Lange Commentary - 2 Thessalonians 3:1 - 3:5

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Lange Commentary - 2 Thessalonians 3:1 - 3:5


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

III

Closing Exhortations

1. 2Th_3:1-5

The Apostle seeks their prayers, and commends to them generally a faithful perseverance in the true Christian spirit

1Finally, brethren, pray [Greek order: pray, brethren,] for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course [may run] and be glorified, even as it is with you [also with you]; 2And that we may be delivered from unreasonable [perverse] and wicked men: for all men have not faith [not all have faith]. 3But the Lord is faithful [faithful is the Lord], who shall stablish [establish] you, 4and keep you from evil [or: the evil one]. And [But] we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command you. 5And the Lord direct [But may the Lord direct] your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ [the patience of Christ].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. (2Th_3:1-2.) Finally, pray, &c.— Ôὸ ëïéðüí (here the article is wanting only in F. G.), equivalent to ëïéðüí , 1Th_4:1 [Ellicott: “but, owing to the article, slightly more specific.” Comp. 1Th_4:1, Exeg. Note 1.—J. L.]. Grotius: Vox properantis ad finem. It might be understood temporally: henceforth; but here it is better to take it in the sense of furthermore, moreover, what I have still to say, after the leading instruction on the subject of the last things. Pray for us (see 1Th_5:25, and the note there), as we for you. These words also show the conclusion to be near. The subject of the prayer is again expressed in the form of purpose. It is a thoroughly disinterested prayer that he contemplates; not for his own personal concern, but for a main object of his apostolic calling (comp. Eph_6:19); not, that God would strengthen him in faith;—Paul did not, indeed, assume any such lofty position, as that he himself could not be a castaway (1Co_9:27); yet it would have been contrary to decorum, to ask his children for their prayers in that regard [?];—but, that the word of the Lord may run; the word of the Lord (1Th_1:8), or the word of God (1Th_2:13), is the gospel. At 1Th_4:15 the phrase had a somewhat more specific meaning. To run is to fulfil its course swiftly and without hindrance; not bound (2Ti_2:9); to spread itself to where it is not yet; and, where it is already, to bestir itself, and come into proper circulation. [Comp. the Sept. Psa_147:15 : ἕùò ôÜ÷ïõò äñáìåῖôáé ὁ ëüãïò áὑôïῦ .—J. L.]—And be glorified, not merely commended, and its glory recognized (Act_13:48), but really glorified by its fruit, and actual demonstration of its Divine power and truth; Calvin: in the renewal of men into the image of Christ; whereby, certainly, are called forth many praises to God (comp. 2Th_1:12; Rom_11:13).—Even as it is also with you (1Th_3:4); be thus cheers them (comp. 1Th_2:13). Your prayers are to help the missionary work. The two present tenses after ἵíá denoted something continuous; whereas the aorist subjunctive with the second ἵíá : and that we may he delivered, marks a single occasion, deliverance from an actually existing peril. Here now in the second instance is a question of personal preservation, but here also again with a view to his office, that he may be kept safe for that. We may mean I Paul, or else I and Silvanus and Timothy; but certainly not, I and you Thessalonians, since he reverts to them again at 2Th_3:3. Theodoret remarks that the prayer seems to be twofold, and yet is but one; for when the ungodly are subdued, the word of the message also has unobstructed course. Theophylact: He prays thus, not that he may run no danger, for to that he was even appointed. But we cannot understand the deliverance as does Calvin: sive per mortem, sive per vitam; for his desire here is to be preserved to his earthly office. The ἄôïðïé are properly such as are not in their place; the neuter denotes at Luk_23:41 a criminal act; the masculine is here rendered by the Vulgate, importunis; Cicero explains it once by ineptus; but here it signifies not merely people who act improperly, but such as hinder and resist Divine and human order; Wetstein: facinorosus, flagitiosus. Still there is rather couched in the expression a certain reserve, though it does denote perverse, base men; Berlenb. Bibel [Bengel]: ungereimte [absurd]; and then ðïíçñüò has a more forcible import: bad, wicked. Paul has in his mind deliverance from snares, as at Rom_15:31; for it would be a mistake to think of the contradiction of heretics (Chrysostom, Theophylact: such as Hymenæus and Alexander; Zwingli thinks that Paul intends hypocrites and false brethren; Calvin: at least faithless Christians in name, along with furious Jewish zealots). The early date of the Epistle does not accord with the idea of false teachers, but very well with that of fanatical Jews, who expressly laid wait for the Apostle at Corinth (De Wette and the moderns generally); Act_18:9-10 answering perfectly to our 2Th_3:1, and Act_18:12 sqq. (the accusation before Gallio) to our 2Th_3:2. This again is a fine stroke of unstudied, artless coincidence with the apostolic history; a proof of genuineness.—For not all have faith. He thus gives the reason why he is compelled to speak of such men, from whose hands the point is to be delivered, and for whom one cannot simply pray: Convert them! (comp. Joh_17:9 with John 5:20). Some allege that Paul cannot be bringing forward the common-place: All do not believe, and thence infer that we must understand his meaning to be: It is not all who pass for Christians, that have true faith (so Calvin [Jowett] and others); they therefore think that the adversaries are (Calvin: at least in part) false Christians. But there is thus introduced what is not found in the expression, ἡ ðßóôéò meaning Christian faith absolutely, not true faith in opposition to that which is merely pretended. However, the sentence is no bare commonplace; nor yet is it suitable, as the phrase is abused for a frivolous excuse; and as little is it an assertion of the absolute Divine decree, as if God were unwilling to give faith to all; but a grievous charge: There are even people too ἄôïðïé êáὶ ðïíçñïß , treacherous and impure, to be susceptible of faith. It is a fine remark of Bengel, how appropriately Paul writes thus to those very Thessalonians who had been so prompt to believe: Be not surprised, if this is not the case with all.

