Thessalonica to be wrestling with persecutions, it was (dià TOUTO) that he felt so urged to gather information as to the state of their faith, in order that the tempter might not incite them to apostacy, and thus his entire labour be lost. (The Kayú is explained by the circumstance that Paul in his sufferings had also experienced great sympathy from the Thessalonians, which he now reciprocates on his side.—At yvõvaι, avτóv is first of all to be supplied; Paul learnt it then only by Timothy.-That & Tepážov, the tempter, is Satan, as at Matth. iv. 3; 1 Cor. vii. 5, is understood without explanation; the μýπws ¿πεíρаσev vμãç surprises one, however, inasmuch as the temptation seems there already in the persecutions that had befallen them. But Paul does not consider the persecution in itself as temptation; he had indeed in ver. 4 just represented it as, under God's direction, resulting in the salvation of the faithful; it becomes a temptation through Satan's power, only when he succeeds in calling forth in the heart of man doubts of the truth of the gospel-unbelief, therefore, on occasion of the persecution. On the connexion of μnnws with the indicative and conjunctive see Winer's Gr. § 56, 2, p. 448.-Eiç Kevóv = p, Lev. xxvi. 16.-The idea that Paul's labour is lost, if the Thessalonians fall away, bears a character of child-like simplicity. Of course it involves no spiritual selfishness, but is the expression of the conviction that the Thessalonians will even by love to him be induced to hold fast to the faith.)

κενόν

Vers. 6-8.-Paul then further describes, with a touching sensibility, how beneficently the good tidings which Timothy brought of their firm state of faith and of their love had operated on him; he says they are a comfort to him in all distresses, they had brought him life in death. (In ver. 6 aprɩ shews that Paul wrote directly after Timothy's return.-On ɛvayyɛλíšeσ0aι, employed in the wider sense of every sort of good tidings, see at Luke i. 19.-In ver. 7 dià τῆς ὑμῶν πίστεως is the explanation of ἐφ' ὑμῖν, while ἐπὶ θλίψει denotes the subjective state in which Paul was when he received the comfort.-As to the rest, the collocation áváyкŋ kaì 0λípɛι may, according to the MSS., be preferable, as Lachmann and Schott also think. In ver. 8 the vvv Suev supposes that Paul did not live previously; from 1 Cor. xv. 31, "I die daily," it is clear that he considers the continual conflicts and dangers in which he was obliged to move as a continual dying, into which joy at the firmness in the faith of the Christians in Thessalonica entered as a new element of life. Hence, also, the idea of life must not be diluted here into the more general one of joy.—In ¿àv otýkηTE, along with the present, the future too is intimated: "if ye stand, and continue standing."

Vers. 9, 10.-Paul justly considers these tidings as the fountain of life, since nothing more grateful could happen to him; no thanks

can sufficiently recompense the benefit. (Ver. 9. On ávталоdidóvai see Luke xiv. 14; Rom. xi. 35.-Perhaps in uttering the thought the parallel passage, Ps. cxvi. 12, was in the apostle's mind.-As to χαρὰν χαίρειν see John iii. 29.The ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ Θεοῦ characterizes the joy as a holy one, admissible before God's countenance.) But the greater the joy, the more lively becomes the wish also in Paul to see them and to complete their life of faith. The vσ7ɛPńμaта Tis TίOTεws, deficiencies of faith, are to be referred not so much to any failure in power of faith (for that had been up to that time certainly described as energetic), as to defects in the knowledge of faith which developes itself by degrees only, which defects admit of being gradually supplied through a longer intercourse and instruction. On the other hand, true faith has in the very first beginning full power to oppose resistance to all dangers. Finally, it follows, of course, that Paul regards the perfecting (karaprioai) practicable, not with his own powers, but only in the strength of the Holy Spirit. (Ver. 10. 'YлерεкπεрLσσой has already occurred at Eph. iii. 20; it is also found at 1 Thess. v. 13.-The eiç Tó after deóμevol expresses the object of the praying.-On vorépnua see 1 Cor. xvi. 17; 2 Cor. ix. 12.-Karapríčw is properly to set up again something that is destroyed [Matth. iv. 21; Gal. vi. 1], here to bring to perfection without reference to antecedent destruction, = προσαναπληρόω οι ȧvτаvаTλnçów, 2 Cor. ix. 12; Col. i. 24.)

