Leon Morris, Testaments of Love (Eerdmans, 1981), p. 128. See also A. Nygren, Agape and Eros (SPCK, 1953); C. Spicq, Agape in the New Testament (St. Louis and London, 1966); C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves (Bles, 1960).
A. Nygren, Commentary on Romans (SCM, 1952), p. 67.
Deissmann, however, cites an example in a Latin letter of the second century AD (LAE, PP. 197–199).
J. E. Fison, The Christian Hope (Longmans, 1954), p. 80.
T. F. Glasson, The Second Advent (Epworth, 1947), pp. 182, 184. Cf. also J. A. T. Robinson, Jesus and His Coming (SCM, 1957).
See further my The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (Tyndale, 31965), chs. V, VI.
There is a marked tendency to omit ‘for’ (gar) in modern translations. The conjunction occurs 23 times in 1 Thessalonians and it is omitted in NIV 10 times, GNB 16 times, JB 17 times, NEB 11 times. By contrast RSV omits only once and NSAB not at all. It is true that gar may sometimes be legitimately omitted in translation (cf. BDF 452 (1)), but the widespread tendency in modem translations goes too far. Paul has the habit of indicating connections in his thought with this causal conjunction, but the modern practice prevents the reader from following him and obscures a Pauline distinctive. Paul uses gar 454 times, which is about 44% of the New Testament total (next highest is Matthew with 124, a long way back). See also Ward’s note ad loc.
This functionary was made the basis for a theory of the Christian ministry which held that the apostles had the full authority of Christ and that in due course they passed it on to the bishops. It is now generally agreed, however, that far too much was claimed for this official, and that the shaliach tells us very little about the Christian apostle.
See further my Ministers of God (Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1964), ch. III.
It is accepted by the majority in Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (United Bible Societies, 1971), pp. 629–630.
‘Notes on Select Readings’, p. 128 (Appendix to Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in the Original Greek, Introduction [Macmillan, 1882]).
R. C. Trench, Synonyms of the new Testament (Macmillan, 81876), p. 329.
Armitage Robinson, St Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians (Macmillan, 1904), pp. 241–247.
See Deissmann, LAE, pp. 358–373.
BJRL, 35, 1952–53, p. 440, n. 2.
Moule, IBNTG, p. 161.
Ch. Maurer finds kĕlî, the Hebrew equivalent of skeuos, used in Rabbinic writings of the woman ‘only in a figurative sense’ But ‘to use as a vessel’ etc. ‘are established euphemisms for sexual intercourse’ (TDNT, vii, p. 362). J. Whitton argues for the meaning ‘body’ in the sense ‘mastering one’s sexual urge’ (NTS, 28, 1982, pp. 142–143).
Nigel Turner sees as ‘bluntly insensitive’ the failure to make the distinction between epi and en. He translates: ‘God has not called us to uncleanness, but his call is addressed to us in our state of sanctification’ (Grammatical Insights into the New Testament [T. & T. Clark, 1965], p. 121).
See my Testaments of Love (Eerdmans, 1981), pp. 203–211, 266–268.
Our word ‘cemetery’ (Gk. koimētērion) is derived from the word used here (koimaō), and means ‘a place of sleep’.
For death, see further my monograph, The Wages of Sin (Tyndale Press, 1955).
They are surely wrong who affirm that Paul thought of the parousia as imminent in his early years, but that the idea faded in later life. Much later he still thought of the Lord’s coming as at hand (Phil. 4:5; cf. 1 Cor. 16:22).
A. Robert and A. Feuillet, Introduction to the New Testament (Desclée, 1965), p. 398.
H. Vogel, The Iron Ration of a Christian (SCM, 1941), p. 102.
F. J. A. Hort, The Christian Ecclesia (Macmillan, 1897), p. 126.
See the discussion in J. Jeremias, Unknown Sayings of Jesus (SPCK, 1957), pp. 89–93.
M. R. James, The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford, 1926), p. 35.
Crawford H. Toy, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Proverbs (T. & T. Clark, 1899), p. 453, n.
