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1Th_2:17 begins a new section of the Epistle.
Ἡμεῖς δέ ] is not in contrast to ὑμεῖς , 1Th_2:14 (de Wette, Koch, Hofmann); for 1Th_2:14 is only an explanation of the main thought in 1Th_2:13, and, besides, the invective against the Jews given in 1Th_2:15-16 is too marked and detailed, that δέ passing over it could be referred to ὑμεῖς in 1Th_2:14. It is therefore best to assume that ἡμεῖς δέ , whilst it contrasts the writer to the Jews whose machinations have just been described, and accordingly breaks off the polemic against the Jews, refers to 1Th_2:13 as the preceding main thought, and accordingly resumes the ἡμεῖς in 1Th_2:13. To the attestation of his thanksgiving to God on account of the earnest acceptance of the gospel on the part of the Thessalonians, the apostle joins the attestation of his longing for his readers, and his repeatedly formed resolution to return to them. The view of Calvin, which Musculus, Zanchius, Hunnius, Piscator, Vorstius, Gomarus, Benson, Macknight, Pelt, Hofmann, and Auberlen maintain, is erroneous, that 1Th_2:17 ff. were added by Paul as an excusatio “ne se a Paulo desertos esse putarent Thessalonicenses, quum tanta necessitas ejus praesentiam flagitaret.” For evidently in the circumstances that constrained the apostle to depart from Thessalonica, such a suspicion could not arise, especially as, according to Act_17:10, the Thessalonians themselves had arranged the departure of the apostle. Accordingly no justification was requisite. The explanation has rather its origin only in the fulness of the apostolic Christian love, which cared and laboured for the salvation of these recent disciples of Christ.
ἀπορφανισθέντες ] bereaved. ὀρφανίζεσθαι is originally used of children who are deprived of their parents by death. It is however used, even by the classics, in a wider sense, expressing in a figurative and vivid manner the deprivation of an object, or the distance, the separation from a person or thing. Thus the adjective ὀρφανός occurs in Pindar (see Passow) in a wider sense (e.g. ὀρφ . ἑταίρων , Isthm. vii. 16); also of parents, ὀρφανοὶ γενεᾶς , childless, Ol. ix. 92; comp. Hesych.: ὀρφανὸς ὁ γονέων ἐστερημένος καὶ τέκνων . Here also ἀπορφανισθέντες expresses the idea of distance, of separation, but is not exhausted by this idea. We would accordingly err, if we were to find nothing further in it than is expressed by χωρισθέντες ; for the verb, in union with the feeling of tender love which pervades the whole passage, vividly describes the feeling of emptiness and solitude which by the separation came over the apostle—a feeling of solitude, such as befalls children when they are placed in a condition of orphanage.
ἀφʼ ὑμῶν ] away from you. The apostle repeats the preposition ἀπό , instead of putting the simple genitive ὑμῶν after the participle, in order to give prominence to the idea of local severance, which was already expressed in ἀπορφανισθέντες , here once more specified by itself.
πρὸς καιρὸν ὥρας ] not subito (Balduin, Turretin), literally, for the space of an hour; but as an hour is relatively only a short space, generally “for the space of an instant,” i.e. for a very short period.[39] It is a more definite expression for the simple ΠΡῸς ὭΡΑΝ , Gal_2:5, 2Co_7:8, Phm_1:15, Joh_5:35, or ΠΡῸς ΚΑΙΡΌΝ , 1Co_7:5, Luk_8:13, and corresponds to the Latin horae momentum. Comp. Hor. Sat. I. 1. 7, 8: “horae | momento aut cita mors venit aut victoria laeta.” Plin. Nat. Hist. vii. 52: “Eidem (sc. Maecenati) triennio supremo nullo horae momento contigit somnus.” The expression does not import that the apostle even now hopes soon to return to the Thessalonians (Flatt; and appealing to 1Th_3:10, de Wette and Koch). This is forbidden by the grammatical relation of ἀπορφανισθέντες to the preterite ἘΣΠΟΥΔΆΣΑΜΕΝ , according to which ΠΡῸς ΚΑΙΡῸΝ ὭΡΑς can only be the time indicated by the participle. Thus the sense is: After we were separated from you for scarcely an instant, that is, for a very short season, our longing to return to you commenced.
προσώπῳ οὐ καρδίᾳ ] comp. 2Co_5:12, in presence, not in heart, for the severance refers only to our bodies; but love is not bound in the fetters of place or time; comp. Col_2:5.
περισσοτέρως ἐσπουδάσαμεν ] we endeavoured so much the more. σπουδάζειν , to show diligence to reach something, implies in itself that the apostle had already taken steps to realize his resolution to return, and thus proves the earnestness of the design. περισσοτέρως is not to be referred to Οὐ ΚΑΡΔΊᾼ , “more than if I had been separated from you in heart” (de Wette, Koch), for then there could have been no mention of a ΣΠΟΥΔΆΖΕΙΝ at all;[40] but is, with Schott, to be referred to ΠΡῸς ΚΑΙΡῸΝ ὭΡΑς , so much the more, as the separation has only recently occurred. For it is a matter of universal experience, that the pain of separation from friends, and the desire to return to them, are more vivid, the more freshly the remembrance of the parting works in the spirit, i.e. the less time has elapsed since the parting. Therefore the explanation of Oecumenius and Theophylact, after Chrysostom, is unpsychological: περισσοτέρως ἐσπουδάσαμεν ἢ ὡς εἰκὸς ἦν τοὺς πρὸς ὥραν ἀπολειφθέντας . Winer’s view (Gram. p. 217 [E. T. 305]) is also inappropriate, because without support in the context: The loss of their personal intercourse for a time had made his longing greater than it would have been, if he had stood with them in no such relation. Further, arbitrarily, because the proximate reference of περισσοτέρως can only result from the directly preceding participial sentence, but not from 1Th_2:14, Fromond.: “magis et ardentius conati sumus, quum sciremus pericula, in quibus versaremini;” and Hofmann: “for the readers the time after their conversion is a time of trouble; for their teachers it is on that account a time of so much the more anxious endeavour to see them again.” Lastly, grammatically incorrect Turretin, Olshausen, and de Wette, ed. 1, more than usual, i.e. very earnestly.
Schott discovers an elegance and force in Paul, not having written ὑμᾶς ἰδεῖν , but the fuller form ΤῸ ΠΡΌΣΩΠΟΝ ὙΜῶΝ ἸΔΕῖΝ , with reference to the preceding ΠΡΟΣΏΠῼ ; but hardly correct, as ΤῸ ΠΡΌΣΩΠΟΝ ἸΔΕῖΝ is a usual form with Paul. Comp. 1Th_3:10; Col_2:1.
ἘΝ ΠΟΛΛῇ ἘΠΙΘΥΜΊᾼ ] with much desire (longing). A statement of manner added to ἐσπουδάσαμεν , for the sake of strengthening.
[39] The assertion of Hofmann, that πρὸς καιρὸν ὥρας “cannot possibly denote how long it was since Paul had been separated from the Thessalonians, but only how long this was to happen: as he was obliged to be separated from them, yet this separation was not for ever,” etc., could only have a meaning if instead of the passive form ἀπορφανισθέντες a participle had been put, which denoted the free action of the apostle.
[40] This reference is in a positive form expressed logically more correctly by Musculus: “quo magis corde praesens vobiscum fui, hoc abundantius faciem vestram videre studui;” and Baumgarten-Crusius: with so much the greater desire, because I was sincere with you.