corrected at this point by the information of 1 Thess. ii. 17-iii, 6. According to Luke, Silas and Timotheus remained at Beroea, under orders to rejoin Paul as soon as possible. They only reached him at Corinth (Acts xviii. 5), however. Now since Timotheus, as we know from Paul, visited Thessalonica in the meantime, we must assume one of two courses. (a) Leaving Silas at Beroea, Timotheus hur- ried on to Paul at Athens, was sent back (with a letter ?) to Thessa- lonica, and, on his return, picked up Silas at Beroea; whereupon both joined their leader, who by this time had moved on suddenly to Corinth. This implies that the plural in tii. 1 is the pluralis majesta- ticus or auctoris (see on iil. 5), since Silas was not with Paul at Athens. But the possibility of that plural meaning both Paul and Silas, together with the silence of Acts, suggests (0) an alternative reconstruction of the history, vzz., that Timotheus and Silas jour- neyed together from Beroea to Athens, where they met Paul and were despatched thence on separate missions, Silas! perhaps to Philippi, Timotheus at an earlier date to Thessalonica, both rejoining Paul eventually at Corinth. In any case the natural sense of iti. 1, 2 is that Paul sent Timotheus from Athens, not (so e.g., von Soden, Studien u. Kritiken, 1885, 291 f.) that he sent directions from Athens for his colleague to leave Beroea and betake himself to Thessalonica (E. Bi., 5076, 5077).
From no church did Paul tear himself with such evident reluct- ance. His anxiety to get back to it was not simply due to the feel- ing that he must go on with the Macedonian mission, if at all possible, but to his deep affection for the local community. The Macedonian churches may almost be termed Paul’s favourites. None troubled him less. None came so near to his heart. At Thessa- lonica the exemplary character of the Christians,” their rapid growth,
1 This mission, or a mission of Silas (cf. iii. 5) after Timotheus to Thessalonica itself, though passed over both by Luke and Paul, must be assumed, if the statement of Acts xviii. 5 is held to be historical, since the latter passage implies that Paul was not accompanied by Silas from Athens to Corinth. The alternative is to suppose that he left Silas behind in Athens, as at Beroea. A comparison of 1 Thess. with Acts bears out the aphorism of Baronius that epistolaris historia est optima historia ; Luke’s narrative is neither clear nor complete.
*Renan (5. Paul, 135-139) praises the solid, national qualities of the Mace- donians, “un peuple de paysans protestants; c’est une belle et forte race, laborieuse, sédentaire, aimant sons pays, pleine d’avenir”. It was their very warmth of heart which made them at once so loyal to Paul and his gospel, and also so liable to “unsettlement in view of their friends’ death (iv. 15 f.). Compare the description of the Macedonian churches in von Dobschiitz’s Christ. Life in the Primitive Church, pp. 8rf.