15. Findlay, CCT, pp. xxxiv-xxxv.
1. Paul and Silas are both mentioned as having been at Thessalonica. We do not hear of Timothy between the time Paul took him "along on the journey" from Lystra (Acts 16:1-3) and his being left at Berea with Silas when Paul went on to Athens (Acts 17:14). But the natural presumption that he had journeyed all along with Paul and Silas is strengthened by the fact that he is joined with these two in the superscriptions of both epistles to the Thessalonians.
2. Cited by J. B. Lightfoot, Biblical Essays (London, 1893), p. 255.
3. It is often said that it is called Salonica, but this is not correct. It did have that name, but it was changed back to Thessaloniki in 1937 (The Statesman's Year Book [1938], p. 1,002, n. 1).
4. Cf. the discussion by Roland Allen in ch. 2 of Missionary Methods, St. Paul's or Ours? (London, 1930). He says, e.g., "Thus at first sight it seems to be a rule which may be unhesitatingly accepted that St. Paul struck at the centres of Roman administration, the centres of Hellenic civilization, the centres of Jewish influence, the keys of the great trade routes" (p. 23).
5. This is Ramsay's estimate; see St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen (London, 1930), p. 228. G. Ogg thinks of a period "considerably longer" than two or three weeks, but he does not say how much longer (The Chronology of the Life of Paul [London, 1968], pp. 121-22).
6. Frame accepts a period "not longer than three weeks," though he allows for the possibility of a longer stay (p. 7). Bicknell prefers to think of Paul as spending "a few weeks" on "a direct mission to the heathen" after his three Sabbaths' preaching in the synagogue (p. xiii).
7. "St. Paul and Silas must not be compared to men who preach to a heathen population tolerably well satisfied with its creed, or seek to convince minds which are not especially interested, and do not share in the general point of view of the missionaries, but rather to `revival preachers' such as Wesley or Whitefield, who understood and were understood by their hearers, and had a definite message for a clearly felt want. For such men three weeks is long enough for anything; certainly it is long enough to create a considerable body of fervent believers among men who are dissatisfied with their own position-and that is exactly what the God-fearers were" (K. Lake, The Earlier Epistles of St. Paul [London, 1919], p. 65). Cf. also Ward, "Many evangelists have known what happens when their work `snowballs.' Crowds beget crowds, and when the tides of the Spirit are running high, converts beget converts" (p. 8).
8. There is evidence that women occupied a position of greater prominence in Macedonia than was common in the ancient world (Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller, p. 227). So also J. B. Lightfoot cites inscriptions on monuments erected in honor of women by public bodies and other relevant data (Saint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians [London, 1908], pp. 55-56).
9. Malherbe, pp. 17-18. Ronald F. Hock has argued that Paul came from the upper classes rather than the lower and that his tentmaking was due to the fact that he "preferred self-sufficiency to economic dependence" (JBL 97 [1978], p. 560). He cites Musonius Rufus and Dio Chrysostom as upper-class men who performed menial work to sustain themselves during periods of exile.
10. Why did the politarchs take notice of the Jews' accusation? E. A. Judge suggested that "the oath of personal loyalty to the Caesarian house" may lie behind it all, and further that "There may have been an imperial edict covering Jewish messianic agitation which the Thessalonian informers invoked" (RTR XXX [1971], pp. 5, 7).
11. Cf. MM: "The neut. lxavov is common = `bail,' `security."' They cite examples of its use, e.g., "unless indeed they persuade the chief usher to give security for them until the session"; "security is demanded by the tax-gatherers."
12. Abraham J. Malherbe has shown that Paul's language in 1 Thess. 2 is "strikingly similar" to that of Dio Chrysostom in his references to the Cynics ("Gentle as a Nurse," Novum Testamentum XII [1970], pp. 201-17). It is clear that many pseudo-prophets preyed on the public with a pretense of philosophy. Cf. M. Dibelius: "Paul's mission might easily have been confused by the public with the activities of wandering speakers, mendicant philosophers, pseudo-prophets and sorcerers. Therefore the missionary's first concern had to be to dissociate himself from them by emphasising that his aims were not self-seeking" (Studies in the Acts of the Apostles [London, 1956], p. 156).
