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Of the Epistle to the Laodiceans, and some others attributed to St. Paul.

BEsides the fourteen Epistles of St. Paul, some of the ancient Writers have likewise cited one directed to the Laodiceans, and indeed, we have at present an Epistle mentioned by St. An∣selm, * 1.1 S••xtus Senensis, and Stapulensis, which is inserted in some German Bibles a 1.2, and is written in St. Paul's Name to the Laodiceans. It is not certain whether this be the same with that which was used when St. Jerome lived b 1.3, however it is evident, that that which we now have in our possession, doth not appertain to St. Paul c 1.4, and that that which was extant in St. Jerome's time, was generally rejected, as he declares in his Catalogue; ab omnibus exploditur. That which gave oc∣casion to the forging of this Letter (as is observed by Theodoret) is, that St. Paul at the end of his Epi∣stle to the Colossians, exhorts them to cause the Epistle that he had sent to them to be read by the Lao∣diceans, and to read among themselves that from Laodicea; this hath induced some to believe, that there was an Epistle written to the Laodiceans at the same time with that to the Colossians; and this also gave Marcion the opportunity of altering the Title of the Epistle to the Ephesians, and giving it the name of the Epistle to the Laodiceans. But this error is founded on the ignorance of the Greek expression; for no mention is made in this place of any Epistle of St. Paul to the Laodiceans, but of one written from Laodicea. Some are of opinion that this is the Epistle to Timothy, which they imagine to have been written from that City. But it may be much more probably affirmed with St. Chrysostome, Theodoret, Photius, and Oecumenius, that it was an Epistle written to St. Paul from Laodicea, by the Christians of that City, and for this Reason it is called in the Vulgar Transla∣tion the Epistle of the Laodiceans.

Moreover, as it hath been concluded from this place in the Epistle to the Colossians mis-interpreted, that St. Paul wrote a Letter to the Laodiceans; so in like manner some have inferred, that he wrote a third Epistle to the Christians of Corinth, from a Passage taken out of his first Epistle to the Co∣rinthians, ch. 5. v. 9, 10, and 11. viz. I wrote unto you an Epistle, not to company with Fornicators, &c. But (as St. Chrysostom observes) this Epistle is the very same that he then wrote, and the sense is, When I even now wrote unto you in this Letter, not to keep company with Fornicators, I do not mean the Fornicators of this World.

Notes

• * 1.1

  St. Paul's Letter to the Laodi∣ceans.
• a 1.2

  INserted in some German Bibles.] It was publi∣shed in Latin by Pistorus, and afterwards an∣nexed to the German Bibles printed at Ausburg, Worines, and Amsterdam; [Particularly in those Bibles which Eli••s Hutterus set out in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Ger∣man, in Quarto.]
• b 1.3

  Whether this be the same as that which was used when St. Jerome lived.] That which gives occasion to doubt, whether this Epistle be the same with that which was published heretofore, is that Philastrius affirms in chap. 88. That that which was extant in his time contained several Errors; and there are none in that which we now have. Moreover, that which is cited by St. Epiphanius was composed out of seve∣ral Sentences of the Epistle to the Ephesians.
• c 1.4

  That which we now have in our possession doth not appertain to St. Paul.] It is not conformable to the Style of St. Paul; it is extremely concise, even shor∣ter than that to Philemon, neither hath it any one par∣ticular Subject.