1Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus [Timothy], unto the church of the Thessalonians which Isaiah 3 in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you [Grace unto you,
÷Üñéò ὑìῖí
], and peace (from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ).
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus [Timothy].—On Paul, see the Acts of the Apostles, and the Introduction to the Epistle to the Romans.—Silvanus. He is called in the Acts Silas; by Paul and Peter, Silvanus. A distinguished leader (
ἡãïýìåíïò
; comp. Lechler at Act_15:22) and prophet of the church of Jerusalem, he was chosen by the Apostolic Council as one of the bearers of its decrees to Antioch, where he then remained for a longer period in friendly intercourse with the Gentile Christians, exhorting them and confirming them in the faith (Act_15:22; Act_15:27; Act_15:32 sq.). Even though Act_15:34 be not genuine, yet that choice and this sojourn are sufficient to show, that Silas was one of the Jewish Christians who, like Stephen, had from the beginning a freer, open sense for Gentile Christianity and Paulinism. In recognition of this Large-heartedness Paul chose him for his attendant on his second missionary journey (Act_15:40), during which the church at Thessalonica was founded (see Introduction), and so we find him by his side in work and suffering, before magistrates, in stripes, in prison, in prayer, in miraculous deliverance, in flight, Act_16:19; Act_16:25; Act_16:29; Act_17:4; Act_17:10; Act_17:14 sq.; Act_18:5. He accordingly appears in the inscriptions of the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, and 2Co_1:19. Subsequently Silvanus is simply mentioned by Peter as bearer of his First Epistle to Asia Minor, where he was already known, ever since Paul’s second missionary journey, as “a faithful brother” (1Pe_5:12; comp. Fronmüller in loc.). Silvanus, from his original position at Jerusalem in friendly relations to Peter, and then a companion of Paul, is a man of whom it must be thought a peculiarly natural thing, that he again appears by the side of Peter, when the latter addressed himself to the at least to some extent Pauline churches of Asia Minor. He belongs to those men of second rank in the apostolic period, in whom the oneness of the Pauline spirit with that of the first Apostles, and the credibility, of late so severely assailed, of the book of Acts, are in an artless way historically represented. According to the tradition of the ancient Church, Silvanus should have been the first Bishop of Thessalonica, but Silas—whom it distinguishes from Silvanus—Bishop of Corinth (see Winer, biblisches Real-wörterbuch, 3d ed., II. p. 459, Art. Silas). As this distinction is certainly erroneous, since Silas is merely a contraction, such as frequently occurs in proper names, for Silvanus, as
Ἀíôßðáò
for
Ἀíôßðáôñïò
, in German Niklas for Nikolaus, &c, and since in the Acts we find Silas, and in Paul’s Epistles Silvanus, associated with Paul and Timothy at Thessalonica and Corinth, so the whole tradition admits of easy explanation as an arbitrary inference from the New Testament data, Silas appearing for the last time at Corinth, Act_18:5, and Silvanus in the forefront of the Thessalonian Epistles.—On Timothy, who had in like manner attended the Apostle during the founding of the Thessalonian church, see the Introduction to 1 Tim. Everywhere Paul speaks of Timothy with paternal tenderness, and bears the highest testimony to his character. Not only does he mention him generally as a brother (2Co_1:1; Col_1:1; Phm_1:1; 1Th_3:2), not only as a servant of God and his own fellow-laborer in the gospel of Christ (1Th_3:2; Rom_16:21; 1Co_16:10), a servant of Jesus Christ, like himself (Php_1:1), but he calls him his faithful and beloved, his genuine child in the Lord (1Co_4:17; 1Ti_1:2; 1Ti_1:18 [
ãíçóßῳ ôÝêíῳ
]; 2Ti_1:2), and writes to the Philippians (Php_2:19 sqq.) of their knowing the proof of him, that, as a child the father, he has served with him in the gospel; indeed he says expressly (Php_1:20) that he has—so at least during the first Roman imprisonment, when he wrote this—no one likeminded, who will so sincerely and disinterestedly care for the church. Thus in the glorious circle of apostolic men that surrounded Paul Timothy takes the first place. “No one,” says F. Ranke, “has the Apostle embraced with more cordial and fatherly affection than Timothy—one of the loveliest and most refreshing sights of the apostolic age.”