Verses 1-12
3. a. The Thessalonians are themselves witnesses, that the Apostle’s was no vain entrance, but one of Divine power (1 Thessalonians 2:1-2). As he exercises his ministry generally, with no impurity of purpose or method, but, as one put in trust by God, before the eyes of God (1 Thessalonians 2:3-4), so in Thessalonica also he appeared in no flattering or selfish spirit (1 Thessalonians 2:5-6), but with the most generous love (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8) and self denying labor (1 Thessalonians 2:9). They themselves and God are his witnesses, that he had shown himself throughout unblamable towards the believers, whilst he was careful about nothing else but, as a father, to exhort every individual to a walk worthy of God (1 Thessalonians 2:10-12)
1For yourselves, brethren, know [yourselves know, brethren,][1] our entrance in [entrance, εἴσοδον] unto you, that it was not in vain [hath not been vain]2; 2but even after that we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated [but having before suffered, and been shamefully treated],3 as ye know, at [in, ἐν] Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with 3[in, ἐν] much contention. For our exhortation was [is],4 not of deceit [delusion]5 4nor [yet]6 of uncleanness, nor7 in guile; but as [according as, καθώς] we were allowed of God [have been approved by God]8 to be put in trust with the gospel, even so [so, οὕτω] we speak; not as pleasing men, but God,9 which trieth [who proveth]10 our hearts. 5For neither at any time used we words of flattery, as ye know; nor a cloak of covetousness, God is witness; 6nor of men sought we [sought we of men]11 glory, neither of [from, ἀπο] you, nor yet of [nor from, οὔτεἀπό] others, when we might have been burdensome [or: have used authority],12 as, the apostles of Christ [Christ’s apostles, Χριστοῦ ]; 7but we were [were found]13 gentle14 among you [in the midst of you, ἐν μέσῳ ὑμῶν], even as a nurse 8cherisheth her children [as a nurse would cherish her own children];15 so [,]16 being affectionately desirous17 of you, we were willing to have imparted [to impart] unto you not the gospel of God only [not only the gospel of God],18 but also our own souls, because ye were [became]19 dear unto us. 9For ye remember, brethren, our labor [toil, κόπον] and travail: for laboring [working]20 night and day, because we would not be chargeable [that we might not be burdensome, πρὸς τὸ μὴ ἐπιβαρῆσαι] to any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. 10Ye are witnesses, and God also [and God], how holily and justly [righteously, δικαίως] and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe [to, or for you, 11who believed];21 as [even as, καθάπερ] ye know how we exhorted, and comforted [encouraged],22 and charged [adjured]23 [you, ὑμᾶς] every one of you, as a father 12doth his children [as a father his own children],24 that ye would walk [should walk]25 worthy [in a manner worthy, ἀξίως] of God, who hath called [calleth]26 you unto [into, εἰς] His [His own, ἑαυτοῦ] kingdom and glory.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. (1 Thessalonians 2:1.) For yourselves know.—For the confirmation and clearer elucidation (γάρ) of the statement of the foreign brethren regarding his entrance at Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 1:9), the Apostle now appeals at length, as he had done cursorily at 1 Thessalonians 1:5, to the recollection of the Thessalonians themselves on the subject. Hence the same expressions, εἴσοδος πρὸς ὑμᾶς We might call 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 an explanation of the ὁποίαν 1 Thessalonians 1:9, just as the πῶς ἐπεστρέψατε is then carried out in 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16. The third testimony, that of the Thessalonians themselves, serves to establish the second, that of the strangers, just as the latter serves to establish the first (comp. on 1 Thessalonians 1:8, Note 1). That 1 Thessalonians 2:1 begins with the same αὐτοὶ γάρ as 1 Thessalonians 1:9 is, of course, accidental; our αὐτοί does not stand opposed to that αὐτοί as such (that, indeed, has quite another reference, to ἡμᾶς of 1 Thessalonians 2:8), but to strangers generally, as in the sequel καὶ ἡμεῖς of 1 Thessalonians 2:13 corresponds to it.—The details that follow are, in fact, intelligible only on the supposition, that the Apostle has to confute certain aspersions on his person and ministry. Merely to strengthen the Thessalonians (Calvin, Lünemann, and most), he would not expatiate so much at large on the excellencies of his service amongst them, least of all with such solemn protestations (1 Thessalonians 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:10) and such frequent appeals to the recollection of the readers (1 Thessalonians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:9-11); but he enters on boasting for the same reason as in 2 Corinthians 10-13, because he must defend himself. Only it is not here in Thessalonica any factious doings that he has to contend with, but simply the insinuations whereby the unbelieving Thessalonians sought again to withdraw from the gospel their believing kindred and neighbors. In what these insinuations consisted we learn from the negative clauses, 1 Thessalonians 2:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:5 sq. The very fact that nearly our entire section proceeds in clauses with οὐκ and ἀλλά (1 Thessalonians 2:1-9) shows, that Paul (through Timothy) had been informed of false assertions in regard to his operations—falsehoods, to which it was necessary for him to oppose the truth. Already Rieger has remarked on 1 Thessalonians 2:3 : A denial of this kind from the Apostle indicates, that such imputations had been cast on him and his preaching. And says Roos more precisely: When the Thessalonian converts reflected on the change that had taken place with them, it might possibly occur to them that an unknown man, of the name of Paul, had come to them over the sea with certain companions, had preached of one Jesus whom he called Christ, and of whom they had previously heard nothing, and had exhorted them to believe in Him, and serve Him as their Lord. So now we are Christians, they may have thought, whereas formerly we were Gentiles or Jews. But, in making this change, have we done right? Is the name, the faith, the hope of Christians not a thing of vanity? Are we not suffering for it to no purpose? Has not Paul deceived us? Is it not some falsehood that he has talked to us? And, besides, our countrymen hold his teaching to be a fable. These thoughts are now met by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16.
2. Our entrance unto you, that it hath not been vain.—This is the first of the imputations. κενή comp. 1 Corinthians 15:14,=empty, idle, without power or substance, unreal; Œcumenius: μῦθοι καὶ λῆροι; Calvin: vana ostentatio; comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:5, οὐκ ἐν λόγῳ μόνον, and the antithesis there, as here in 1 Thessalonians 2:2. Not, therefore,=in vain, fruitless (Luther, Flatt, &c.), nor yet at once powerless and fruitless (De Wette, [Jowett]), nor again=deceitful, fallax (Grotius). The γέγονεν, as distinguished from the simple ἦν or even ἐγένετο, expresses the secure consciousness of an accomplished, unassailable fact. In the original the subject of the dependent clause is by a Greek idiom attracted as object into the principal clause.27
3. (1 Thessalonians 2:2.) But having before suffered, &c.—The cause of an idle babbler is one for which he does not submit to suffering, and still less, when he has just with difficulty surmounted one trial, does he again joyfully appear for the same cause, especially in a new conflict. A deep earnestness in suffering, and yet, along with that, an unwearied alacrity and fidelity in his calling, showed Paul to be a man whose appearance the Thessalonians needed only to recall (καθὼς οἴδατε), in order to perceive the vanity of the suspicions alleged against him. Of what sort these were, may be inferred from Acts 17:6-7 : ringleaders, flatterers of the people, ambitious persons who sought their own advantage.—On the sufferings which the Apostle, immediately before (προπαθ.) his arrival in Thessalonica, had endured at Philippi, see Acts 16:12 sqq. Paul adds ὑβρισθέντες, insultingly treated (comp. Matthew 22:6; Luke 18:22), not so much because προπάσχειν like πάσχειν is a vox media (Lünemann), but because with his strong sense of right he had peculiarly felt the treatment received by him at Philippi to be arbitrary and unjust; see Acts 16:37. To such slight features even extends the harmony between the Acts and our Epistles.
4. We were bold in our God &c.—παῤῥησιάζεσθαι, once again in Paul’s writings, Ephesians 6:20, and in like manner of the preaching of the gospel; frequently in the Acts, and indeed, except Acts 18:26, only of Paul from his conversion onwards, Acts 9:27-28; Acts 13:46; Acts 14:3; Acts 19:8; Acts 26:26. Freedom and boldness in testimony was therefore a prominent characteristic of this Apostle. Olshausen: παῤῥηαία is the outward expression of πληροφορία (1 Thessalonians 1:5). Moreover, παῤῥησιάζεσθαι is not here=to speak or preach freely, so that λαλῆσαι should be an explanatory infinitive resolvable by: so that (De Wette, Koch, [Ellicott: so as to speak]), or an infinitive of the purpose: in order that (Schott); but, as in Acts 3:26 [?] and Acts 26:26,=to act with freedom and alacrity, and λαλῆσαι is simply an infinitive of the object (Lünemann), as in 1 Thessalonians 2:4 πιστευθῆναι. [And so Alford, who translates: We were confident. Ellicott, on the other hand, comparing Ephesians 6:20 and Acts 26:26, agrees with De Wette in thinking that “the idea of bold speech, even though reiterated in λαλῆσαι, can scarcely be excluded.”—J. L.] We had, says Paul, this παῤῥησία, not in ourselves, especially after such experiences, but in our God (in whom, as in our spiritual life-element, we live and labor; see 1 Thessalonians 1:1, Doctrinal and Ethical, 1). Not merely was it no idle babbler with whom the Thessalonians had to do; it was not, speaking generally, any mere man, but God; and this God Paul dares to call his God, because God visibly owned him, and the Thessalonians perceived in their conscience (2 Corinthians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 5:11) that in the power of God Paul spoke and acted. Therefore also he purposely adds: the gospel of God; he had not brought to them any empty talk, nor any kind of man’s word whatsoever (see 1 Thessalonians 2:13), but the glad tidings which God Himself will have proclaimed in the world. Comp. on τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ θεοῦ Exeg. Note 4 to 1 Thessalonians 1:8, ὁ λόγος τοῦ κυρίου. Why Paul does not say: in Christ, the gospel of Christ, but in God, of God, see Doctr. and Eth., 3.
