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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
A CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL COMMENTARY
ON
EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL TO THE THESSALONIANS
BY
JAMES EVERETT FRAME
Professor of Biblical Theology, Union Theological Seminary, New York
EDINBURGH
T & T. CLARK LIMITED, 59 GEORGE STREET
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ABBREVIATIONS
AJT. = The American Journal of Theology (Chicago).
Ambst. = Ambrosiaster.
BDB. = Brown, Driver, Briggs, Heb.-Eng. Lexicon.
Bl. = F. Blass, Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch (1896, 19022).
BMT. = E. D. Burton, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses in N. T. Greek (18983).
Born. = Bornemann.
Bousset, Relig. = W. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums im neutestamentlichen Zeitalter (19062).
Calv. = Calvin.
Charles, Eschat. = R. H. Charles, Eschatology, Hebrew, Jewish, and Christian (1899).
Chrys. = Chrysostom.
Deiss. BS. = A. Deissmann, Bibelstudien (1895).
NBS. = Neue Bibelstudien (1897).
Light = Light from the Ancient East (1910) = Licht vom Osten (19093).
De W. = De Wette.
Dob. = Ernst von Dobschü
EB. = The Encyclopæ Biblica (London, 1899-1903; ed. J. S. Black and T. K. Cheyne).
EGT. = The Expositor’s Greek Testament (ed. W. R. Nicoll, 1897-1910).
Einl. = Einleitung in das N. T.
Ell. = Ellicott.
Ephr. = Ephraem Syrus.
ERE. = Encyclopæ of Religion and Ethics (ed. J. Hastings, 1909 ff.).
Exp. = The Expositor (London; ed. W. R. Nicoll).
Exp. Times = The Expository Times (Edinburgh; ed. J. Hastings).
Find. = G. G. Findlay.
GGA. = Gö Gelehrte Anzeigen.
GMT. = W. W. Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb (1890).
Grot. = Hugo de Groot (Grotius).
Hatch, Essays = E. Hatch, Essays in Biblical Greek (1889).
HC. = Holtzmann’s Handcommentar zum Neuen Testament.
HDB. = Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible (1898-1904).
ICC. = International Critical Commentary.
Introd. = Introduction to the N. T.
JBL. = The Journal of Biblical Literature (New York).
JTS. = The Journal of Theological Studies.
Kennedy, Last Things = H. A. A. Kennedy, St. Paul’s Conceptions of the Last Things (1904).
Sources = Sources of N. T. Greek (1895).
Lft. = Lightfoot.
Lillie = John Lillie, Epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians, Translated from the Greek, with Notes (1856).
Lü = Lü
Lxx. = The Old Testament in Greek (ed. H. B. Swete, 1887-1894).
Meyer = Kritisch-exegetischer Komm. ü das N. T.
Migne, PG. = Patrologiæseries græ
PL. = Patrologiæseries latina.
Mill. = George Milligan.
Moff. = James Moffatt.
Moult. = James Hope Moulton, A Grammar of N. T. Greek, I (1906).
NKZ. = Neue kirchliche Zeitschrift.
PRE. = Real-Encyclopä fü protest. Theologie u. Kirche (3d ed. Hauck, 1896-1909).
RTP. = Review of Theology and Philosophy.
Ruther. = W. G. Rutherford, St. Paul’s Epistles to the Thess. and Corinthians. A New Translation (1908).
SBBA. = Sitzungsberichte der kö Preuss. Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Berlin.
Schü = E. Schü Geschichte des Jü Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi (4th ed., 1901-1909).
SH. = Comm. on Romans in ICC. by W. Sanday and A. C. Headlam.
SHS. = C. A. Briggs, General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture (1899).
SK. = Studien und Kritiken.
SNT. = Die Schriften des N. T. (1907-1908; ed. J. Weiss).
Sod. = Hermann Freiherr von Soden.
Soph. Lex. = E. A. Sophocles, Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine Periods (revised by J. H. Thayer, 1887, 1900).
Thay. = Joseph Henry Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon of the N. T. (1889).
Th. Mops. = Theodore of Mopsuestia, in epistolas Pauli commentarii (ed. H. B. Swete, 1880-1882).
Tisch. = Tischendorf.
TLZ. = Theologische Literaturzeitung.
TS. = Texts and Studies (Cambridge).
TU. = Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur.
Vincent = M. R. Vincent, Word Studies in the N. T., vol. IV, 1900.
Viteau = J. Viteau, Etude sur le Grec du N. T. (I, 1893, II, 1896).
Volz, Eschat. = Paul Volz, Jü Eschatologie von Daniel bis Akiba (1903).
Weiss = B. Weiss in TU. XIV, 3 (1896).
WH. = The New Testament in the Original Greek (1881; I, Text, II, Introduction and Appendix).
Witk. = St. Witkowski, EpistulæPrivatæGrææ(1906).
Wohl. = Wohlenberg.
WS. = P. W. Schmiedel, 8th ed. of Winer’s Grammatik (1894 ff.).
Zim. = F. Zimmer, Der Text der Thessalonicherbriefe (1893).
ZNW. = Preuschen’s Zeitschrift fü die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft.
ZTK. = Zeitschrift fü Theologie und Kirche.
ZWT. = Zeitschrift fü Wissenschaftliche Theologie.
N. B. The Old Testament is cited from the Greek text (ed. Swete), the New Testament from the text of WH., and the Apostolic Fathers from the editio quarta minor of Gebhardt, Harnack, and Zahn (1902). For Ethiopic Enoch (Eth. En.), Slavonic Enoch (Slav. En.), Ascension of Isaiah (Ascen. Isa.), Assumption of Moses (Ass. Mos.), Apocalypse of Baruch (Apoc. Bar.), Book of Jubilees (Jub.), and Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (Test. xii), the editions of R. H. Charles have been used; for the Psalms of Solomon (Ps. Sol.), the edition of Ryle and James; and for the Fourth Book of Ezra (4 Ezra), that of Bensly and James.
By I is meant 1 Thessalonians and by II, 2 Thessalonians.
