182 “On the whole,” says Bishop Middleton, (_Doctrine of the Greek Art._ p. 355) “I see nothing so probable as the opinion of Macknight (on Col. iv. 16,)—‘that the Apostle sent the Ephesians word by Tychicus, who carried their letter, to send a copy of it to the Laodiceans; with an order to them to communicate it to the Colossians.’ ”—This suggestion is intended to meet _another_ difficulty, and leaves the question of the reading of Ephes. i. 1 untouched. It proposes only to explain what S. Paul means by the enigmatical expression which is found in Col. iv. 16. Macknight’s suggestion, though it has found favour with many subsequent Divines, appears to me improbable in a high degree. S. Paul is found not to have sent _the Colossians_ “word by Tychicus, who carried their letter, to send a copy of it to the Laodiceans.” He charged them, himself, to do so. Why, at the same instant, is the Apostle to be thought to have adopted two such different methods of achieving one and the same important end? And why, instead of this roundabout method of communication, were not _the Ephesians_ ordered,—if not by S. Paul himself, at least by Tychicus,—to send a copy of their Epistle to Colosse direct? And why do we find the Colossians charged to read publicly τὴν ἐκ Λαοδικείας, which (by the hypothesis) would have been only a copy,—instead of τὴν ἐξ Ἐφέσου, which, (by the same hypothesis,) would have been the original? Nay, why is it not designated by S. Paul, τὴν πρὸς Ἐφεσίους,—(if indeed it was his Epistle to the Ephesians which is alluded to,) instead of τὴν ἐκ Λαοδικείας; which would hardly be an intelligible way of indicating the document? Lastly, why are not the Colossians ordered to communicate a copy of their Epistle to the illustrious Church of the _Ephesians_ also, which had been originally addressed by S. Paul? If the Colossians must needs read the Epistle (so like their own) which the Apostle had just written to the Ephesians, surely the Ephesians must also be supposed to have required a sight of the Epistle which S. Paul had at the same time written to the Colossians! 183 Epiphan. _Opp._ i. 311 D. 184 “Marcion exerte et palam machæra non stilo usus est, quoniam ad materiam suam cædem Scripturarum confecit.” (Tertullian _Præscript. Hær._ c. 38, p. 50.) “Non miror si syllabas subtrahit, cum paginas totas plerumque subducat.” (_Adv. Marcion._ lib. v, c. xvii, p. 455.) 185 See above p. 95, and see note (f) p. 94. 186 See, by all means, Alford on this subject, vol. iii. _Prolegg._ pp. 13-15. 187 p. xiv.—See above, pp. 8, 9, note (f).