13. "It is clear that in the early days of the Church the device of discrediting the teachings of a prominent man by throwing doubt on his motives and conduct was perfectly understood and efficiently practised" (K. and S. Lake, An Introduction to the New Testament [London, 1938], p. 135).
14. All the more would this be so if, as Lake suggests, the failure of Paul and Silas to appear before the politarchs meant that the treasonable nature of Christianity had been settled by default (Earlier Epistles, pp. 70, 76). It would mean that some of the blame for the persecutions might plausibly be attributed to Paul.
15. Findlay, CCT, pp. xxxiv-xxxv.
16. Another view is that Paul has in mind "the urban poor" who were unable to find work because of the scarcity of jobs and who, when converted to Christianity, "could have appeared to outsiders to be idle beggars who exploited the generosity of the Christian community without any sense of reciprocal response to their new benefactors" (S. Russell, NTS 34 [1988], p. 113). There may be something in this, but I do not find the case convincing.
17. Jewett's emphasis on the enthusiasm associated with millenarian movements is relevant (Jewett, pp. 161ff.).
18. Cf. Lightfoot: "An unhealthy state of feeling with regard to spiritual gifts was manifesting itself. Like the Corinthians at a later day, they needed to be reminded of the superior value of `prophesying,' compared with other gifts of the Spirit which they exalted at its expense" (Biblical Essays, p. 264). Most, however, feel that the Thessalonian error was different. There the danger was that they might "put out the Spirit's fire" (1 Thess. 5:19). See the notes ad loc.
19. See the arguments of R. McL. Wilson, Gnosis and the New Testament (Oxford, 1968), pp. 31-59. Best finds the view unsatisfying (pp. 17-19). We should not overlook the verdict of E. Yamauchi: "In conclusion, we have seen how the imposing scholarly edifice of Reitzenstein's and Bultmann's pre-Christian Gnosticism is but little more than an elaborate multi-storied, many-roomed house of cards, whose foundations have been shaken, some of whose structures need buttressing and others have collapsed, leaving a mass of debris with but few solid timbers fit for use in reconstruction" (Pre-Christian Gnosticism: A Study of the Proposed Evidences [London, 1973], pp. 184-85).
20. Jewett discusses a number of "models" and their applicability to the Thessalonian church (pp. 133-57). He discards them in favor of his "millenarian" model.
21. Malherbe, p. 68.
22. Kirsopp Lake quotes and discusses the inscription and other relevant texts in The Beginnings of Christianity, V (London, 1933), pp. 460-64, as do G. Ogg, The Chronology of the Life of Paul, pp. 104-11, and J. Murphy-O'Connor, St. Paul's Corinth (Wilmington, 1983), pp. 141-52.
23. C. L. Mearns thinks a date of A.D. 49 "is strongly indicated for the first letter" (NTS 27 [1980-81], p. 140).
24. Introduction to the New Testament (Philadelphia, 1968), p. 44.
25. The New Testament: An Introduction (New York, 21982), pp. 208, 209. Morton Enslin is another who accepts a second-century date without bothering to discuss the letter's acceptance by Marcion (Christian Beginnings [New York and London, 1938], p. 244).
26. The Thessalonian Correspondence (Philadelphia, 1986), p. 60. Best also finds a date in the 40s untenable (pp. 11-13).
27. This date is accepted by J. A. T. Robinson (Redating the New Testament [London, 1976], pp. 53-54); he cites Kummel and Best as in agreement.
28. Cf. the verdict of F. C. Burkitt: "There was plenty of pseudepigraphical literature in late-Judaism and among the early Christians, but the unauthentic docu 
29. Milligan, e.g., though discounting "the frequently-cited passages from the Apostolic Fathers," is of the opinion that "two passages in Ignatius, and one in the Shepherd of Hermas may perhaps be taken as showing acquaintance with its contents" (p. lxxii).
30. An Introduction to the New Testament (London, 2 1940), p. 21.
31. Cf. McGiffert: "If one accepts any of Paul's epistles there is no good reason for denying the authenticity of I Thess." (EB, col. 5041).
32. Cf. Whiteley, "This is an extremely blatant forgery, if it is not Pauline" (p. II).
33. Cf. Milligan: "Not only are there abundant traces of the Apostle's characteristic phraseology and manner, as has been clearly shown by Dr Jowett and others, but the whole epistle reflects that indefinable original atmosphere which a great writer imparts to his work, and which, in this instance, we are accustomed to associate with the name of St Paul" (p. lxxx).