INTRODUCTION
§I. FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH OF THE THESSALONIANS
(1) From Antioch to Philippi—It was seventeen years after God had been pleased to reveal his Son in him, and shortly after the momentous scene in Antioch (Gal_2:11 ff.) that Paul in company with Silas, a Roman citizen who had known the early Christian movement both in Antioch and in Jerusalem, and with Timothy, a younger man, son of a Gentile father and a Jewish mother, set forth to revisit the Christia communities previously established in the province of Galatia by Paul, Barnabas, and their helper John Mark. Intending to preach the gospel in Western Asia, they made but a brief stay in Galatia and headed westward presumably for Ephesus, only to be forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and again endeavouring to go into Bithynia were prevented by the Spirit of Jesus. Having come down to Troas, Paul was inspired by a vision to undertake missionary work in Europe; and accordingly set sail, along with the author of the “we”-sections, from Troas and made a straight course to Samothrace, and the day following to Neapolis; and from thence to Philippi (Act_15:40-11). The experiences in that city narrated by Acts (16:12-40), Paul nowhere recounts in detail; but the persecutions and particularly the insult offered to the Roman citizenship of himself and Silas (Act_16:37) affected him so deeply that he could not refrain from telling the Thessalonians about the matter and from mentioning it again when he wrote his first letter to them (I 2:2).
(2) From Philippi to Thessalonica—Forced by reason of persecution to leave Philippi prematurely (I 2:2, Act_16:39-40), Paul and Silas with Timothy (I 2:2; he is assumed also by Acts to be present, though he is not expressly named between 16:3 and 17:14), but without the author of the “we”-sections, took the Via Egnatia which connected Rome with the East, travelled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, and arrived, early in the year 50 a.d., at Thessalonica, a city placed in gremio imperii nostri, as Cicero has it (de prov. consul. 2), and a business and trade centre as important then to the Roman Empire as it is now to the Turkish Empire, Saloniki to-day being next after Constantinople the leading metropolis in European Turkey.
Thessalonica had been in existence about three hundred and sixty-five years and a free city for about a century when Paul first saw it. According to Strabo (33021, 24, ed. Meineke), an older contemporary of the Apostle, it was founded by Cassander who merged into one the inhabitants of the adjacent towns on the Thermaic gulf and gave the new foundation the name Thessalonica after his wife, a sister of Alexander the Great. “During the first civil war, it was the headquarters of the Pompeian party and the Senate. During the second, it took the side of Octavius, whence apparently it reached the honour and advantage of being made a ‘free city’ (Pliny, H. N. IV10), a privilege which is commemorated on some of its coins” (Howson). That it was a free city (liberae conditionis) meant that it had its own βυηand δμ (Act_17:5?), and also its own magistrates, who, as Luke accurately states, were called politarchs (Act_17:6).
Howson had already noted the inscription on the Vardá gate (destroyed in 1867) from which it appeared that “the number of politarchs was seven.” Burton, in an exhaustive essay (AJT 1898, 598-632), demonstrated, on the basis of seventeen inscriptions, that in Thessalonica there were five politarchs in the time of Augustus and six in the time of Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius.
On Thessalonica in general, see Howson in Smith’s DB. and Dickson in HDB where the literature, including the dissertation of Tafel, is amply listed. On Roads and Travel, see Ramsay in HDB V, 375 ff.
(3) Founding of the Church—In the time of Paul, Thessalonica was important, populous, and wicked (Strabo 323, 33021; Lucian, Lucius 46, ed. Jacobitz). Various nationalities were represented, including Jews (I 2:15-16, II 3:2, Act_17:2 ff.). Quite naturally, Paul made the synagogue the point of approach for the proclamation of the gospel of God, for the Christ, whose indwelling power unto righteousness he heralded, is of the Jews according to the flesh; and furthermore in the synagogue were to be found a number of Gentiles, men and women, who had attached themselves more or less intimately to Judaism either as proselytes or as φβύεο(σβμν) τνθό(see Bousset, Relig.2, 105), and who would be eager to compare Paul’s gospel both with the cults they had forsaken for the austere monotheism and rigorous ethics of Judaism and with the religion of Israel itself. In such Gentiles, already acquainted with the hopes and aspirations of the Jews, he was almost certain to win a nucleus for a Gentile Christian community (cf. Bousset, op. cit., 93), even if he had confined his ministry to the synagogue, as the account of Acts at first reading seems to intimate.
According to that narrative (Act_17:2 ff.), Paul addressed the synagogue on three, apparently successive, Sabbath days, making the burden of his message the proof from Scripture that the Messiah was to suffer and rise again from the dead, and pressing home the conclusion that the Jesus whom he preached was the promised Christ. The result of these efforts is stated briefly in one verse (17:4) to the effect that there joined fortunes with Paul and Silas some Jews, a great number of the σβμνιἝλν, and not a few women of the best society. It is not put in so many words but it is tempting to assume that the women referred to were, like “the devout Greeks,” Gentile proselytes or adherents, although Hort (Judaistic Christianity, 89) prefers to assume that they were “Jewish wives of heathen men of distinction.” However that may be, it is interesting to observe that even from the usual text of Act_17:4 (on Ramsay’s conjecture, see his St. Paul the Traveller, 226 ff.) it is evident that the noteworthy successes were not with people of Jewish stock but with Gentile adherents of the synagogue.
Of the formation of a Christian community consisting almost wholly of Gentiles, the community presupposed by the two letters, the Book of Acts has nothing direct to say. In lieu thereof, the author tells a story illustrating the opposition of the Jews and accounting for the enforced departure of Paul from Thessalonica. Jealous of Paul’s successful propaganda not only with a handful of Jews but also with those Gentiles who had been won over wholly or in part to the Jewish faith, the Jews took occasion to gather a mob which, after parading the streets and setting the city in an uproar, attacked the house of Jason in the hope of discovering the missionaries. Finding only Jason at home, they dragged him and some Christians before the politarchs and preferred the complaint not simply that the missionaries were disturbing the peace there as they had been doing elsewhere in the empire, but above all that they were guilty of treason, in that they asserted that there was another king or emperor, namely, Jesus,—an accusation natural to a Jew who thought of his Messiah as a king. The politarchs, though perturbed, did not take the charge seriously, but, contenting themselves with taking security from Jason and the others who were arrested, let them go.
