denness of it, no doubt with reference to the word of Christ, Matth. xxiv. 43; Luke xii. 39. We have at those passages already spoken of the extraordinary character of the comparison. Here we have only further to consider Schott's remark (ad h. 1.), in order to remove the stumbling block, that Christ himself is not compared with a thief, but only his coming with a thief's coming. Certainly; but the offensive element is thus but slightly mitigated, as so many other nobler images presented themselves in order to express the suddenness of Christ's coming. We are forced, therefore, to assume for the explanation of the choice of this precise expression, that the image is conceived from a secure state of worldly possession on which the advent of Christ comes like the unexpected breaking of a thief into his well-guarded house. (Compare further 2 Pet. iii. 10; Rev. iii. 3, xvi. 15.) As to the rest, the quépa kvрíov is only another phrase for the Tapovσía (iv. 15), but iμépa marks more prominently the idea of the judgment-day, the uépa κpioɛws, to which idea ὄλεθρος here points. Paul very often uses the appellation ἡμέρα κυρίου or Xploтov. See 1 Cor. i. 8, v. 5; 2 Cor. i. 14; Phil. i. 6, 10; 2 Thess. ii. 2. Now here in this passage the reference of the phrase to the coming of Christ to the kingdom of God is quite clear by means of the context, but usually, as in the Gospels (see on Matth. xxiv. 1) so also in Paul, the future decision is not conceived in its separate points, but these are understood collectively under that one expression. Though the decision did not await the Gentiles at the advent before the kingdom of God, but only after it, at the beginning of eternity, yet Paul speaks of the day of the Lord in reference to them also (Rom. ii. 5, 16). Both older and later interpreters have understood here by "the day of the Lord" death; but that is correct only so far as death has for all those who die before Christ's coming a great similarity with the event of the last judgement. For, though the dead will not experience the actual judgment till after their resurrection yet there is also a preliminary decision given with death itself. Thus, then, is also explained how the doctrine of Christ's coming again has significance for all generations, although that one only which lives to see it here below, experiences it in its effects. The whole history of the world, accordingly, as has already been declared in another place, is in a certain point of view a continual advent, a continual judgment of the Lord; in every great event in the world, nay, in the death of every individual, the Lord comes and judges! Thus the prophecy is a truth for every one, not merely for the few who just happen to live when the advent takes place. (See on Matth. xxiv. 1.)

Ver. 3.-Paul uses yet a second comparison in order to illustrate the sudden bursting in of the day of Christ; as a pregnant woman is seized quite unexpectedly with the pains of the hour of delivery, VOL. V-19

so the day of Christ suddenly seizes mankind. (See as to this figure the remarks on Matth. xxiv. 8; Mark xiii. 8. It is also found very often in the Old Testament, especially in Jerem. vi. 24, xiii. 21, xxii. 23, xlix. 24, 1. 43.) It not only involves a parallel with the Lord's coming, in the suddenness and violence of the pain, but points by a very striking figure to the circumstance that from this painful state a more elevated life is by the will of God to be generated in humanity. As to the rest, Paul here views Christ's coming in its threatening, punishing aspect, in order to excite the Thessalonians to serious watchfulness, lest they should grow like the God-estranged men of this world, whose spiritual state is denoted by the exclamation, ɛipývη kaì dopáλea, which words Ezekiel xiii. 10 doubtless suggested to the apostle. Peace and security where sin reigns, where a lively faith in the reconciliation and redemption in Christ is wanting, is pitiful self-delusion.

Vers. 4-6.-To this is now subjoined the exhortation (which appears in the form of supposing the best in the readers), not to be in that spiritual situation that the day of the Lord can seize upon them like thieves in the night; consequently to walk in the light, not in darkness. Light and darkness, day and night, waking and sleeping, to be sober and to be drunk, are treated as synonyms and correlatives, as in numberless passages of Scripture. (See John iii. 19, viii. 12; Rom. ii. 19; Eph. v. 8, vi. 14; 1 Cor. xvi. 13; 2 Tim. iv. 5; 1 Pet. i. 13, iv. 7, v. 8.) The reading Kλéπτaç in these verses, which is supported by A.B., and justly received by Lachmann, is important; for Kλéπrns might very easily have been altered from ver. 2, but the correction into khéπTaç is exceedingly improbable. The кλéπтαι are then represented as vioì σkótovę, who ply their trade in darkness. (In verse 4 iva can only, as Schott justly observes in opposition to Fritzsche, by doing the greatest violence to the sentence, be taken τελικώς, for the οὐκ ἐστὲ ἐν σκότει is a premiss, "ye are certainly, as I know, not in darkness," which a particle strictly denoting purpose in no wise suits, especially as it is followed subsequently by γάρ. In the well-known formula υἱοὶ φωτός, ἡμέρας, more is couched than a mere external relation; it expresses the idea of having received one's higher life from the light and its sanctifying influence.)