34. Neil, p. xxi.
35. Cf. the objection of Johannes Weiss: "the majority of critical scholars are doubtful of the genuineness of 2 Thess.; for, since they only read it in the shadow of I Thess., it appears to them as an insignificant and empty copy of I Thess." (cited by T. W. Manson, BJRL 35 [1952-53], pp. 436-37).
36. Cf. the lists in Rigaux, pp. 133-34.
37. Bicknell in another connection adduces a number of similarities between passages in Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Galatians, and comments: "In fact every epistle is full both of ideas and expressions to which parallels can be found in the rest. It is only natural that a writer should tend to express himself in much the same terms when dealing with similar situations. In pastoral work even the most original of teachers falls into certain habits of style and phrasing" (p. xxv).
38. Neil, p. xxiii. Frame cites Zahn as the originator of the suggestion (p. 53). McGiffert thinks that "the genuineness of the second epistle can be maintained, in fact, only by assuming that Paul had a copy of 1 Thessalonians in his possession, and that he read it over again shortly before writing 2 Thessalonians" (EB, col. 5045).
39. Moffatt points out that the similarities might be explained "by the hypothesis ... that his mind was working still along the lines of thought voiced in the former epistle, when he came to write the latter." This, he says, "can be illustrated from any correspondence" (EGT, p. 14).
40. Cf. Frame: "Apart from the formal agreements in the main epistolary outline, the striking thing is not the slavish dependence of the author of II on I, but the freedom with which he employs the reminiscences from I and incorporates them in original ways into new settings" (p. 47).
41. J. A. Bailey stresses the importance of the eschatology: "The key to the purpose for which another wrote it in Paul's name is to be found in the passage which is both most striking and least dependent on 1 Thessalonians, the eschatological passage of ii.1-12" (NTS 25 [1978-79], p. 142).
42. Moffatt cites Baur's admission: "It is perfectly conceivable that one and the same writer, if he lived so much in the thought of the napouoia as the two epistles testify, should have looked at this mysterious subject in different circumstances and from different points of view, and so expressed himself regarding it in different ways." Moffatt proceeds, "This verdict really gives the case away. Such variations are hardly conceivable if both epistles emanated from a later writer, but they are intelligible if Paul, living in the first flush and rush of the early Christian hope, is held to be responsible for them" (ECT, p. 14).
43. Frame, p. 35.
46. JBL 107 (1988), p. 765.
44. The Writings of the New Testament (Philadelphia, 1986), p. 266.
45. Jewett, pp. 17-18.
47. Marshall has a useful survey of the recent arguments for inauthenticity and concludes: "When we examine all the arguments, then, it emerges that neither singly nor cumulatively do they suffice to disprove Pauline authorship. That 2 Th. contains some unusual features in style and theology is not to be denied, but that these features point to pseudonymous authorship is quite another matter" (Marshall, p. 45). B. S. Childs finds it "far from obvious that the pseudepigraphical hypothesis has been successful in describing a suitable hypothetical historical setting for the letter. The suggestions remain vague and hypothetical with little solid evidence on which to build" (The New Testament as Canon [London, 1984], p. 364).
48. For this view see Kirsopp Lake, in ETXXII (1910-11), pp. 131-33; hi s Earlier Epistles, pp. 83ff.; K. and S. Lake, An Introduction to the New Testament, 134-35.
49. K. Lake, in ET XXII (1910-11), p. 132.
50. A. Plummer, A Commentary on St. Paul's Second Epistle to the Thessalonians (London, 1918), pp. xviiff.
51. NTS XVII (1970-7 1), pp. 448-51.
52. F. C. Burkitt thinks of Silas as having drafted both letters and read them to Paul, who added 1 Thess. 2:18 and 2 Thess. 3:17 (Christian Beginnings, p. 132). But he does not really face the difficulty of how Silas made these two letters so very much like the letters that come from Paul.
53. T. Zahn says, "Grotius thinks that 2 Thess. was written as early as 38 A.D., before Paul visited Thessalonica, to certain Jewish Christians there" (T. Zahn, Introduction to the New Testament, I [Edinburgh, 1909], p. 241). See also T. W. Manson, BJRL 35 (1952-53), pp. 438-47; R. Gregson, EQ 38 (1966), pp. 76-80; J. C. Hurd, IDB, V, p. 901, etc.