Just how much is involved in this decision is uncertain. Evidently Jason and the rest were held responsible for any conduct or teaching that could be interpreted as illegal; but that Paul was actually expelled is doubtful; and that Jason and the others gave security for the continued absence of Paul is unlikely, seeing that the converts were surprised at his failure to return. See on I 2:18 and cf. Knowling on Act_17:9 in EGT
Of the preaching on the Sabbath Paul has nothing to say, or of the specific case of opposition, unless indeed the persecution of Jason was one of the instances of hardness of heart alluded to in I 2:15-16. On the other hand, while Acts is silent about missionary work apart from the synagogue, Paul intimates in the course of his apologia (I 2:7-12) that he was carrying on during the week a personal and individual work with the Gentiles that was even more important and successful than the preaching on the Sabbath of which alone Luke writes. It is quite to be expected that the Apostle would take every opportunity to speak informally about the gospel to every one he met; and to point out especially to those Gentiles, who had not expressed an interest in the God of his fathers by attaching themselves to the synagogue, the absurdity of serving idols, and to urge them to forsake their dead and false gods and turn to the living and true God and to his Son Jesus, who not only died for their sins but was raised again from the dead in order to become the indwelling power unto righteousness and the earnest of blessed felicity in the not distant future when Jesus, the rescuer from the coming Wrath, would appear and gather all believers into an eternal fellowship with himself (I 1:9-10, 4:9-10, II 2:13-14).
(4) Character of the Church—His appeal to the Gentiles succeeded; in spite of much opposition, he spoke courageously as God inspired him (I 2:2), not in words only but in power, in the Holy Spirit and in much conviction (I 1:5); and the contagious power of the same Spirit infected the listeners, leading them to welcome the word which they heard as a message not human but divine, as a power of God operating in the hearts of believers (I 1:6 ff., 2:13 ff.), creating within them a religious life spontaneous and intense, and prompting the expression of the same in those spiritual phenomena (I 5:21-22) that appear to be the characteristic effect of Paul’s gospel of the newness of life in Christ Jesus.
But although the gospel came home to them with power, and a vital and enthusiastic religious life was created, and a community of fervent believers was formed, there is no reason for supposing that the circle of Christians was large, unless we are determined to press the πῆο πλ of Act_17:4. The necessities of the case are met if we imagine a few men and women meeting together in the house of Jason, the house in which Paul lodged at his own expense (II 3:7), and which was known to the Jews as the centre of the Christian movement; for it was there that they looked for the missionaries and there that they found the “certain brethren.”
Nor must we expect to meet among the converts “many wise after the flesh, many mighty, and many noble.” To be sure, we hear later on of such important Thessalonians as Aristarchus (who was a Jew by birth, Act_20:4, Act_27:2, Col_4:10, Phm_1:24), Secundus (Act_20:4) and Demas (Col_4:14, Phm_1:24, 2Ti_4:10); but it cannot be affirmed with confidence that they belonged to the original group. Apart then from a few Gentile women of the better class (Act_17:2), the bulk of the Christians were working people. That they were skilled labourers like Paul is by no means clear; evident only is it that, hospitable and generous as they were (I 4:10), they were poor, so poor indeed that Paul supported himself by incessant toil in order not to make any demands upon the hospitality either of Jason his host or of any other of the converts, and that he welcomed the assistance sent him by the Philippians (Php_4:16) probably on their own initiative.
This little circle of humble Christians quickly became as dear to Paul as the church of their fellow-Macedonians at Philippi. He did not insist upon the position of preponderance which was his by right as an apostle of Christ, but chose to become just one of them, a babe in the midst of them. As a nurse cherishes her own children, so in his affection for them he gave them not only the gospel of God but his very self as well. Like as a father deals with his own children, so he urged each one of them, with a word of encouragement or a word of warning as the need might be, to walk worthily of God who calls them into his own kingdom and glory (I 2:6-12). When he tried, in his first letter to them, to put into words his love for those generous, affectionate, and enthusiastic workingmen, his emotion got the better of his utterance: “Who is our hope or joy or crown to boast in —or is it not you too—in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Indeed, it is really you who are our glory and our joy” (I 2:19-20). It is not surprising that on his way to Corinth, and in Corinth, he received constantly oral reports from believers everywhere about their faith in God and their expectancy of the Advent of his Son from heaven (I 1:7-10). And what he singles out for emphasis in his letters, their faith, hope, and love, their brotherly love and hospitality, their endurance under trial, and their exuberant joy in the Spirit, are probably just the qualities which characterised them from the beginning of their life in Christ.
It was indeed the very intensity of their religious fervour that made some of them forget that consecration to God is not simply religious but moral. He had warned them orally against the danger (I 4:2), but was obliged to become more explicit when he wrote them later on (I 4:3-8). Others again, it may be assumed though it is not explicitly stated, aware that the day of the Lord was near and conscious that without righteousness they could not enter into the kingdom, were inclined to worry about their salvation, forgetting that the indwelling Christ was the adequate power unto righteousness. Still others, influenced by the pressure of persecution and above all by the hope of the immediate coming of the Lord, became excited, and in spite of Paul’s example of industry gave up work and caused uneasiness in the brotherhood, so that Paul had to charge them to work with their own hands (I 4:11) and had to say abruptly: “If any one refuses to work, he shall not eat” (II 3:10). These imperfections however were not serious; they did not counterbalance the splendid start in faith and hope and love; had he been able to stay with them a little longer, he could have helped them to remove the cause of their difficulties. Unfortunately however, as a result of the case of Jason, he was compelled to leave them sooner than he had planned.
It has been assumed in the foregoing that Paul was in Thessalonica not longer than three weeks. There is nothing incredible in the statement of Acts (17:2), if the intensity of the religious life and the relative smallness of the group are once admitted. To be sure, it is not impossible that Luke intends to put the arrest of Jason not immediately after the three Sabbaths but at a somewhat later date, and that consequently a sojourn of six weeks may be conjectured (cf. Dob). The conjecture however is not urgent nor is it demanded by the probably correct interpretation of Php_4:16. That passage indicates not that the Philippians repeatedly sent aid to Paul when he was in Thessalonica but only that they sent him aid (see note on I 2:18). There is no evidence that either Paul or the Thessalonians requested assistance; it came unsolicited. Hence the time required for the journey on foot from Philippi to Thessalonica, about five or six days, does not militate against the assumption of a stay in Thessalonica lasting not longer than three weeks. See on this, Clemen, NKZ, 1896, VII, 146; and Paulus, II, 158; also, more recently, Lake, The Earlier Epistles of St. Paul, 1911, 64 ff.
