Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 2 Thessalonians 2:1 - 2:1
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
2Th_2:1. ʼΕρωτῶμεν δέ ] passing from what the apostle prays for the Thessalonians (2Th_1:11-12) to what he requires of them. On ἐρωτᾶν , see on 1Th_4:1.
ἀδελφοί ] an affectionate and winning address.
ὑπέρ ] is in the Vulgate, as well as by Pelagius, Faber Stapulensis, Bugenhagen, Clarius, Erasmus, Zwingli, Calvin, Hemming, Hunnius, Justinian, Estius, Piscator, Balduin, Aretius, Cornelius a Lapide, Beza. Fromond., Calixt, Bern. a Piconius, Nat. Alexander, and many others, understood as a form of adjuration (per adventum); and then the meaning attributed to it is either: si vobis dies ille tremendus est … obtestor vos per illum (Zwingli), or: si vobis animo carus est adventus domini, si desiderabile est vobis ad ipsum dominum colligi, etc. (Hemming), or lastly: quam vere exspectatis domini adventum, etc. (Beza). Certainly ὑπέρ , as elsewhere πρός , sometimes occurs in protestations with the genitive; comp. Hom. Il. xxiv. 466 f.
Καί μιν ὑπὲρ πατρὸς καὶ μητέρος ἠϋκόμοιο | Λίσσεο καὶ τέκεος , ἵνα οἱ σὺν θυμὸν ὀρίνῃς , Bernhardy, Syntax, p. 244. But (1) such a usage is entirely foreign to the N. T. (2) It is hardly conceivable that Paul should have chosen that as an object of adjuration, concerning which he was about to instruct them in what follows. Therefore Zeger, Vorstius, Grotius, Hammond, Wolf, Noesselt, Koppe, Storr, Heydenreich, Flatt, Pelt, Schott, de Wette, Winer (p. 343 [E. T. 479]), Baumgarten-Crusius, Wieseler, Bloomfield, Alford, Ewald, Bisping, Riggenbach, and others more correctly take ὑπέρ in the sense of περί , in respect of. Comp. Rom_9:27; 2Co_1:8; Passow, A 3; Bernhardy, Syntax, p. 244; Kühner, II. p. 288. Yet this does not prevent the maintenance of the special import of the preposition also here. The meaning is in the interest of the advent, namely, in order to preserve it from everything that is erroneous. When, then, the apostle says: we entreat you in the interest of the advent, the meaning of this abbreviated form of expression is: we entreat you in the interest of the advent, namely, to guard it against all misrepresentations, not to deviate from the correct view concerning it.
παρουσία τοῦ κυρίου ] here also, as everywhere with Paul, is nothing else than the personal coming (return) of Christ at the completion of the kingdom of God.
ἐπισυναγωγή ] points back to 1Th_4:17, denoting the act by which all believers are caught up to Christ, or gathered together to Him, to be then eternally united to Him, following the resurrection and change.
ἡμῶν ] is placed first in order to obtain a more direct contrast to κυρίου .
ἐπʼ αὐτόν ] up to Him. Incorrectly Grotius, Koppe, Heydenreich, Pelt, Alford, and others, that it is equivalent to πρὸς αὐτόν .