—It is undoubtedly as being the older man that Silvanus is here and 2Co_1:19placed before Timothy, whose youth is still spoken of in the Epistles written to him at a much later date (1Ti_4:12; 2Ti_2:22). It is worthy of note and agrees with what has just been said, that in the narrative of travel in the Acts (Acts 16, 17) Timothy, after the mention of his being added to the company, is not again immediately named, whereas Silas is mentioned frequently along with Paul. First on occasion of the separation from Paul is Timothy afterwards named along with and after Silas (Act_17:14 sq.; Act_18:5).—The Apostle names, and his practice is similar in other places also (comp., besides the inscriptions of 2 Thess., 2 Cor., Phil., Col., and Philemon, in which Timothy in like manner appears, 1Co_1:1Paul and Sosthenes, and Gal_1:1-2Paul and all the brethren that are with me), Silvanus and Timothy as joint authors, as virtually joined with him in getting up the Epistle, though he alone is the writer, and dictates the Epistle perhaps only to one of them. As they have preached the Lord together orally (comp. 2Co_1:19), so should also the written word go forth from all the three. The three men who had become dear to the church must again appear before her mental vision united as in the beginning; she must recognize their fair, lasting concord one with another, and know that she has received the same gospel, not merely from an individual, but from the mouth of two and three witnesses (Mat_18:16; Mat_18:20), and is borne on more than one heart (comp. 1Th_1:2 : we give thanks). Therefore also Paul does not need to describe Silvanus and Timothy more closely; they are held still in fresh, living remembrance by the church.—For just the same reason also he does not designate himself more fully as an Apostle, &c. As already remarked by Calvin, he needs not to come before the Thessalonians with official authority, but merely to recall his person to their memory, as he lived and wrought among them in the power of the Spirit. In this brief, free self-designation Lünemann finds with reason a mark of the earlier composition and authenticity of our Epistles. At a later period, indeed, Paul does not in the inscriptions of his Epistles call himself an Apostle in cases, where he can count on faithful, unimpaired love and recognition on the part of a church or an individual; yet even there the inscriptions are fuller, as Php_1:1; Phm_1:1. But after that his apostolic authority was assailed, from the time of the Epistle to the Galatians, his general custom was to append his official to his personal name, and then frequently he makes use of that for longer or shorter additions corresponding to the actual contents of the letter, so that no inscription is in all respects the same as another. Even in Thessalonica, it is true, attempts to create distrust were not wanting; but these affected not his apostolic authority as such, but his entire person. This freedom of the Apostle in his self-designations is characteristic and instructive. As he directs his letters, not to the office-bearers, but to the church, so, unless there be a necessity for it, he does not himself come forth in his official authority. He has no stiff official style, but here too he proportions every thing to the circumstances and exigencies of the particular case. Accordingly, he here distinguishes himself by no addition from Silvanus and Timotheus, but simply takes the precedence of them, and thereby at the same time designates himself as properly the author of the Epistle. Certainly in this is shown also the humility of the Apostle, and so far the remark is not incorrect, that Paul omitted his apostolic title out of modesty, whether towards the Thessalonians (Chrysostom, &c.), or towards Silvanus and Timothy Zwingli, Pott, &c.). Only we are not to find here the proper motive of the omission (comp. Col_1:1). The humility is all the more genuine, that it comes out thus silently and unconstrained.
2. To the church.—Paul writes not to the presbyters, teachers, &c., but to the churches; where he names the office-bearers, it is by way of supplementary appendage (Php_1:1). In the most solemn manner he requires, 1Th_5:27, that all the brethren should read the Epistle. To deny the reading of Holy Scripture to the laity, therefore, is to contravene its original destination. In his earlier Epistles (to the Thessalonians, Galatians, and Corinthians) Paul writes
ôῇ ἐêêëçóßᾳ
or
ôáῖò ἐêêëçóßáéò
; in the later ones (Romans, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians)
ôïῖò ἁãßïéò
, &c, which indeed is added in those to the Corinthians.