§II. THE FIRST LETTER
(1) From Thessalonica to Corinth—No sooner had Paul left Thessalonica than he was anxious to return. “Now we, brothers, when we had been bereaved of you for a short time only, out of sight but not out of mind, were excessively anxious to see you with great desire, for we did wish to come to you, certainly I Paul did and that too repeatedly, and Satan stopped us” (I 2:17-18). To the happenings in the interval between his departure and the sending of Timothy from Athens, Paul does not allude; from Acts however (17:10-15) it appears that directly after the arrest of Jason, the brethren sent away Paul and Silas by night westward to Beroea, a land journey of about two days. In that city, the missionaries started their work, as in Thessalonica, with the synagogue and had success not only with the Gentile adherents of Judaism, men and women, but also with the Jews themselves. When however the Jews of Thessalonica heard of this success, they came to Beroea, stirred up trouble, and forced Paul to leave (cf. also I 2:15-16), after a stay of a week or two. Accompanied by an escort of the brethren, Paul travelled to the coast and, unless he took the overland route to Athens, a journey of nine or ten days, set sail from Pydna or Dion for Athens (a voyage under ordinary circumstances of two full days) leaving behind directions that Silas and Timothy follow him as soon as possible.
From Paul, but not from Acts, we learn that they did arrive in Athens and that, after the situation in Thessalonica had been discussed, decided to send Timothy back immediately to strengthen the faith of the converts and prevent any one of them from being beguiled in the midst of the persecutions which they were still undergoing (I 3:1 ff.; on the differences at this point between Acts and Paul, see McGiffert, Apostolic Age, 257). Whether also Silas and Timothy had heard rumours that the Jews, taking advantage of Paul’s absence, were maligning his character and trying to arouse the suspicion of the converts against him by misconstruing his failure to return, we do not know. At all events, shortly after the two friends had arrived, and Timothy had started back for Macedonia, Paul, after a sojourn of a fortnight or more, departed from Athens and in a day or two came to Corinth, whether with Silas or alone (Act_18:1) is unimportant.
(2) Place, Date, and Occasion—Arriving in Corinth early in the year 50 a.d., Paul made his home with Prisca and Aquila, supported himself by working at his trade, and discoursed every Sabbath in the synagogue. Later on, Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia and joined hands with Paul in a more determined effort to win the Jews to Christ, only to meet again the same provoking opposition that they had previously met in Macedonia. Paul became discouraged; but Timothy’s report that the Thessalonians, notwithstanding some imperfections, were constant in their faith and love and ever affectionately thinking of Paul, as eager to see him as he was to see them, cheered him enormously (I 3:6-10).
Bacon (Introd, 58) dates the arrival in Corinth early in the spring of 50 a.d.; cf. also C. H. Turner (HDB, I, 424). According to Act_18:11, Paul had been in Corinth a year and six months before Gallio appeared on the scene and left Corinth shortly after the coming of the proconsul (18:18). From an inscription in Delphi preserving the substance of a letter from the Emperor Claudius to that city, Deissmann (Paulus, 1911, 159-177) has shown that Gallio took office in midsummer, 51, and that, since Paul had already been in Corinth eighteen months when the proconsul of Achaia arrived, the Apostle “came to Corinth in the first months of the year 50 and left Corinth in the late summer of the year 51.” Inasmuch as Paul had probably not been long in Corinth before Timothy arrived, and inasmuch as the first letter was written shortly after Timothy came (I 3:6), the date of I is approximately placed in the spring of 50 and the date of II not more than five to seven weeks later.
From the oral report of Timothy and probably also from a letter (see on I 2:13, 4:9, 13, 5:1) brought by him from the church, Paul was able to learn accurately the situation and the needs of the brotherhood. In the first place he discovered that since his departure, not more than two or three months previously, the Jews had been casting wholesale aspersions on his behaviour during the visit and misinterpreting his failure to come back; and had succeeded in awakening suspicion in the hearts of some of the converts. Among other things, the Jews had asserted (I 2:1-12) that in general Paul’s religious appeal arose in error, meaning that his gospel was not a divine reality but a human delusion; that it arose in impurity, hinting that the enthusiastic gospel of the Spirit led him into immorality; and that it was influenced by sinister motives, implying that Paul, like the pagan itinerant impostors of religious or philosophical cults (cf. Clemen, NKZ, 1896, 152), was working solely for his own selfish advantage. Furthermore and specifically the Jews had alleged that Paul, when he was in Thessalonica, had fallen into cajoling address, had indulged in false pretences to cover his greed, and had demanded honour from the converts, as was his wont, using his position as an apostle of Christ to tax his credulous hearers. Finally, in proof of their assertions, they pointed to the unquestioned fact that Paul had not returned, the inference being that he did not care for his converts and that he had no intention of returning. The fact that Paul found it expedient to devote three chapters of his first letter to a defence against these attacks is evidence that the suspicion of some of the converts was aroused and that the danger of their being beguiled away from the faith was imminent. In his defence, he cannot withhold an outburst against the obstinate Jews (I 2:15-16) who are the instigators of these and other difficulties which he has to face; but he betrays no feeling of bitterness toward his converts. On the contrary, knowing how subtle the accusations have been, and confident that a word from him will assure them of his fervent and constant love and will remove any scruples they may have had, he addresses them in language of unstudied affection. His words went home; there is not the faintest echo of the apologia in the second epistle.
