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1Th_4:10. An explanatory confirmation of the statement θεοδίδακτοί ἐστε εἰς τὸ ἀγαπᾶν ἀλλήλους by an actual historical instance. Calvin finds in 1Th_4:10 an argumentum a majore ad minus: “nam quum eorum caritas per totam Macedoniam se diffundat, colligit non esse dubitandum, quin ipsi mutuo inter se ament.” But the emphasis rests not on ἀλλήλους and τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς τοὺς ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ Μακεδονίᾳ , but on ἀγαπᾶν and ποιεῖτε . Also the opinion of de Wette, whom Koch follows, that an additional reason is here adduced why the Thessalonians require no further exhortation, is to be rejected, as then καὶ ποιεῖτε would require to be written instead of καὶ γὰρ ποιεῖτε , because γάρ cannot be co-ordinate with the preceding γάρ .
καὶ γάρ ] not equivalent to simple γάρ (so most critics), and also not quin etiam, or imo (Calvin), but for also; comp. Hartung, Partikell. I. p. 137 f. Whilst γάρ is a justification of ἀγαπᾶν , the idea of διδαχθῆναι is carried on to the idea of ποιεῖν by means of the corresponding καί .
ποιεῖτε ] has the chief accent; it denotes the actual practice.
αὐτό ] scilicet, τὸ ἀγαπᾶν , not τὸ τῆς φιλαδελφίας (Baumgarten-Crusius and Koch).
περισσεύειν μᾶλλον ] to increase yet more, scilicet, in brotherly love. Musculus, appealing to Php_4:12, arbitrarily takes περισσεύειν absolutely, whilst he makes a new train of thought commence with παρακαλοῦμεν : “qua eos redigat in ordinem, qui doctrina charitatis ad ignaviae suae, desidiei, curiositatis et quaestus occasionem abutebantur, nihil operis facientes, sed otiose ac curiose circumeundo ex aliorum laboribus victitantes,” and finds the meaning: “ut abundetis magis, h. e. ut magis in eo sitis, ut copiam eorum, quae ad vitae hujus sunt sustentationem necessaria, habeatis, quam ut penuriam patientes fratribus sitis oneri.” Equally erroneously, because unnatural, Ewald thinks that as the following φιλοτιμεῖσθαι , so also even περισσεύειν μᾶλλον , is to be included in the unity of idea with ἡσυχάζειν κ . τ . λ ., 1Th_4:11 : “to keep quiet still more, and zealously,” etc. Besides, the construction of περισσεύειν , with a simple infinitive following, would be wholly without example.[51]
μᾶλλον ] The same intensification as in 1Th_4:1.
[51] Ewald in vain endeavours anew to defend the above construction of the words in his Jahrb. d. bibl. Wissenschaft, 10 Jahrb. Gött. 1860, p. 241 ff.: That the apostle, after he had before said that it was not necessary to write to the Thessalonians concerning brotherly love, because they sufficiently practised it, could not, without self-contradiction, proceed to say, but we exhort you yet to increase in brotherly love. In this Ewald is certainly right. But Paul only declared before that the Thessalonians practised brotherly love—that they already practised it sufficiently we do not read; this, on the contrary, is only arbitrarily introduced by Ewald.
REMARK.
After the example of Schrader, Baur (p. 484) finds also 1Th_4:9-10 only suitable for a church which had already existed for a considerable time. How otherwise could the brotherly love of the Thessalonians, which they showed to all the brethren in all Macedonia, be praised as a virtue already so generally proved? Certainly Paul recognises the brotherly love of the Thessalonians as a “virtue already proved;” but Baur, no less than Schrader, overlooks (1) that not εἰς πάντας τοὺς ἁγίους , but εἰς πάντας τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ Μακεδονίᾳ , is written; consequently, the exercise of that virtue is limited to the Christian circle nearest to the Thessalonians; (2) that Paul yet desires an increase in that virtue, thus indicating that the exercise of it had only shortly before commenced. An interval of half a year (see Introduction, § 3) was accordingly a sufficient time for the Thessalonians to make themselves worthy of a praise restricted within such bounds.