2. (2Th_3:3.) But faithful is the Lord.—Not in German, but in Greek [and English] there is observable an antithesis between ðéóôüò and ðßóôéò of 2Th_3:2 (comp. 2Ti_2:13). But this is no reason for translating that ðßóôéò by faithfulness; ἡ ðßóôéò denotes Christian faith; but this is essentially faithfulness to God, trust in His faithfulness, whereas unbelief is faithlessness, distrust of His grace. There is peril in having to live amongst such unbelieving and therefore also faithless men. To this grief, therefore, he at once opposes the consolation—to man’s unfaithfulness the invariable faithfulness of God. The faithful Lord suffers not the ἀôüðïõò êáὶ ðïíçñïýò to get the upper hand. The Lord (according to the best reading) is Christ. That it can here, as in the Septuagint, mean only God (namely, the Father), is asserted by Hilgenfeld in the interest of the spuriousness of the Epistle, but without any valid reason (comp. 1Co_16:7 along with Rom_1:10). It is to be observed that Paul does not dwell on his own distresses, but the reflection, that the Thessalonians in their locality have the same experience of human wickedness as himself in Corinth, leads him at once back again to his own afflicted spiritual children, who are, indeed, as yet less experienced than he.—Who shall establish you (not simply may, 2Th_2:17), so that such as have not faith shall not be able to drag you off with them; and keep you from the evil. How this last word is to be taken is doubtful, as in Mat_6:13; Joh_17:15, and elsewhere. It may be that it is to be understood as neuter, as at Rom_12:9 : from the evil with which perhaps bad men threaten you; the Lord will keep you, so that whatever is done to you outwardly shall do you no inward hurt, and that which is properly ðïíçñüí shall not come to you, nor shall you be worsted in the conflict; and He will also so far avert outward harm, that the trial become not too severe (1Co_10:13). Possibly, however, it is to be regarded as masculine; ὁ ðïíçñüò , the Prince of evil, whose instruments evil men are, dares not touch you (comp. Eph_6:16; 1Jn_2:13; 1Jn_5:18). It is at any rate improper to take the singular: the evil (man) as collective for evil men [the Dutch Annotations, Koppe, Rosenmüller, Flatt, allow this interpretation.—J. L.]. But Lünemann’s assertion that it must be understood as neutral, on account of the opposition to 2Th_2:17 [a point which Alford also makes.—J. L.], is groundless; especially after the separation made by ôὸ ëïéðüí (2Th_3:1), of which, indeed, Lünemann generally makes too little account (see the close of the Introduction). In favor of the masculine are Calvin, Bengel, Rieger, Von Gerlach, Olshausen [and very many others, from Œcumenius and Theophylact to Ellicott and Wordsworth.—J. L.], also Hofmann: From the evil man he comes to the Evil One, who might rob him of the fruit of his labor; we add, by persuasion or else by seduction, and refer to 1Th_2:18; 1Th_3:5. Whether it be neuter or masculine, Paul’s promise is: God will establish you for the conflict, and protect you in it.

