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2Th_3:17-18. Autographic salutation, with a repeated benediction. Paul had not written the letter with his own hand, but dictated it Comp. Rom_16:22; 1Co_16:21; Col_4:18.
ὅ ] does not stand by attraction for ὅς , nor also does it bring forward a simple special point from the foregoing (so Wieseler on Gal_6:11; and Laurent in the Stud. u. Krit. 1864, p. 639; Neutestam. Studien, Gotha 1866, p. 5: “which, namely, the autographic writing”), but it refers to the whole preceding idea: which circumstance of the salutation now written.
σημεῖον ] a sign, i. e. a mark of authenticity. Comp. 2Th_2:2. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Bullinger, Estius, Piscator, Menochius, Cornelius a Lapide, Er. Schmid, Beza, Joachim Lange, Harduin, Benson, Bengel, Moldenhauer, Zachariae, Baur (Paulus, p. 489), Hofmann, Riggenbach, and most critics, incorrectly find this mark in the addition of the words following in 2Th_3:18; for the autographic salutation is expressly designated as this mark. But a salutation and a benediction are different from each other.
ἐν πάσῃ ἐσιστολῇ ] in every Epistle, can only be referred to all the Epistles which the apostle has, perhaps, at a later period, still to write to the Thessalonians. For only for the Thessalonians, who had already been actually deceived by a false Pauline Epistle, and led into error, was such a precaution of practical importance against a new deception. Besides, if ἐν πάσῃ ἐπιστολῇ is to be understood absolutely instead of relatively, the autographic salutation would be found in all the Epistles of the apostle. But it is only found in 1Co_16:21 and Col_4:18.
οὕτως γράφω ] thus—that is to say, in such characters as are given in 2Th_3:17-18
I write. The handwriting of the apostle was accordingly still unknown to the readers. From this it follows, that also the First Epistle to the Thessalonians was not written by the apostle’s own hand. Moreover, Zeltner (de monogrammate Pauli, Altorfii 1721), Bengel, and Moldenhauer erroneously—because transferring a modern custom into antiquity—consider that we are here to think on characters artificially twisted into a monogram by the apostle and rendered incapable of imitation. Against Zeltner, see Wolf, p. 402 ff.