available was the favourite of the individual concerned. The apostle, however, did not need to ransack the enormous catalogue of pagan gods to find a point of contact with his readers. Instead, he expressed his desire that they might enjoy grace and peace ‘from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’. In writing as he did, Paul echoed the conventional form of words in use at the time. Instead of the Greek word for ‘greeting’ he used a similar-sounding word which means ‘grace’. To this he added