In the second place, he discovered that the original spiritual difficulties, incident to religious enthusiasm and an eager expectation of the coming of the Lord, difficulties which his abrupt departure had left unsettled, still persisted, and that a new question had arisen, due to the death of one or more of the converts. In reference to the dead in Christ, they needed not only encouragement but instruction; as for the rest, they required not new teaching but either encouragement or warning. “The shortcomings of their faith” (I 3:10) arose chiefly from the religious difficulties of the weak, the faint-hearted, and the idle. (1) The difficulty of “the weak” (ο ἀθνῖI 5:14) was that as pagans they had looked upon sexual immorality as a matter of indifference and had perhaps in their pagan worship associated impurity with consecration to the gods. What they as Christians needed to remember was that consecration to the true and living God was not only religious but ethical. Whether they had actually tumbled into the abyss or were standing on the precipice is not certain. At all events, Paul’s warning with its religious sanction and practical directions (I 4:3-8) sufficed; we hear nothing of “the weak” in the second letter. (2) The second class chiefly in mind are “the faint-hearted” (ο ὀιόυοI 5:14), those, namely, who were anxious not only about the death of their friends but also about their own salvation. (a) Since Paul’s departure, one or more of the converts had passed away. The brethren were in grief not because they did not believe in the resurrection of the saints but because they imagined, some of them at least, that their beloved dead would not enjoy the same advantages as the survivors at the coming of the Lord. Their perplexity was due not to inherent difficulties with Paul’s teaching, but to the fact that Paul had never discussed explicitly the question involved in the case. Worried about their friends, they urged that Paul be asked by letter for instruction concerning the dead in Christ (I 4:13-18). (b) But the faint-hearted were also worrying about themselves. They knew that the day of the Lord was to come suddenly and that it would catch the wicked unprepared; they remembered that Paul had insisted that without blameless living they could not enter into eternal fellowship with the Lord; but they forgot that the indwelling Christ is the power unto righteousness and the pledge of future felicity, and in their forgetfulness were losing the assurance of salvation. They needed encouragement and received it (I 5:1-11). Of these fainthearted souls, we shall hear even more in the second letter (II 1:3-2:17). (3) The third class of which Paul learned comprised prised the idle brethren (ο ἄατ I 5:14). With the enthusiastic conviction that the Lord was coming soon, with the constant pressure of persecution, and with the stimulus of Paul’s presence removed, some of the brethren had resumed their idle habits with their train of poverty and meddlesomeness in the affairs of the brotherhood. It would appear (see note on I 4:11) that they had sought assistance from the church and had been refused on the ground that Paul had clearly said that if a man refused to work, he could receive no support. Perhaps the idlers had asked for money “in the Spirit,” a misuse of spiritual gifts that tempted “those that laboured among them,” that is, those who took the lead in helping and warning, to despise the charismata (I 5:19-22). At all events. the leading men seem not to have been overtactful; and when they intimated that they would report the matter to Paul and ask for instructions, the idlers retorted that they would not listen to the reading of Paul’s letter (I 5:27). There was undoubtedly blame on both sides; clearly the peace of the brotherhood was disturbed. Still the trouble did not appear serious to Paul, judging from the answer which he sent (I 4:11-12; cf. 5:12-14, 21-22, 26-27.). But in spite of Paul’s letter, as we shall see, the idle brethren continued to be troublesome (II 3:1-17).
(3) Contents—With this situation in mind,—the excellence of their faith and love in spite of the temptations of the weak, the discouragement of the faint-hearted, and the unbrotherly conduct of the idlers; and their personal affection for Paul, notwithstanding the insinuations of the Jews, Paul began, not long after the arrival of Timothy (I 3:6) to dictate our first epistle. The first three chapters are given to a review of his attitude to the church from its foundation, and to a defence both of his behaviour when he was there (I 1:5-2:16) and of his failure to return (2:17-3:10). Even the prayer (3:11-13) that closes the double thanksgiving (1:2-2:12; 2:13-3:10) begins with the petition that God and Christ may direct his way to them. Tactfully disregarding the shortcomings, Paul thanks God, as he remembers their work of faith, labour of love, and endurance of hope, for the election of the readers, the certainty of which is known from the presence of the Spirit controlling not only the converts who welcomed the gospel with joy in spite of persecution and became a model assembly to believers everywhere, but also the attitude of the missionaries whose preaching was in the Spirit and whose behaviour was totally unselfish (1:2-10). Coming directly to the charges of the Jews, Paul, conscious both of the integrity of his motives and of his unselfish love (the theme is heard already in δʼὑᾶ1:5) and aware of the openness of his religious appeal, reminds his friends that he came not empty-handed but with a gospel and a courageous power inspired by God (2:1-2). Wherever he goes, he preaches as one who has no delusions about the truth, for his gospel is of God; who has no consciousness of moral aberration, for God has tested him and given him his commission; and who has no intention to deceive, for he is responsible solely to God who knows his motives (2:3-4). In Thessalonica, as his readers know, he never used cajoling speech, never exploited the gospel to further his own ambition, and never required honour to be paid him, even if he had the right to receive it as an ambassador of Christ (2:5-6). On the contrary, he waived that right, choosing to become just one of them, a babe in the midst of them; waived it in unselfish love for his dear children. Far from demanding honour, he worked with his hands to support himself while he preached, in order not to trespass upon the hospitality of his friends (2:7-9). The pious, righteous, and blameless conduct of which they were ever aware proves his sincerity as a preacher (2:10). Not as a flatterer but as a father, he urged them one and all, by encouragement or by solemn appeal, to behave as those who are called of God unto salvation in his kingdom and glory (2:11-12). Having thus defended his visit, he turns again to the welcome which they gave him and his gospel (2:13-16 resuming 1:6-10). Rightly they thank God, as he does, that they welcomed the word which they heard as God’s word, as a power operating in their hearts, attesting the genuineness of their faith by their steadfast endurance in the persecutions at the hands of their fellow-countrymen. It is however the Jews who are egging on the Gentiles,—the Jews who killed the prophets and the Lord Jesus and persecuted us, and who are not pleasing to God and are against humanity, hindering us from preaching to Gentiles unto their salvation. They have hardened their hearts; their sins are filling up; and the judgment is destined to come upon them at last (2:13-17).
Turning next to the insinuation of the Jews that he did not want to return, he reminds his orphaned children that from the moment he left them, he had been excessively anxious to see them and had repeatedly wished to return. Indeed nothing less than Satan could have deterred him. Far from not caring for them, he insists in words broken by emotion that it is above all they who are his glory and joy (2:17-20). Determined no longer to endure the separation, the missionaries, he says, agreed to send Timothy to encourage them in their faith and prevent their being beguiled in the midst of their persecution. As the Jews had singled out Paul for attack, he is at pains to add that he too as well as his companions had sent to know their faith, for he is apprehensive lest the tempter had tempted them and his work should turn out to be in vain (3:1-5). The return of Timothy with the good news of their spiritual life and their personal affection for Paul gave him new courage to face his own trials. “We live if you stand fast in the Lord.” Words fail to express the abundance of joy he has in their faith, as he prays constantly to see them and help them solve their spiritual difficulties (3:6-10). But whether or not his prayer will be answered, God and Christ, to whom he prays, will increase their love and will inwardly strengthen them, so that they will be unblemished in holiness when the Lord Jesus comes (3:11-13).
Even as he prays for brotherly love and a blameless life, he seems to have in mind the needs of the idlers and the weak. At all events, the apologia finished, he takes up the imperfections of the group, dealing chiefly with the difficulties of the weak, the idlers, and the faint-hearted. He begins the exhortations (4:1-5:22) tactfully, urging not his own authority but that of the indwelling Christ, and insisting graciously that he has nothing new to say and that, since they are already doing well, he can only bid them to do so the more (4:1-2). At the same time, he does not withhold his exhortations. Speaking first of all of the weak, he urges that true consecration is moral as well as religious and demands imperatively sexual purity. He suggests the practical remedy that fornication may be prevented by respect for one’s wife and that adultery may be prevented by marrying not in the spirit of lust but in the spirit of holiness and honour. Then, as a sanction for obedience, he reminds them that Christ punishes impurity; that God calls them not for impurity but for holiness; that to sin is to direct a blow not against the human but against the divine, even the Spirit, the consecrating Spirit that God gives them (4:3-8).
As to brotherly love, concerning which they had written, Paul remarks first of all and tactfully that, as they are practising it, instruction is unnecessary; but then proceeds to urge them in general to abound the more in that love and specifically, reiterating what he had said orally in reference to idleness, to strive to be tranquil in mind, undisturbed by the nearness of the advent, to mind their own business, not meddling in the affairs of the brotherhood, and to work with their hands, in order to win the respect of unbelievers and to avoid dependence upon the church for support (4:9-12).
Taking up the new point, the question of the faint-hearted in reference to the dead in Christ, he replies that his purpose in giving this new instruction is that they, unlike the unbelievers, who do not have the hope in Christ, should not sorrow at all. For it is certain, both on the ground of the believer’s experience in Christ and of a word of Jesus, whose point is summarised, that the surviving saints will not anticipate the dead at the Parousia. In fact, when the Lord comes, the dead in Christ will arise first; then the survivors will be snatched up at the same time with the risen dead and all together, with no advantage the one over the other, will meet the Lord in the air. “And so we shall always be with the Lord” (4:13-18). With this encouraging teaching, he turns to the personal anxieties of the fainthearted. They know, he says, as well as he that the day of the Lord will come suddenly and will take unbelievers by surprise; but they are not unbelievers that the day of the Lord should surprise them. To be sure they must be morally prepared, armed with faith, hope, and love; but they need not be discouraged about the outcome, for God has appointed them to salvation, the indwelling Christ has enabled them to be blameless, and Christ died for their sins in order that all believers, surviving or dead, may at the same time have life together with Christ. “Wherefore encourage one another and build up each other, as in fact you are doing” (5:1-11).
With a renewed exhortation, the need of a deeper brotherly love being in mind, he urges all to appreciate those who labour among them, leading and admonishing, and to regard them highly because of their work. Recognising that the idlers are not alone to blame for disturbing the peace of the brotherhood, he adds: “Be at peace among yourselves” (5:12-13). With a further exhortation, he sets forth the proper attitude of all to each of the three classes prominently in mind since 4:1: “Warn the idlers, encourage the faint-hearted, cling to the weak” (5:14). Then follows a word to all in view of the persecutions and the temptation to revenge, and in view also of the friction in the brotherhood: “Be slow to anger; see to it that no one retaliates an injury, but seek earnestly the good within and without” (5:14d-15). In spite of these difficulties, “always rejoice, continually pray, in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will operating in Christ for you” (5:16-18). Finally, in view both of the disparagement and of the misuse of spiritual gifts, he exhorts: “Quench not the gifts of the Spirit, do not make light of cases of prophesyings; on the other hand, test all gifts of the Spirit, holding fast to the good and holding aloof from every evil kind” (5:19-22). Recognising however that his exhortations (4:1-5:22), especially to ethical consecration (4:3-8) and to brotherly love and peace (4:9-12, 5:12-13) are of no avail without the help of God; and recognising further the necessity of the consecration not only of the soul but of the body (4:3-8), a consecration impossible unless the Spirit of God as immanent in the individual be inseparably bound to the human personality, body and soul, he prays first in general that God would consecrate them through and through, and then specifically that he would keep their spirit, the divine element, and their soul and body, the human element, intact, as an undivided whole, so that they might be morally blameless when the Lord comes. That this petition will be granted is certain, for God the faithful not only calls but consecrates and keeps them blameless to the end (5:23-24).
When you pray without ceasing (5:17), brothers, he says in closing, remember not only yourselves but us as well (5:25). Greet for us the brothers, all of them, with a holy kiss (5:26). Then having in mind the assertion of some of the idlers that they would give no heed to his letter, Paul adjures the brethren that his letter be read to all without exception (5:27). “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (5:28).
(4) Disposition—The first epistle may be thus divided:
I. Superscription 1:1
A. The Apologia 1:2-3:13
II. Thanksgiving 1:2-3:10
(1) Visit and Welcome 1:2-10
(2) Visit 2:1-12
(3) Welcome; the Jews 2:13-16
(4) Intended Visit 2:17-20
(5) Sending of Timothy 3:1-5
(6) Timothy’s Return and Report 3:6-10
III. Prayer 3:11-13
B. The Weak, The Idlers, The Faint-hearted, etc. 4:1-5:27
IV. Exhortations 4:1-5:22
(1) Introduction 4:1-2
(2) True Consecration 4:3-8
(3) Brotherly Love 4:9-10 a.