54. Whiteley objects, "we have no reason to believe that the same trials are referred to in both epistles" (p. 6).
55. He does not, however, deal with the fact that in 1 Thess. 4:13 we have not nepl bi but Se ... nepi. It is at least doubtful whether this can be regarded as an occurrence of a "formula."
56. ET LV (1943-44), p. 223. He was answered by Edward Thompson ET LVI (1944-45), pp. 306-7. Another who has argued for the reversal of order is J. C. West, "The Order of 1 and 2 Thessalonians," JTS XV (1914), pp. 66-74.
57. Chalmer E. Faw, in an article entitled "On the Writing of First Thessalonians," in JBL LXXII (1953), pp. 217ff., argues that the Thessalonians had sent a letter to Paul before 1 Thessalonians. He notices that the passages we have cited refer to 
58. McGiffert thinks that the idea of the priority of 2 Thessalonians "is excluded by the literary relationship between the two epistles, which clearly points to the secondary character of the second, by the sharper tone of 2 Thess. in dealing with the disorderly (3:6f.), and by the relation of the apocalyptic passage in 2:2f. to I Thess. 4:13f." (EB, col. 5039, n. 2).
59. Introduction to the New Testament (London, 1966), p. 186.
60. On the whole question of the eschatology of the two epistles Edward Thompson remarks, "The likelihood is greater that the Apocalypse of II Thessalonians grew out of I Thessalonians rather than the reverse" (ET LVI [1944-45], p. 307).
6 1. J. Rendel Harris argued that 1 Thessalonians gives indications of a previous letter Paul sent and to which the Thessalonians had replied (The Expositor, 5th Series, VIII, pp. 161-80). But his arguments do not carry conviction, and in any case, he did not dispute the order of our 1 and 2 Thessalonians.
al GreekSilvauus, a variant of Silas
b 1 Some early manuscripts you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
1. For writing materials, procedure, etc., see Note A in Milligan's commentary, and ch. 3 of Deissmann, LAE.
2. Bruce thinks that Silvanus and Timothy "may have participated responsibly in the composition of the letter."
3. G. D. Fee notes the change from the church of the Thessalonians in God to the church of God in Corinth and suggests that this disallows the tendency of the Corinthians to think too highly of themselves as well as saying something about Paul and his relationship to the church (The First Epistle to the Corinthians [Grand Rapids, 1987], p. 31).
4. A point that does not seem to have been satisfactorily accounted for is that Paul addresses the church in his five earliest epistles (Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Corinthians), and "the saints," "the brothers," or the like in the later letters.
5. The doubt arises because there is no tf before the phrase, as we would have anticipated. Lightfoot notices the possibility accordingly of taking it with an understood xaipeiv or ypa~ouoi. New Testament usage in such matters is, however, variable (such an article is lacking, e.g., in 2:14; 4:16), and the sense of the passage is strongly in favor of the meaning we have adopted. It is Paul's habit to add some description of those to whom he writes. There is also the point made by Chrysostom that this particular ixx?iioia had to be distinguished from noXXai iXXk1loiai, xai Iou&atxai xai 
6. E. Best has an exhaustive discussion of the expression "in Christ" in the first chapter of his book One Body in Christ (London, 1955). He also discusses "in God" (pp. 21-22), though his conclusion that this "may merely indicate Paul beginning to feel after a theology" is scarcely adequate. The Thessalonian correspondence gives no indication that its author was still feeling for his theology. Rather, he was quite sure of his position.
7. "Throughout the N.T. period, from the first sermon of Peter recorded in Acts 2:36 on, the designation of Jesus as Lord was constant in Christian thinking" (Bailey).
8. Neil adds: "The whole name, therefore, Lord Jesus Christ, and the significance of each of its component parts and all of them in conjunction, was essentially pre-Pauline, the faith of the church from the beginning."
11. I have discussed the biblical idea of peace in my The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (London and Grand Rapids, 31965), pp. 237-44. Notice also the point made by G. Aulen: in the New Testament sense peace "is a peace `in spite of all' and 
9. From xaiperv to x6Epr5.
10. "Joy" is xapa.
