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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Thessalonians 1:9 - 1:9
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
They themselves (autoi). The men of Macedonia, voluntarily.
Report (apaggellousin). Linear present active indicative, keep on reporting.
What manner of entering in (hopoian eisodon). What sort of entrance, qualitative relative in an indirect question.
We had (eschomen). Second aorist active (ingressive) indicative of the common verb echō.
And how (kai pōs). Here the interrogative adverb pōs in this part of the indirect question. This part about “them” (you) as the first part about Paul. The verb epistrephō is an old verb for turning and is common in the Acts for Gentiles turning to God, as here from idols, though not by Paul again in this sense. In Gal 4:9 Paul uses it for turning to the weak and beggarly elements of Judaism.
From idols (apo tōn eidolōn). Old word from eidos (figure) for image or likeness and then for the image of a heathen god (our idol). Common in the lxx in this sense. In Act 14:15 Paul at Lystra urged the people to turn from these vain things to the living God (apo toutōn tōn mataiōn epistrephein epi theon zōnta), using the same verb epistrephein. Here also Paul has a like idea, to serve a living and true God (douleuein theōi zōnti kai alēthinōi). No article, it is true, but should be translated “the living and true God” (cf. Act 14:15). Not “dead” like the idols from which they turned, but alive and genuine (alēthinos, not alēthēs).