A brotherly kiss is literally “a holy kiss.” This verse and verse 27 presuppose that Paul’s letter will be read about when all the members of the church come together for worship. This is brought out by New English Bible‘s translation “the kiss of peace” (cf. Bijbel in Gewone Taal), but this suggests to the modern reader a feature of certain forms of worship, such as the Roman Catholic mass or the liturgy of the Church of South India. In the earliest Christian communities, the “holy kiss” was more like a spontaneous greeting between friends. It does not seem to have had any precedent in synagogue worship.

Phillips‘ “Give a handshake all around the brotherhood” represents a brave attempt to find an equivalent custom in a western culture, but Good News Translation‘s solution of a difficult problem (cf. Bible en français courant Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) is to be preferred.

In areas of the Middle East where the kiss of greeting is widely used, there is no difficulty in rendering the translation of this verse more or less literally, for example, “greet all the brothers with the kind of kiss one would bestow upon a brother.” But in many parts of the world kissing is regarded as exclusively an expression of amorous or erotic interest. Under such circumstances one cannot use a literal expression for “kiss.” One equivalent may be “greet fellow believers in the same way you greet members of your family,” or “greet fellow believers affectionately.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .