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1Th_5:23. If what the apostle requires in 1Th_5:22 is to be actually realized, God’s assistance must supervene. Accordingly, this benediction is fitly added to the preceding.
αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ Θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης ] the God of peace Himself; an emphatic contrast to the efforts of man.
ὁ Θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης ] the God of peace, i.e. who communicates Christian peace. Neither the connection with 1Th_5:22 nor the contents of the benediction itself will permit us to understand εἰρήνη of harmony. To refer to εἰρηνεύετε , 1Th_5:13, for this meaning is far-fetched.
ὁλοτελής ] here only in the N. T. spoken of what is perfect, to which nothing belonging to its nature is wanting. Jerome, ad Hedib. 12, Ambrosiaster, Koppe, Pelt, and others understand ὁλοτελεῖς in an ethical sense, as an accusative of result: “so that ye be entire, that is, pure and blameless.” But it is better, on account of what follows, to take ὁλοτελεῖς as an adverb of quantity, uniting it closely with ὑμᾶς , and finding the whole personality of the Thessalonians denoted as if the simple ὅλους were written: “in your entire extent, through and through.”
καὶ ὁλόκληρον … τηρηθείη ] a fuller repetition of the wish already expressed.
καί ] and indeed.
ὁλόκληρος ] means, as ὁλοτελής , perfectly, consisting of all its parts. ὁλόκληρον refers not only to τὸ πνεῦμα , although it is governed by it, as the nearest noun, in respect of its gender, but also to ψυχή and σῶμα . Comp. Winer, p. 466 [E. T. 661]. The totality of man is here divided into three parts: spirit, soul, and body. See Olshausen, de naturae hum. trichotomia N. T. scriptoribus recepta in s. Opusc. theol., Berol. 1834, p. 143 ff.; Messner, die Lehre der Apostel, Leipz. 1856, p. 207. We are not to assume that this trichotomy has a purely rhetorical signification, as elsewhere Paul also definitely distinguishes πνεῦμα and ψυχή (1Co_2:14-15; 1Co_15:44; 1Co_15:46). The twofold division, which elsewhere occurs with Paul (1Co_7:34; 2Co_7:1), is a popular form of representation. The origin of the trichotomy is Platonic; but Paul has it not from the writings of Plato and his scholars, but from the current language of society, into which it had passed from the narrow circle of the schools.
πνεῦμα denotes the higher and purely spiritual side of the inner life, what is elsewhere called by Paul νοῦς (reason); ψυχή is the lower side, which comes in contact with the region of the senses. The spirit is preserved blameless in its totality at the advent, i.e. so that it approves itself blameless at the advent ( ἀμέμπτως is a more exact definition of ὁλόκληρον τηρηθείη ), when the voice of truth always rules in it; the soul, when it strives against all the charms of the senses; and, lastly, the body, when it is not abused as the instrument of shameful actions.[67]
[67] According to Schrader, ver. 23 contains an un-Pauline thought, because when Paul distinguishes the ψυχή from the spirit, the latter is considered as something “divine,” as “unutterably good,” as “eternally opposed to every perversity.” Paul, accordingly, could not have assumed, “besides the soul in man, a mutable spirit which must be preserved from blemish.” But the discourse is not of the holy Divine Spirit which rules in man, but of a part of man, himself, of the νοῦς ; but the νοῦς may fall into ματαιότης (Eph_4:17), may be ἀδόκιμος (Rom_1:28), μεμιασμένος (Tit_1:15), κατεφθαρμένος (2Ti_3:8), etc.