3. (2Th_3:4-5.) But we have confidence in the Lord touching you.—After reliance on God, there now follows again (as in 2Th_2:15) an exhortation, expressed in the delicate and winning form of confidence. Theodoret: For he is not forcing them, but seeking their free conviction: keep yourselves worthy of this good opinion. You can surely do so, since the Lord strengthens and guards you. This at once leads to, and prepares for, the special exhortation of 2Th_3:6 sqq. In the Lord, the same expression as in Gal_5:10; comp. Php_2:24; Rom_14:14. In Him our confidence in you has its strong foundation; we boast not of the flesh, and place not our hope in you as men, but only in the Lord; and yet in the Lord touching you; because ye stand in Him as we do; ye will thus receive the exhortation in the name of the Lord, and the Lord in whom ye stand will guide your hearts, and make you willing and able. The verb ðáñáããÝëëåéí is found also at 1Th_4:11, and the substantive ðáñáããåëëßá at 1Th_4:2; it is synonymous (at least on the practical side) with ðáñÜäïóéò , 2Th_2:15. As faith originated only in an act of obedience, so likewise it is only in this way that it can be maintained. Obedience is thus connected with preservation. By understanding the verse in this way: What we command and ye do, that ye will also do, we should rend asunder what belongs together. Far more natural is this: what we command you, ye both do and will do (henceforward and with a constant improvement). This exhortation he immediately seals again by a precatory benediction: But may the Lord direct, &c. Theodoret: We need both, purpose and strength, from above. The Lord alone can give you success. The Lord is, as always, Christ; not, as Hilgenfeld again decides, God (the Father). Basil the Great, Theodoret, Theophylact [Wordsworth], would have it, that Paul is speaking of the Holy Spirit, because it could not be said: May Christ direct your hearts into the patience of Christ (were this valid, it would hold still more strongly, inasmuch as it concerns the first member of the verse, that it could not be said: May God direct your hearts into the love of God). But the argument is not convincing. It were contrary to the whole usage of the New Testament, to understand by the Lord the Holy Spirit; 2Co_3:17 (to be explained by 2Th_3:6) is of quite another sort. Rather, Christ is repeated at the end of the second member, because it is remote from the subject, and separated from it by èåïῦ (comp., moreover, 1Co_1:7-8). Thus Christ, the Faithful (2Th_3:3), who alone can make you do what is right, in whom alone we have confidence in you (2Th_3:4), may He plainly direct (1Th_3:11, our way; here) your hearts (2Ch_12:14, Septuagint), so that they reach out sincerely towards the mark. But the passage in Chronicles is not an irrefragable proof, that here also the mark of the êáôåõèýíåéí must necessarily be a proceeding of the Thessalonians; the mark itself might be a Divine concernment, to which their hearts are to reach out in faith and trust. In the case of the first member, the love of God, it would no doubt be simplest to regard the genitive as a genitive of the object: love to God [De Wette, Lünemann, Alford, Lectures, Ellicott, Webster and Wilkinson, &c.], not the love which God gives or prescribes, though, of course, our love is awakened by a discernment of the love which God has to us. But in the second member a similar explanation does not present itself as quite so natural. Calvin translates: expectationem Christi, and explains it still more distinctly to be the hope of the coming of Christ, under the constant endurance of the cross. Already Chrysostom proposes this view amongst others. And so Hofmann: It denotes the waiting, of him who holds to Christ as his hope; but what he alleges for this,—that, for example, in Jer_14:8 Septuag. God is called the ὑðïìïíὴ ἸóñáÞë ,—is a different expression from what we read here. Even the ἀíáìÝíåéí Ἰçóïῦí (1Th_1:10), or the ὑðïìïíὴ ôῆò ἐëðßäïò ôïῦ êõñ . (2Th_3:3 there), does not support the assumed sense of ὑðïìïíὴ ôïῦ ×ñéóôïῦ . Proof is wanting, that the last phrase denotes a waiting for Christ. Rev_3:10 likewise is probably to be understood differently. Moreover, patientia propter Christum præstita (Bengel) goes beyond the simplest genitive. Nor can we well judge otherwise of the interpretation: “patient, steadfast adherence to Christ.” De Wette appeals on behalf of his explanation: “steadfastness in the cause of Christ,” to ðáèÞìáôá ôïῦ ×ñéóôïῦ (2Co_1:5, and similar phrases in Col_1:24; Heb_11:26), which, however, is by no means quite homogeneous with the expression before us. But if we explain, as Pelt would have us do (and as Calvin holds to be possible): patience as coming from Christ or as wrought by Him, or with Grotius: cujus causa est Christus, we then exchange the genitive of the object for the genitive of the author. Even the first member Pelt would actually understand in a corresponding way: love, which God infuses into our hearts; but such a sense of ἀãÜðç èåïῦ he cannot establish even by his appeal to äéêáéïóýíç èåïῦ . Is it necessary, then, that both genitives be taken in the same way? Lünemann rids himself of the parallelism, and understands the matter thus: love to God (object) and the steadfastness of Christ (genitive of possession); the latter in the sense that it also is ours, in so far as the Christian’s endurance in affliction for the gospel’s sake is essentially the same with the steadfastness that was peculiar to Christ Himself in His sufferings. To this would belong the idea which Chrysostom also admits as possible: endurance as Christ endured. For our own part, we did not consider ourselves bound by the parallelism at 2Th_2:13; but there ðíåýìáôïò and ἀëçèåßáò were really more heterogeneous than the parallel genitives in our text. Inwardly, also, the latter are too strictly coördinate, for us to venture on quitting the parallelism. We should therefore prefer with Olshausen to understand both genitives as genitives of the subject. Nor indeed is it said: May the Lord fill your hearts with love, &c. (which could then be nothing but a dispositon of heart in the Thessalonians), but: May He direct them, according to our understanding, into the love which God has to us, and has especially manifested in the work of redemption, and into the patience of Christ, to wit, that with which He resigned Himself for us to suffering, and at all times supports us. May He direct your hearts to this centre, from which proceeds all the Christian’s strength: the love of God, as most fully revealed in the patience of Christ. This will be to you not merely an example, but a source of strength for withstanding the evil (2Th_3:3). The Thessalonians particularly needed this admonition to humility in order to check their eschatological impatience, which showed itself practically in their ἀôÜêôùò ðåñéðáôåῖí and ðåñéåñãÜæåóèáé (2Th_3:6; 2Th_3:11). The address thus introduces in the most natural way the exhortation that follows.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. (2Th_3:1.) That the word of God have free course and be glorified is not a thing that happens of itself, but is in part committed also to our fidelity. Every praying person, even though he himself has not the teaching faculty, is on his part a co-worker therein, [Scott: The success of the gospel is as really promoted by fervent prayer, as by faithful preaching.—J. L.] We are not indeed to see life and movement in the Church only where extraordinary phenomena are making a stir. On the in-conspicuous advance of quiet, faithful labor there rests a constant blessing. And yet the drowsy state of nominal Christendom must weigh upon our hearts, and raise the question whether we have been as assiduous as we ought in that spiritual work, which the Apostle requires from Christians.