5. In much contention.—As Paul had testified of the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 1:6, that they received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost, so here he can testify of himself that in much contention, with joy in God, he had published the same. Ἀγών, not outward and inward contention ([Chrysostom, Bishop Hall], Olshausen, [Jowett]), but the contention of outward suffering only, Philippians 1:30 (De Wette, and most).28
6. (1 Thessalonians 2:3.) For our exhortation is &c.—The verb to be supplied in 1 Thessalonians 2:3 is not ἦν but, as λαλοῦμεν of 1 Thessalonians 2:4 shows, ἐστίν. Paul confirms (γάρ) the statement as to his entrance at Thessalonica by a statement de toto perpetuoque more suo (Bengel). But since this general witness to himself might again also be called in question, people at Thessalonica knowing nothing from their own observation of his ministry elsewhere, it was necessary for him to establish this point likewise by again enlarging, 1 Thessalonians 2:5 sqq., on the spirit and method of his labors in Thessalonica. Similarly Jesus: If ye believe not me, my witness of myself, at least believe my works that are done amongst you (John 10:38; John 14:11).
7. Our exhortation [German: Predigt,=preaching, discourse]. Very well Lünemann: παράκλησις is a calling to, address; and, according to the different relations to which this address is applied, the word undergoes modifications of its meaning. In the case of sufferers it is consolation; directed toward a moral or intellectual need, it is exhortation and encouragement. Now, since even the first evangelical proclamation consists in exhortation and encouragement, to wit, in the summons to renounce sin and lay hold of the offered salvation (comp. 2 Corinthians 5:20), παράκλ. might also be used generally of the preaching of the gospel; whether objectively of the contents of the discourse, or subjectively of the preaching itself. So here; see 1 Thessalonians 2:4. Bengel: totum præconium, evangelicum [passionum dulcedine tinctum, as Bengel adds.—J. L.]; Olshausen: the work generally of Christian teaching. Paul uses this expression and not εὐαγγέλιον (1 Thessalonians 1:5), λόγος, κήρυγμα (1 Corinthians 2:4), or such like terms, because here the question is about the preaching, not in so far as it is a proclamation, but as it wins and transforms the hearers.29
8. Not of delusion, nor yet of uncleanness, nor in guile.—ἐκ marks the source from which the preaching proceeds; ἐν, the way and manner in which it is performed. The Apostle names two sources, one on the side of knowledge and doctrine, πλάνη, and one on the side of disposition, ἀκαθαρσια. He first repels the reproach, as if the Christian faith preached by him were a superstition, a chimera, and he himself an enthusiast or a babbler, like the sorcerers or magicians (Chrysost.). Opposed to this is the fact, 1 Thessalonians 2:4, that he had been entrusted with the gospel by God. With an οὐδέ—a stronger disjunctive than οὔτε (δέ and τε), like our nor yet, stronger than nor (comp. Winer, p. 432)—Paul passes to the second point. Ἀκαθαρσία, impurity, commonly in the sense of unchastity (Romans 1:24; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Colossians 3:5), but also moral filth and uncleanness generally (Romans 6:19); here either an impure mind, foul motives in general, or perhaps it answers better to our sordid [schmutgig], specially=covetousness, selfishness (comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:7; Ephesians 4:19; Ephesians 5:3). Bengel: ἀκαθ. est, ubi fructus carnis quæritur, cf. Philippians 1:16, οὐχ ἁγνῶς.—δόλος, craft, fraud, all kinds of dishonest tricks for cheating and ensnaring. It adds to the impure design the impure means for its accomplishment, and so lies in like manner on the practical side. Whilst, therefore, for the reading οὐδέ there may be alleged the difference of the prepositions, yet on internal grounds οὔτε is perfectly justifiable (comp. Winer, p. 436 sq. [and Critical Note 7]). In the antithesis likewise, 1 Thessalonians 2:4, ἀκαθαρσία and δόλος are taken together in the sentence with οὕως, since ἀνθρώποις answers to δόλος and θεῷ τῷ δοκιμάζοντι τὰς καρδίας to ἀκαθαρσία. So in the confirmatory 1 Thessalonians 2:5-6 the λόγος κολακείς answers to δόλος the πρόφασις πλεονεξίας and ζητοῦντες ἐξ to ἀκαθαρσία. The proof of 1 Thessalonians 2:1, in particular, that is given in 1 Thessalonians 2:3, lies in οὐκ ἐκ πλάνης answering to κενή of 1 Thessalonians 2:1; but the confirmatory sentence, just like 1 Thessalonians 1:8, goes beyond that which it confirms, since with οὐδέ the Apostle adds new considerations, which are then again themselves confirmed and carried further in 1 Thessalonians 2:5 sqq. This view is supplementary to Note 6.
9. (1 Thessalonians 2:4.) According as—so.—Καθώς, conformably to the fact that; οὕτως, according to that very rule: agreeably to the grace conferred and obligation laid upon us (Lünemann).
10. Approved.—Δοκιμάζειν means, first, to try, test, scrutinize; so at the close of our verse, and commonly in the New Testament, e.g. 1 Thessalonians 5:21; 1 Timothy 3:10, and often; and then also of the result of the trial: to regard as tried, fit, worthy, and to choose accordingly for a position (1 Corinthians 16:3); hence in the next place generally, to value, prize.30 So here, and similarly Romans 1:28. Paul does not in this mean to assume any worthiness of his own, as the Greek interpreters (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Œcumenius) from their dogmatic standpoint characteristically explain. Rather his aim is just this, to exalt his authority as from God (similarly 1 Timothy 1:12). He would have it understood that, so far is he from preaching human heresy, or considering himself out of his own fancy called to be a preacher (ἐκ πλάνης, 1 Thessalonians 2:3), it is rather God Himself who, according to His gracious purpose (Grotius, Pelt, Lünemann, and even Theodoret [Alford: free choice]) has vouchsafed to him the distinction of being entrusted with the glad, heavenly message to the world. So in the apodosis with οὕτως the main emphasis lies on θεῷ in opposition to ἀνθρώποις. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:2 and note 4; observe also the impressive sonorousness of the expression. The perfect δεδοκ. marks what has happened once for all, the security of it as a matter of fact. At the close of the verse Paul purposely uses the same word once again; he knows himself to be the object of a continuous Divine δοκιμάζειν. There δοκ. is, to try, to examine; yet perhaps not without an accompanying intimation of favorable judgment. In the translation we have sought to indicate this, as well as the identity of the verbs.31 Πιστευθῆναι, infinitive of the object, denoting that which was vouchsafed to Paul. So Romans 1:28. On Paul’s frequent construction of πιστεύεσθαι, see Winer, p. 206. That Paul, moreover, here includes Silvanus and Timothy is obvious from the plurals καρδίας and ψυχάς 1 Thessalonians 2:8, as Lünemann properly remarks against De Wette, who appeals to 1 Thessalonians 2:7 [6], ἀπόστολοι, but see Note 16. Of course, however, Paul speaks primarily and chiefly of himself.32
11. (1 Thessalonians 2:4.) Not as pleasing men.—̔Ως before the participle gives it a subjective character, that of the conception and intention: We speak not with the thought of pleasing men, and so winning them with guile (ἐν δόλῳ 1 Thessalonians 2:3), but to please God who searcheth our hearts, and so knows and judges even impure designs (ἐξ 1 Thessalonians 2:3). Comp. Galatians 1:10.—[Alford: “ἀρέσκοντες, in the strict sense of the present tense: going about to please, striving to please.”—J. L.]
12. (1 Thessalonians 2:5.) For we—On the logical relation, expressed by γάρ, of 1 Thessalonians 2:5 sqq. to what precedes, see Notes 6 and 8 (at the end).
13. Used we words of flattery &c.—Τίγνεσθαι ἐν, of things 1 Thessalonians 1:5, here of persons (comp. 1 Timothy 4:15)=versari in re, to engage in any matter, be occupied therein. The flattering words thus answer to ἀνθρώποις , 1 Thessalonians 2:4 (Calvin: Whoever will please men, must basely flatter), and to δόλος 1 Thessalonians 2:3 (Chrysostom: We flattered not, as deceivers, who desire merely to draw people to themselves, and rule them). For the fact that he had not flattered them, Paul appeals to the recollection of his readers themselves: as ye know; but for what follows, that he had had no selfish aims, he can only appeal to God, who knoweth the heart: God is witness! Comp. Romans 1:9; Philippians 1:8. This appeal answers to θεῷ τῷ δοκιμάζοντι τὰς καρδίας ἡμῶν (1 Thessalonians 2:4), as the repelling of the insinuation, that his mind had been set on earthly good and human glory (1 Thessalonians 2:6), answers to θεῷ , 1 Thessalonians 2:4, and οὐκ ἐξ , 1 Thessalonians 2:3, Πλεονεξία corresponds to ἀκαθαρσία, as in 1 Thessalonians 4:6-7; Ephesians 4:19; Ephesians 5:3. Πρόφασις (from προφαίνω, not πρόφημι), properly, what appears; hence the pretext, behind which one hides his real thought, an excuse; so here parallel with λόγος: My speech was neither a word of flattery, nor a fair pretext, a plausible form for covetous ends.
14. (1 Thessalonians 2:6.) Nor sought we glory.—Ζητοῦντες likewise is dependent on ἐγενήθημεν and parallel to ἐν λόγῳ κολ., ἐν προφάσει πλεονεξίας. Such a change of structure is truly Pauline (comp. Romans 12:9 sqq.). As to the thought, there is a close connection with the latter point, as of ambition with avarice. On ἐξ , comp. John 5:41; John 5:44.
15. Neither from you, nor from others.—In 1 Thessalonians 2:5-6 there are, first, three mutually coördinate οὔτε, then two subordinate to the clause of the last of these three, since οὔτε ʼ ὑμῶν &c. distributes the ἐξ . Ἀπό, essentially=ἐκ, brings to view the special source as distinct from the general.33 From others, with whom we might perhaps have sought honor for ourselves through your conversion (comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:8-9). Erroneously Bengel: Qui nos admirati essent, si nos superbius tractassemus.
16. (1 Thessalonians 2:7 [1 Thessalonians 2:6].)34 When we might have used authority [or, been burdensome] as Christ’s Apostles.—The participle δυνάμενοι is subordinated to ζητοῦντες, and is resolvable by although. Ἐν βάρει εἶναι to be of weight, to appear important, dignified, to assume consequence. Against the connection, Theodoret, Ewald, and others: to be burdensome=ἐπιβαρεῖν, 1Th 2:9.35 Ἀπόστολοι, so far as it refers also to Silvanus and Timothy (see Note 10, at the end), is used in the wider sense, as in Acts 14:4; Acts 14:14 of Paul and Barnabas. But perhaps the old rule holds here: A potiori fit denominatio. As Christ’s Apostles, as messengers and envoys (ambassadors) of the Anointed King of the whole world, solemnly appointed by God (Acts 17:3; Acts 17:7), they might have stepped forth with dignity. Dicit Paulus se adeo abfuisse ab inani pompa, a jactantia, a fastu, ut legitimo etiam jure suo cesserit, quod ad vindicandam autoritatem pertinet (Calvin).
