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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
9. μνημονεύετε γάρ, ἀδελφοί. For you call to mind, brothers: for μνημονεύω with accus., cf. 2Ti 2:8; Mat 16:9; Rev 18:5; with the genitive it has a less active sense, as in 1Th 1:3 (see note). Referring to the same matter in 2Th 3:7, the Apostles use the stronger expression, αὐτοὶ γὰρ οἴδατε, as in 1Th 2:1 above; here they speak as though the facts mentioned might not be at once present to the minds of the readers and would need to be recalled: cf. 2Th 2:5.
On κόπος, see note to 1Th 1:3. μόχθος (kindred to μόγις, μόγος) implies outward difficulty, as κόπος personal strain,—“toil and moil” (Lightfoot); so μόχθος is used of the labours of Hercules in Sophocles, Trach. 1101, 1170. The combination recurs in 2Th 3:8; 2Co 11:27.
νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας ἐργαζόμενοι … ἐκηρύξαμεν κ.τ.λ., by night and day working, &c.: an explanatory sentence abruptly apposed to κόπον καὶ μόχθον, much as ὡς ἐὰν τροφός κ.τ.λ. to νήπιοι (ἤπιοι) in 1Th 2:7. The order “night and day” was common in Greek and Roman, as well as Jewish, usage (see Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 77 [88]; Cicero, De Finibus i. xvi. 51; Cæsar, De Bell. Gall. v. 38. 1); “day and night” is the order in Luke and John. Ἐργάζομαι bears the specific sense of manual labour also in classical Greek; so our “working man”: cf. 2Th 3:8; 1Co 9:6; Act 18:3. The last of these parallels, which refers to St Paul’s employment at this time, informs us of the nature of his handicraft; he was “a tentmaker by trade,” σκηνοποιὸς τῇ τέχνῃ. Jewish fathers, even if well-to-do (as St Paul’s family probably was, judging from the fact of his being sent to study at Jerusalem), had their sons taught some mechanical art as a remedy against poverty or idleness. St Paul had probably learnt at Tarsus the business of cutting out and stitching the coarse goats’-hair cloth (cilicium) used for making tents, also for shoes, mats, and other rough fabrics, which was a staple industry of Cilicia; and this skill proved a great resource to the wandering Apostle. An irksome labour it was, and ill-paid, most like the work of a shoemaker or carpet-sewer. “These hands,” as the Apostle held them up to the view of the Ephesian Elders (Act 20:34) hard and blackened with their daily task, told their tale of stern independence and exhausting toil. Silvanus and Timothy had probably other trades of their own. Yet the Apostle during his residence at Thessalonica more than once received help from his friends at Philippi, who would not be denied the privilege of relieving his wants: see Php 4:10-16. This Church was composed mainly of working-class people (see 1Th 4:11 f.), and demands soon began to be made by the Christian poor—in some cases, probably, deprived of their living by their change in religion—on the resources of its few wealthier members (including the γυναῖκες πρῶται of Act 17:4); the Apostles acted therefore in the manner described πρὸς τὸ μὴ ἐπιβαρῆσαί τινα ὑμῶν, so as to avoid laying a burden upon any of you—words repeated in 2Th 3:8, where 1Th 2:9 f. add another reason for the mode of life pursued at Thessalonica: cf., to the like effect, 1Co 9:1-19; 2Co 11:7-12; Act 20:33 ff. This went to show not only the love of the Apostles toward their converts, but their disinterestedness, the absence in them of πλεονεξία in any shape (1Th 2:5 ff.: see note on ἐν βάρει). Ἐπιβαρέω has an ethical force in 2Co 2:5; the stronger καταβαρέω is used in the sense of this passage in 2Co 12:16.
ἐκηρύξαμεν εἰς ὑμᾶς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ θεοῦ. We brought to you as heralds the Good News of God: cf. ὁ λόγος ἡμῶν ἐγενήθη εἰς ὑμᾶς, 1Th 1:5. Κηρύσσω εἰς (elsewhere with dative, Act 8:5; 1Pe 3:19; and frequently with ἐν, as in 2Co 1:19) implies entrance amongst those addressed (εἴσ-οδος, 1Th 2:1); cf. Mar 1:39; Luk 24:47, &c. Μεταδοῦναι τὸ εὐαγγ. (1Th 2:8) indicates the charity of those who bring the Gospel, ἐκηρύξαμεν the dignity of their office. For the third time in this context (1Th 2:2; 1Th 2:5) the Gospel is called “the good news of God” (cf. 1Th 1:9); elsewhere only in Rom 1:1; Rom 15:16. As God’s heralds, bearing so lofty a commission and so welcome a message, the Apostles might have looked for some return in the supply of their bodily needs from those to whom they devoted themselves unsparingly (see 1Co 9:7-14); but they forbore, for the reason given. Jason’s house, referred to in Act 17:5 f., was probably the place of assembly for the Church; the Apostles, if they regularly lodged there, were not at Jason’s charge for their maintenance.