3. In God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.—These words are to be closely joined with
ôῇ ἐêêëçóßᾳ
, as if they were preceded by
ôῇ
or
ôῇ ïὔóῃ
, as in the opening of 1 and 2 Cor., where it is said, only in reverse order:
ôῇ ἐêêëçóßᾳ ôïῦ èåïῦ ôῆ ïὔóῃ ἐí Êïñßíèῳ
(comp. 1Th_2:14). The addition attached by means of the preposition forms here, in fact (comp. Winer, p. 123), with the substantive but one main idea, and is to be connected with it merely by the voice. This happens with special frequency in the case of the Pauline formula:
ἐí ×ñéóôῷ Ἰçóïῦ
, to which our expression is nearly allied (comp., in particular, Php_1:1 :
ôïῖò ἁãßïéò ἐí ×ñéóôῷ Ἰçóïῦ ôïῖò ïὖóéí ἐí Öéëßððïéò
, also Col_1:2). Thus the want of the article intimates that it belongs to the idea of the Church, to be in God and Christ. “Est hæc nota veluti approbatio veræ et legitimæ ecclesiæ” (Calvin). In this very brevity of the expression is something great and profound. It denotes not merely fellowship with God (Bengel, Lünemann), but a real, essential being in God and Christ (Rom_16:11; Joh_15:4; Joh_17:21 sqq.; 1Jn_2:5 sq.; 1Jn_5:20). “It is a high dignity, to which nothing is equal, when one is in God” (Chrysostom). Whereas Thessalonica previously lay with the whole world in the wicked one (
ἐí ôῷ ðïíçñῷ
masc., 1Jn_5:19; comp. 1:18;
ἐí ôῷ ἀëçèéíῷ
opposed to 1:20)—whereas in that place there were only Jews, who had no part in Christ, and Gentiles, who had none also in God—there is at this time a church there, that is in God the Father, and in Christ Jesus. Here is a miracle of God, over which the Apostle gives Him glory and thanks; as always at the beginning of his Epistles, when he turns his eye on the churches, so also here, 1Th_1:2.
4. Grace unto you [German: Grace be with you.—J. L.], and peace. The old epistolary style combines in the inscription what with us is distributed into the address, salutation, subscription, and direction. The Pauline benediction is
÷Üñéò êáὶ åἰñÞíç
; only in the Epistles to Timothy (and perhaps Tit_1:4)
÷Üñéò
,
ἔëåïò
,
åἰñÞíç
; the first form also in 1 and 2 Peter, the latter in 2 John; Judges 2 :
ἔëåïò êáὶ åἰñÞíç êáὶ ἀãÜðç
.
×Üñéò
reminds us of the Greek salutation
÷áßñåéí
(comp. Act_23:26), which occurs also in the apostolic circular (Act_15:23; Jam_1:1);
åἰñÞíç
, of the Hebrew (likewise Arabic, see Winer, Realwörterbuch: Höflichkeit) form of salutation and benediction,
ùָׁìåֹí
(Gen_43:23; Jdg_19:20; 1Ch_12:18; Exo_18:7; Jdg_18:151Sa_10:4; 1Sa_25:5-6). As James in a lively manner connects, 1Th_1:2,
÷áñÜ
with the
÷áßñåéí
, so Paul has given it a turn of yet deeper Christian import in
÷Üñéò
while, the
åἰñÞíç ὑìῖí
had already by the Saviour or His return from death been brought to a Christian maturity and depth (Joh_20:19; Joh_20:21; Joh_20:26; comp. also Luk_10:5-6), especially in connection with His farewell discourse, in which He had promised, as the fruit of His victory over the world, and so as a distinctive family legacy in opposition to the world, to bequeathe His peace to His own (Joh_14:27; Joh_16:33). By their juxtaposition both words are raised completely out of their Gentile and Jewish outward significance, as referring almost solely to the natural life and welfare, into the “fulness of the peculiar salvation and blessing of Christians.” A notable instance of the way in which the New Testament dialect was formed.—
÷Üñéò
is, first of all, favor generally, kindness, especially towards inferiors, the
ἀãÜðç
in self-manifestation (just as righteousness is holiness in self-manifestation), and in this sense it is used also of the child Jesus, Luk_2:40 :
÷Üñéò èåïῦ ἦí ἐð
ʼ
áὐôü
. But in a more special sense
÷Üñéò
denotes (opposed to
ὀöåßëçìá
,
íüìïò
,
ἔñãá
, Rom_4:4; Rom_6:14 sq.; Rom_11:6) the exhibition of the Divine love as free and undeserved in regard to such, as have not merely no legal claim to it, but have according to law deserved the opposite (Rom_3:23-24; Eph_2:3-5). This is the New Testament saving grace, which in Christ Jesus has appeared to sinners (Tit_2:11; Joh_1:17). It is not merely the principle of the redemption accomplished once for all, but it continues also to be the sustaining ground, the nourishing power of the new-spiritual life with its manifold gifts in Christians (comp. Act_23:11 [no doubt a misprint for Act_11:23]; Act_6:8; Eph_4:7), and so is ever afresh inwardly sealed and communicated to them from God in Christ through the Holy Ghost (comp. Rom_5:5; Joh_1:16). In this sense, according to which grace is thus not simply a sentiment, but at the same time a Divine self-communication, Paul desires for his readers ever fresh grace from God and Christ.