17. (1 Thessalonians 2:7.) But we were found gentle in the midst of you.—Ἐγενήθημεν answers to the ἐγενήθ. of 1 Thessalonians 2:5. Ἤπιος (from ἔπω, εἶπον, whence then νήπιος, infans) properly, affable, mild, kind, loving (comp. 2 Timothy 2:24). Suavissimum vocabulum, de parentibus præcipue et de medicis dici solitum (Bengel). [Ἐν μέσῳ ὑμῶν, in the midst of you, surrounded by you, as a teacher by his pupils, a mother by her children, a hen by her chickens (Bengel). It marks the centre of a group or society, drawing all eyes to itself (comp. Acts 1:15; Luke 2:46; Matthew 18:2): So that ye have all seen and experienced it (Koch). Riggenbach].36 Even this loving demeanor of the Apostle might be interpreted as flattery (1 Thessalonians 2:5), and so Paul confutes this reproach by showing it to be a perversion of his virtue into a fault. Then by the fuller description, ὡς ἄν &c. of this his tender and devoted love, he at the same time confutes the other reproach (1 Thessalonians 2:5-6) of his having been selfish or ambitious.
18. As a nurse would cherish her own children.—Before ὡς there should be a point with the force of our colon,37 so that ὡς answers to οὕτως of 1 Thessalonians 2:8. The sentence after ὡς is an explanation attached to what precedes by asyndeton, as in 1 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 2:9, yet so that here also again the explanatory sentence contains at the same time an advance, an enlargement of the thought. Τροφός, nourisher, she who suckles; here not a nurse, but the mother herself, as appears from τἁ ἑαυτῆς τέκνα, in which moreover, especially with this arrangement of the words (comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:8; otherwise 1 Thessalonians 2:11), there exists the climactic intimation, her own children (see Alex. Buttmann, Grammatik des neutestamenflichen Sprachgebrauchs, 1859, p. 97). With Stier, we have also expressed both in the version.38 The figure of the mother (comp. Galatians 4:19; Isaiah 66:13; Isaiah 49:15) is still tenderer than that of the father (1 Thessalonians 2:11), but is here chosen especially for this reason, because truly a nursing mother with her child seeks not profit or honor, but is wholly bent on bestowing (not receiving) love. Θάλπειν likewise is a tender expression; properly to warm, then, like fovere, to foster and cherish (Ephesians 5:29; comp. Deuteronomy 22:6, LXX).
19. (1 Thessalonians 2:8.) So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing.—Ὁμειρόμενοι supported here by the best manuscripts, occurs in the New Testament only here, and but seldom elsewhere, in the LXX, &c.; in meaning it is=ἱμείρεσθαι (Recepta), and, like this, probably an enlarged form of μείρεσθαι, which should perhaps be distinguished from the ordinary μείρεσθαι (see Passow), and is used by Nicander in the sense of the common ἱμείρεσθαι (comp. Winer, p. 92)=ardently to long after any one, to love tenderly.39—Εὐδοκοῦμεν is the imperfect without augment, as frequently; Winer, p. 1Th 66: we were pleased, were cheerfully ready, took delight therein (comp. 2 Corinthians 5:8; Romans 15:26). In 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8 one feels in word and figure the tender heartiness and sweet breath of a first, fresh love, such as becomes the firstling of the apostolical Epistles.
20. To impart unto you &c.—Μεταδοῦναι stands emphatically forward, in order to mark the love as one altogether giving, imparting. The two objects of μεταδοῦναι are joined to one another ascensively by not only—but also, so that the second is held up as the one of greater importance for the connection (τοῦτο μεῖζον ἐκείνου Chrysostom). Ἑαυτῶν moreover, is opposed to τοῦ θεοῦ, and the Apostle means to say: We were willing not only to fulfil our official service, entrusted to us by God, in delivering to you His gospel, but there was formed also a personal relation of the most devoted love, in consequence of which we were ready to sacrifice to you our own life.40 [Webster and Wilkinson: “ ‘not only that which you could share without loss to me, but that which I must lose in giving;’ or, ‘not only that which I held in trust for others, had in charge to give, but that which was most my own.’ ”—J. L.] The latter point was here the main thing, over against the imputations of covetousness and ambition. The comparison with the mother has reference to this personal love, which is therefore still made specially prominent in the additional clause with δίοτι (stronger and more distinctive than ὅτι), which assigns the motive. How far now Paul with his attendants willingly gave up his own life to the Thessalonians, he shows himself by an example in 1 Thessalonians 2:9, which is joined to what precedes, by γάρ, and is therefore illustrative of it. At the risk of health and life, he performed along with his preaching strenuous manual labor day and night, that he might be burdensome to no one, just as a mother day and night with much labor and self-sacrifice cherishes her little child. Add to this, that the Apostle—and it is of himself that he speaks at least primarily—was probably of a weak and sickly constitution (2 Corinthians 10:10; 2 Corinthians 12:5 sqq.), and we shall the better understand how much there was here of a μεταδοῦναι τὴν ψυχήν. Μεταδοῦναι is indeed zeugmatic, since out of it only the simple δοῦναι must be supplied to τὰς ψυχὰς (comp. Matthew 20:28); but such constructions are frequent enough (see Winer, p. 548). On ἑαυτῶν ἡμῶν αὐτῶν, see Winer, p. 136. [Bengel’s paraphrase: Anima nostra cupiebat quasi immeare in animam vestram—and similarly Chrysostom: τὰς ψυχὰς εἰς ὑμᾶς κενῶσαι, eff undere—though suitable to μͅεταδοῦναι, is opposed to the γἀρ of 1 Thessalonians 2:9. and perhaps also contains a thought not quite apostolic, and only in seeming accord with the figure of the mother, since not the suckling as such, but the θάλπειν is the tertium comparationis. To think of the gospel as the milk, according to 1 Peter 2:2; comp. Hebrews 5:13 (De Wette, Lünemann, and others), is quite as little in keeping, since it is really not the Apostle’s gospel, but is expressly called the gospel of God, and since for that very reason, as has been pointed out, this consideration does not enter into the comparison with a mother. In μεταδοῦναι τὰς ψυξάς the exposure of the life in danger and persecutions is commonly thought of; nor is this excluded, since 1 Thessalonians 2:9 contains merely an illustrative example, such as was required by the context, and was fitted to repel the imputation of covetousness and ambition.—Riggenbach.]
21. (1 Thessalonians 2:9.) For ye remember our toil and travail.—Μνημονεύετε, more sonorous than οἴδατε (1 Thessalonians 2:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:11); here with an accusative; 1 Thessalonians 1:3, with a genitive.—On γάρ, see Note 20. [The reference of γάρ to ἤπιοι ἐγενήθημεν, 1 Thessalonians 2:7, is too remote; that to ἀγαπητοὶ ἡμῖν ἐγενήθητε (Lünemann), unsuitable—Riggenbach.] Κόπος strengthened by the addition of μόχθος,41 as at 2 Thessalonians 3:8 (a verse which agrees almost verbally with ours), and 2 Corinthians 11:27. The expressions in their connection denote the most strenuous bodily labor at his handicraft as σκηνοποιός (Acts 18:3), a maker of tents out of leather or cloth for shepherds, travellers, soldiers, &c. (Winer, Realwörterbuch II. pp. 213, 725). This κόπος and μόχθος is now explained in a sentence appended, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:7, by asyndeton (γάρ after νυκτός being spurious), in which the emphasis lies on what stands foremost, νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας ἐργαζόμενοι, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:8 on τὰς ἑαυτῶν ψυχάς. And now, as ἐληρύξαμεν εἰς ὑμᾶς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ θεοῦ plainly answers to τὸ εὐαγγέλοιν τοῦ θεοῦ of 1 Thessalonians 2:8, so does νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας ἐργαζόμενοι to τὰς ἑαυτῶν ψυχάς, so that there accrues from this a new and more precise confirmation of our view of the γάρ and of μεταδοῦναι τὰς ἑαυτῶν ψυχάς.
22. Working night and day.—Ἐργάζεσθαι, of manual labor, as 1 Thessalonians 4:11, and often. We [Germans] say day and night, as ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτός, Luke 18:7; Acts 9:24, and frequently in the Apocalypse; but elsewhere, and always in Paul’s usage [both in his letters and speeches, 1 Thessalonians 3:10; 2 Thessalonians 3:8; 1 Timothy 5:5; 2 Timothy 1:3; Acts 20:31; Acts 26:7.—J. L.], νυκτὸς καὶ ημέρας or νύκτα καὶ ἡμέραν, because the Jews, as also the Athenians, begin the civil day with the evening. Here this order is emphatic,42 because night-work is the more unusual and irksome. We are not, therefore, to suppose that Paul preached all day, and performed manual labor in the night-time; on the contrary, the latter occupation filled up also a good part of the day, as on the other hand he preached likewise at night (Acts 20:7); but, generally, day and night is, as with us, a vivid expression for without intermission (comp. especially Revelation 20:10).
23. That we might not be burdensome to any of you, by his having to care for my support. So little did the Apostle seek any profit from the Thessalonians, that he sought not even the necessaries of life from them but earned them for himself, that his intercourse with them might on his part be altogether one of giving. In hac etiam parte jure suo obstinuit (Calvin; comp. Note 16). For the matter in question, comp. Acts 18:3; Acts 20:34; 1 Corinthians 4:12; 1 Corinthians 9:7 sqq.; 2 Corinthians 11:8 sqq.; Philippians 4:10 sqq., and Doctr. and Eth., 5.—On κηρύττειν εἰς, see Winer, p. 191.43
24. (1 Thessalonians 2:10.) Ye are witnesses and God.—The Apostle having in three sentences with οὐκ—ἀλλά (1 Thessalonians 2:1-5; 1 Thessalonians 2:9) confuted the reproaches cast upon him, and which are summed up in the fewest words in 1 Thessalonians 2:3—having shown that his doctrine is not an idle delusion, but the gospel of God, and that he himself has labored, not from selfish motives of covetousness and ambition, nor with impure methods of craft and flattery, but in the sight of God and with the most devoted love—he now at last opposes to that a brief, positive sketch of his ministry, and for this he again appeals to the Thessalonians and God as witnesses (comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:5), by way of giving to his assertion so much the more of the impressive earnestness of truth. Men must witness for his manner of acting; God witnesses, in his conscience and theirs, for his inward disposition. This explanatory sentence likewise is added by asyndeton (comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:9), a construction to which in the present instance the liveliness of emotion also contributes.
