to the Christian at first so much as the experience of forgiveness.
Ver. 10. In preaching to pagans, the leaders of the primitive Christian mission put the wrath and judgment of God in the forefront (cf. Sabatier’s Paul, 98 f.), making a sharp appeal to the moral sense, and denouncing idolatry (cf. Sap., xiv., 12f., 22f.). Hence the revival they set on foot. They sought to set pagans straight, and to keep them straight, by means of moral fear as well as of hope. Paul preached at Thessalonica as he did at Athens (Acts xvii. 29-31; see Har- nack’s Expansion of Christianity, i. 108 f.) and the substance of his mission-message on the wrath of God is preserved in Rom, i, I8—ii. 16. The living God is mani- fested by His raising of Jesus from the dead, His awakening of faith in Chris- tians, and His readiness to judge human sin in the hereafter. Seeberg (der Kate- chismus der Urchristenheit, 82-85) finds here an echo of some primitive Christian formula of faith, but his proofs are very precarious.—tév υἱὸν αὐτοῦ. This marked them out from Jewish proselytes, who might also be said to have turned from idols to serve the living God. The quiet combination of monotheism and a divine position of Jesus is striking (cf. Kattenbusch, of. cit., fi. 550 f.).—é« τῶν οὐρανῶν . . . ἐκ τ. νεκρῶν, both the hope and the historical fact lay outside the experience of the Thessalonians, but both were assured to them by their experience of the Spirit which the risen Jesus had bestowed, and which guaranteed His final work. Were it not for touches like the
26 ΠΡΟΣ ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΕΙ͂Σ A 1: ον II. 1. Αὐτοὶ γὰρ " οἴδατε, ἀδελφοί, τὴν εἴσοδον ἡμῶν τὴν πρὸς ὑμᾶς. member,” | as 1 ΠΝ ὅτι ἢ οὐ κενὴ γέγονεν: 2. ἀλλὰ προπαθόντες καὶ ὑβρισθέντες, καθὼς 1. 1 ο]. Field, οἴδατε, ἐν “ Φιλίπποις, “ ἐπαρρησιασάμεθα ἐν TH Θεῷ "ἡμῶν λαλῆσαι 1 7). “ > “ lol > > - 6/.1.5, πρὸς ὑμᾶς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν πολλῷ ᾿ ἀγῶνι. 3. ἡ γὰρ απΠά 1 ο νι Αν ey > Cor. xv, ὅ παράκλησις ἡμῶν " οὐκ ἐκ πλάνης, οὐδὲ ἐξ ἀκαθαρσίας, οὐδὲ 1 ἐν 1Ο. a Ἢ Ἢ a cSeeon δόλῳ, 4. ἀλλὰ καθὼς * δεδοκιμάσμεθα ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ | πιστευθῆναι Acts xvi, 19 f. d See on Eph. vi. 20 and Acts ix. 26; on form cf. Win. § 5. 26 Ὁ. ο iii. ο; II. i, 11-12. PGS. Phil. 1, 30. g “appeal” (cf. Polyb. iii. 109, 6). ἢ Sc. ἐστίν, cf. 2 Cor. vi. 8. i 2 Cor. iv. 2 and xii. 16. k 2 Macc. iv. 3. 1 Cf. Gal. ii. 7.
1 The second ονδε (SSABCD*GP, min., etc., edd.) [¢f. II. iii. 7-8] is preferable to- the ν. 1. οὔτε (Pelt, Hofm., Wohl.); for ακαθαρσιας, Bentl. conj. “forte εξ ἄν.
αρεσκιας” [1.ε. ανθρωπαρεσκιας].
deeper sense of δουλεύειν, the celestial origin of Jesus, and the eschatological definition of ὀργή, one might be tempted to trace a specious resemblance between this two-fold description of Christianity at Thessalonica and the two cardinal factors in early Greek religion, viz., the service of the Olympian deities (θερα- πεύειν) and the rites of aversion (ἀπο- πομπαί) which were designed to depre- cate the dark and hostile powers of evil. Paul preached like the Baptist judgment tocome. But his gospel embraced One who baptised with the Spirit and with the fire of enthusiastic hope (cf. 1 Cor. i. 7).
CuHapTeR II.—Vv. 1-12. An afologia pro vita et labore suo.
Ver. 1. αὐτοί, as opposed to the a. of 1. 9.--- γέγονεν κ.τ.λ., Our mission was a vital success, as its results still show. For its motives and methods were genuine (2-12).
Ver. 2. ‘“‘ Though we had suffered—aye and suffered outrage” in one town, yet on we went to another with the same errand; a practical illustration of Matt. πι αρ:
Ver. 3. γάρ: Our mission (whatever that of others may be) is not the outcome of self-seeking, otherwise it would readily be checked by such un- toward circumstances. Our confidence is in God, not in ourselves; our work is not self-appointed but a sacred trust or commission, for which we are respon- sible to Him (4). Hence, discourage- ment and hesitation are impossible, Paul argues that the very fact of their’ cheerful perseverance at Thessalonica, after their bad treatment at Philippi,