12. All Paul's later letters add "from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ"; perhaps in this early letter Paul had not yet worked out the formula that was to become habitual to him. This may be another argument for the traditional order of the two letters to the Thessalonians.
13. µveiav toiovµar is found in Paul also in Rom. 1:9; Eph. 1:16; and Phlm. 4, each time being used of prayer. µveia means "remembrance," and the expression could mean "to remember," as does the very similar expression µvi [ulV jtoreloOai (2 Pet. 1:15). However, examples of its use in secular authors in the sense "to mention" are not lacking, and this phrase gives better sense here. In addition, the idea appears to be different from that conveyed by µv~µovevovm5 in the next line. hii signifies "at," "in the time of."
14. For the conjunction of i yov, x6to5, and vtoµovij, and in that order, cf. Rev. 2:2.
15. Cf. Wilson, "Theirs was no barren assent to a dogma [Jas 2:17], but the dynamic outworking of a life-transforming principle [Gal 5:6]."
16. Moffatt renders "active faith," but this is to put the stress on 3Ti0rEWg while the Greek puts it on epyov. The same criticism might be leveled at his "patient hope," though curiously he renders the intervening expression (exactly the same Greek construction) by "labor of love."
17. His word is x6no5, on which Milligan comments, "As distinguished from epyov, xonog brings out not only the issue of work, but the cost associated with it.... It is thus here the laborious toil (Grot. molesti labores) from which love in its zeal for others does not shrink." Paul, of course, often uses the term for his "labor" in the gospel. See further on 5:12.
18. For its use in the Septuagint see my Testaments of Love (Grand Rapids, 1981), ch. 6. In that book I have examined the New Testament idea of love in some detail.
19. Bicknell's additional note on love overlooks this. He begins with self-love and works outward. When he comes to the love of God he finds it surprising that Scripture does not speak of the love of God in creation, but rather in the cross. The point is that his direction is wrong. ayanrl cannot be understood from any human activity. We begin to know what it is only when we contemplate Calvary. It may be sufficient to refer to the literature cited in my Testaments of Love (see n. 18).
20. Denney makes the point that passion is a necessary prelude to effective work: "The passion of the New Testament startles us when we chance to feel it. For 
21. A New Testament Word Book (London, 1955), p. 60. A little later he says, "George Matheson, who was stricken in blindness and disappointed in love, wrote a prayer in which he pleads that he might accept God's will, `not with dumb resignation, but with holy joy; not only with the absence of murmur, but with a song of praise'. Only hupontone can enable a man to do that" (p. 61).
22. Turner sees here a subjective genitive, "the sustaining patience which hope brings" (M, III, p. 211).
23. "The early church was sharply distinguished from its pagan neighbours by its intense hope, for the world of ancient Greek and Roman times was, despite its achievement and glories, pathetically hopeless" (Moore).
24. It is unlikely that egJTpooOevtog Orog xai zateos fff1 v goes with tvrlµovevovre5 (as Findlay inclines to think, CCT,• so RSV, NIV, etc.), because it is so far from it in the sentence. It is more likely that we should take it with all the words tog Epyou ... XQLatov (so Bruce). But if we confine the reference of tog Kvpiov ... Xptotog to ikaibo5 it is difficult to avoid doing the same with the concluding expression.
25. Usually when referring to people as "loved by God" the word is ayarz76s (e.g., Rom. 1:7). kaJnrlµevoL vrzo rov Orov is found here only in the New Testament (though 2 Thess. 2:13 and Jude 1 are similar), and the perfect passive stresses the continuing love God shows to people.
26. Rutherford is surely wrong when he renders "the circumstances of your election." EtM6rE5 is a causal participle depending on Evxap1otiovgsv (so Frame and others), and Paul is giving thanks because he knows their txkoyr)v. It is not the circumstances of their election but the fact of it that evokes his thanksgiving. In modern discussions the doctrine of election has not always received the attention its biblical importance warrants, though H. H. Rowley's The Biblical Doctrine of Et ection (London, 1952) is a welcome reminder of its importance. Loraine Boettner discusses election in ch. XI of The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (Grand Rapids, 1948).