(4) Idleness 4:10b-12
(5) The Dead in Christ 4:13-18
(6) Times and Seasons 5:1-11
(7) Spiritual Labourers 5:12-13
(8) Idlers, Faint-hearted, Weak 5:14 a-c
(9) Love 5:14d-15
(10) Joy, Prayer, Thanksgiving 5:16-18
(11) Spiritual Gifts 5:19-22
V. Prayer 5:23-24
VI. Final Requests 5:25-27
VII. Benediction 5:28
§III. THE SECOND LETTER
(1) Occasion—It is impossible to determine with exactness the reasons that led to the writing of the second epistle. The internal evidence of II, upon which we must rely, permits only a tentative reconstruction of the course of events in the interval between the sending of I and the composition of II. We may assume however that the first letter did not have quite the effect that a visit from Paul would have had. To be sure, whatever suspicion the readers may have entertained as to Paul’s motives during and since his visit was dispelled by his affectionate words in defence of himself. It is evident also that his warning to the weak was effectual, being fortified by the help of the brethren, who, as he had requested, held to the weak, tenderly but firmly supporting them. On the other hand, the idle brethren continued to be meddlesome, Paul’s command, reiterating what he had said orally (I 4:11), not having had the desired effect. This failure may have been due in part to the fact, for which Paul is not responsible, that the majority, who had been urged to admonish the idlers (I 5:14) had not been tactful in performing their function (II 3:13, 15); and in part to the fact, for which again Paul is not to blame, that some of the brethren had imagined that Paul had said, either in an utterance of the Spirit, or in an uninspired word, or in the first epistle, something that was interpreted to mean that the day of the Lord was actually present (II 2:2). This disquieting statement, innocently attributed to Paul, perhaps by some of the excited idlers, affected not only the idle brethren as a whole but the faint-hearted as well. Already anxious about their salvation (I 5:1-11), they became unsettled and nervously wrought up (II 2:2); and naturally enough, for if they deemed themselves unworthy of salvation, and if it was true that the day of the Lord had actually dawned, then there was no time left for them to attain that blamelessness in holiness, that equipment of faith, hope, and love upon which the first letter had insisted (I 3:13, 5:8) as essential to the acquisition of salvation; and the judgment, reserved for unbelievers, would certainly come upon them.
Unable either to relieve the anxiety of the faint-hearted or to bring the idlers to a sense of duty, the leaders sent a letter (see notes on 1:3, 11, 3:1-5) to Paul by the first brother (3:11) who was journeying to Corinth. Reflecting the discouragement of the faint-hearted, they write remonstrating with Paul for his praise of their faith, love, and endurance, intimating that they were not worthy of it. Though they are praying that God may consider them worthy of the kingdom, they fear that he may not deem them worthy (1:3-12). They tell Paul of the assertion, attributed to him, that the day of the Lord is present, and the effect which it had both on the faint-hearted and on the idlers; and they ask advice specifically concerning the advent of the Lord and the assembling unto him (II 2:1). It may be conjectured that “those who labour among you” (I 5:12) had informed the idle brethren that they would report their conduct to Paul; and that some of these idlers had retorted that they would give no heed to the commands of Paul by letter (II 3:14), and would not even listen to the reading of the expected reply, intimating that they could not be sure that the letter would be genuine (II 3:17).
(2) Place, Date, and Purpose—Such a letter as we have postulated will have been sent shortly after the receipt of I. The new situation which it recounts is not new in kind but a natural development of tendencies present during the visit and evident in the first letter. Hence if we allow two or three weeks for I to reach Thessalonica, a week for the preparation of the reply, and two or three weeks for the reply to get to Corinth, then an interval between I and II of five to seven weeks is ample enough to account for the situation in Thessalonica suggested by II. Indeed, apart from the increased discouragement of the fainthearted and the continued recalcitrance of some of the idle brethren, there is nothing to indicate a notable change in the church since the visit of Timothy. Persecutions are still going on (II 1:4; cf. 2:17, 3:3 ff.), and the Jews are evidently the instigators of the same (II 3:2); the endurance of the converts is worthy of all praise (II 1:4); and the increase of faith and love (II 1:3) indicates not a large growth numerically but an appreciative recognition of progress in things essential, the fulfilment in part of the prayer in I 3:12. In Corinth, likewise, the situation since the writing of I has not changed materially; Silas and Timothy are still with Paul (II 1:1); and the opposition of the Jews (Act_17:5 ff.) those unrighteous and evil men whose hearts are hardened (II 3:2; cf. I 2:14-16), persists, so much so that Paul would gladly share with the converts the relief which the Parousia is to afford (II 1:7). On the whole, then, the available evidence points to the assumption that the second epistle was written from Corinth in the spring of 50 a.d. not more than five to seven weeks after the first epistle.
The second epistle is not a doctrinal treatise on the Antichrist, as if 2:1-12 were the sole point of the letter, but a practical exhortation, written by request and designed to encourage the faint-hearted and to admonish the idlers. The description of the judgment in 1:6 ff., the allusions to the premonitory signs in 2:3-8, and the characterisation of the advent of the Anomos (2:9-12), placed significantly after his destruction (2:8), are manifestly intended not to convey new. information but to encourage the faint-hearted by reminding them of his oral instructions,—an employment of teaching for practical needs which is characteristic of Paul, as the passage in another Macedonian letter suggests (Php_2:5 ff.). In reference to the second purpose of II, it is to be observed that since the idleness and meddlesomeness have increased, it is necessary to supplement the injunctions of I (4:11-12, 5:14) by the severer command that the majority hold aloof from the idle brethren, avoid association with them; at the same time it is significant that the last word is only a repetition of what was said in the first letter (5:14), with an added covert admonition of the somewhat tactless majority: “Do not regard him as an enemy but admonish him as a brother” (II 3:15). To encourage the faint-hearted (II 1:3-2:17) and to warn the idlers (II 3:1-17) is the two-fold purpose of this simple, tactful, pastoral letter.
