Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 1 Thessalonians 2:3 - 2:4
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
1Th_2:3-4 explain what enables and obliges the apostle to preach the gospel in sufferings and trials. The objective and subjective truth of his preaching enables him, and the apostolic call with which God had entrusted him obliges him. γάρ , 1Th_2:3, accordingly does not refer to τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ Θεοῦ (Moldenhauer, Flatt), nor to ἐπαῤῥησιασάμεθα (Olshausen, de Wette, Koch), but to λαλῆσαι ἐν πολλῷ ἀγῶνι .
ἡ γὰρ παράκλησις ἡμῶν οὐκ ἐκ πλάνης κ . τ . λ . sc. ἐστίν , not ἦν (Bloomfield), for Paul establishes (1Th_2:3-4) the manner of his entrance in Thessalonica (as the present λαλοῦμεν proves) by qualities which were habitual to him; and not until 1Th_2:5 does he return to the special manifestation of those general qualities during his residence in Thessalonica.
παράκλησις ] denotes exhortation, address. The meaning of this word is modified according to the different circumstances of those to whom the address is directed. If the address is made to a sufferer or mourner, then it is naturally consolatory, and παράκλησις denotes comfort, consolation; but if it is directed to a moral or intellectual want, then παράκλησις is to be translated exhortation, admonition. Now the first evangelical preaching naturally consists in exhortation and admonition,—namely, in a demand to put away their sins, and to lay hold on the salvation offered by God through the mission of His Son (comp. 2Co_5:20). Accordingly, παράκλησις might be used to denote the preaching of the gospel generally. So here, where to adhere to the meaning consolatio, with Zwingli, would be unsuitable. Yet it is erroneous to replace παράκλησις with διδαχή (Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact, de Wette) or with διδασκαλία (Theodoret); for, according to the above, more is contained in παράκλησις than in these ideas. Pelt explains παράκλησις erroneously by docendi ratio. But παράκλησις , understood as an exhortative address, or as the preaching of the gospel, may be taken either in an objective or subjective meaning: in the first case, it denotes the contents or subject of the preaching; in the second case, the preaching itself. The latter meaning is to be preferred on account of 1Th_2:4.
The παράκλησις of the apostle and his assistants had its origin not ἐκ πλάνης . πλάνη , error, is used in a transitive and intransitive sense. In the former case it denotes deceitfulness (Mat_27:64) or seduction (Eph_4:14); in the latter, which is the more usual meaning, delusion. In both cases πλάνη is the contrast of ἀλήθεια (1Jn_4:6): in the former case, of ἀλήθεια in a subjective sense, truthfulness; in the latter, of ἀλήθεια in an objective sense, truth (thus in Rom_1:27, where πλάνη refers to the idolatrous perversion of Monotheistic worship). Also, here πλάνη (on account of the succeeding ἐν δόλῳ ) is best rendered not impostura (Erasmus, Calvin, Hemming, Estius, Beza, Turretin) or seducendi studium (Vorstius, Grotius, Baumgarten-Crusius), but delusion. Accordingly the sense is: the apostle and his associates avoided not sufferings and trials in the preaching of the gospel, because their preaching rested not on a fiction, a whim, a dream, a delusion,—consequently it had not such as these for its object and contents; but it is founded on reality,—that is to say, it has divine truth as its source.
οὐδὲ ἐξ ἀκαθαρσίας ] a second reason different from the first, and heightening it. Paul turns from the objective side of the origin of his preaching to its subjective side,—that is, to the motive which lay at the foundation of the gospel preaching of himself and his assistants. This motive is not ἀκαθαρσία (see Tittmann, de synonym. in N. T. I. p. 150 f.), uncleanness, i.e. impurity of sentiment, as would be the case were the apostle to preach the gospel from covetousness, vanity, or similar reasons.
οὐδὲ ἐν δόλῳ ] nor also (does it consist or realize itself) in guile or deceit (contrast to εἰλικρίνεια , 2Co_2:17); a new emphasis, as it was something still worse, if not only an impure purpose lay at the foundation of a transaction, but also reprehensible means (e.g. κολακεία , 1Th_2:5) were employed for the attainment of that purpose.