Vers. 11-13.-In conclusion, Paul explicitly utters the petition that God and Christ may prepare for him the way to his dear Christian brethren in Thessalonica, and fill the latter themselves with love, and confirm them in sanctification. It is peculiar to this passage that Christ also is here besought, along with God, to prepare the way. External relations are commonly attributed, in the Scriptures, to the Father, but this passage shews that it is allowable to bring these also before Christ. However, no example but this occurs in the New Testament, as, indeed, in general, prayers to Christ are seldom found. But the juxtaposition of Father and Son, taken strictly, is to be understood thus: "may the Father work so and

* The words αὐτὸς ὁ Θεὸς καὶ ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς κατευθύναι τὴν ὁδὸν ἡμῶν Tρòç vμuç are certainly decisive for the opinion that prayers to the Son are not inadmissible, even in reference to external relations. But the very circumstance that such occur no more in the New Testament, and then the whole analogy of faith, are, surely, decidedly opposed to making prayers to the Saviour frequently, much more, predominantly and almost exclusively, in all external occurrences, as is done in the Moravian churches. The entire ancient church knows of no prayers to Christ which have reference to externals. If, therefore, beginners in the life of faith often confess themselves to be uncertain whether they shall address their prayers to the Farher or to the Son, or even to the Holy Ghost perhaps, it is to be assumed as a general rule according to the rightly understood relation of the Trinity, that external relations must be brought before the Father in prayer, and moral and religious before the Son and the Holy Ghost, or, in fine, that we should pray for everything of the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Ghost.

so through his Son." (Ver. 11. Karevoúval is the optative aorist, as at 2 Thess. iii. 5, not the infinitive.-Ver. 12. The readings & Ðɛós and ¿ kúpios 'Inσous are, it may be supposed, only interpretations of the simple kúptos. That Christ, not the Father, is to be underὁ κύριος. stood by it cannot be doubtful, after ver. 10. IIλεovášε and πεрioΠλεονάζειν περιστ σɛɛiv are related to each other as cause and effect, "to grow, and the riches proceeding from the growth.”—The love eiç dλλýλovç and that els návτaç are related to one another as brotherly love and universal love, 2 Pet. i. 7. [Comp. 1 Thess. iv. 9.] With Kabáπερ Kai καθάπερ καὶ ἡμεῖς not πλεονάσαι, but ἀγάπην ἔχομεν, can be supplied.Ver. 13. Growth in love has afterwards the consequence of confirming the heart in holiness, similarly to the way in which it is represented 2 Thess. ii. 16, 17. The combination ἀμέμπτους ἐν ἁγιωσύνῃ unites the negative and positive elements. [Upon dyiwovvn see Rom. i. 4; 2 Cor. vii. 1. It denotes the process of being made holy, the result of which is dyiaouós, 1 Thess. iv. 3.] But both are meant not of a holiness in the sight of purblind human eyes, but of one that is such before the eye of God. Such an absolute holiness belongs to the believer after his new man, the Christ in us, which is hidden here below, but is made manifest at the day of the Lord's appearance. Hence the addition v T Taроvσía, к. T. 2., similarly to v. 23. On the doctrinal meaning of the phrase and the parallel formulæ, see the remarks on Matth. xxiv. 1.-The term ayiot can, it is undeniable, mean "angels," after the analogy of the Hebrew, Psalm lxxxix. 7; Zech. xiv. 5; Dan. iv. 8, viii. 13, ix. 20. Besides, angels are named as accompanying Christ in his advent, Matth. xvi. 27, xxv. 31; 2 Thess. i. 7; Jude ver. 14. Yet the added avrov and the designation of the collective mass [ueтà Távτwv] give rise to the opinion that the earlier perfected believers may be here imagined as Christ's followers at his advent; for the angels are never called Christ's angels, nor is it conceivable that all the heavenly hosts should accompany him, but it might be all believers should. We shall not, however, be able to explain ourselves more in detail on this point until later [see at iv. 16], where we consider Paul's views upon the end of the world in their connexion.-The dunv, which concludes this passage in some Codd., is doubtless come into the text from liturgical use alone.

II.

PART SECOND.

(IV. 1-V. 28.)

§ 4. EXHORTATIONS TO A HOLY LIFE.

(iv. 1–12.)

