1 Thessalonians 5:28

αμην wanting in BD*G 17 67** latt; stands in ADb, c KLP &c. Is this a Western omission, or Alexandrian supplement to the text? Cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:13, and note above: the case for retention is stronger there than here.

In the subscription: אB* read προς Θεσσαλονικεις ᾱ (B -νεικεις).

28. Ἡ χάρις τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ μεθʼ ὑμῶν. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (be) with you. St Paul’s customary form of final benediction, which he expands later into the full Trinitarian blessing of 2 Corinthians 13:13, or shortens into the brief ἡ χάρις μεθʼ ὑμῶν of Colossians 4:18; Colossians cf.1 and 2 Tim. and Titus besides. It contains all good that Christians can wish each other; see notes on χάρις, 1 Thessalonians 1:1, and 2 Thessalonians 1:12. “Grace” is “with” us, when it constantly attends us, when it forms the atmosphere we breathe, the guiding and sustaining influence of life.

From 2 Thessalonians 3:17 f. we learn that the Apostle Paul, using an amanuensis, was accustomed to write the benediction with his own hand as a characteristic token—perhaps in this case the whole postscript (1 Thessalonians 5:26-28 : the sing. ἐνορκίζω—see note above—speaks for this inclusion); cf. Galatians 6:11-18. This formula “was adopted after him by those especially who were his companions or disciples, as by the inspired writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 13:25), and by Clement in his Epistle to the Romans. Compare likewise the conclusion of the Epistle of Barnabas, ὁ κύριος τῆς δόξης καὶ πάσης χάριτος μετὰ τοῦ πνεύματος ὑμῶν. Afterwards it became the common salutation or benediction of the Church in her liturgies” (Lightfoot).