words from single manuscripts is not wonderful. It finds a
parallel, as Alford remarks, in the omission of the words _in
Rome_ (Rom. 1:7) from one manuscript, whether from oversight or
for the purpose of generalizing the reference of its contents.
Nor can any valid objection be drawn from the general character
of the epistle. That depended much on the _occasion_ which
called it forth, which we have seen to have been general, and
the _frame of mind_ in which the apostle wrote. As to the
omission of salutations, we shall find upon examination that the
measure of Paul's personal acquaintance with the churches was
not that of his personal greetings. These abound most of all in
the epistle to the Romans whom he had never visited. Rom. 16.
They are found also in the epistle to the Colossians to whom
Paul was personally a stranger. Col. 4:10-14. On the contrary
they are wanting, except in a general form, i