AFTER the prayer that God will, through his Spirit, fill the Thessalonians with his love, Paul now turns to them also, and calls upon them to do their part in the work of sanctification, so that here too, human agency seems not to be annihilated by the Divine, but stimulated. But now, as a rule for their walking so as to please God, Paul appeals to the commandment given them by him during his personal presence among them. We may, of course, assume that the exhortations which follow contain only a repetition of the same, for they keep altogether to generals, and it is scarcely imaginable that Paul in the short time of his sojourn could have gone beyond generals. (Ver. 1. We have already had λoñóv, used as an adverb, 2 Cor. xiii. 11; Gal. vi. 17; Eph. vi. 10; Phil. iii. 1, iv. 8. The expression indicates already that Paul is hastening to a conclusion. The reading of the text. rec., rò λoróv, must, for extrinsic reasons, give way to homóv.-The collocation of the words is not entirely exact ; for ἵνα περισσεύητε μᾶλλον should subjoin itself immediately to ἐρωτῶμεν ὑμᾶς καὶ παρακαλοῦμεν ; again, an οὕτως should correspond with the Kaloç. It is true, B.D.E.F.G. have iva before Kaluç TaрeλáBETE, and Lachmann has even put it into the text, but in all probability this is only a correction of the more difficult original reading. On the other hand Lachmann has, with perfect justice, on the authority of A.B.D.E.F.G., adopted the addition Kaluç Kaì πεрiñатейтε wanting in the text. rec. after dpéoкev Oe. The apostle acknowledges their Christian walking, but exhorts them to increase still in the care and fidelity with which they live.-Ver. 2. We find the term "арауyɛλía, "commandment, precept," also at Acts v. 28, xvi. 24; 1 Tim. i. 5, 18. The addition διὰ τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ is to represent Paul as empowered to publish moral commandments, that is, as invested by Jesus with the full powers of an apostle.)

Vers. 3-5.-To this general exhortation Paul now causes the special moral precepts to succeed, and first of all, indeed, those for sexual purity and chastity (vers. 3-8). The sinfulness of human

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nature in general, which makes temptations in this point particularly dangerous, and the immersion of the Gentile world in sins of lust, which were even pre-eminently in vogue in Thessalonica, in particular, justly induced Paul to put this exhortation in the foreground. 'Aylaouós, "the state of holiness," is to be taken here in a special sense, as chastity," as also at Rom. vi. 19; 1 Tim. ii. 15. The proper term for it is dyveía, 1 Tim. iv. 12, v. 2. But, considered as true inward chastity, it is necessarily conjoined with universal moral purity, whence the justification for such a special application of the word. But now Paul first describes chastity negatively as abstinence from all impure sexual acts (Topveía taken in the widest sense), then positively as governing the body in chastity and honour. The body here too appears, according to the Christian fundamental view, not as a prison for the soul, but as its holy organ, which, like the soul itself, must be preserved pure and undefiled, in order to be made a temple of the Holy Spirit. (See at 1 Cor. vi. 15-20.) The antithesis to κτᾶσθαι σκεῦος ἐν ἁγιασμῷ καὶ τιμῇ, to possess the vessel in sanctification and honour, is κτᾶσθαι ἐν πάθει ἐπιθυμίας, to possess in the passion of desire. In this phrase étoupía is imagined as a power operating perniciously on man; he must comport himself only passively, i. e., receptively, towards the Holy Spirit of God; on the other hand, against everything purely sinful and natural, he is to stand up to control and ward off. (See on this point especially 1 Pet. ii. 11.) This simple acceptation of the words, which is also perfectly adapted to the context of the passage, has been already defended by Chrysostom, Theodoret, and other Greek Fathers, in the West by Tertullian, Ambrosiaster, and Pelagius, then by Calvin, Beza, Grotius, Le Clerc, in later times by Baumgarten, Flatt, and Pelt. In fact, the use of σκεῦος as = offers no difficulty. Philo, too, uses several times the phrase dyyɛĩov tñs pvxñs (de migr. Abr. p. 418. Quod deterior pot. insid. p. 186). In the New Testament, 2 Cor. iv. 7 is decisive. It is true, Schott is of opinion that Tνεúμaτоs oг Ýνxns must be added to σKevoç if it be meant to denote the body. But 2 Cor. iv. 7 shews that this is not necessary, where the context makes the meaning of the word sufficiently clear. But besides, in reality such an addition is also involved in tavrou, by which the personality, the vxn, is distinguished from the σKevоs, and the latter designated as belonging to the former. The only difficulty presented by our interpretation is found in ктãσ0α. For in the present that word is "to acquire," in the perfect alone "to possess," i. e., " to have acquired." But it seems improper to speak of an "acquiring" of the body, as it is inborn in man. Yet, although the substance of the body is inborn in man, the dominion over the body is not, and by this dominion the body is first made a true σkɛvoç, a serviceable organ for the soul. We may, therefore, aptly take the expressions thus: "let

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