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1Th_1:8. Proof of the praise in 1Th_1:7. See on the verse, Storr, Opusc. III. p. 317 ff.; Rückert, locorum Paulinorum 1Th_1:8 et 1Th_3:1-3, explanatio, Jen. 1844.
Baumgarten-Crusius arbitrarily assumes in 1Th_1:8 ff. an address, not only to the Thessalonians, but also to the Philippians, in short, to “the first converts in Macedonia.” For ὑμῶν (1Th_1:8) can have no further extension than ὑμᾶς (1Th_1:7).
ἀφʼ ὑμῶν ] does not import vestra opera, so that a missionary activity was attributed to the Thessalonians (Rückert), also not per vos, ope consilioque vestro, so that the sense would be: that the gospel might be preached by me in other parts of Macedonia and Achaia, has been effected by your advice and co-operation, inasmuch as, when in imminent danger, my life and that of Silvanus was rescued by you (Schott, Flatt). For in the first case ὑφʼ ὑμῶν would be required, and in the second case διʼ ὑμῶν , not to mention that the entire occasion of the last interpretation is invented and artificially introduced. Rather ἀφʼ ὑμῶν is purely local (Schott and Bloomfield erroneously unite the local import with the instrumental), and denotes: out from you, forth from you, comp. 1Co_14:36. Yet this cannot be referred, with Koppe and Krause, to Paul: from you, that is, when I left Thessalonica, I found in the other cities of Macedonia and Achaia a favourable opportunity for preaching the gospel. For (1) this would have been otherwise grammatically expressed, perhaps by ἀφʼ ὑμῶν γὰρ ἀπελθόντι θύρα μοι ἀνέῳγε μεγάλη εἰς τὸ κηρύσσειν τὸν λόγον τοῦ κυρίου ; add to this (2), which is the chief point, that the logical relation of 1Th_1:8 to 1Th_1:7 ( γάρ ) does not permit our seeking in 1Th_1:8 a reference to the conduct of the apostle, but indicates that a further praise of the Thessalonians is contained in it.
ἐξήχηται ] Comp. Sir_40:13; Joe_3:14; an ἅπαξ λεγόμενον in N. T. is sounded out, like the tone of some far-sounding instrument, i.e. without a figure: was made known with power.
ὁ λόγος τοῦ κυρίου ] is not the word from the Lord, or the report of what the Lord has done to you (so, as it seems, Theodore Mopsuest. [in N. T. commentariorum, quae reperiri potuerunt. Colleg., Fritzsche, Turici 1847, p. 145]: Λόγον κυρίου ἐνταῦθα οὐ τὴν πίστιν λέγει , οὐ γὰρ ἡ πίστις ἀπʼ αὐτῶν ἔλαβε τὴν ἀρχήν , ἀλλʼ ἀντὶ τοῦ πάντες ἔγνωσαν ὅσα ὑπὲρ τῆς πίστεως ἐπάθετε , καὶ πάντες ὑμῶν τὸ βέβαιον θαυμάζουσι τῆς πίστεως , ὥστε καὶ προτροπὴν ἑτέροις γενέσθαι τὰ ὑμέτερα ), but the word of the Lord which He caused to be preached (subjective genitive), i.e. the gospel (comp. 2Th_3:1; Col_3:16); thus similar to the more usual expression of Paul: ὁ λόγος τοῦ Θεοῦ . But the meaning is not: The report of the gospel, that it was embraced by you, went forth from you, and made a favourable impression upon others (de Wette); but the knowledge of the gospel itself spread from you, so that the power and the eclat which was displayed at the conversion of the Thessalonians directed attention to the gospel, and gained friends for it.