Vers. 7, 8.-Paul designates the night as that time in which sleep and drunkenness usually take place; those things, therefore, no longer become those who have night in the spiritual sense behind them; they are awake and armed for the combat. The metaphor of arming we became fully acquainted with at Eph. vi. 10, seq., and there also spoke of the discrepancies which are found between the two passages in the comparison of the several weapons with different Christian virtues. As to the rest, we find the order of succes

sion of the three Christian cardinal virtues here again just as in i. 3, where see the Commentary.

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Vers. 9-11.-Paul fastens on the λnis owrηpías in order to express the idea, that God hath not appointed the faithful to wrath, but to salvation, that therefore also the day of the Lord brings them not destruction, but blessing. "Eero involves undoubtedly the election of grace by God, but only in the sense of a prædestinatio sanctorum, as has been proved at Rom. ix. to be scriptural, and especially to be Paul's doctrine. The atoning death of Christ is named as the means by which salvation is realized according to God's ordinance. The εἴτε γρηγορῶμεν, εἴτε καθεύδωμεν, whether we wake or sleep, seems strange at first sight, as in ver. 6 sleeping among the faithful was altogether denied. But it is clear that the two expressions are here used in a totally different sense, viz., as antithesis to and as Kоμão αι, iv. 13, seq. Paul again connects his discourse with the previous discussion, in which he had made it clear that those fallen asleep in Christ forfeit nothing of their blessedness; with a reference to that he says, we believers shall live with Christ (iv. 17), whether we be still in the body, when he cometh, or already fallen asleep. (Compare Rom. xiv. 8.) As to the rest, kaoɛvdev is found in no other passage of the New Testament used of death, for in the history of the awakening of Jairus' daughter (Matth. ix. 24; Mark v. 39; Luke viii. 52) it means, in opposition to dπélave, really "to sleep :" koμãσlaι is everywhere else found of the death-sleep. In like manner yoŋyopɛiv is found nowhere else in the meaning " to live, to walk in the body." The passage, therefore, bears certainly a singular character, and the more so indeed, as none can avoid the impression that a preference is given the ypnyopɛiv, as the state of waking consciousness, over the Kalɛúdει, whereas we are inclined to claim for the soul of the pious man released from the body a higher degree of consciousness.* However, this difficulty is solved on the ground already detailed at 1 Cor. xv. 19, 20. From the representation of the New Testament the state of the soul separated from the body is not, it is true, an unconscious one, but yet of such a nature that the consciousness appears depressed. Complete self-consciousness reappears only with the resurrection of the body; a living on without bodily resurrection Paul treats (1 Cor. xv.) as a losing of eternal life. The striking part of the passage thus lies purely in the use of the words chosen, and not in the idea.-Verse 11 then closes, like iv. 18, with a summons to reciprocal encouragement and edification. (Ver. 9. Пept

* How universally this notion is spread appears from the ordinary mode of oxpression used in reference to the dead: "now everything is clear to them, the veil is removed from them!" from which it appears unmistakeably that we conceive the connection of the soul with the body as a hinderance to complete consciousness.

Tоinois, "attaining, acquiring," Paul uses also at 2 Thess. ii. 14; Eph. i. 14; it is also found Heb. x. 39; 1 Pet. ii. 9.-Ver. 10. As to the use of the conjunctive instead of the optative in this passage, see Winer's Gr. § 41, b, 1, p. 257; § 41, c, note, p. 263.-Ver. 11. Εἰς Els Tòv Eva = dλλýλovç iv. 18 is found in profane writers also. See Kypke obs. p. 339.)

§ 6. CONCLUDING EXHORTATIONS.

(v. 12-28.)