ÅἰñÞíç
need not be taken, with De Wette, Meyer, &c., against the Greek and New Testament usage, as=salvation, but with most since Chrysostom, who on this point as a Greek has a special voice, as=peace. This is the immediate effect of grace in the heart of man, the restoration, after the distraction and discord of the life of sin, of the harmony of the inner life, with its pure enjoyment, resting on the fact that the oppression and curse of sin are removed from the conscience, and man knows that in Christ he is brought again into his true relation to God, the filial relation (Rom_5:1), and is thereby comforted and strengthened against the oppositions and vexations of the world (Joh_16:33). The enhancement of this peace, when it pours its quickening and elevating influence into the experience, is joy (
÷áñÜ
, Rom_14:17; Php_4:4; Joh_15:11; Joh_16:22; Joh_16:24; Joh_17:13; 1Jn_1:4; 1Pe_1:8—a fundamental idea of the New Testament, too much neglected by us in life and doctrine). Peace being the feeling of convalescence and healthfulness of the new life, the home-feeling of the returned prodigal, it impels the man of itself to abide in the healthful life-element of home; it has a power to keep the heart and mind, the whole mechanism of the inner life, in Christ Jesus (Php_4:7), and is therefore suitable in every relation as a chief benediction for Christians.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Of the natural world these two things are true: In God we live, move, and are [Luther’s version: sind=
ἐóìÝí
.—J. L.], all things harmoniously existing in the Logos (Act_17:25-28; Col_1:17); and: The whole world lieth in the wicked one (1Jn_5:19). The original Divine powers of creation and the superadded powers of the prince of this world, life and death, intermingle therein in a mysterious manner. Through Christ this mixture is dissolved, and the separation, the great judgment of the world, is effected, whereby the Satanic element is cast out, and the world brought back again to its original ground of life (Joh_12:31; Col_1:20). It is in His own person first of all, the person of the Son of man who has entered through death into His glory, that the world’s judgment is fulfilled, that which is of the devil is rightfully abolished, and humanity introduced anew to God. Whosoever would again live wholly in God must be in Him. But this new being and life unites itself to the world first inwardly in the spirit. As therefore all creatures in respect of their natural existence, that is, so far as they live generally in the world of death and corruption, live, move, and are in God and immediately in the Logos, drawing continually from His omnipresent, all-pervading energy the breath of life, so Christians, in respect of their inner, pneumatic, incorruptible existence, are and live first of all in Jesus Christ, the glorified, who being the Lord is also the Spirit as God (2Co_3:17), and so the Head and all-pervading life-principle of the Church born of His Spirit (Col_1:18; Col_2:6-7; Eph_1:22 sq.; Eph_2:21 sq.), the element in which Christians live, as the branches in the vine (Joh_15:4 sqq.), so that all they do is done in Christ Jesus (Col_3:17 and the phrase, occurring more than a hundred times with Paul,
ἐí ×ñéóôῷ
or
ἐí êõñßῳ
). Because in Christ, they are then also, in this higher sense of the spiritual, eternal life, in God (1Co_3:23; 1Co_11:3; Joh_14:20). Thus in the Church is a beginning made towards the attainment of the great, Divine purpose in the world, again organically to comprehend the whole in Christ and in God (Eph_1:10; 1Co_15:28).—[Webster and Wilkinson: The full significancy of this important preposition
ἐí
, in its N. T. use with
Èåῷ
,
Ἰçóïῦ
,
×ñéóôῷ
,
Êõñßῳ
, can only be understood by realizing the all-pervading doctrine of the Holy Ghost.—J. L.]