25. How holily, and righteously, and unblamably, &c.—Ὁσίως with perceptible, inward reverence of God; δικαίως, with due consideration of men, leaving and giving to every one his own (comp. Ephesians 4:24; Titus 2:12 [Luke 1:75; Titus 1:8]);44 ἀμέμπτως, unblamably, irreproachably in the whole deportment—the negative side to the two positive ones (Lünemann), especially to δικαίως (Olshausen). This qualification Paul adds, because reproaches had been cast upon him.45 [Bengel and others: toward themselves, in order to get the three references to God, men, themselves as in Titus 2:12; but this is here inadmissible, since all is referred to ὐμῖν τοῖς πιστεύουσι—δσίως assigning merely the religious ground of the behavior toward the believers.—Riggenbach.] It is commonly not enough considered, that we have here before us, not adjectives, but adverbs (comp. Acts 20:18., πῶς ἐγενόμην μεθʼ ὑμῶν); Paul is not speaking of his walk, his entire personal bearing (De Wette, Hofmann)—otherwise we must have had ὅσιοι &c. (comp. οἷοι, 1 Thessalonians 1:5)—but of the manner of his dealing with the believers (Winer, p. 413).
26. To [for] you who believed.—ὑμῖν is simply the dative of direction or reference: to you, toward you (De Wette, Koch) [not a dative of interest: for your advantage,46 nor yet of judgment: appeared to you (Œcumenius and Theophylact, Calvin, Bengel, Lünemann); the adverbs in that case would scarcely be admissible.—Riggenbach.].47 The addition τοῖς πιστεύουσιν, at first view apparently superfluous [Jowett], must here as at 1 Thessalonians 2:13 have its own ground and. significance. The believers were told that their faith was credulity and superstition, that they had allowed themselves to be ensnared, abused, and misled by the stranger, and that this was now called faith. A similar way of talking to that nowadays, which confounds faith with opinion, notion, dim, baseless feeling. In opposition to this Paul dwells with emphasis on the word faith in its true import, and shows how he had never abused their confidence in him and his word so as to indulge himself in impurity of any kind, but rather, honoring their faith as faith in God and His word, he had in all his proceedings kept holy what was holy, and had with all earnest men exhorted them to a walk worthy of God. [Those, who explain the dative as a dative of judgment,48 take τοῖς πιστεύουσιν restrictively: tametsi aliis non ita videremur;49 Bengel. Especially contrary to 1 Thessalonians 2:13 (?).—Riggenbach.]—Ἐγενήθημεν as in 1 Thessalonians 2:5; 1Th 2:7; 1 Thessalonians 1:5.
27. (1 Thessalonians 2:11.) Whilst we, as ye know, &c. [Even as ye know how we, &c.]—Καθἀπερ οἴδατε is a parenthetical clause similar to καθὼς οἴδατε of 1 Thessalonians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:5; it belongs to the following participial construction. This time the Apostle puts καθάπερ for καθώς, because immediately after ὡς occurs twice. The first ὡς belongs to ἑνα ἑκαστον, and has here a strengthening force such as it carries also elsewhere in connection with ἕκαστος (see Passow under ἕκαστος), a usage very nearly akin to the connection of ὡς with superlatives. The corroboration εἷς ἕκαστος, of frequent occurrence in the New Testament, is found likewise in classic Greek (A. Buttmann, p. 105). With the double reënforcement, ὡς εἷς ἕκαστος, comp. Revelation 21:21; ἀνὰ εἷς ἑκαστος; Ephesians 5:33 : ὑμεῖς οἱ καθʼ ἕνα ἕκαστος The participial clauses, 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12, show to what extent Paul behaved holily and righteously and unblamably toward the believers (1 Thessalonians 2:10), and we have therefore resolved the participles by in that.50 The main emphasis of the participial construction rests on the conclusion, εἰς τὸ περιπατεῖν , &c. (Lünemann), and yet so that Paul would in connection therewith lay stress on two other considerations: 1. That he had taken pains to hold every one in particular to this worthy walk, and hence the doubly strengthened ἕκαστος; 2. That for this end he had exerted all his force of speech, and hence the combination of the three sonorous participles. The Apostle’s unblamable deportment towards the believers was shown in his exhorting every individual with the whole power of his address to nothing else but a walk worthy of God. This is simply the connection of 1 Thessalonians 2:10 with 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12. The comparison with a father has reference to all three points: a father keeps his children singly in his eye, and trains every one according to his individuality; he employs all the force of exhortation in kindness and severity; he would keep his children only to what is good, and to no evil of any kind. Here, where the question is not, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8, about devoted love, but holy earnestness, Paul compares himself, not to a mother, but to a father. Paul never writes tautologically, but, even while repeating similar thoughts, advances to new and wider points of view. [Interpreters in general do not agree with me in regarding καθάπερ οἴδατε as a parenthesis, but take οἴδατε as a governing verb, on which ὡς, apart from ἕνα ἕκαστον, is dependent. But since ὡς is followed only by participles, they are obliged to supply the verbum finitum, and then, because ὑμᾶς is afterwards added, ἠγαπήσαμεν, οὐχ [οὐκ] ἀφήκαμεν, &c., is supplied to ἕνα ἕκαστον (Pelt, Schott, and others), or to the entire clause ἦμεν (Beza, Grotius, Flatt), or ἐγενήθημεν, from the previous context (Bengel, Lünemann, [Alford, Wordsworth]), or, the supplement being left indeterminate, an anacoluthon is assumed (De Wette, [Ellicott]). With these grammatical inconveniences there is then connected also an erroneous and artificial view of the logical relation of 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12 to 1 Thessalonians 2:10, as that Paul speaks in 1 Thessalonians 2:10 of his behavior generally; in 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12, for confirmation of that, of the discharge of his duty as a teacher in particular (De Wette, Koch, similarly Hofmann); or that in proof of his own virtue he adduces the fact of his having exhorted the Thessalonians to virtue, it being here taken for granted that one, who has it so much at heart that others shall be virtuous, will be so himself (Lünemann). Independently of other objections to these views, they would require a καί after καθάπερ or after ὡς.—Riggenbach.]51
28. Exhorted and encouraged and adjured.—ὑμᾶς is superfluous52 after as ὡς ἕνα ἕκαστον ὑμῶν; similar repetitions in the classics and also in the New Testament, Col 2:13;53 Matthew 8:1; and often (Winer, p. 531). Παρακαλεῖν, to exhort generally; παραμυθεῖσθαι kindly to encourage; μαρτύρεσθαι, earnestly and solemnly to obtest, like διαμαρτύρεσθαι 1 Timothy 5:21; 2Ti 2:14; 2 Timothy 4:1. Bengel: Παρα καλ. movet, ut facias aliquid (libenter); παραμυθ. ut cum gaudio; μαρτυρ, ut cum timore. The two last participles really specify the twofold style and method of the παρακαλεῖν, and may be also grammatically, subordinated to it, as, for example, δυνάμενοι of 1 Thessalonians 2:7 [1 Thessalonians 2:6] is subordinated to ζητοῦντες of 1 Thessalonians 2:6, and κωλυόντων of 1 Thessalonians 2:16 to μὴ of 1 Thessalonians 2:15 (comp. 2 Timothy 1:4). In favor of this are the facts, 1. that εἰς τὸ περιπατ. cannot depend on μαρτυρ., which must have either ἵνα (1 Timothy 5:21) or the simple infinitive (2 Timothy 2:14); 2. that ὑμᾶς is unsuitable to μαρτυρ., which cannot have an accusative of the person after it, except in the here inadmissible sense of taking one to witness. Perhaps the pleonastic ὑμᾶς is put after παρακαλοῦντες for the very purpose of separating the subordinate participles from the superior one. Even as to form, παραμυθ. and μαρτυρ. belong together as of the middle voice, and are jointly distinguished from the active παρακαλοῦντες. Thus: We exhorted you with kindly encouragement as well as with earnest obtestation.54 Comp., moreover, on the accumulation of participles Note. 27.—The division of verses is here very unapt.55
29. (1 Thessalonians 2:12.) That ye should walk in a manner worthy, &c.—Εἰς τὸ περιπατ. is thus dependent on παρακαλ., and denotes the contents or object of the exhortation. [So also Lünemann, who thinks, indeed, that εἰς may be referred to all the three participles; but in that case εἰς must rather denote the purpose, as De Wette and Koch understand it.—Riggenbach.]
With ἀξίως τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ καλοῦντος comp. Ephesians 4:1 : ἀξίως τῆς κλήσεως, Colossians 1:10 : ἀξίως τοῦ κυρίου. The two ideas are here combined. Καλοῦντος, present; because the kingdom and glory are still future, so that the call thereto, though it has already gone forth, yet continues till the coming of Christ, when the kingdom and the glory shall be revealed (Lünemann).56 The participle is even half-substantival, like ὁ ῥυόμενος, 1 Thessalonians 1:10.
30. Into his own kingdom and glory.—Magnificum syntheton (Bengel). Not a hendiadys: kingdom of His glory, or glory of His kingdom (Koppe, Olshausen, &c.); nor yet: earthly kingdom (the Church) and heavenly glory (Baumgarten-Crusius); nor is δόξα the glory of the Messianic kingdom (De Wette), but, since ἑαυτοῦ belongs also to δόξα, the glory of God, Romans 5:2 (Lünemann). Comp. the closing doxology of the Lord’s Prayer. Ἑαυτοῦ is emphatic by position, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:7 [Webster and Wilkinson: “implying a participation, or the most exalted fellowship and interest in the Divine blessedness,”—J. L.]. Paul would here again, at the end of the entire section as at its beginning (1 Thessalonians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:4; see Notes 4 & 10), give prominence to the thought, that it is God with whom believers have to do, and of whom he had been the mere but honest instrument (hence the leading position of ὁσίως in 1 Thessalonians 2:10;—Comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:13).