27. oTL may mean "that" (as NEB and many commentators; REB changes to "because"), but as Frame says, "We infer your election from the fact that (6T6 = `because' ...)," and he cites 2 Thess. 3:7; Rom. 8:27; 1 Cor. 2:14 in support. The other view is certainly tenable, but Paul seems to be showing how he knows the Thessalonians to be elect, not showing in what the election consisted.
28. evayyikLov directs attention to the content of the message as good news, whereas x1jpuyµa would stress rather the message as something given to be proclaimed, like the tidings of a herald. When Paul says the gospel "came," he draws attention away from the messengers to the divine activity.
29. It is lacking in N B 33 lat and, though read by A C D etc., is probably not original.
30. jtk~po~opia means "full assurance." There were no lingering doubts. G. Delling sees a reference to "great `fulness of divine working'" (TDNT, VI, p. 311), but it is better to understand it of an inward assurance of "the powerful operation of the Spirit" (G. Schrenk, TDNT, IV, p. 179).
31. xaoth5 introduces an explanation or amplification of the preceding; cf. 1 Cor. 1:6; 3 John 3.
32. iv is omitted before vtiv in N A C 33 etc., but is read by B D G etc. It may well have been omitted by haplography (as Best holds). If it is read, the meaning will be "among you"; if it is omitted, "toward you."
33. Cf. Bicknell, "In so far as they are truly Christian, they [i.e., missionaries] represent not simply Christ's teaching but Christ's life."
34. Paul uses µILY[Ti1S five times (elsewhere in the New Testament it occurs 
36. OXIipLg. It is used again in 3:3, 7; 2 Thess. 1:4, 6, and the cognate verb in 3:4; 2 Thess. 1:6, 7.
37. A. J. Malherbe sees a reference to "the distress and anguish of heart experienced by persons who broke with their past as they received the gospel. Like other converts, these new Christians in Thessalonica continued to be distressed" (Paul and the Thessalonians [Philadelphia, 1987], p. 48). He gives examples of converts to philosophical systems who suffered mental and spiritual distress. But this does not appear to be what Paul is saying. His word rarely if ever in the New Testament means "distress" (perhaps it does in 2 Cor. 2:4; Phil. 1:17); it means "oppression, affliction, tribulation" (BAGD) and is often joined with 8LO)Y o5 (e.g., Matt. 13:21; Rom. 8:35; 2 Thess. 1:4). In view of the open hostility Paul and others encountered in Thessalonica (Acts 17:5-9) it seems that "suffering" is the meaning here.
35. 86~6[Wvor is probably to be taken "as a participle not of antecedent action, `when you had welcomed,' but of identical action, `in that you welcomed'" (Frame).
38. Dewailly and Rigaux make the point that sufferings, for the Christian, stimulate rather than diminish hope: "Tribulations, those of Acts 17:1-9 and those which followed, associate Paul and the Christians (3:3f., 7) with the sufferings of Christ, and are the measure of their future rest (II Thess. 1:7); thus they stimulate hope rather than diminish it (Rom. 5:3-5, etc.)."
39. On wore yeveoOai Milligan comments: "The inf. introduced by wore is here consecutive, and points to a result actually reached and not merely contemplated ... this result being further viewed in its direct dependence upon the previouslymentioned clause." When wore is followed by the indicative the actuality of the result is stressed, but not its connection with the preceding.
40. Tu3to5.
41. Ti 010g. The word has several shades of meaning, but here it signifies "example, pattern" (BAGD 5.b).
42. In modern translations there is a strong tendency to omit any rendering of yap. Thus in 1 Thessalonians it occurs 23 times and is omitted 11 times by NEB, 16 times by REB, 16 times by GNB, 10 times by NIV, and 17 times by JB. RSV omits it only once, and NASB not at all. Now it is of course true that on occasion yap may legitimately be omitted (cf. BDF #452 [ 1]), but it can scarcely be disputed that modern translators take this too far and in doing so rob their readers of access to a Pauline distinctive. Paul uses yap 454 times, about 44 percent of the New Testament total (Matthew comes next with 124, a long way short of Paul). The apostle liked to bring out logical connections with this causal conjunction.
43. See the article on Achaia in IDB, I, p. 25.
44. eV r is lacking before'AXaia in B K 6 33 etc., and is read by tt C D F G etc.; it seems probable that some scribes repeated the words from v. 7 and that they should not be read here. The two articles in v. 7 refer to the provinces in their separateness, whereas the one article here points to the totality, all Greece in contrast to "everywhere."