Vers. 12, 13.-The first two verses of the closing exhortations which follow, concern the relation of the readers to the teachers and heads of the church. Paul exhorts the Thessalonians duly to honour them in their position. As nothing similar is found in the second epistle, and no express polemical doctrine shews itself in this passage, nothing obliges us to suppose that in Thessalonica theoretical or practical errors in regard to the relation of laymen to the teachers of the church had been disseminated. As it is inherent in human nature that such errors ever and everywhere appear in individuals, because obedience and subordination are such difficult duties, it may reasonably be supposed that Paul found himself impelled to give his precepts merely with a view to the relation as such. True, the slight intimation v. 27 (of which passage see the explanation) might seem to countenance the idea that the relation between the church and its heads was not altogether untroubled. Yet nothing certain can be deduced from that. So much, however, results unmistakeably from these verses, viz., that Paul supposes a difference among the members of the church. All do not stand on a level according to the principles of democratical equality, but there are teachers and learners, leaders and led, as appears clearly in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus. As to the rest, the terms by which the teachers are here designated are to be taken so that the appellative of KOTIVTEç Ev iμîv designates them quite generally as labourers (év vv is to be taken in the sense "among you," not as ev (¿v Taïç kapdíais vμwv, as Flatt and Pelt insist; for the question is not merely of a purely inward labour, but also of outward guidance of the church). On the other hand, πpoïσtáμɛvo, presiding, and vovOεtovvtes, admonishing, do not denote, for instance, two other classes along with the Koпivтεs, but two different forms of the labours of the KOTIVTεç, as is clear from the absence of the article. Labour in the church might be more external or more spiritual; the former is the проtστασlαι (compare 1 Tim. v. 17, where проεσT☎тƐç are named), the latter the voveεTεiv. Whether, indeed, Paul already conceives

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these two forms of labour in the church as two entirely separate church-offices, may, it is true, appear uncertain, considering the church in Thessalonica was so young, and, no doubt, small too ; but in later times (see 1 Cor. xii. 8; Eph. iv. 11; 1 Tim. iv. 17) such a distinction between the offices is decidedly expressed. (Ver. 12. Eidévai is used, after the analogy of the Hebr. 77, Gen. xxxix. 6, Prov. xxxi. 23, and the Latin respicere, in the sense of respectful acknowledgment. See 1 Cor. xvi. 18.—Ver. 13. 'Yπεpekπepiσσoυ, see iii. 10.-The phrase nyeolaí Tiva év ȧyánŋ is harsh. Schott compares Job xxxv. 2, nyeïolaí тɩ ¿v kpíoɛ, . The phrase denotes the esteem and love which are equally due to the rulers of the church for their painful labour so beneficial to the laity.-Eipηvεvεte Ev Eavrois, be at peace among yourselves, seems, it is true, to point to disputes among the Christians in Thessalonica; yet this by no means accords with the whole remaining contents of the epistle, which breathe only acknowledgment on the part of the apostle. (But compare v. 27.) True, we cannot well take the words by themselves as an independent exhortation, nor annex them to what follows, because the παρακαλοῦμεν δὲ ὑμᾶς answers to the ἐρωτῶμεν δὲ ὑμᾶς (ver. 12) and marks a fresh beginning; but they afford a very good sense in connection with what precedes, if we regard the exhortation to preserve the proper relation towards the labourers for the church as, in conclusion, comprised in the exhortation to peace. Where teachers and taught stand in a false position towards each other, there the peace of the church is already undermined. D.E. G. read avroiç for avroïç, but it is presumably only a slip of the pen for avrois. Finally, it is again to be taken, as in ver. 12, in the meaning ἐν μέσῳ ὑμῶν.)

Ver. 14. As to the rest, how far Paul is from hierarchical notions of the dignity of the rulers is shewn by the circumstance that he here immediately summons all to the vovletεiv, admonishing, which he seemed in ver. 12 to assign to the labourers alone. (The exhortation to warn the aтakтоi, i. e., to return to subordination, refers, it may be supposed, to the state of things brought under discussion in 1 Thess. iv. 11; 2 Thess. iii. 6, 11.-'Oùyóчʊxos is found nowhere in the New Testament but here, often, however, in the LXX. for the Hebrew or be, Isaiah liv. 6, lvii. 15, Prov. xiv. 29.-'AVTÉXeo@ai, " to care for one, to support one." See Matth. vi. 24; Luke xvi. 13. The do0eveiç are doubtless to be understood less of the bodily, than of the spiritually, weak.-The прòç пáνтas is more accurately defined by the εἰς ἀλλήλους καὶ εἰς πάντας, which follows in ver. 15, as embracing the absolute universality of all men.)

Vers. 15-18.-There now follows a series of single exhortations, which altogether presuppose the highest moral standing, as it reigns,