If one or both of them did have an earlier existence, then one or both may have been expanded to suit the argument of the letter.82 The presence and identity of such expansions must be even more speculative. Our concern, in any case, is with the text as it lies before us, in the only context in which it has come down to us.83 Here, then, Christ is presented as the agent of God in the whole range of his gracious purpose toward the human race, from the primeval work of creation, through the redemption