The words οὐ μόνον have given much trouble to interpreters. According to their position they evidently belong to ἐν τῇ Μακεδονίᾳ καὶ ἐν τῇ Ἀχαΐᾳ , and form a contrast to ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ . But it does not agree with this view that a new subject and predicate are found in the contrast introduced with ἀλλά , because the emphasis lies (as the position of οὐ μόνον … ἀλλά appears to demand) only on the two local statements, so that only ἀφʼ ὑμῶν … τόπῳ should have been written, and ὥστε μὴ κ . τ . λ . should have been directly connected with them. This double subject and predicate could only be permissible provided the phrases: ἐξήχηται ὁ λόγος τοῦ κυρίου , and: ἡ πίστις ὑμῶν ἡ πρὸς τ . Θεὸν ἐξελήλυθεν were equivalent, as de Wette (also Olshausen and Koch) assumes (“the fame of your acceptance of the gospel sounded forth not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place the fame of your faith in God is spread abroad”); but, as is remarked above, de Wette does not correctly translate the first member of the sentence. Zanchius, Piscator, Vorstius, Beza, Grotius, Koppe, Storr, Flatt, Schrader, Schott, Baumgarten-Crusius, and others have felt themselves obliged to assume a trajection, uniting οὐ μόνον not with ἐν τῇ Μακεδονίᾳ καὶ ἐν τῇ Ἀχαΐᾳ , but with ἐξήχηται , and thus explain it as if the words stood: ἀφʼ ὑμῶν γὰρ οὐ μόνον ἐξήχηται κ . τ . λ . But this trajection is a grammatical impossibility. Bloomfield has understood the words as a mingling of two different forms of expression. According to him, it is to be analyzed: “For from you sounded the word of the Lord over all Macedonia and Achaia; and not only has your faith in God been well known there, but the report of it has been disseminated everywhere else.” But that which is united by Paul is thus forcibly severed, and arbitrarily moulded into an entirely new form. Lastly, Rückert has attempted another expedient. According to him, the apostle, after having written the greater part of the sentence, was led by the desire of making a forcible climax so to alter the originally intended form of the thought that the conclusion no longer corresponded with the announcement. Thus, then, the sense would be. Vestra opera factum est, ut domini sermo propagaretur non solum in Macedonia et Achaja, sed etiam—immo amplius quid, ipsa vestra fides ita per famam sparsa est, ut nullus jam sit locus, quem ejus nulla dum notitia attigerit. But against this is—(1) that ἡ πίστις ὑμῶν , on account of its position after ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ , cannot have the principal accent; on the contrary, to preserve the meaning maintained by Rückert, it ought to have been written ἀλλʼ αὐτὴ ἡ πίστις ὑμῶν ἡ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ ἐξελήλυθεν ; (2) that the wide extension of the report of the πίστις of the readers is not appropriate to form a climax to their supposed missionary activity expressed in the first clause of the sentence. However, to give οὐ μόνον … ἀλλά its proper force, and thereby to avoid the objection of the double subject and predicate, there is a very simple expedient (now adopted by Hofmann and Auberlen), namely, another punctuation; to put a colon after κυρίου , and to take together all that follows. According to this, 1Th_1:8 is divided into two parts, of which the first part ( ἀφʼ ὑμῶν … κυρίου ), in which ἀφʼ ὑμῶν and ἐξήχηται have the emphasis, contains the reason of 1Th_1:7, and of which the second part ( οὐ μόνον … λαλεῖν τι ) takes up the preceding ἐξήχηται , and works it out according to its locality.
From the fact that οὐ μόνον … ἀλλά serves to contrast the local designations, it follows that ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ is not to be limited (with Koppe, Storr, Flatt, Schott, and others) to Macedonia and Achaia ( ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ τῆς Μακεδονίας καὶ τῆς Ἀχαΐας ), but must denote every place outside of Macedonia and Achaia, entirely apart from the consideration whether Paul and his companions had already come in contact with those places or not (against Hofmann), thus the whole known world (Chrysostom: τὴν οἰκουμένην ; Oecumenius: ἅπαντα τὸν κόσμον ); by which it is to be conceded that Paul here, as in Rom_1:8, Col_1:6; Col_1:23, expresses himself in a popular hyperbolical manner.
ἡ πίστις ὑμῶν ἡ πρὸς τὸν Θεόν ] your faith, that is, your believing or becoming believers in God ( πίστις thus subjective); the unusual preposition πρός instead of εἰς is also found in Phm_1:5. That here God, and not Christ, is named as the object of faith does not alter the case, because God is the Father of Christ and the Author of the salvation contained in Him. But the unusual form ἡ πρὸς τὸν Θεόν is designedly chosen, in order to bring prominently forward the monotheistic faith to which the Thessalonians had turned, in contrast to their former idolatry.
ἐξελήλυθεν ] has gone forth, has spread forth, namely, as a report. Comp. on ἐξέρχεσθαι in this sense, Mat_9:26; Luk_8:17, etc. Probably the report had spread particularly by means of Christian merchants (Zanchius, Grotius, Joach. Lange, Baumgarten, de Wette), and the apostle might easily have learned it in the great commercial city of Corinth, where there was a constant influx of strangers. Possibly also Aquila and Priscilla, who had lately come from Rome (Act_18:2), brought with them such a report (Wieseler, p. 42). At all events, neither a longer existence of the Thessalonian church follows from this passage (Schrader, Baur), nor that Paul had in the interval been in far distant places (Wurm). As, moreover, ἐξελήλυθεν is construed not with εἰς , but with ἐν , so not only the arrival of the report in those regions is represented, but its permanence after its arrival (see Winer, p. 385 [E. T. 514]; Bernhardy, Synt. p. 208).
ὥστε μὴ χρείαν ἔχειν ἡμᾶς λαλεῖν τι ] so that we have no need to say anything of it (sc. of your πίστις ; erroneously Michaelis, “of the gospel;” erroneously also Koch, “something considerable”), because we have been already instructed concerning it by its report; although this is contained in ἐξελήλυθεν , yet it is impressively brought forward and explained in what follows.