Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 1 Thessalonians 4:4 - 4:4
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel, etc. (εἰδέναι ἕκαστον ὑμῶν τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος κτᾶσθαι)
The interpretation of 1Th 4:3-6 usually varies between two explanations: 1. making the whole passage refer to fornication and adultery: 2. limiting this reference to 1Th 4:3-5, and making 1Th 4:6 refer to honesty in business. Both are wrong. The entire passage exhibits two groups of parallel clauses; the one concerning sexual, and the other business relations. Thus: 1. Abstain from fornication: deal honorably with your wives. 2. Pursue your business as holy men, not with covetous greed as the heathen: do not overreach or defraud. A comma should be placed after σκεῦος vessel, and κτᾶσθαι procure or acquire, instead of being made dependent on εἰδέναι know, should begin a new clause. Render, that every one of you treat his own wife honorably. Εἰδέναι is used Hebraistically in the sense of have a care for, regard, as 1Th 5:12, “Know them that labor,” etc.: recognize their claim to respect, and hold them in due regard. Comp. Gen 39:6 : Potiphar οὐκ ᾔδει τῶν καθ' αὑτὸν οὐδὲν “gave himself no concern about anything that he had.” 1Sa 2:12 : the sons of Eli οὐκ εἰδότες τὸν κύριον “paying no respect to the Lord.” Exo 1:8 : Another King arose ὃς οὐκ ᾔδει τὸν Ἱωσήφ “who did not recognize or regard Joseph”: did not remember his services and the respect in which he had been held. Σκεῦος is sometimes explained as body, for which there is no evidence in N.T. In 2Co 4:7 the sense is metaphorical. Neither in lxx nor Class. does it mean body. In lxx very often of the sacred vessels of worship: sometimes, as in Class., of the accoutrements of war. In N.T. occasionally, both in singular and plural, in the general sense of appliances, furniture, tackling. See Mat 12:29; Luk 17:31; Act 27:17; Heb 9:21. For the meaning vessel, see Luk 8:16; Joh 19:20; 2Co 4:7; Rev 2:27. Here, metaphorically, for wife; comp. 1Pe 3:7. It was used for wife in the coarse and literal sense by Rabbinical writers. The admonition aptly follows the charge to abstain from fornication. On the contrary, let each one treat honorably his own wife. The common interpretation is, “as a safeguard against fornication let every one know how to procure his own wife.” It is quite safe to say that such a sentence could never have proceeded from Paul. He never would have offset a charge to abstain from fornication with a counsel to be well informed in the way of obtaining a wife. When he does touch this subject, as he does in 1Co 7:2, he says, very simply, “to avoid fornication let every man have (ἐχέτω) his own wife”; not, know how to get one. Εἰδέναι know, as usually interpreted, is both superfluous and absurd. Besides, the question was not of procuring a wife, but of living honorably and decently with her, paying her the respect which was her right, and therefore avoiding illicit connections.
That he pursue his gain-getting in sanctification and honor (κτᾶσθαι ἐν ἁγιασμῷ καὶ τιμῇ)
As a holy and honorable man. The exhortation now turns to business relations. Κτᾶσθαι cannot mean possess, as A.V. That would require the perfect tense. It means procure, acquire. Often buy, as Act 17:28; lxx, Gen 33:19; Gen 39:1; Gen 47:19; Gen 49:30; Jos 24:33; absolutely, Eze 7:12, Eze 7:13.