2. It is of doctrinal significance, that
ἐêêëçóßá
denotes as well the universal, as the individual or local, church. The distinction between congregation and church [Gemeinde und Kirche] does not exist in the New Testament usage. Not merely a philological exactness, but one of Luther’s genial instincts must be recognized in his having preserved this identity of expression, and everywhere in the New Testament translated
ἐêêëçóßá
by Gemeinde [congregation]. Spirit is, according to Oetinger’s word, where every part can again become a whole. The same is true also of the place of the Spirit’s manifestation, the Church. The Apostles, anxious as they were for the order of single churches (Act_14:23; Tit_1:5), made no arrangement before their departure for securing the external unity of the Church, which till then had rested in their persons. From this fact, which has not yet been sufficiently considered, we perceive two things: 1. That the Church can be one in the Spirit, even where there is a separation of outward communions; 2. that we should make moderate account of the Church as an institution. The New Testament has no word for churchly.
3. “Nothing speaks more strongly for the Divinity of Christ than the practice, which pervades the whole style of Scripture, of joining Christ with God, and ascribing to Him strictly Divine operations.” Olshausen on Rom_1:7. There is everywhere in the New Testament, even in the Synoptical Gospels, a multitude of indirect evidences for the Divinity of Christ, modes of speech which can only on this supposition be understood in their full, natural sense. Christologies which recognize in the Redeemer merely the sinless, supernaturally begotten, eternally ordained central Man (Schleiermacher, Rothe, Schenkel), have in them important elements of truth, but do not ascend to the biblical height. In the inscriptions of the Pauline Epistles Father and Son are joined together as
Èåὸò ðáôÞñ
, with and without
ἡìῶí
, and
êýñéïò
(again with and without
ἡìῶí
)
Ἰçóïῦò ×ñéóôüò
. Now it might be supposed, especially on account of the
ἡìῶí
common to both, that
ðáôÞñ
and
êýñéïò
answer to one another, the former expression derived from the family, the latter from the state and kingdom; or the former from the filial relation, the latter from that of a servant (comp. Mal_1:6 and the frequent
äïῦëïò Ἰçóïῦ ×ñéóôïῦ
). But both the verbal arrangement and the decisive passage 1Co_8:5-6 (comp. 1Co_12:5-6; Eph_4:5-6) show that the correspondence is rather between
èåüò
and
êýñéïò
,
ðáôÞñ
and
Ἰçóïῦò ×ñéóôüò
. And this reminds us that the LXX put
êýñéïò
for
éְäåָֹä
(in conformity with the oral
àֲãֹðָé
) and
èåüò
for
àֱìֹäִéí
(comp. also Joh_20:28 and 2Jn_1:3, where to
êýñéïò Ἰçóïῦò ×ñéóôüò
is still added, with a specific relation to the
ðáôÞñ
,
ὁ õἱὸò ôïῦ ðáôñüò
). Thus the appellation
êýñéïò
also becomes a witness for Christ’s Divinity, as Nitzsch has particularly pointed out. (Cfr. his article on the essential trinity of God, Studien und Kritiken, 1841, p. 322 sqq., and System der christl. Lehre, 5th ed., p. 145, 189.) The peculiarity of the designation of Christ as
êýñéïò
is, that therein the Divine essence (
êýñéïò
=
éְäåָֹä
) and the historical, official position and operation (
êýñéïò êõñéåýùí
, Rom_14:9, Lord and King of the kingdom of God, on which account
ἡìῶí
is easily subjoined) are combined in one. The latter signification evolves itself in the Gospels by various steps and deepening shades of meaning from the dialect of common life, where
êýñéïò
as applied to Jesus is scarcely any longer an ordinary word of courtesy, but, as in the sphere of revelation generally, every nomen again becomes omen, a reverential address to One whose essential superiority is recognized, as well as his possession of a miraculous power (Joh_4:11; Joh_4:15; Joh_4:19; Mat_8:2; Mat_8:6; Mat_8:8; Mat_8:21; Mat_8:25; Mat_17:4; Mat_20:30-31; Mat_22:43-45; Mat_25:37; Mat_25:44; Mat_27:10; Joh_6:68; Joh_9:36; Joh_9:38; Joh_13:6; Joh_13:13 sq.; Joh_20:13; Joh_20:28; Joh_21:7; comp. Act_2:36; Act_10:36), whereas on the other hand the deeper, Jehovistic-Messianic usage of the Apostles, especially of Paul, is found employed at the very beginning, among the links of connection with the Old Testament, by the angel Gabriel (Luk_1:16-17, and so accordingly Luk_1:43; Luk_1:76; comp. also Mat_7:21-22; Act_7:59; Act_9:13-14). In the Book of Acts the expressions
