Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 1 Thessalonians 5:22 - 5:22
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
1Th_5:22. With 1Th_5:22 the discourse again reverts to what is general, whilst the requirement to hold fast that which is good in the discourses of the inspired very naturally required the transition to the further requirement to keep at a distance from every kind of evil, accordingly also from that which was perhaps intermixed in these discourses. Usually 1Th_5:22 is referred exclusively to the discourses of the inspired, so that πάντα δὲ δοκιμάζετε contains the chief point which is then unfolded according to its two sides, first positively ( τὸ καλὸν κατέχετε ), and then negatively (1Th_5:22). But ἀπὸ παντὸς εἴδους πονηροῦ is against this view: ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ would require to have been written. Erasmus, Luther, Calvin, Drusius, Piscator, Grotius, Calixt, Calovius, Seb. Schmid, Michaelis, and others find in 1Th_5:22 the meaning: avoid all evil appearance. But (1) εἶδος never signifies appearance. (2) A distorted thought would arise. For as the apostle has required the holding fast not that which has the appearance of good, but that which is actually good; so also in 1Th_5:22, on account of the close reference of πονηροῦ to the preceding καλόν , the discourse must also be of an abstinence from that which is actually evil. (3) To preserve oneself from all appearance of evil is not within the power of man.
Εἶδος denotes very often the particular kind of a class (the species of a genus). Comp. Porphyry, isagoge de quinque vocibus 1 Thessalonians 2 : λέγεται δὲ εἶδος καὶ τὸ ὑπὸ τὸ ἀποδοθὲν γένος · καθʼ ὃ εἰώθαμεν λέγειν τὸν μὲν ἄνθρωπον εἶδος τοῦ ζώου , γένους ὄντος τοῦ ζώου · τὸ δὲ λευκὸν τοῦ χρώματος εἶδος · τὸ δὲ τρίγωνον τοῦ σχήματος εἶδος .
πονηροῦ ] is not to be taken, with Bengel, Pelt, Schott, and others, as an adjective (ab omni mala specie), but as a substantive (ab omni specie mali). What Bengel and Schott object against this meaning, that the article τοῦ would be required before πονηροῦ , would be correct if the discourse were specially of the πονηρόν contained in the πάντα , 1Th_5:21; but is erroneous, as πονηροῦ is taken in abstract generality. See Kühner, II. pp. 129, 141. Comp. Heb_5:14; Joseph. Ant. vii. 4. 1 Thessalonians 2 : πᾶν εἶδος μέλους ; ibid. x. 3. 1 Thessalonians 1 : πᾶν εἶδος πονηρίας .—1Th_5:22, as well as 1Th_5:21, is peculiarly interpreted by Hänsel (Theol. Stud. u. Krit. 1836, Part 1, p. 170 ff.).[66] 1Th_5:21-22 are repeatedly cited by Cyril Alexandrinus as an expression of the Apostle Paul, in such a manner that with this citation, and indeed as its contents, the words ΓΊΝΕΣΘΕ ΔΌΚΙΜΟΙ ΤΡΑΠΕΖῖΤΑΙ are united. Also these words are elsewhere frequently by the Fathers united with our passage, being quoted sometimes as a saying of Christ, sometimes generally as a saying of Scripture, and sometimes specially as a saying of the Apostle Paul. See Suicer, Thesaurus, II. p. 1281 ff. (Sacr. Observ. p. 140 ff.); Fabricius, Cod. Apocr. N. T. I. p. 330 ff., III. p. 524. On this Hänsel supports his opinion. He regards the words γίνεσθε δόκιμοι τραπεζῖται as a saying of Christ, and thinks that this dictum ἌΓΡΑΦΟΝ of the Lord was in the mind of the Apostle Paul, and in consequence of this the expressions in 1Th_5:21-22 were selected by him, which were usual in the money terms employed by antiquity. So that the sense would be: “Act as experienced exchangers; everything which is presented to you as good coin, that test; preserve the good coin (what actually is divine truth), but guard against every false coin (reject all false doctrine).” But evidently only the expression ΔΟΚΙΜΆΖΕΤΕ was the occasion for the Fathers uniting the dictum ἌΓΡΑΦΟΝ of Christ, handed down by tradition, with our passage. Paul, on the contrary, could not have thought of it, even supposing it to have been known to him. For although the verb ΔΟΚΙΜΆΖΕΙΝ would well suit, if otherwise the reference was to the figure of exchangers, yet in an actual reference to the same the words τὸ καλὸν εἶδος κατέχετε , ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ πονηροῦ ἀπέχεσθε would have been written. Lastly, add to this that ΕἾΔΟς cannot import in itself a coin, νομίσματος must be added, or money must have been spoken of in what goes before.
[66] Baumgarten-Crusius accedes to the interpretation of Hänsel; Koch strangely rejects it for ver. 22, but adopts it for ver. 23.