If we read the epistle in its most authentic form, divested of the additions contributed by the later MSS, we are struck with its cramped style. Altogether it has not the run of a Latin original. And, when we come to examine it in detail, we find that this constraint is due very largely to the fetters imposed by close adherence to Greek idiom. Thus for instance we have ver. 5 ‘qui [or quæ] sunt ex me’, οἱ [or τὰ] ἐξ ἐμοῦ; operum quæ salutis, ἐργων τῶν τῆς σωτηρίας; ver. 6 palam vincula mea quæ patior, φανεροὶ οἱ δεσμοί μου ὃυς ὑπομένω; ver. 13 sordidos in lucro, αἰσχροκερδεῖς; ver. 20 et facite legi Colosensibus et Colosensium vobis, καὶ ποιήσατε ἵνα τοῖς Κολασσαεῦσιν ἀναγνωσθῇ καὶ ἡ Κολασσαέων ἵνα [καὶ] ὑμῖν. It is quite possible indeed that parallels for some of these anomalies may be found in Latin writers. Thus Tert. c. Marc. i. 23 ‘redundantia justitiæ super scribarum et Pharisæorum’ is quoted to illustrate the genitive ‘Colossensium’ ver. 20.[[629]] The Greek cast however is not confined to one or two expressions but extends to the whole letter.
It differs widely from the Old Latin and Vulgate Versions.
But a yet stronger argument in favour of a Greek original remains. This epistle, as we saw, is a cento of passages from St Paul. If it had been written originally in Latin, we should expect to find that the passages were taken directly from the Latin versions. This however is not the case. Thus compare ver. 6 ‘palam sunt vincula mea’ with Phil. i. 13 ‘ut vincula mea manifesta fierent’: ver. 7 ‘orationibus vestris et administrante spiritu sancto’ [administratione spiritus sancti’?] with Phil. i. 19 ‘per vestram obsecrationem (V. orationem) et subministrationem spiritus sancti’; ver. 9 ‘ut eandem dilectionem habeatis et sitis unianimes’ with Phil. ii. 2 ‘eandem caritatem habentes, unanimes’; ver. 10 ‘ergo, dilectissimi, ut audistis præsentia mei ... facite in timore’ with Phil. ii. 12 ‘Propter quod (V. Itaque) dilectissimi mihi (V. charissimi mei) sicut semper obaudistis (V. obedistis) ... præsentia (V. in præsentia) mei ... cum timore (V. metu) ... operamini’; ver. 11, 12 ‘Est enim Deus qui operatur in vos (v. 1. vobis). Et facite sine retractu quæcumque facitis’ with Phil. ii. 13, 14 Deus enim est qui operatur in vobis ... Omnia autem facite sine ... detractionibus (V. hæsitationibus)’; ver. 13 quod est [reliquum], dilectissimi, gaudete in Christo et præcavete’ with Phil. iii. 1, 2 ‘de cætero, fratres mei, gaudete in Domino ... Videte’; ib. ‘sordidos in lucro’ with the Latin renderings of αἰσχροκερδεῖς 1 Tim. iii. 8 ‘turpilucros’ (V. ‘turpe lucrum sectantes’), αἰσχροκερδῆ Tit. i. 7 turpilucrum (V. ‘turpis lucri cupidum’); ver. 14 ‘sint petitiones vestræ palam apud Deum’ with Phil. iv. 6 ‘postulationes (V. petitiones) vestræ innotescant apud Deum’; ver. 20 ‘facite legi Colosensibus et Colosensium vobis’ with Col. iv. 16 ‘facite ut et in Laodicensium ecclesia legatur et eam quæ Laodicensium (MSS Laodiciam) est ut (om. V.) vos legatis’. These examples tell their own tale. |Thus internal evidence favours a Greek original.|The occasional resemblances to the Latin Version are easily explained on the ground that reminiscences of this version would naturally occur to the translator of the epistle. The habitual divergences from it are only accounted for on the hypothesis that the original compiler was better acquainted with the New Testament in Greek than in Latin, and therefore presumably that he wrote in Greek.
External testimony to the same effect.
And, if we are led to this conclusion by an examination of the epistle itself, we shall find it confirmed by an appeal to external testimony. There is ample evidence that a spurious Epistle to the Laodiceans was known to Greek writers, as well as Latin, at a sufficiently early date. |[Muratorian Fragment].|A mention of such an epistle occurs as early as the Muratorian Fragment on the Canon (about A.D. 170), where the writer speaks of two letters, one to the Laodiceans and another to the Alexandrians, as circulated under the name of Paul[[630]]. The bearing of the words however is uncertain. He may be referring to the Marcionite recension of the canonical Epistle to the Ephesians, which was entitled by that heretic an Epistle to the Laodiceans[[631]]. Or, if this explanation of his words be not correct (as perhaps it is not), still we should not feel justified in assuming that he is referring to the extant apocryphal epistle. Indeed we should hardly expect that an epistle of this character would be written and circulated at so early a date. The reference in Col. iv. 16 offered a strong temptation to the forger, and probably more than one unscrupulous person was induced by it to try his hand at falsification[[632]]. But, however this may be, it seems clear that before the close of the fourth century our epistle was largely circulated in the East and West alike. |Jerome.|‘Certain persons’, writes Jerome in his account of St Paul, ‘read also an Epistle to the Laodiceans, but it is rejected by all[[633]]’. No doubt is entertained, that this father refers to our epistle. |Theodore.|If then we find that about the same time Theodore of Mopsuestia also mentions an Epistle to the Laodiceans, which he condemns as spurious[[634]], it is a reasonable inference that the same writing is meant. |Theodoret.|In this he is followed by Theodoret[[635]]; and indeed the interpretations of Col. iv. 16 given by the Greek Fathers of this age were largely influenced as we have seen, by the presence of a spurious epistle which they were anxious to discredit[[636]]. |2nd Council of Nicæa.|Even two or three centuries later the epistle seems to have been read in the East. At the Second Council of Nicæa (A.D. 787) it was found necessary to warn people against ‘a forged Epistle to the Laodiceans’ which was ‘circulated, having a place in some copies of the Apostle[[637]].’
The Greek restored.
The Epistle to the Laodiceans then in the original Greek would run somewhat as follows[[638]]:
ΠΡΟΣ ΛΑΟΔΙΚΕΑΣ.
a Gal. i. 1.