17, 18. ‘ I add this salutation with my own hand, signing it with my name Paul, as I am in the habit of doing. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.’ 17. ὉἀσπασμὸςτῇἐμῇχειρὶΠαύλου] Cf. 1 Corinthians 16:21, Colossians 4:18, and for a similar use of ἀσπασμός in the Κοινή see P.Oxy. 471, 67 f. (2./a.d.) ἀναμενόντων ... τὸνἀσπασμόν ‘ waiting to salute him,’ and cf. the note on ἀσπάζομαι 1 Thessalonians 5:26. Παύλου is gen. in apposition with ἐμῇ in accordance with a common Gk. idiom (Kühner3 § 406, 3). ὅἐστινσημεῖονκτλ.] namely the fact of St Paul’ s writing the salutation with his own hand, and not merely the insertion of the immediately preceding words, which as a matter of fact are found elsewhere only in two of his Epp. (1 Cor., Col.). Because however St Paul does not always pointedly direct attention to the autographic nature of the salutations is in itself no proof that he did not write them: cf. Intr. p. 92 and see Add. Note A. In the present instance he may have considered a formal attestation of the clearest kind the more necessary in view of the false appeals that had been made to his authority in Thessalonica (see note on 2:2). οὕτωςγράφω] with reference to the characters in which vv. 17, 18 were written, which the Thessalonians would henceforth recognize as his: cf. Galatians 6:11. Any reference to an ingeniously-framed monogram used by the Apostle for his signature is quite unnecessary.