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1Th_3:6. Ἄρτι δέ ] but now, belongs not to ἐλθόντος (Grotius, Pelt, Schott, Alford, Ewald, Hofmann, Riggenbach), but is to be separated from it by a comma, and belongs to παρεκλήθημεν , 1Th_3:7. For (1) not the mission of Timotheus and his return, but the mission and the consolation obtained from his return, is the main point on which it depends; (2) If Paul would connect ἄρτι δὲ ἐλθόντος , διὰ τοῦτο would scarcely be inserted in 1Th_3:7 for the recapitulation of 1Th_3:6; (3) ἄρτι δέ emphatically opposes the present to the past, to ἔπεμψα (1Th_3:5); but ἄρτι would be flat if we referred it to ἐλθόντος , and that whether it was to be understood in its temporal or in its logical sense; (4) Lastly, we would expect παρακεκλήμεθα (which certainly is found in A and some minusculi), but not παρεκλήθημεν , in 1Th_3:7.
ἐλθόντος κ . τ . λ .] not after, but because; διὰ τοῦτο requires this. The joyful message which Timotheus brought (Chrysostom: Ὁρᾷς τὴν περιχάρειαν Παύλου ; οὐκ εἶπεν ἀπαγγείλαντος ἀλλʼ εὐαγγελισαμένου · τοσοῦτον ἀγαθὸν ἡγεῖτο τὴν ἐκείνων βεβαίωσιν καὶ τὴν ἀγάπην . Comp. also Luk_1:19, and Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 266 ff.) refers (1) to the Christian condition of the Thessalonian Church generally ( τὴν πίστιν καὶ τὴν ἀγάπην ὑμῶν ), and (2) to the personal relation of the Thessalonians to the apostle ( καὶ ὅτι ἔχετε κ . τ . λ .). Theodoret: Δηλοῖ ἡ μὲν πίστις τῆς εὐσεβείας τὸ βέβαιον · ἡ δὲ ἀγάπη τὴν παρακτικὴν ἀρετήν · ἡ δὲ τοῦ διδασκάλου μνήμη καὶ ὁ περὶ αὐτὸν πόθος μαρτυρεῖ τῇ περὶ τὴν διδασκαλίαν στοργῇ . Hammond incorrectly understands ἀγάπην of love to God.
καὶ ὅτι ἔχετε μνείαν ἡμῶν ἀγαθήν ] and that ye have us in good remembrance. Arbitrarily Grotius: Est μετωνυμία , nam per memoriam intelligit mentionem, et bonam intelligit, in bonam partem, i.e. honorificam. For then ποιεῖσθαι must be put instead of ἔχειν .
πάντοτε ] belongs to the foregoing, not, as Koch and Hofmann suppose, to what follows.
ἐπιποθοῦντες ] Comp. Rom_1:11; Php_1:8; Php_2:26; 2Co_9:14.
Strikingly Musculus (also Bengel): Non modo amoris hoc erat indicium, sed et bonae conscientiae. The compound verb, however, makes prominent the direction, not the intensity, of ποθεῖν . Comp. Fritzsche on Röm. 1:11.
καθάπερ καὶ ἡμεῖς ὑμᾶς ] sc. ἰδεῖν ἐπιποθοῦμεν .