(3) Contents—After the superscription (1:1-2) which differs from that in I only in having ἡῶafter πτίexpressing the sense of common fellowship in the Father, and in having after ερνthe usual “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” making explicit the source of divine favour and spiritual prosperity, Paul enters upon the thanksgiving (1:3-10) and closely related prayer (1:11-12) which together form an unbroken sentence of over two hundred words, liturgical in tone and designed to encourage the faint-hearted. In spite of what they have written, he ought, he insists, to thank God, as is proper under the circumstances, because their faith and brotherly love abound, so much so that he himself, contrary to their expectations, is boasting everywhere of their endurance and faith in the midst of persecutions. They need not worry (though the brethren as a whole are addressed, the faint-hearted are chiefly in mind) about their future salvation, for their splendid endurance springing from faith is positive proof that God the righteous judge will, in keeping with his purpose, deem them worthy of entrance into the kingdom, on behalf of which they as well as he are suffering. It will not always be well with their persecutors, for God, as righteous in judgment, will recompense them with affliction, as he will recompense the afflicted converts with relief from the same, a relief which Paul also will share. God will do so at the great assize (described in 1:7b-10 not for the sake of the description but for the encouragement of the believers) when the wicked, those, namely, who do not reverence God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, will receive as their punishment separation forever from Christ, on the very day when the righteous in general and (with an eye to the faint-hearted) all who became believers (for the converts believed the gospel addressed to them) will be the ground of honour and admiration accorded to Christ by the attendant angels. To reach this happy consummation, to be acquitted in that day, Paul prays, as the converts likewise prayed, that God will fill them with goodness and love, in order that finally the name of the Lord Jesus may be honoured in virtue of what they are and they may be honoured in virtue of what his name has accomplished. This glorification and blessed consummation, he assures them, is in accordance with the divine favour of our God and of the Lord Jesus Christ (1:3-12).
A little impatient that they have forgotten the instructions which he had given them orally and at a loss to understand how anything he had said in the Spirit, orally, or in his previous letter could be misconstrued to imply that he was responsible for the assertion that the day of the Lord is present, and yet recognising the agitation of the faint-hearted by reason of the assertion, and their need of encouragement, Paul turns to the specific question put to him “as to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling unto him” and exhorts them not to let their minds become easily unsettled and not to be nervously wrought up by the assertion, however conveyed and by whatever means attributed to him, that the day of the Lord is actually present. Allow no one to delude you, he says, into such a belief whatever means may be employed. Then choosing to treat the question put, solely with reference to the assertion and ever bearing in mind the need of the faint-hearted, he selects from the whole of his previous oral teaching on times and seasons only such elements as serve to prove that the assertion is mistaken, and reminds them that the day will not be present until first of all the apostasy comes and there is revealed a definite and well-known figure variously characterised as the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction, etc., allusions merely with which the readers are quite familiar, so familiar indeed that he can cut short the characterisation, and appeal, with a trace of impatience at their forgetfulness, to the memory of the readers to complete the picture (2:1-5).
Turning from the future to the present, he explains why the apostasy and the revelation of the Anomos are delayed. Though the day of the Lord is not far distant,—for there has already been set in operation the secret of lawlessness which is preparing the way for the apostasy and revelation of the Anomos, still that day will not be actually present until that which restrains him in order that the Anomos may be revealed only at the time set him by God, or the person who now restrains him, is put out of the way. Then and not till then will the Anomos be revealed. But of him the believers need have no fear, for the Lord will destroy him; indeed his Parousia, inspired by Satan and attended by outward signs and inward deceit prompted by falsehood and unrighteousness, is intended not for believers but for unbelievers. These are destined to destruction, like the son of destruction himself, because they have destroyed themselves by refusing to welcome the heavenly guest, the influence of the Spirit designed to awaken within them the love for the truth which is essential to their salvation. As a consequence of their refusal, God as righteous judge is bound himself (for it is he and not Satan or the Anomos who is in control) to send them an inward working to delude them into believing the falsehood, in order that at the day of judgment they might be condemned, all of them, on the ground that they believed not the truth but consented to unrighteousness (2:6-12).
With a purposed repetition of 1:3, Paul emphasises his obligation to thank God for them, notwithstanding their discouraged utterances, because, as he had said before (I 1:4 ff.), they are beloved and elect, chosen of God from everlasting, called and destined to obtain the glory of Christ. As beloved and elect, they should have no fear about their ultimate salvation and no disquietude by reason of the assertion that the day is present, but remembering the instructions, received orally and in his letter, should stand firm and hold those teachings. Aware however that divine power alone can make effective his appeal, and aware that righteousness, guaranteed by the Spirit, is indispensable to salvation, Paul prays that Christ and God, who in virtue of their grace had already commended their love to Christians in the death of Christ and had granted them through the Spirit inward assurance of salvation and hope for the ultimate acquisition of the glory of Christ, may grant also to the faint-hearted that same assurance and strengthen them in words and works of righteousness (2:13-17).
With these words of encouragement to the faint-hearted, he turns to the case of the idle brethren. Wishing to get their willing obedience, he appeals to the sympathy of all in requesting prayer for himself and his cause, and commends their faith. Referring to some remarks in their letter, he observes that if the idlers are disposed to excuse themselves on the ground that the tempter is too strong for them, they must remember that Christ is really to be depended on to give them power to resist temptation. Inasmuch as they have in Christ this power, Paul in the same Christ avows his faith in them that they will gladly do what he commands; indeed they are even now doing so. But to make his appeal effective, the aid of Christ is indispensable,—the power that will awaken in them a sense of God’s love and of the possession of that adequate endurance which is inspired by Christ (3:1-5). Having thus tactfully prepared the way, he takes up directly the question of the idlers. He commands the brethren as a whole to keep aloof from every brother who lives as an idler, a command issued not on his own authority but on that of the name of Christ. He is at pains to say that he is urging nothing new, and gently prepares for the repetition of the original instruction by referring to the way in which he worked to support himself when he was with them, so as to free them from any financial burden, strengthening the reference by reminding them that although he was entitled to a stipend as an apostle of Christ, he waived the right in order that his self-sacrificing labour might be an example to them. Then after explaining the occasion of the present command, he enjoins the idlers, impersonally and indirectly and with a tactfully added “we exhort,” to work and earn their own living with no agitation about the day of the Lord. With a broad hint to the majority as to their attitude to the idle brethren, he faces the contingency of disobedience on the part of some of the idlers. These recalcitrants are to be designated; there is to be no association with them. But the purpose of the discipline is repentance and reform. Once more the majority are warned: “Do not treat him as an enemy but warn him as a brother” (3:6-15). Since the command alone may not succeed in restoring peace to the brotherhood, Paul finally prays that Christ, the Lord of peace, may give them a sense of inward religious peace, and that too continua