Thus: God calls you to a participation in His own kingdom, which will appear at Christ’s advent, and in His own Divine glory, into which believers then enter through the change [of the living, 1 Corinthians 15:51.—J. L.] or through the (first) resurrection. It might be asked whether βασιλεία here is not to be taken in the active sense=kingly dominion; yet this signification of βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ does not, to my knowledge, occur in the New Testament. But certainly the participation of Christians in the βασιλεία will really be a participation in the βασιλεύειν. Their calling is indeed to be glorified (Romans 8:17), not, however, to be ruled over, but to the βασιλεύειν or συμβασιλεύειν (Romans 5:17; 1 Corinthians 4:8; 2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 20:4; Revelation 20:6; Revelation 22:5).—The motive to a holy walk is therefore a double one, which yet again is but one and the same: Christians are to walk worthily, that is, they should regulate all their proceedings and life-conduct in such a way as becomes 1. the holy majesty of God, with whom by their calling they have fellowship: and 2. their own destination, expressed in this calling, to a share in the full dignity, imperial and essential, of this same God. This pure light of glory excludes all impurity (comp. 1 Timothy 1:11, τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς δόξης, in connection with the preceding verses, and 1 John 3:3). This section also, like the one before it, thus closes with an eschatological outlook. And, in truth, there meets us here the high practical importance of the Christian hope. As in suffering it begets patience (1 Thessalonians 1:3), so in action a holy walk.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. (1 Thessalonians 2:1-12.) To the Thessalonians assailed on account of their faith Paul shows that there is something real about it, both in his case (1 Thessalonians 2:1-12) and in theirs (1 Thessalonians 2:13-16). As proof he here cites, not miracles, as, for example, in Galatians 3:5, but simply the demonstration of the spirit and of power—what of Divine, self-evidencing light they had perceived in him, and experienced in their own hearts and consciences. It is worthy of note that the Gentile Apostle, in the very first Epistle written by him for the Gentile world, insists on this. And such is still to-day the twofold evidence of Christianity in the midst of a world estranged from God, where so frequently all power, all culture, all historical life stands, or seems to stand, in opposition to the gospel: the children of light, in whom, as nowhere else in the world, we perceive a perfect and blessed life (Matthew 5:14-16; Philippians 2:15), and the purifying and quickening Divine influences which we experience in ourselves from the gospel (2 Corinthians 13:5).
2. Our section is rich in self-praise, which, however, develops itself rather, step by step, as self-defence. A servant of Christ owes it, not so much to himself as his Master and his cause, to clear himself of unjust imputations, whenever they threaten to hinder the progress of the gospel, and prejudice the faith and love of the brethren. How in such a case one should express and demean himself may be learned from Paul, who first of all lets it be seen that he is Divinely certain of his cause, and is conscious of having acted with self-denial in the power of God and before the eyes of God, and then also he appeals freely to human testimony. The Lord knows how, by means of the oppositions of the world or other humbling experiences, so to dispose his servants inwardly, that when circumstances are, such that the ends of the Divine kingdom require it, they can and ought to speak of themselves in a way, that to the judgment of a merely natural morality appears as self-praise. Here belongs also, for example, the fact that John distinguishes himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved; here belong many expressions in the Psalms and passages of Daniel, as Daniel 1:17-20; Daniel 9:2-3; Daniel 2:0 Corinthians 10-13.
3. Our section is a true pastoral mirror.57 In the first and larger half (1 Thessalonians 2:1-9) are two principal points of view, one of which concerns the cause, the doctrine; the other the individual, in respect partly of his inner motives, partly of his manner of acting and speaking. 1. For what concerns the doctrine, we must be able to testify that it is no misleading error, no idle, impotent human invention of any sort, that we preach, but the gospel of God, the glad tidings which God Himself would have to be published to men. We speak in the consciousness, and in the power, of a Divine commission, not as those who are enthusiastic for some self-contrived, human system, and such like, nor as idle babblers believing nothing. 2. For what concerns, a. the disposition and purpose in the discharge of the office, we know that we are free from impure motives of avarice and ambition, for we prosecute our work for souls in the continual presence of Him who knows the heart, and, to please whom, we have to prosecute it earnestly, and in fervent love to those entrusted to us. That we may offer no hindrance to the gospel, we willingly forego the honor and profit that we might otherwise properly claim. We are not satisfied with the faithful fulfilment of what is officially prescribed, but voluntarily undertake additional toil and trouble of every kind. We spare not our health or our life, where the honor of our Lord and the salvation of souls are concerned. In short, instead of seeking aught for ourselves, the soul of our work is self-sacrificing love. It is more blessed to give than to receive. b. As regards the means and manner of our working, we stand in no need of any sort of cunning or spurious pastoral shrewdness to draw the people to us, and secure for ourselves their respect. We never deal in flattering words. We aim not at all at pleasing men.—In the second half (1 Thessalonians 2:10-12) Paul exhibits the holy and righteous behavior of a servant of Christ toward the believers, and shows how, 1. so far as concerns the Church, this consists in not merely proclaiming the word generally, but in also bringing it near to individual souls, so that in this way the special care of souls is added to preaching. 2. For what concerns the preacher himself, he should put forth all his strength, and in different ways, adapted to occasional circumstances, to individuals and spiritual conditions, point those committed to him to the right way. 3. With regard, finally, to the doctrine, it should aim at nothing else but to hold the hearers to what is good. But in Christianity that which is morally good has a thoroughly religious character. It is a walk worthy of God. Nor does even that exhaust the matter. It is not merely the relation of single souls, or even of the congregation, to God, that is to be held up to believers, but God has a kingdom, a corporate order of life, in which He really shares His glory with the creature. To this kingdom, already founded in Christ, but to be first manifested at His advent, we are called. Our walk should bear in itself the stamp of our so high destiny. We should act from motives drawn from the kingdom and the glory. The preaching, therefore, must teach what the kingdom is, and what the glory (comp. my Discourse: die biblische Lehre von Reiche Gottes in ihrer Bedeutung für die Gegenwart [The Bible Doctrine of the Kingdom of God in its importance for the present time], Basel, 1859).—Lastly, in our section there is this fact also to be particularly noticed, that the Apostle compares himself in his ministry to a father and a mother: the latter in the first half, the former in the second. The parental relation, that most original of all human relations (being preceded only by the conjugal), that image of God’s relation to men, is itself again the natural, God-given pattern for all other relations of superior and inferior, and so especially also for preachers and and pastors. A servant of Christ has in his own house a constant school for his office. What he feels and does for his own children, the same he should feel and do for his Church. Yet, not merely the earnestness of paternal love, but the tenderness and self-sacrifice likewise of the maternal, is in the Apostle. He speaks of the parental relation, not by way of making it the foundation of just claims, but with an eye to its obligations and performances.
4. (1 Thessalonians 2:2.) It is worthy of remark that in 1 Thessalonians 2:2. Paul does not say: we were bold in Christ, to speak unto you the gospel of Christ, but: in God, of God; and so throughout the entire section (see 1 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:8-9; 1 Thessalonians 2:12-13). To obviate the objections of the Gentiles and Jews, he purposely reverts to the ultimate ground, still common more or less to them and Christians. Against Jesus Christ, that historical Person, they might bring forward the same exceptions as against the Apostle himself; but God is His own immediate witness in the consciences of all men. And this Divine witness of conscience was, and is, on the side of the gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 5:11). To this we too, in contending with the adversaries, must always again revert. We must connect Christ with God, Christianity with religion, that is, with the religious and moral nature of man in general, the positive and historical with the ideal (comp. John 7:17).
5. (1 Thessalonians 2:5.) Twice in our short section does Paul call God to witness, 1Th 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:10, as he does in like manner also elsewhere, Romans 1:9; Philippians 1:8; 2 Corinthians 1:23; comp. 2 Corinthians 11:31; Rom 9:1; 1 Timothy 2:7. A servant of God may often find himself in the same position, especially when meeting assaults, and where the question is about dispositions and prayers. A parallel to this is presented by the Verily, I say unto you, which is found so frequently in the mouth of the Lord, in the Synoptists with a single, in John with a double, ἀμήν. It was necessary for Him, in opposition to the unbelief or dulness of His hearers, to corroborate the often very paradoxical truth which he had to advance. Such assertions and protestations are approaches to the oath, to which some of them come quite close, particularly 2 Corinthians 1:2-3, and therefore contributions to the Scriptural view of the doctrine of the oath, and to the correct interpretation and application of Matthew 5:33-37; James 5:12.
6. (1 Thessalonians 2:9.) Paul insists strongly on the right of ministers to live of the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:7 sqq.; 1 Timothy 5:17-18; Galatians 6:6), and he himself also receives support from the Philippians and other churches (2 Corinthians 11:8 sq.; Philippians 4:10 sqq.). But in Corinth (1 Corinthians 9:12; 2 Corinthians 11:7 sqq.) and Thessalonica and apparently in Ephesus also (Acts 20:33-35) he accepted nothing during his work there, but provided for his own maintenance partly by manual labor (Acts 18:3; Acts 20:34), partly through the gifts of other Churches (2 Corinthians 11:9; Philippians 4:16). He did this, that he might offer no hindrance to the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:12); at Corinth, in consideration of the false Apostles (2 Corinthians 11:12 sqq.); at Thessalonica, in consideration probably of the unbelievers, whose calumnies he forsaw, or was already even in some measure aware of. For that the Thessalonian Christians were poor, as Chrysostom and others suppose, there is nothing to indicate; indeed, according to Acts 17:4, there were at any rate not a few rich persons among them. At the same time the Apostle desired also in his own person to furnish an example of fidelity in a earthly calling, of strenuous labor, of devoted love (Acts 20:35; 2 Thessalonians 3:7 sqq.). We have now here before us one of the cases in which, as in so many outward things—for example, in regard to usages, the times and places of Divine service, &c.—it could not be but that changes, to wit, specific regulations, should gradually be forth-coming in the Church. Soon the clerical calling could no longer be united with a secular one. It had therefore to be furnished with a regular income, and this is in accordance with Paul’s doctrine. If, then, we neither can nor should directly imitate his practice herein; if indeed, speaking generally, the exemplariness of the Lord and His Apostles does not require from us a direct, outward imitation—this were really to turn the gospel again into law and letter (comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:6-7, Doctrinal and Ethical, Note 5),—it is only the more important that we enter into the meaning and spirit of the Apostle, and act on this Apostolic view of the matter. Not to the Pope alone does his worldly dominion prove to be ruin; among us also earthly good has already become the curse and snare of many clergymen. This is one of the tenderest points in the relation between the shepherd and the flock, and by it is often insensibly closed the mouth of the shepherd and the heart of the sheep. There are certain portions of income, those that partake more of the nature of perquisites, which still fall immediately under the apostolic rule, not to burden those who would thereby be burdened, and rather to undergo privations, “lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:12). It deserves also to be noticed that the Apostle (1 Corinthians 9:14) says, that the Lord hath ordained that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel, should have wherewithal to live, and not more. With us, to be sure, and especially of late, care is commonly taken that we should not have it in our power to think of laying up treasures. The wish expressed by Schleiermacher in 1804, “that the relations of the preacher’s position should be put more and more on such a footing, that it could present no external attraction to those who did not value it for its own sake,” has already received a manifold fulfilment. Those, however, who have to struggle with want and privation, may seek and find a strong consolation in the fact, that they thus stand nearer to the apostolic model, than if they lived in abundance of everything. Comp. the flaming words of Ludwig Hofacker in his Life by A. Knapp, 1852, p. 157 sq.: “Often enough have I been offended with a certain class of ministers. To lament over their poor pay is the whole business, their main topic of conversation. Nowhere is there less of faith and contentment than among men of this sort. With them the earthly mind thoroughly predominates. In no class is there less of Divine understanding. In heaven we shall probably meet the smallest proportion of ministers; for it is well-nigh impossible that such an ease-loving, selfish minister should enter the kingdom of heaven. Is it not a real mercy that we are even kept a little short? How much money, then, must a preacher have on hand? Or how much must he have in furniture and pictures? On this absurdity I could descant for a day, and not exhaust the topic, dealing not with individual cases, but with the thing itself, nor yet out of illiberality of feeling, but from long observation. Ah, where is the imitation of Christ’s life of poverty? No doubt, there are many who suffer, but why? because they fancy that a son is not saved, unless he gets to be a gentleman at the University. The true sufferers are they who are silent and endure, looking up to God.”
