Ver. το. ἀγάπη (cf. ver. 12) here, as Luke xi. 42, with obj. gen. Cf. Asc. Ίσα., iv. 15, 16: “* And He will give rest [above, ch. i. 7] to the godly whom He shall find in the body in this world, and to all who because of their faith in Him have execrated Beliar and his kings”. ἀλήθεια, not = “truth” in the general sense of the term (Liinemann, Lightfoot, Zimmer) but = ‘‘ the truth of the gospel”’ (as usual in Paul) as against ἀδικία and ψεῦδος (Rom. i. 15f., ii. 8). The apostle holds that the refusal to open one’s mind and heart to the gospel leaves life a prey to moral delusion ; judicial infatua-
4
50
m See
αὐτούς’ Ezek. xx.
24-25, and εἰς TO πιστεῦσαι αὐτοὺς τῷ ψεύδει -
Rom. i. 24, 26, 28, πιστεύσαντες τῇ εἴς,
6-7.
ο πώ (as Η
Rom.i.18,
and 1 Cor. Tod Κυρίου ἡμῶν ere Χριστοῦ.
q Contrast 1. 1.
τα, 3- s Cf. 1. 1. 4 {in similar connexion). XXvi. 18, u Rom. xi. position reflected in ver. 13. thought of ii. 1-2.
" ἀληθείᾳ ἀλλ᾽ “ εὐδοκήσαντες τῇ " ἀδικίᾳ.
16, Xvi. 5; 1 Cor. Xv. 20, etc.; x Cf. 2 Cor. iv. 3. a Cf. 1. iii. 8 and 1 Cor. xvi. 13.
11.
11. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ™ πέμπει αὐτοῖς ὁ Θεὸς ἐνέργειαν "πλάνης,
12. ἵνα “ κριθῶσι πάντες οἱ μὴ
τα:
Ἡμεῖς δὲ " ὀφείλομεν εὐχαριστεῖν τῷ Θεῷ πάντοτε περὶ ὑμῶν, " ἀδελ- φοὶ ημων ὑπὸ καν ὅτι " εἵλατο ὑμᾶς 6 Θεὸς " ἀπαρχὴν ! τὴς σωτηρίαν ἐν ” ἁγιασμῷ ” πνεύματος καὶ πίστει ἀληθείας, 14. εἰς "
ἐκάλεσεν ὑμᾶς διὰ τοῦ * εὐαγγελίου
* ἡμῶν, εἰς ” περιποίησιν δόξης
15 “dpa οὖν, ἀδελφοί, " στήκετε
καὶ κρατεῖτε τὰς " παραδόσεις ἃς ἐδιδάχθητε, εἴτε διὰ λόγου εἴτε δι’,
t Alexandrian form a § 13, 13); οἵ. Deut. v I. iv. 7-8. w {.ε., general νο. Τ.ν.ο. Ζ Cf. Τι νο, ‘resumes
Ὁ See iii. 6 and 1 Cor. xi. 2.
‘The singular variant απαρχην, adopted by Lach., WH marg., Weiss (Left. ϱ) from BGerP, min., f. vg., syr.P, Euth., Dam., etc., is preferable to the strongly supported απ αρχης (Pauline απ. evp., in historical sense of Phil. iv. 15, Ac. xv. 7;
etc.). yet to follow (cf. iii. 1, and i. 4).
tion is the penalty of disobedience to the truth of God in Christ.
Ver. 11. An echo of the primitive Semitic view (still extant, cf. Curtis’s Prim. Sem. Religion To-Day, pp. 69 f.), that God may deliberatély lead men astray, or permit them to be fatally in- fatuated, as a penal discipline (cf. Ps. Sol. viii. 15; Test. XII. Patr. Dan. ix.). A modern would view the same pheno- menon as wilful scepticism issuing in superstition, or in inability to distinguish truth from falsehood. Delusions of this kind cannot befall believers (cf. Mark xiii. 22; Test. [ssach. 111). In Test. Napht. ili. 3, idols are πνεύματα πλάνης (cf. Test. Levi. ili. 3, etc.).
Ver. 12. Like the prophet John half a century later (xiii. 2 f.), Paul distin- guishes his anti-Christ or antitheistic hero from the Satan whose campaign he executes; but, unlike John, the apostle has nothing to say about the fate of Satan. The tools and the victims of Satan are destroyed, and they alone.— εὐδοκ. not with ἐν as usual, but with the less common (cf. e.g., 1 Macc. i. 43, καὶ πολλοὶ ἀπὸ ᾿Ισραὴλ ηὐδόκησαν τῇ λατ- ρίᾳ αὐτοῦ) dative. “Απά the greater number of those who shall have been associated together in order to receive the Beloved he [ζ.ε., Beliar] will turn aside after him” (Asc. Isa., iv. 9).
Ver. 13-CHAPTER III.-Ver. 5. Thanks, prayers and counsels.
Ver. 13. God has chosen you (εἵλατο, another LXX expression, implying that Christians had now succeeded to the cherished priviliges of God’s people) to
The Thessalonians or Macedonians are jirst-fruits, as contrasted with others
be saved, instead of visiting you with a deadly delusion (το, 11) which ends in judgment (12); your discipline is of sanc- tification (contrast 12d) and belief in what is true (contrast II, 126), these forming the sphere and the scope (cf. 1 Tim. ii. 15, and for ἐν ἁγιασμῷ in this sense Ps.