5. For (67). Incorrect. Rend. how that. It is explana- tory of your election. For similar usage see 1 Cor. i. 26.
Our gospel. The gospel as preached by Paul and his colleagues. Comp. Rom. ii. 16; xvi. 25; Gal. i. 11; ii. 2; 1 Th. ii. 4. My gospel is sometimes used in connection with an emphasis upon some particular feature of the gospel, as in Rom. ii. 16, where Paul is speaking of the judgment of the world by Christ; or in Rom. xvi. 25, where he is refer. ring to the extension of the messianic kingdom to the Gen. tiles.
FE * See the note in Vol. III., p. 183 ff.
Cx. 1] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 17
In word (év Ady). The gospel did not appeal to them as mere eloquent and learned discourse.
In power (ev dvvaye). Power of spiritual persuasion and conviction: not power as displayed in miracles, at least not principally, although miraculous demonstrations may be included. Paul rarely alludes to his power of working miracles.
Assurance. (7Anpodopia). Assured persuasion of the preacher that the message was divine. The word not in pre- Christian Greek writers, nor in LXX. Only in one other passage in Paul, Col. ii. 2. See Heb. vi. 11; x. 22.
We were (éyevn9nwev). More correctly, we shewed or proved ourselves.
6. Followers (utpntat). More literally and better, ¢m7- tators. Only once outside of Paul’s writings, Heb. vi. 12. Commal Panu 0; 20h. ii. 7 ; 1 Cor ivy, 163, xi. 1; Gal. inet; Philip.ai. 17 ; iv. 9-
And of the Lord. Guarding against any possible impu- tation of self-assertion or conceit. Comp. 1 Cor, xi. 1.
Tribulation (Arter). See on Matt. xiii. 21. Referring especially to persecutions at the hands of the Jews (Acts xvii. 5 ff.), which probably continued after Paul’s departure from Thessalonica.
7. An ensample (rérov). See on 1 Pet. v. 3.
Macedonia and Achaia. Shortly after 146 B.c., all Greece south of Macedonia and Epirus was formed into a Roman province under the name of Achaia, and Macedonia with Epirus into another province called Macedonia.
8. Hath sounded forth (é&jynrav). N.T.°. LXX Joel iii. 14; Sir. xl. 18, of thunder; 3 Mace. iil. 2, of a report. It means a loud, unmistakable proclamation.
VOL. Iv. —2
18 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. I.
The word of the Lord (6 Adyos rod xupiov). The phrase in Paul only in these Epistles. Comp. 2 Th. iii. 1; iv. 165. Comparatively frequent in Acts. Paul has ddyos Oeod or rod Oeod word of God, eight times, and Adyos tod yprorod word of the Christ, once, Col. iii. 16. The meaning here is the gospel, regarded either as the message proceeding from the Lord, or concerning him. It is the edayyédvov Geod the gospel of God: see ch. ii. 2, 8, 9; Roms. to bs jane 6< 2 Cor. xi. 7. As Professor Sanday remarks on Rom. i. 1, “it is probably a mistake in these cases to restrict the force of the genitive to one particular aspect: all aspects are included in which the gospel is in any way related to God and Christ.” Ai
In every place. A rhetorical exaggeration, signifying the whole known world. It is explained by the extensive commercial relations of Thessalonica. Comp. Rom. i. 8; Col. 1. 6, 28; 2\Cor. 11. 14.
Is spread abroad (éfeAnAvOev). Lit. and better, has gone Sorth.*
9. They themselves shew (avtol amrayyéAdovow). They themselves in contrast with we, ver. 8. We need not speak of anything : they themselves volunteer testimony to your faith. Shew, more correctly announce or report.
* Much discussion has arisen as to the proper connection of this passage. As punctuated and rendered in A.V. and Rev. the sequence is irregular. There is a clear antithesis between aN but and od udvov not only; and the sentence, if regular, would have closed with in every place. As it is, anew subject and predicate (your faith—has gone forth) is introduced with in every place. The simplest and best solution of the difficulty is to accept the irregular construction as characteristically Pauline. Others place a colon atter of the Lord, and begin a new clause with not only.