[M. Henry: There is no general rule to be drawn from this instance; either that ministers may at no time work with their hands for supply of their outward necessities, or that they ought always to do so.—J. L.]
7. (1 Thessalonians 2:11.) Paul emphasizes the fact that he had exhorted every single individual. Comp. Acts 20:31, and especially the thrice repeated πάντα ἄνθρωπον of Colossians 1:28. Here, as in Romans 5:12; Romans 5:15; Romans 5:18 sq.; 1 Timothy 2:4 sqq., the emphasis is on ἄνθρωπος, since Paul is speaking of the spread of the Gospel among the Gentiles, of the removal of the distinction between Jews and Gentiles, of Jesus belonging as man to all mankind, and of every individual simply as a man having an interest in Him. This is that idea of humanity, of the infinite value of each individual human soul before God, which first came to light in the New Covenant, in Christianity, and of which the Gentile Apostle was preeminently the bearer. In ancient times, to which the Old Covenant still essentially belongs, mankind was as yet given up as fleshly to the forces of nature, and therefore also to national divisions. The opposition of עָם and גּוֹיִם, λαός and ἔθνη stood in force, as that of Greeks and Barbarians; for God in His revelation condescended to the στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου. Not yet was the individual of any consequence in himself as a man; he came into view merely as a member of the larger natural whole, the people. A relative advance in this respect is certainly not to be mistaken within the sphere of the old world, when, for example, we think in the Old Testament of the Psalms, in Greece of the schools of philosophy, in Rome of the domestic life of a Cato and others. But even the Psalmist, who knows that in covenant with his God he is strong and secure against all the world, is ever an Israelite; the Grecian sage is always a Hellene; and so forth. First on the cross of Christ was the flesh and the whole power of nature broken in pieces; first in Christ was the one new man created, so that now there is no longer a question of Jew, Greek, Barbarian, Scythian (Ephesians 2:15; Colossians 3:11); there was born the idea at once of humanity and of man; universalism, and along with that the true subjectivity and individualism, for every one singly to lay hold in faith freely from within on the salvation of God, and so attain to the fulness of human dignity (as was already represented in the call of Abraham, Romans 4:0.; Galatians 3:0). Not only did Paul recognize and preach this great truth; he likewise at the same time made practical application of it, on the universal side in his Gentile mission, on the other in his special care of souls. The nationalists, therefore, have lost, not their significance, but merely the sting of mutual antipathy, so far as their members are in Christ; in the future kingdom of Christ the curse, the covering, will be removed from the nations as such, as from individuals at present, so that the whole life of history shall be a regenerate life, a life from the dead (Romans 11:15 : comp. Isaiah 25:7-8).
8. (1 Thessalonians 2:12.) Glory (δόξα, כָּבוֹד; for this Luther has also sometimes Klarheit [clearness, lustre], as for δοξάζειν verklären [to illustrate]) is a radical term used in Scripture of God, which in theosophy has met with more consideration than in theology. It is the real, organic side in the conception of spirit, whereby the Absolute Personality is not a mere abstract Ego, but the Absolute Life, unfolding and shaping itself in a fulness (πλήρωμα) of powers. What in earthly phrase has been called nature or the corporeity of God finds in the word glory—with which stand connected the expressions majesty, beauty, light, &c., when used of God—its Scriptural foundation and limitation. In glory is found the reason why the whole man, even as to his body, is called the image of God. By means of glory also is brought about, agreeably to its idea, the appearance or revelation of God. Christ’s glorification consists essentially in this, that His human nature is raised into the condition of this Divine glory. He makes a real, inward communication of it to His own (unio mystica, the sacraments), so that they become partakers of the Divine nature (2 Peter 1:4; John 14:23; John 17:5; John 17:22; John 17:24), till in the resurrection they are manifested in this glory, even as to their body (Colossians 3:3-4). Bengel (on Acts 7:2) calls glory divinitas conspicua; Oetinger, the unveiled holiness,—the great word that sums up the whole New Testament: J. T. Beck, christliche Lehrwissenchaft, p. 67, the self-manifestation of the living image of God, which has for man a hidden side, but also one visible in rich forms and degrees, and for special revelations assumes special local shapes.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1 Thessalonians 2:1-12.—This section and its several parts are especially appropriate for texts of inaugural and ordination sermons, and such like; happy he, who can take from its also his farewell text! The principal thought of the two main divisions, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12, are embraced in the Doctrinal and Ethical department, No. 2, and there already arranged also with reference to the Homiletic use.—J. Mich. Hahn: Our Epistle was written to such as had been awakened for about half a year; it is thus rather for such as are weaker and for beginners. For this reason Paul strengthens and animates the Thessalonians by very circumstantial arguments from his own behavior, and that of Silas, among them; considering that with inexperienced souls one must deal more largely in details, than with those who are more spiritually developed.—The same: That is it which in our days makes faith so difficult: sinful men dare to call in question the word of God, and to correct it, saying quite plainly that to a great extent it is just the word of man. This mischievous cavilling may in dark hours of temptation rack with doubts even the lovers of truth, and frequently, if they have thoughtful souls, they undergo no light struggle. But these doubts are by the lover of truth overcome, and tend to the strengthening and confirmation of faith; for as all things must work together for good to those who love God and truth, so likewise this, since it too belongs to the “all.”—Diedrich: For the Christian it is important frequently to review his previous guidance in Christ, that he may become ever more conscious of the work of the Lord, and also feel himself bound in hearty affection to those, through whom the Lord has come to us. To the calumniators of the Apostle we owe thanks to this day, for having been to him the occasion for such an exact self-portraiture. The enemies of the truth know not at all, what good service they often render to it.
1 Thessalonians 2:1-2. J. Mich. Hahn: The great boldness after the contumelious suffering is a sound, valid proof of the truth of God’s word, and of faith’s real ground. How should human nature be able to act and suffer thus aimlessly? Its wont truly is, to seek and intend self in everything.—The Same: The Lord’s true messengers are for the most part prepared in the school of suffering, and not in the society of trifling, young people, who in their frivolity often do not know what to go at. If one or another from that quarter is to prosper, he too is called out of the confusion into the school of the cross, like all the rest.—The Same: While the Spirit of glory rested on us (1 Peter 4:14), we had spiritual boldness, joy in God and with God, incomparable heart-joy; for the life of the spirit was so predominant, that we regarded nothing in nature.—Rieger: Suffering does not weaken faith, and so it does not even abate boldness in opening the mouth. Suffering, indeed, undergone lovingly and willingly, assures a man that he is renewed into the image of Christ, and is treading in the footsteps wherein have walked all the lovers of truth, who in the world have been reviled. Suffering makes good salt; avoidance of the cross makes the salt insipid.—The Same: When we hear of the boldness of the Apostles, we often suppose that all fear had been blown away. But the Apostles themselves commonly put the two things together; on the one side, what through grace obtained the victory, namely boldness, and, on the other side, those assaults from nature and from the aspect of the world, through which they had to fight their way with great contention.—Zwingli: The preaching of the gospel does not go forward without a struggle, and indeed many struggles; for Christ is the sign that is spoken against.
[Burkitt: The Apostle calls his boldness a boldness in God, because a boldness for God and from God.—Alford: All true confidence is in God as our God.—M. Henry: Suffering in a good cause should rather sharpen than blunt the edge of holy resolution.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:3-4. Rieger: It is still at present an easy thing for the world, when the gospel is propounded, to give it sometimes the appearance of error, superstition, peculiar notions; and in other cases, where some concession must be made to any one, to impute to him impure aims and self-seeding.—The Same: In preaching the gospel, much depends on the heart and its purity tried and approved by God; only in a good conscience can the mystery of the faith be put. Not merely in the beginning and on our first reception into His service does God prove our heart, but daily and hourly.—Calvin: To please God and to please men are brought together by Paul as things mutually opposed.—Rieger: In striving to please, not men, but God, the gate is strait, and the way narrow. One should, of course commend himself to the consciences of men—should so deal with them, that, without his pleasing them after the flesh, they shall yet think favorably of him, and not in distrust turn away their heart and ear—should show to every man all gentleness, condescension, and readiness to oblige, and yet so keep himself apart in the spirit of the cross, as to be intent on pleasing, not men, but God (1 Corinthians 10:33).—Diedrich: We may well trust those, who, in their transactions with us, desire in everything only to please God; God certainly desires what is best for us. Such as would merely please us will at the least, and without their knowing it, be unfaithful to us.—Rieger: Precious operation of the Spirit of glory, who rests on the sufferers, and, in their deepest submersion in the baptism of sorrow, instructs them still to keep their head up, and to say to their God: For he knoweth the secrets of the heart (Psalms 44:22).58
1 Thessalonians 2:5-7. Rieger: We cannot do too much for the sake of winning men’s souls; and, if the world calls that flattery, we are to regard it as little as Jesus left off eating and drinking with publicans and sinners on account of the Pharisees. When, indeed, one’s aim with men is to steal some advantage for one’s self or one’s friends, and lull others to sleep to their own soul’s hurt, in that case there may be danger of indulging in words of flattery: and therefore the Apostle immediately disclaims covetousness also.—Calvin: Where avarice and ambition rule, there follow innumerable corruptions, and the whole man sinks into vanity; for these are the two fountains, whence flows the corruption of the entire ministry.—Chrysostom: Paul says not: We were dishonored, nor yet: We received no honor;—that were to have reproached the Thessalonians;—but: We sought it not. [Œcumenius extends the emphasis to ἐξ : “for the glory that is from God they both sought and received: τὴν γὰρ ἐκ θεοῦ καὶ ἐζήτουν καὶ ἐλάμβανον.—J. L.] J. M. Hahn: Although as ambassadors of the sovereign Lord of the whole creation we might have used authority, yet we did not seek to extort from you any such regard as that you should look upon us with fear and awe. This is the way nowadays of those who presume on their office. But what credit have they with the people, and what hearts trust them? That is the very reason why they are universally abandoned. Not so the Lord’s ambassadors!—Rieger: Therein consists a great secret of the kingdom of Christ, that by means of love, whereby the greatest becomes as the servant of all, He effects more, maintains a more fruitful order, than is achieved in any worldly empire by ever so rigorous a distinction of ranks.—The Same: Christians, it is true, are not an abject people; they deal in large aims and hopes. They do not, however, seek honor from men, nor in the present time, but take it on credit against the resurrection of the just.