2. (2Th_3:2.) Faith is not every man’s affair—this is a word which, like that other, prove all things (1Th_5:21), is often enough subjected to frivolous abuse. Many an individual takes shelter in the subterfuge, that he is not at all organized for faith; for others faith may be the right thing, perhaps even honorable in them; but for him it is impossible to believe; nay, the Apostle himself says, &c. It is, however, of perverse and wicked men that he says, that faith is not for them (see the Verantwortung des christlichen Glaubens, 2d ed., p. 16 sq.). Roos: What is here spoken of is not that natural unaptness for faith, which exists in all men, but an unaptness which a man brings on himself by a prolonged departure from God, and by contracting a Satanic obduracy and wickedness. Stockmeyer: Faith is not a thing that a man has so completely in his own power, that he can say at any moment when he pleases: Now I will believe; there is required a certain preparation of soul, that is not found in every man. But it is a very perverse application of this, to say: “I too belong to the very class that has no concern with faith. What, then, can I do in that direction? And if faith is not every man’s affair, is it so, that so much really depends on faith? is it so, that one can be saved only by faith? Surely God will not be so unjust!” But the Apostle does not say that a man can do nothing in this direction, so that he is innocent in the matter. Whence comes it that the disposition of many men is unsusceptible of faith? Did God make them so? Is it God, who to some only will grant what is necessary to faith, while he refuses and withholds it from others, however earnestly desirous even they may be to obtain it? That be far from Him! The Apostle teaches us to derive all want of susceptibility from a quite different source, even men’s own fault (comp. 2Th_2:10-12). He will by no means apologize for unbelief, as if it were an unmerited fate from which some men cannot at all escape. He rather refers us to their own guiltiness, namely, their destitution of love for the truth, and that from the pleasure they have in unrighteousness.—At the commencement especially of a living Christian state we readily suppose, as the truth has become too strong for us, that others also should in like manner yield to it. Or, if that does not happen, we readily fall to blaming our elders and teachers for not having testified the truth with sufficient fervor. They, indeed, are required earnestly to examine themselves, whether they are not chargeable with some neglect or mismanagement. But the example of the Apostles, yes, of Christ Himself, shows us, that even the most faithful preaching is resisted by the natural heart of man. To this fact we must learn, with whatever loving sorrow, to reconcile ourselves, and least of all are we to try by means of false concessions to make the truth plausible to the enemies of the faith. Roos: A preacher of the gospel tries with all fidelity to set such people right. But, if he has a clear insight into the state of their souls, he finds personal relief even when seeing no fruit of his labor. He knows that God will not require their blood at his hand. Such is the consolation of Jesus Himself, Mat_13:14-15.