ὁ ëüãïò ôïῦ èåïῦ
and
ὁ ëüãïò ôïῦ êõñßïõ
are used interchangeably (Act_4:31; Act_6:2; Act_6:7; Act_8:14; Act_17:13, &c.; Act_8:25; Act_13:48 sq.; Act_15:35 sq.; Act_19:10; Act_19:20). In this higher use of the word it is clearly implied, that Christ attained His central position as Lord and Head of the Church, of humanity, of the world, only by means of His Divinity. But certainly there is in it also an expression of the distinctive character of His Divinity, to wit, of subordination rightly understood—the Father being the Supreme God over all, and so also the God of Christ (Eph_1:17; Joh_20:17; Rev_3:12), but the Son God as manifested, mediating, standing on the pinnacle of the world (Eph_4:5-6; 1Co_12:5-6). God, Lord, Spirit, are the trinitarian expressions of Paul; Father, Son, Spirit, those of the Evangelists, of the Lord, and of John.—That God, the Most High, is our Father, who loves us, and to whom we should draw near with filial confidence, and that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Jehovah, who as Man draws near to us as Saviour—this truth meets the readers of Paul’s Epistles at the very outset, full of grace and peace.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Paul and his friends a model of Christian fellowship: 1. Generally of brethren with one another; 2. of teachers with one another (Paul and Silas, comp. Act_16:17); 3. of teachers and scholars (Paul and Timothy). The brotherly fellowship of teachers laboring in a church, as a main condition of blessed working: 1. The personal fellowship of spirit; 2. the fellowship of doctrine; 3. that of prayer and intercession (comp. 1Th_1:2 and 2Th_1:3; 2Th_1:11).—Christian brotherhood and Christian friend ship, their oneness and their difference, shown in the relation of Paul to his fellow-laborers and especially to Timothy.—Rieger: In the kingdom of Christ even the most highly-gifted person does not choose to be so alone, nor alone to perform everything, but gladly seizes occasion to support his own witness to the truth, and mode of acting therein, by the consent of others. In this way likewise a man can really well commend himself to the consciences of others, when they perceive in him a willingness to let others also stand beside him as his equals.
Believers should regard themselves as those who are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Comp. Tersteegen’s: “All-pervading Air, wherein we ever move, of all things principle and life, &c.” [Comp. Act_17:28.—J. L.]—Roos: Civil societies have their ground in an external force and a temporary expediency; a Christian church has its everlasting ground in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is acknowledged and adored in common.—Diedrich: Nowadays in most countries one knows only of churches on a merely natural foundation.—The great joy, which the Apostle always proclaims to his readers at the beginning of his Epistles, that God is our Father and Jesus Christ our Divine Lord.
The two vital points [Herzpunkte] of Christianity: 1. In the heart of God, and from Him, grace; 2. in the heart of man, and from him in the church, peace.—Thomas Aquinas:
÷Üñéò
principium omnis boni,
åἰñÞíç
finale bonorum omnium.—Phil. Matth. Hahn: We have daily need of fresh emanations of grace and peace from the highest source. 1. The emanations of God’s grace are innumerable: forgiveness of sins; the witness of the Spirit, that we are the children of God; light and life-power from the word. 2. Every new effluence of grace gives also new peace within the heart, since in full assurance of the Holy Ghost we know that we have not to fear God’s wrath on account of our former sins, and that the impending day of wrath will not consume us (see on Col_1:2; Eph_1:2).
[Anselm, cited by Pelt and Afford: “Gratia et pax a Deo sit vobis, ut, qui humana gratia et sæculari pace privati estis, apud Deum gratiam et pacem habeatis.”—J. L.]
Footnotes:
[The English form, Timothy, occurs seven times in our Authorized Version.—J. L.]
