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https://archive.org/details/expositorsgreekt04nico
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ΤΗΕ FIRST AND SECOND EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS
JAMES MOFFATT, D.D. II THE FIRST AND SECOND EPISTLES TO TIMOTHY
NEWPORT J. D. WHITE, D.D. ΠῚ THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON
W. E. OESTERLEY, M.A., B.D. IV THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS
MARCUS DODS, D.D. V ‘THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES
HODDER AND STOUGHTON LIMITED LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
THE FIRST AND SECOND EPISTLES OF PAUL THE APOSTLE
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81. The Mission to Thessalonica.—The Christian inhabitants of Thessalonica were mainly Greeks by birth and training (1. 9, cf. ii. 14; Acts xiv. 15, xv. 19), who had been won over from paganism by the efforts of Paul, Silvanus (Silas), and Timotheus (Timothy), during an effective campaign which lasted for a month or two. It had opened quietly with a three weeks’ mission in the local synagogue. Luke, who by this time had left the trio, enters into no details about its length or methods, adding merely that some of the Jews believed, while a host of devout Greeks and a considerable number of the leading women threw in their lot with the apostles. Luke is seldom interested in the growth or fortunes of individual churches. But, as the subsequent membership of. the church, its widespread influence and fame, its inner condition, and the resentment caused by the success of the Pauline mission (continued from the house of Jason, Acts xvii. 5) all imply, a considerable interval must have elapsed before the time when the apostles were forced prematurely to quit the place. Their stay was prolonged to an extent of which Acts gives no idea; for Paul not only supported himself by working at his trade but had time to receive repeated gifts of money! from his friends at Philippi, a hundred miles away, as well as to engage perhaps in mission work throughout Macedonia (i. 7) if not as far west as Illyricum (Rom. xv. 19, cf. Lightfoot’s Biblical Essays, 237 f.). Two or three months possibly may be allowed for this fruitful mission at Thessalonica.
When the local πολιτάρχαι, at the instigation of Jews who were nettled at the Christians’ success, finally expelled Paul and his companions, the subsequent movements of the latter were governed by a desire to keep in touch with the inexperienced and unconsoli- dated Christian community which they had left behind them. The ‘summary outline of Acts xvii. 10-15 requires to be supplemented and
1 Probably this was one of the reasons which led to the imputation of mercenary motives (ii. 5, 9).