3. Roos: Deliverance from the wicked did take place, but not in such a way as the human sense might have desired; for Paul and other servants of God were often until their death harassed with such people; and yet God saved them from them by restraining their fury (frequently by means of the Roman authorities), by letting many, blasphemers die at the right time, by humbling the whole Jewish people through the destruction of Jerusalem, and lastly by so ordering all things, that the Apostles, harassed and persecuted by the Jews in a daily trial of their faith, were only the more widely driven around in the earth.

4. (2Th_3:4.) Roos: Paul wrote and did everything in the Lord and by the Lord (comp. 2Th_3:6; 2Th_3:12; 1Th_4:1-2; and elsewhere). These were not in Paul’s case mere customary pious phrases; he had the feeling of them, and was convinced that in nothing did his commands, hopes, and instructions go beyond the power, and at the same time the light and inward impulse, given him by the Lord Jesus. He knew that he was not left to his natural reason and discretion, but that, being in, Jesus, he saw by His light, worked in His strength, and by Him was held and controlled. Happy is he, of whom this is the experience. Whatsoever he doeth prospers [Psa_1:3].—In the Lord we may also have confidence in others, who likewise stand in the Lord. To trust in men out of the Lord leads astray, and one must often learn, that all men are liars (Rom_3:4). The idealism of faith in humanity is then easily changed into that so-called knowledge of men, which looks for nothing but baseness in every one. Love, on the contrary, hopeth all things, and believeth all things (1Co_13:7), without being blind to the corruption of nature; but it knows God who is greater than our heart [1Jn_3:20], and believes in His power to save and subdue. Relying on the Lord for everything, it believes also in the perfecting of His work in the hearts of His own, and throughout all interruptions still hopes for it. [Barnes: Not primarily in you, &c. He must be a stranger to the human heart, who puts much confidence in it even in its best state.—J. L.]

5. (2Th_3:5.) Our heart must be directed to the love of God, as the foundation of all faith, and to the patience of Christ, as the chief manifestation of that love;—the latter, not merely in order to the contemplation of that greatest exemplar, but from this direction towards the character of God and Christ faith itself receives something of this Divine nature [2Pe_1:4], participates in these primary forces of life, so that it now does everything according to this rule, and from this impulse. Love enkindles love in it; the patience which Christ learned and practised, yea, with which He continually bears with us, brings this seed into the heart of the believer and from this vine there grows as a branch the patience of the Christian (Rieger). Patience must not be wanting to love; otherwise the latter also would soon cease.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

2Th_3:1. Diedrich: He had brought them by means of the word to faith; a stream of blessing should now also through their prayers and love flow back again to him, so that he may be able to deliver his testimony with ever-growing efficiency.—Chrysostom: Let no one from an excessive humility defraud us of this assistance.—Starke: Since upright teachers carry the word of God amongst the people, it is reasonable that they be remembered in prayer; but, if they do not at once see fruit, they should labor on, and call to mind the Divine promises.—Heubner: The Christian Church should not be a motionless sea; stagnation brings corruption and death. The gospel must keep moving; it must run; this running produces everywhere, even where the gospel is not a stranger, new life and vivacity.—The missionary spirit knows no other goal than that described in Isa_11:9.