[
ἐêêëçóßá
, German: Gemeinde, congregation. But see Dr. Schaff’s note 4 on Mat_16:18.—J. L.]
[The English supplement, which is, might better have been omitted.—J. L.]
[The repetition of the in is also superfluous.—J. L.]
[See the Auth. Vers. at 2Th_1:2; Rom_1:7; Phm_1:3. Koch: “By the omission of the verb the expression gains fn strength and emphasis.”—German, after Luther: sei mit euch.—J. L.]
The words
ἀðὸ èåïῦ ðáôñὸò ἡìῶí êáὶ êõñßïõ
̓
Ἰçóáῦ ×ñéóôïῦ
are wanting in important manuscripts [B. F. G.], versions [Vulgate, Syriac, &c.], and all the [ancient] commentaries, and are therefore bracketed by Bengel and Lachmann, and cancelled by Tischendorf,* Pott, De Wette, Lünemann, and others [Alford, Ellicott, Amer. Bible Union], though defended by Schott, Olshausen, Koch, Reiche, and others. It is an obvious conjecture, that the words were brought here from the opening of the other Pauline Epistles, and in favor of this view is the brevity by which the inscription of this earliest of the Epistles is on the whole distinguished. In the precisely similar opening of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians the words in question are also found, and are there undoubtedly genuine. We let them stand here likewise [in brackets], in accordance with the principle which we intend to follow also in other cases, that for homiletic treatment a various reading only then comes to be of decisive importance, when the authorities are so weighty that a universal, or at least nearly universal, agreement prevails among the critics in regard to it. [In this case, moreover, the common reading is sustained by the Codex Sinaiticus,† A. D. E., and other uncials.—J. L.]
[According to Luther’s more exact rendering of Php_2:22.—J. L.]
[Ellicott: “as being probably the older man, and certainly the older associate of St. Paul.” Alford urges rather the personal and official eminence of Silas.—J. L.]
[By no means. Paul is the Bole author, and would be understood see 1Th_2:18; 1Th_3:1-2; 1Th_3:5-6; 2Th_2:5; 2Th_3:17. Comp. 1 Cor., Phil., and Philem., in each of which Epistles the Apostle associates a companion with himself in the salutation, and then immediately proceeds throughout in the first person singular. Comp, also the Epistle to the Galatians, where it can scarcely be supposed that the writer meant to ascribe joint authorship to “an the brethren” of 1Th_1:2.—J. L.]
[After citing various explanations of the special mention of “the bishops and deacons” in Php_1:1, Eadie adds: “The opinion of Wiesinger is at least as probable, that the real reason is to be found in the circumstances of the church, and that there was a tendency to undue assumption on the part of some individuals, which needed such an effective check as was implied in the special acknowledgment of those who bore office in it.”—J. L.]
[Ellicott: “The variation is slightly noticeable; it does not however seem to point to gradually altered views with regard to the attributes of the church (Jowett), but merely to the present comparative paucity of numbers (compare Chrysost.), and their aggregation in a single assembly.” And the same considerations may perhaps account for the fact that only in these two earliest Epistles does Paul address the church as composed of persons belonging to the city, and not as established in the city itself. Comp. Col_4:16.—J. L.]
[Hodge: “Not one and the same person, but one and the same Being, in the Same sense in which our Lord says: ‘I and the Father are one.’ It is an identity of essence and of power.”—J. L.]
[German: dass man von der Kirche als Institution mässiglich halten soll. Das Neue Testament hat kein Wort für kirchlich. Nor has the N. T. any word for evangelical, trinitarian, &c.; The logic of this second inference, from which I beg leave to express my dissent, is quite as feeble, as its spirit would seem to be at variance with that of the N. T. throughout. It is surely of the Church as an institution that Christ speaks in Mat_16:18; Mat_18:17; and Paul, for example, in Eph_4:4-13; 1Ti_3:15; &c. Nor is there any good reason why we should shrink from acknowledging, that whatever plausibility there may be in this sort of indifferentism, which is indeed common enough, in regard to the outward constitution of the Church, is derived, not at all from the N. T., but from the historical, and, alas, still seemingly helpless, confusions of Christendom.—J. L.]
[Substituted by the Jews in the reading of the Scriptures for
øְäåָֹä
.—J. L.]
