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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Thessalonians 1:4 - 1:4
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Knowing (eidotes). Second perfect active participle of oida (eidon), a so-called causal participle=since we know, the third participle with the principal verb eucharistoumen, the Greek being fond of the circumstantial participle and lengthening sentences thereby (Robertson, Grammar, P. 1128).
Beloved by God (ēgapēmenoi hupo ̣toǔ theou). Perfect passive participle of agapaō, the verb so common in the N.T. for the highest kind of love. Paul is not content with the use of adelphoi here (often in this Epistle as 1Th 2:1, 1Th 2:14, 1Th 2:17; 1Th 3:7; 1Th 4:1, 1Th 4:10), but adds this affectionate phrase nowhere else in the N.T. in this form (cf. Jud 1:3) though in Sirach 45:1 and on the Rosetta Stone. But in 2Th 2:13 he quotes “beloved by the Lord” from Deu 33:12. The use of adelphoi for members of the same brotherhood can be derived from the Jewish custom (Act 2:29, Act 2:37) and the habit of Jesus (Mat 12:48) and is amply illustrated in the papyri for burial clubs and other orders and guilds (Moulton and Milligan’s Vocabulary).
Your election (tēn eklogēn humōn). That is the election of you by God. It is an old word from eklegomai used by Jesus of his choice of the twelve disciples (Joh 15:16) and by Paul of God’s eternal selection (Eph 1:4). The word eklogē is not in the lxx and only seven times in the N.T. and always of God’s choice of men (Act 9:15; 1Th 1:4; Rom 9:11; Rom 11:5, Rom 11:7, Rom 11:8; 2Pe 1:10). The divine eklogē was manifested in the Christian qualities of 1Th 1:3 (Moffatt).