2Th_3:2. Faith is not every man’s, though God offers faith to every man, Act_17:31 (Berlenb. Bibel).—Grotius: Such as take pleasure in vice will not believe us; because they love the works of darkness, they hate the light.—Rieger: (We must have this told to us) partly that under a similar experience we may be less frightened, partly also that we may escape the frequently plausible temptation to refine and cut and carve at the doctrines of the faith, till every one should be able to find himself suited.—Paul strove to become all things to all men, but still he hoped for nothing more from it, than by all means to save some (1Co_9:22).—Starke: Patiently to undergo suffering for Christ’s sake, and yet to pray God for deliverance therefrom, are not inconsistent with each other; especially when the deliverance has for its object not so much our own ease as the glorification of the Divine name.

[Lectures: ἀôüðùí êáὶ ðïíçñῶí ἀíèñþðùí · ïὐ ãὰñ , ê . ô . ë . So far, then, from there being any ground for exalting reason against faith, it is only faith that can either restore the dislocation, or rectify the depravity, of our fallen nature.—The Same: No man can reject the Divine testimony concerning Christ, when fairly and fully presented to him, without thereby inflicting immediate and serious damage on his whole inward life—without, in fact, becoming, whatever appearances there may be to the contrary, a worse man, as well as a guiltier man, than he was before.—J. L.]

2Th_3:3. The faithfulness of the Lord is the only ever sure refuge.

2Th_3:4. Chrysostom, Theophylact: We have confidence in the Lord, that is opposed to pride; touching you, that is opposed to indolence.—Bengel: Nulli homini per se fidas.—Calvin: Authority and obedience have here their limits: Nothing except in the Lord!—[ Burkitt: The character of that obedience which the gospel directs; it must be universal and perpetual.—J. L.]

2Th_3:5. Diedrich: Truly Christ Himself is all patience with us, and so He teaches us in Him also to be all patience.

2Th_3:1-5. Heubner: Exhortations to prayer and faithfulness.

2Th_3:4-5. That heart is well disposed, and capable of all that is good, which through the grace of the Lord is directed into the love of God and into the patience of Christ. 1. The most natural thing for us would be, to abide with all love by the love of God, to which we owe ourselves and all things. But, as regards God, we are truly unnatural children, have little need of intercourse with Him, are frequently able to go a long time without Him, readily suffer ourselves to be withdrawn from Him by His gifts instead of being thereby led to Him, become altogether disheartened under the strokes of His discipline, do not love what He loves, His will, His commands. He gives effect to his love by sending His Son to save us from the fleshly temper of our heart. Not until our hearts allow themselves to be turned towards this love proceeding from God (1Jn_4:10; Rom_5:8), does there rise in us also love to God. But, 2. that this spirit may take full possession of us, there is need of continual labor and effort; our hearts must allow themselves to be directed to Christ, the perfect pattern of patience, as He practised it throughout His whole life even to the cross towards His disciples, towards the people, towards His wicked foes. We must be thankful to Him, that He becomes not weary of bearing also with us. Thus we too learn patience, and receive strength for it out of His strength; thus do we learn to wait for His help, and patiently to hold fast the hope of His glorious coming (after Stockmeyer.)

Footnotes:

2Th_3:1.—[ ôñÝ÷ç . Revision: “E. V. margin, and everywhere else. Here it combines Tyndale, Geneva, Bishops’ Bible: have free passage, with the Rhemish: have course.”—J. L.]

2Th_3:1.—[ êáὶ ðñὸò ὑìᾶò . Ellicott: “The êáß gently contrasting (?) them with others where a similar reception had taken place.” Rather, the êáß compares them with—puts them alongside of—others, where, in answer to their prayers, a similar reception should yet take place.—J. L.]

2Th_3:2.—[ ἀôüðùí . The English margin, Hammond, Wordsworth: absurd; Benson, Scott, Conybeare, Alford’s English Test., Ellicott, Am. Bible Union: perverse; Riggenbach: verkehrten. See the Exegetical Note.—J. L.]

2Th_3:2.—[ ïὐ ãὰñ ðÜíôùí ἡ ðßóôéò . Riggenbach, after De Wette and Lünemann: nicht Alter (Sache) ist der Glaube; Ellicott: it is not all that have faith. See the Exegetical Note, and the Revision of this verse, Note e.—J. L.]