[Burkitt: Flattery in any is odious, in a minister ’tis monstrous, both because spiritual men ought to be most plain-hearted, and also because flattery about spiritual things, is most fatal and pernicious, both to the giver and receivers.—A. Clarke: They that preach the gospel should live (not riot) by the gospel. But woe to that man who entered into the labor for the sake of the hire; he knows not Christ and how can he preach Him?—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:7-9. The Apostle’s motherly love to those committed to his care, as shown 1. in the most intimate heart-communications to them, 2. in tender affability, 3. in indefatigable self-sacrifice.—The connection of official fidelity with personal love.—Newborn children often cry a great deal, get sick easily, give also every kind of annoyance, and need much care, and only a mother’s love and a mother’s patience can bear with them (Büchsel: Erinnerungen aus dem. Leben eines Landgeistlichen, Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, 1859).—Roos: Dost thou from hearty love undergo day and night toil and trouble, which no man imposes on thee, or repays?—Calvin: Paul’s unwillingness to have his wants supplied was in order that he might not hinder the gospel. For good pastors must be careful, not merely to run strenuously in their ministry, but of this also, that, so far as is in their power, they remove all obstacles from their course.—Rieger: Ministers of the gospel never want occasion to practise many an economy in housekeeping, in the education of children, in clothes and comforts; whereby in some cases one has rather wherewithal to give to the needy, and in other cases our income suffices, nor is there any need to trouble ourselves and others with so many complaints, or with so much striving after changes. And again, there is always reason why we should not set so high a value on what we are compelled to add from our own means, but reflect whether it is quite as much, as when Paul along with his preaching labored as a handicraftsman.—Paul made no claims on this life—desired not to have things easy in the present world; and therefore also the world could do him no harm.—J. G. Kolb: He who has the Spirit of Christ is faithful also in his earthly calling. That is, he is not too lazy to apply his powers in that direction; and neither does he do too much, so as to waste his strength in vanity. He gives his time to securing the heavenly calling in the midst of the earthly one. Such a man is then so much more effective in the kingdom of God.
[1 Thessalonians 2:10. Webster and Wilkinson: Only believers can rightly estimate holiness and righteousness; and it betokens high attainments in religion to be considered, and to be, an example of holiness and righteousness to them.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:10-12. Rieger: He who in Divine things seeks not his own, but serves the will of God, acts holily, he who does no wrong to his neighbor in anything, but shows him all love, acts righteously; and he who, moreover, in his behavior, speech and entire conduct, puts it in no man’s power to charge him with an offensive contrast between his teaching and his life, acts unblamably. A father has and exerts an authority, but it is that of love, not of law.—Spener says in one of his farewell discourses: I cannot say that I am pure from the blood of all men; for I cannot say that I have not ceased to warn every one.—Paul a model, not merely in preaching, but also in the care of souls, and in the union of the two. The great Apostle, who filled the whole world with the sound of the gospel, at the same time went after individual souls with all zeal. The different ways in which salvation must be brought near to different men, and even to the same men at different times. We must learn to vary our voice.—[M. Henry: We should not only be good as to our general calling as Christians, but in our particular callings and relations.—J. L.]
[1 Thessalonians 2:12. Bp. Davenant, on Colossians 1:10 : By this form of speaking we are admonished, that Christianity consists in a perpetual journey towards the celestial country, and that no one must halt by the way.—Webster and Wilkinson: The kingdom is glorious, and the glory kingly.—J. L.]
Footnotes:
1 Thessalonians 2:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:1.—[The Greek order, retained by most of the old English versions.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:1.—[κενή γέγονεν German: eitel gewesen ist. The reference is not to the results (Robinson and many others: fruitless, useless, &c., as in 1 Thessalonians 3:5, εἰς κενόν), but, like the rest of this section, to the character of the Apostle’s ministry. This is one of the cases in which Wiclif and Rheims are kept light by the Vulgate.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:2.—καί before προπαθόντες must be erased. [All the late critical editions omit it, on overwhelming evidence, including Sin.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:3.—[ λαλοῦμεν of 1 Thessalonians 2:4 shows that in this sentence the writer characterizes his ordinary preaching, and not particularly that at Thessalonica.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:3.—[πλάνης error, as it is here rendered by many, and always elsewhere in our Common Version, except at 2 Thessalonians 2:11, delusion. Auberlen, after De Wette, Lünemann, Koch: Irrwahn.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:3.—[See Ellicott’s note, p. 149 sq., on “the appropriate rendering in the different cases of continued negation.”—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:3.—Instead of οὔτε, A. B. C. D. F. G. [Sin.] and some minuscules have here also οὔδε, which Lachmann, De Wette, Lünemann [Hahn, Winer, Olshausen, Koch, Wordsworth, Alford’s last edition, Ellicott, who admits, however, that the reading is very doubtful.—J. L.] prefer; comp. Winer, p. 437. Yet the correspondent οὔδε may be also a correction, and accordingly Tischendorf has in the seventh edition gone back to οὔτε.
1 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:4.—[ δεδοκιμάσμεθα ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ. For the rendering of the verb, comp. Romans 2:18; 1 Corinthians 16:3; Philippians 1:10. the tense also should be allowed its full force as a perfect.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:4.—[The τῷ before Θεῷ is bracketed by Lachmann, and cancelled by Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott, after B. C. D.¹ Sin., &c.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:4.—[τῷ δοκιμάζοντι, a repetition of the previous verb, in a modified sense; comp. E. V. at 1 Thessalonians 5:21, and often elsewhere. In 1 Thessalonians 2:5 κολακείας is in Sin. κολακίας—J.L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:6.—οὔτε ζητοῦντες ἐξ . The Greek order is here followed by nearly all versions, English and foreign.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:6.—[This marginal rendering of E. V. is substantially that adopted by the majority of interpreters from Ambrosiaster to Alford, Ellicott, and Auberlen: uns ein Ansehen geben. Ellicott quotes Chrysostom as decidedly in favor of the same interpretation, whereas Chrysostom expressly includes the other reference also (preferred by many from Theodoret to Webster and Wilkinson): ἐνταυθα δὲ καὶ περὶ χρημάτων φησὶ τὸ, δυνάμενοι ἐν βάρει εἶναι κτλ. Others in like manner allow either interpretation, or combine the two. See Revision.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:7.—[ ἀλλ̓ (B. Sin. ἀλλὰ) ἐγενήθημεν. See 1 Thessalonians 1:5, Critical Note 6.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:7.—Lachmann’s νήπιος [νήπιοι], childlike, which arose from drawing over the ν from the preceding word, and as destroying the unity of the figure, must be rejected. [It has, however, very considerable support from manuscripts (B. C.¹ D.¹ F. G. Sin.¹), versions, and Fathers.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:7.—[ὡς ἄν τροφὸς θάλπῃ τὰ ἑαυτῆς τέκνα. Webster and Wilkinson: “as a nurse (any nurse) would.”—Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott: ἐάν, after B. C. D. E. F. G. &c., but not Sin.1 Many; including Auberlen, have a colon or a period after ἐν μέσῳ ὑμῶν, and attach this clause as protasis to what follows in 1 Thessalonians 2:8. Erasmus, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth, Ellicott, place a comma before and after it, Ellicott regarding the clause “both as an illustration of the preceding words, and as the protasis to the following.” But this divided duty is somewhat distracting. The simile of the nursing mother no doubt suggests what is said in 1 Thessalonians 2:8, but can scarcely be a grammatical protasis to it, and yet maintain a structural connection with what precedes. On the whole, I prefer the arrangement of our English Version, and would close 1 Thessalonians 2:7 with at least a semicolon.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:8; 1 Thessalonians 2:8—[οὕτως qualifies εὐδοκοῦμεν, not ὁμειρόμενοι—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:8; 1 Thessalonians 2:8—Instead of ἱμειρόμενοι the common reading now is ομειρόμενοι [all the uncials, and many cursives.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:8; 1 Thessalonians 2:8.—[The Greek order, followed by Wiclif and Rheims, and later versions generally.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:8; 1 Thessalonians 2:8.—[ ἐγενήθητε, the reading of recent critical editions, is sustained by abundant uncial authority, including Sin. The recepta γεγένησθε may have been an accommodation to the supposed present time of εὐδοκοῦμεν—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:9; 1 Thessalonians 2:9.—[ ἐργαζόμενοι].—γάρ after νυκτός should be cancelled [as it now is in nearly all critical editions. It is wanting in A. B. D¹. F. G. Sin.—J. L.].
