The endings of Pauline letters have been studied as providing clues to the letters' contents. The text of 2 Corinthians is no exception. But what constitutes the ending of that text, and is there more than one letter-ending in it? Rhetorical criticism provides some criteria for attempts to answer those questions, and has sometimes been claimed as providing evidence for the unity of 2 Corinthians. This article reviews that evidence and questions its reliability. The possibility that there may be more than one letter-ending points to a different solution and exposes important features of the text's composition.
