47
x.1; Eph.
aA A a a , 3 A a OS ° αὐτῷ, κατὰ τὴν χάριν "ἢ τοῦ Θεοῦ " ἡμῶν καὶ “ Κυρίου ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ. i. 5.
II. 1. Ἐρωτῶμεν δὲ ὑμᾶς, ἀδελφοί, " ὑπὲρ τὴς παρουσίας τοῦ
Κυρίου 1 Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ " ἡμῶν “ ἐπισυναγωγῆς ἐπ᾽ αὐτόν, 2. “ εἰς
« k See on Rom. xv, τή and Eph. v. 9. Col. i. 29.
x ~ A A 4 A 1 τὸ μὴ “ταχέως ᾿ σαλευθῆναι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ νοὸς μηδὲ * θροεῖσθαι, πιο; LxX;
μήτε διὰ πνεύματος, μήτε διὰ λόγου, μήτε δι " ἐπιστολῆς (ὡς δι,
Ezek, xxxix. 21. p So ver. 11.
XXiv. 31; 2 Macc. ii. 7, etc. d I. iii. 10. Sap. iv. 4.
Jos. Vit. xi., xxxv. iSc. γεγραμμένης.
n = Person or character (cf. on Phil. ii. 90-19). q For κ. without article, cf. Win. § το. 13 ἃ, § 18. 7. περί (an Jonism, cf. Meisterhans, Gramm. d. attisch. Inschrift. 182).
g Elsewhere in N.T., only in Matt. xxiv. 6 (= Mk. xiii. 7).
of Isa. XXIV. 19, Ixvi. 5; ο Mal.i.11; ο John xvii. τ, 10, 21 f. a“with regard to,” = Ὁ See oni. 7. ο Cf. Matt. e Gal. i. 6 = “hastily”. f See Acts xvii. 13; ἢ Forged? cf.
1 Om. ηµων after Κυριου, with B, syr. (WH, Weiss, Findlay).
suffering by means of which He developed their patient faith (4, 5), but Paul. here finds another proof of it in their broader development of moral character and vital religion (cf. 10). πᾶσαν includes ἔργον as well as εὐδοκίαν; the prayer is for success to every practical enterprise of faith as well as for the satisfaction of every aspiration and desire after moral excellence. Compare Dante’s Paradiso, xviii. 58-60. κλῆσις is “the position you are called to occupy,” ‘‘ your voca- tion,” as heirs of this splendid future—a not unnatural] extension (cf. Phil. iii. 14) οἵ its ordinary use ( = 1 Cor. i. 26, etc.). This implies that a certain period of moral ripening must precede the final crisis. In ii. 1-iii. 5, Paul proceeds to elaborate this, in order to allay the fever- ish excitement at Thessalonica, while in iii. 6 f., he discusses the further ethical disorders caused by the church’s too ardent hope. The heightened misery of the present situation must neither break down their patience (4 f.), nor on the other hand must it be taken as a proof that the end was imminent.
Ver. 12. Here at any rate it is im- possible to take χάριν in a universalistic sense (so Robinson, Ephesians, pp. 225 f.), as though it implied that Christians were put on the same level as O.T. saints. The idea is the merciful favour of God, to the exclusion of human merit. The main topic of the letter is now brought forward ; ii. 1-2 gives the occasion for the λόγος παρακλήσεως (3-12) which follows.
CHAPTER I].—Ver. τ. ἐπισυν., a term whose verb was already in use for the muster of saints to the messianic reign. —oak, ‘get unsettled’. Epictetus uses ἀποσαλεύεσθαι for the unsettling of the mind by sophistries (iii. 25), and the
nearest equivalent for νοῦς here is our ‘“‘mind”. This mental agitation (aor.) results in θροεῖσθαι = nervous fear (Wrede, 48 f.) in prospect of the immin- ent end.
Ver. 2. ὡς δι ἡμῶν, ‘‘ purporting to come from us,” goes with ἐπιστολῆς alone, for, while λόγος (1, ἤπεπιαπη) might be grouped under it, πνεῦμα can- not. A visionary would claim personal, not borrowed, authority for his revela- tion. If ὡς 8. 4. went with the preceding verbs (so Dods, Askwith, 92 f., Wohl. = ‘‘we are the true interpreters of Paul’s meaning ’’), an active (as in νετ. 3) not a passive turn might have been expected to the sentence.— ἐνέστηκεν = ‘‘ were al- ready present”. The cry was, 6 κύριος πάρεστι. The final period had already begun, and the Thessalonians were pro- bably referred to their sufferings as a proof of this. Paul could only guess the various channels along which such a misconception had flowed into the local church ; either, ¢.g., πνεύματος, the hal- lucination of some early Christian pro- phet at Thessalonica; or λόγου, oral statement, based in part perhaps on some calculation of contemporary history or on certain logia of Jesus; or ἐπιστολῆς, {.ε., the misinterpretation of some passage in 1 Thess. or in some lost letter of Paul. Possibly Paul imagined an epistle had been forged purporting to come from him or his companions, but we have no means of knowing whether his suspicion was well-founded or not. In any case the allusion is quite credible within his life- time. Such expectations may have been excited in a more or less innocent fashion, but Paul peremptorily (ver. 3) ranks them all as dishonest; he is concerned not with their origin but with their mis-