the Epistle is a forgery, or at least that vv. 14-16 are interpolated. Such criticism is hardly worthy of notice. Any allusion here to Paul’s part in Jewish persecutions would have been in singularly bad taste. As for Paul’s patriotism, genuine and deep though it was, it was secondary to his consuming zeal for Christ and his gospel. What he here says about the Jews he had long known, and his recent experience in Macedonia might have moved eyen a patriot to fierce indignation against his own people.
Cu. Il] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 31
d:aB8oXos only 9 are outside of the book of Job. From the more general conception of an adversary, there is, in the O. T., a gradual development toward that of an evil per- sonality. For instance, in 2 Sam. xxiv. 1, the numbering of the people is ascribed to the anger of the Lord. The later historian, in 1 Chron. xxi. 1, ascribes the act to Satan. See also Job, Wisd. ii. 24; Zech. iii. 1. The specialising of the conception was due, in part, to the contact of the Jews with the religions of Babylon and Persia. In N. T. Satan appears as the personal spirit of evil—the same who is called the devil, the wicked one, the prince of the power of the ‘air, the prince of this world, the serpent, the god of this world, the tempter. He tempts to evil, opposes God’s work, inspires evil dispositions, torments God’s people. The word Satan occurs only once in the Fourth Gospel, not in the Epistles, but often in the Apocalypse. Mark never uses dvaBonos, Matthew never Satan. Paul seldom ésaBodos, often Satan. Satan alone in Pastorals. Luke uses both. It is clear that Paul here as elsewhere employs the word in a personal sense; but any attempt to base the doctrine of a personal devil on this and similar passages is unsafe.*
Hindered (évéxoev). See on 1 Pet. iii. 7.
19. Hope. Used of the olject of hope, as Col. i. 5; 1 Tim. i. 1; Heb. vi. 18.
Joy — crown (yapa —orépavos). Comp. Philip. iv. 1. The phrase crown of rejoicing or boasting, in Prov. xvi. 31; Ezek. xvi. 12; xxiii. 42. Comp. Isa. lxxii. 3, orépavos eadXovs crown of beauty, and Soph. Aj. 465, ordp. evxrelas crown of renown. The Thessalonians were “a chaplet of victory of which Paul might justly make his boast in the day of the Lord” (Ellicott). For créfavos see on Apoc. iv. 4.
Coming (sapovcia). See on Matt. xxiv. 8, and on ém- pavea appearing, 1 Tim. vi. 14 and 2 Th. ii. 8.
* As Ellicott on this passage, who asserts that a denial of that doctrine ‘‘can be only compatible with a practical denial of Scripture inspiration.”
82 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cx In