2Th_3:3.—There is a preponderance of authority (including the Sin.) for ὁ êýñéïò ; against the reading ὁ èåüò [A. D.1 F. G. Vulg. Lachmann.—J. L.] is likewise the fact, that according to parallel passages, such as 1Co_1:9, it is the more obvious. [The Greek order should be retained in the translation, as it is by Riggenbach, Ellicott, Am. Bible Union, and others, making ðéóôüò the instantaneous echo of ðßóôéò .—Sin.2 Thessalonians 1 : ὁ êýñéüò ἐóôéí ; but corrected into ἐóô . ὁ êýñ .—J. L.]

2Th_3:3.—[ ôïῦ ðïíçñïῦ . See the Exegetical Note.—J. L.]

2Th_3:4.—[ äÝ . Revision: “Not only do we rely on the faithfulness of the Lord, but we have a gracious confidence also in you; nor, indeed, can you expect the promised confirmation and security, apart from your own obedience, and patient continuance in well-doing, but only in and through that.”—J. L.]

2Th_3:4.—The reading varies between ðïéåῖôå and êáὶ ðïéåῖôå [Riggenbach’s translation follows the former, which is that of Sin.1, while Sin.2 has the other.—J. L.]; the insertion of êáὶ ἐðïéÞóáôå before êáὶ ðïéåῖôå is too feebly supported (B. F. G., but not Sin.).

2Th_3:4.— ὐìῖí is wanting in Sin. B. D.1 Vulg. [It is cancelled by Alford and Ellicott; Lachmann brackets it, as he does also the words êáὶ ἐðïéÞóáôå êáὶ .—The latter half of the verse is arranged in Greek thus: that the things which we command you ye both do and will do.—J. L.]

2Th_3:5.—[ ἁ äὲ êýñéïò êáôåõèýíáé . Ellicott: “A gentle anithesis ( äÝ ) to what precedes;—‘I doubt you not, my confidence is in the Lord; may He, however, vouchsafe His blessed aid.’ ”—J. L.]

2Th_3:6.—Before ὑðïìïíÞí all the uncials give the article ôÞí , which is omitted by the Elzevir after a few late authorities. The English Version translates ὑðïìïíÞ , patience, here in the margin, and always elsewhere, 31 times, except Rom_2:7 and 2Co_1:6. Here it follows the Bishops’ Bible.—J. L.]

[für den Glauben empfänglich—the expression employed also by De Wette and Lünemann. It is not, however, of a want of susceptibility of faith in the most desperate class of sinners, that Paul speaks, hut of the actual destitution of faith in some to whom the gospel came. And the fact is “stated in general terms; not so much as something that had just transpired in the particular city or region where the Apostle was now laboring, but rather as something that holds good, as with the force and regularity of a law, wherever the gospel is preached” (Lectures, p. 560). Comp. Mat_19:11.—J. L.]

[Taken as neuter, ôïῦ ðïíçñïῦ might perhaps have “a special reference to the great current of evil which had already begun to flow, and which in the second chapter had been traced; onward to its fatal issue.” Lectures.—J. L.]

[ ἐö ̓ ὑìᾶò ; towards and upon you, in regard to you; Germ, auf euch.—J. L.]

[Wir bedürfen beides, Vorsatz und Kraft, von oben—sound doctrine, but scarcely an accurate rendering of: ἀìöïôÝñùí ἡìῖí ÷ñåßá , êáὶ ðñïèÝóåùò ἀãáèῆò êáὶ ôῆò ἄíùèåí óõíåñãåßáò .—J. L.]

[So—besides Lünemann—Alford, Ellicott, Lectures, “patience such as Christ exhibited.”—J. L.]

[See the foot-note to p. 156.—No doubt, there are degrees of wickedness in unrenewed men, as there are degrees of grace, faith, and holiness in Christian men. But in the case of every Christian man it is true, that his faith is “the gift of God” (Eph_2:8); and of every unrenewed man to whom the gospel comes it is no less true, that his unbelief is the sinful product of a sinful and blinded heart (Joh_3:18-20; 2Co_4:3-4 : &c.—J. L.]

[Das sei ferne!—the German version of ìἡ ãÝíïéôï , which in our English Testament is, God forbid! Comp. E. V. Gen_18:25.—J. L.]

[Luther’s version of ðßóôéí ðáñá÷ῶí ðᾶóéí : Jedermann vorhält den Glauben; English margin: offered faith.—J. L.]