1 Thessalonians 2:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:10.—[ὑμῖν τοῖς πιστεύουσιν participle of the imperfect, not, as English Version, Ellicott, &c., of the present. German: euch, den Glaubenden; and similarly many others, from the Syriac to Lünemann. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:7.—For the import of the dative, see Exeget. Notes.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:11; 1 Thessalonians 2:11.—παραμυθούμενοι must have the same relation to 1 Thessalonians 2:12 as the other two participles between which it stands.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:11; 1 Thessalonians 2:11.—The reading μαρτυρούμενοι is indeed better attested than -όμενοι [this, which was doubtful before, can no longer be allowed, now that -όμενοι is sustained by Sin.—J. L.], and was therefore at first favored by Lachmann and Tischendorf. But by the latter, with De Wette, Lünemann [Bengel, Schott, Bloomfield, Alford, Ellicott], &c., it has again been abandoned with reason, since μαρτυρεῖσθαι is only used passively [some reading μαρτυρόμενος also at Acts 26:22.—J. L.], and the mistake might easily occur in copying, from the similarity in sound to παραμυθούμενοι [Latin versions generally use obtestor; German versions, beschwören. or bezeugen; Rhemish and Conybeare, to adjure; Alford, to conjure, &c. J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:11; 1 Thessalonians 2:11.—[ὡς πατὴρ τέκνα ἐαυτοῦ In Greek the verse is arranged thus: “Even as ye know how every one of you, as a father his own children, we exhorted you, and encouraged, and adjured.” All the accusatives are dependent on the participles, and therefore Ellicott’s translation: “Even as ye know how in regard of every one of you we did so, as a father toward his own children, exhorting you and encouraging you, and charging you,” is wanting in his usual exactness.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:12; 1 Thessalonians 2:12.—[For περιπατῆσαι of the textus receptus, Scholz, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth, Ellicott, read περιπατεῖν, on large authority of manuscripts uncial (including Sin.) and cursive.—J. L.]
1 Thessalonians 2:12; 1 Thessalonians 2:12.—[ καλοῦντος A. and Sin., with a few cursive manuscripts, read καλέσαντος.—J. L.]
[27][And so in our English Version; whereas the German thus: Ye know that our entrance hath, &c.—J. L.]
[28][Including Lünemann, Alford, Ellicott, Vaughan. Yet, since there seems to have been no violent resistance to the preachers at Thessalonica, prior to the sudden outbreak which led to their immediate departure from the city (Acts 17:5-10), it is not well thus to restrict the reference. Comp. Paul’s use of the word at Colossians 2:1; 1Ti 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7. Fritzsche and many (Lünemann says, most) understand the word here of the Apostle’s cares and sorrows. Why not take in both the inward experience, and the outward?—J. L.]
[29][Ellicott: παράκλησις is “perhaps distinguishable” from διδαχή and διδασκαλία, “as directed more to the feelings than the understanding.” Jowett: “The two senses of παράκλησις, exhortation and consolation, so easily passing into one another (compare 1 Thessalonians 2:11), are suggestive of the external state of the early Church, sorrowing amid the evils of the world, and needing as its first lesson to be comforted; and not less suggestive of the first lesson of the Gospel to the individual soul, of peace in believing.”—J. L.]
[30][Ellicott states the gradation thus: (a) to put to the test; (b) to choose after testing; (c) to approve of what is so tested. This might perhaps be improved by transposing (b) and (c).—J. L.]
[31][German: von Gott werth geachtet—der unsere Herzen werthet (prüfet).—J. L.]
[32][And, at most, he for them, not they of themselves.—J. L.]
[33][So Lünemann, and similarly Alford (ἐκ, the abstract ground; ἀπό, the concrete object;—a distinction on which he insists against Ellicott, who pronounces it “artificial and precarious.”) That of Schott, assented to by Olshausen and Bloomfield, that ἐκ marks the immediate source, ἀπό the mediate, is rejected by Lünemann as here impossible. But, even if the two prepositions must be regarded in this place as synonymous, it is desirable that the translation should indicate the change. Webster and Wilkinson: “derived from men, whether tendered on your part or on the part of others.”—J. L.]
[34][The latter half of 1 Thessalonians 2:6 in our English Version is in Luther’s Bible attached to 1 Thessalonians 2:7.—J. L.]
[35][Macknight adopts the rendering of the English margin, but understands the Apostle to speak of his right to exact both obedience and maintenance. Perhaps, however, the other phrase, to be burdensome, no less admits of either reference, and it has the advantage of preserving—somewhat too strongly, indeed—the verbal affinity between 1 Thessalonians 2:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:9. Comp. Critical Note 12.—J. L.]
[36][Alford and Ellicott find in ἐν μέσῳ ὑμῷν “a hint at the absence of all assumption of authority, ‘as one of yourselves,’ ” and cite Chrysostom, Œcumenius, and Zanchius to the same effect.—J. L.]
[37][But see Critical Note 15.—J. L.]
[38][wie eine säugende Mutter ihre eigenen Kinder pfleget. It is obvious, however, that the maternal relation is indicated solely by the ἑαυτῆς τέκνα, and is not at all necessarily implied in τροφός. Augustine, Serm. de Ps. 72:24 (Psalms 73:23): “Apostolus vero, germano et pio caritatis affectu, et nutricis personam suscepit, dicendo, fovet; et matris, addendo, filios suos. Sunt enim nutrices foventes quidem, sed non filios suos: item sunt matres nutricibus dantes, non foventes filios suos.”—J. L.]
[39][Ellicott prefers to regard μείρομαι as an apocopated, and ὁμείρομαι as a late and perhaps strengthened, form of ἱμείρομαι To the derivation from μείρομαἱ, Wordsworth objects the aspirated ὁ, and he adheres strongly to Theophylact’s account of the word as from ὁμοῦ and εἴρω,=προσδεδεμένοι, bound to, twined together with you, and clinging to you.”—J. L.]
[40][Our German, after Luther, gives Leben for ψυχάς; and this interpretation is given by very many, including the English margin; comp. 1 John 3:16, &c. But says Ellicott: There is “perhaps a faint reference to the deeper meaning of ψυχή, as pointing to the centre of the personality—our lives and souls (Fell), our very existences, and all things pertaining to them.”—J. L.]
[41][Ellicott: “The former perhaps marks the toil on the side of the suffering it involves (see on 1 Timothy 4:10), the latter, as derivation seems to suggest (connected with μόγις, and perhaps allied to μέγας, see Pott, Etym. Forsch. Vol. I. p. 283), on the side of the magnitude of the obstacles it has to overcome.” Nearly opposite to this is Wordsworth: “The former word expresses energy of action, the other indicates patience in bearing.” Alford: “No distinction can be established.”—J. L.]
[42][So Alford. But the correctness of the remark may be questioned, since Paul, as is mentioned above, observes the same order everywhere else.—J. L.]
[43][But Winer there reverts to Luther’s unter euch, instead of the preferable an of previous editions; and Auberlen’s own version has simply the dative: verkündigten wir euch. It may also he noted, here that, for εἰς ὑμᾶς, the Cod. Sin. a prima manu reads ὑμῖν.—J. L.]
[44][Bengel: Sancte in rebus divinis, juste erga homines—the classical distinction between ὁσίως and δικαίως, but not always to be pressed in the N. T.—J. L.]
[45][Ellicott: “Perhaps it is safer to say that ὁσίως and δικαίως form on the positive side a compound idea of holy purity and righteousness, whether towards God or towards men, while ἀμέμπτως states on the negative side the general blamelessness in both aspect is and relations.”—J. L.]
[46][An interpretation suggested by Musculus, allowed by Baumgarten, and adopted by Ellicott (whose version, however, to you that believe, does not convey that idea).—J. L.]
[47][The objection drawn from the adverbs to the construction of ὑμῖν as a dat. judicii—a construction followed also by Alford, who cites 2 Peter 3:14—is plausible only when, by an arbitrary rendering of the verb, as=appeared, were thought, the idea of judgment is transferred to it from the dative.—J. L.]
[48][German: als Dativ des Vortheils=as a dative of interest. But this must be a misprint for Urtheils.—J. L.]
[49][Sometimes also they restrict ὑμῖν τοῖς πιστ, to ἀμέμπτως (Syriac, Theoderet, Œcumenius, Calvin, &c.). The Greek order is this: “Ye are witnesses, and God, how holily and righteously and unblamably to (for) you who believed we behaved.” Probably the precise import of the dative in this case must be left doubtful. Ellicott’s objection to it as a dative of judgment, that “the Apostle would scarcely have appealed to God in reference to the judgment of the Thessalonians,” is by no means decisive. Solemnly to remind converts of their earliest convictions and first love is a Scripture means of guarding them, or recovering them, from declension and apostasy. Comp. Galatians 4:14-15; Revelation 2:3; Revelation 2:5; &c.—J. L.]
[50][in dem wir, wie ihr ja wisset, &c.—J. L.]
[51][Notwithstanding the above remarks, I adhere still to the ordinary construction of καθάπερ ὄιδατε, ὡς ἔνα ἔκαστον, &c. The objections to it are more than counterbalanced by the exceeding awkwardness of the new arrangement proposed. As a parenthesis belonging to what follows it, καθάτερ αἴδατε would be strangely misplaced. It is also very improbable that any considerations of euphony determined the use of καθάπερ here, instead of καθώς (1Th 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 1:5. See 1 Thessalonians 2:13, καθώς ἐστιν ). Perhaps it might rather be said, that the former was selected for the sake of still more strongly emphasizing the exactness of the correspondence between the personal and the official conduct of the Apostle.—J. L.]
[52][It is wanting in Cod. Sin.—Ellicott speaks of it as a “collective ὑμᾶς serving still more clearly to define all that were included—a defining and supplementary accusative, somewhat allied to the use of that case in the σχῆμα καθ̓ ὅλον καὶ μέρος.”—J. L.]
[53][Some editions repeating ὑμᾶς after συνεξωοποίησε.—J. L.]
[54][Similarly Peile: “in words both of encouragement and solemn admonition.”—It is quite probable that παρακαλοῦντες may draw the ὑμᾶς to itself as being the generic word. But what is said above more than that is too confidently stated. Certainly there is not another instance in the New Testament of παρακαλέω (in the sense of exhorting) being followed, any more than μαρτύρομαι, by είς τό. The prevailing construction of the former also is with ἴνα or an infinitive.—J. L.]
[55][The Greek Testament begins 1 Thessalonians 2:12 with καὶ μαρτυρόμενοι.—J. L.]
[56][Vaughan: “A reiterated sound, continued through the individual life.”—J. L.]
[57]Comp. Lehrer- und Predigerspiegel 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 in Zeller’s Monatsblatt von Beuggen, 1860, No. 10 sqq.
[58][Psalms 44:21 of the English version. Luther’s version, followed in our text: nun kennet er ja unsers Herzens Grund.—J. L.]
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