This is so much the case that if anyone replied, “I’m glad you asked,” and began to tell us how they were actually doing we would be surprised. For example, our English greeting, “How do you do?” has long ago lost any association with asking an important question and getting-or even expecting-an honest answer.

This is not a mere technicality, because in all standard greetings the meaning of the words fade into obscurity and the dictionary meaning of the words becomes less important than the fact that the greeting is spoken at all. The word “grace” is a typically Grecian greeting, but the Greeks usually used chaire ō, whereas the new Christian greeting used the typically Christian word for grace, charis. Thus, Paul’s standard Christian greeting is like the Christian Church itself: composed of a combination of Greeks and Hebrews, but in a way that changes them and unites them, not divides them.

It is not a Greek or Hebrew greeting, but combines elements from both, but not exactly. “Grace…peace.” This is a very Christian greeting and is found in many of Paul’s letters (cp.

What does the word charis mean