45. 6 7„6yo5 tov xupiou, "the word of the Lord," is found only here and in 2 Thess. 3: 1 in Paul, though it occurs in Acts, and similar expressions are frequent in Paul. It is of course common in the Old Testament. The genitive is subjective ("the word that comes from the Lord") rather than objective ("the word that tells of the Lord").
46. The verb i~7 X71Ta6 is found only here in the New Testament. It is a vivid word, and expositors from Chrysostom on have often thought the imagery to have been derived from the sounding out of a trumpet, though some prefer to think of the rolling of thunder. Either way there is nothing apologetic about it! The perfect denotes the continuing activity, as does the use of iv rather than r'S (though this cannot be pressed). The word is pictured as still sounding forth.
47. Milligan comments, "the definite tov OEOv emphasizes `the God' towards whom the Thessalonians' faith is directed in contrast with their previous attitude towards TO ri&oXa." We need not doubt that there is such a contrast, but it is the general structure of the sentence that gives it and not simply the use of the article. The article is lacking in a similar passage (Gal. 4:8), and in any case Paul mostly 
48. The avroi of v. 9 is in contrast to the f iµ g of v. 8. It is not Paul and his companions who are spreading abroad the news about the Thessalonians.
49. &kiobov, translated "reception," is an unusual word in this connection. It may mean "the act of entering" (as in Acts 13:24; see mg.), or "the place of entering" (2 Pet. 1:11). The former would seem to be the meaning here, and perhaps "visit" would give the sense of it. "Welcome" (RSV, Rutherford) is not quite right (RSV renders the same word "visit" in 2:1). Though the expression is unusual, Deissmann is able to cite a parallel from a Latin letter of the second century A.D. (LAE, p. 198).
50. But F. F. Bruce points out, with reference to the account of the words of Barnabas and Paul to the people of Lystra (Acts 14:15-17), that "the description given by Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy of the Thessalonians' conversion from paganism (1 Thess. 1:9) presupposes preaching very similar to that given here at Lystra" (The Book of the Acts [Grand Rapids, 21988], p. 277).
51. Neil has a pertinent comment on idol worship: "When we are inclined to stress the beauty and symbolism of paganism, and shed a tear over the shattered statues of the Acropolis or the Forum, we should remember that Paul condemned the whole system, root and branch-and he was there, and we were not.... The idols that moulded life were not the austere images of Pallas Athene and Apollo, but the obscene figures that desecrated public and private altars."
52. Cf. the title of the book by G. H. C. Macgregor and A. C. Purdy, Jew and Greek: Tutors Unto Christ (London, 1937).
53. F. V. Filson, The New Testament against Its Environment (London, 1950), p. 30; cf. n. 51.
54. boukEi o means "to serve as a slave" and indicates the completeness of the Christian's surrender to God. Paul often uses the metaphor of slavery to describe the Christian's service, though usually he speaks of being a slave to Christ (Rom. 1: 1, etc.). The word, according to Milligan, is not used in pagan literature in a religious sense.
55. 6EX1l9iv65, which Paul uses only here.
56. Some expositors have seen in the plural ovpav6 v a reference to the plurality of the heavens, as in the rabbis and in 2 Cor. 12:2. But the singular and plural of this noun are often used in the New Testament without perceptible difference of meaning, and it would be unwise to press the plural here.
57. avaRivav.
58. See further the discussion in chs. V and VI of my The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross. The idea that wrath is not a fit description of anything in God's attitude has been vigorously argued by C. H. Dodd in, e.g., The Bible and the Greeks (London, 1935) and his Moffatt commentary on Rom. 1:18. See further R. V. G. Tasker, The Biblical Doctrine of the Wrath of God (London, 1951); the Addendum in P. T. Forsyth, The Work of Christ (London, 1948); the article opyt) by G. StShlin, in TDNT, V, pp. 382-447; and Best, pp. 84-85.
59. Moffatt comments on this verse: "In preaching to pagans, the leaders of the primitive Christian mission put the wrath and judgment of God in the forefront ... making a sharp appeal to the moral sense, and denouncing idolatry.... Hence the revival they set on foot. They sought to set pagans straight, and to keep them straight, by means of moral fear as well as of hope" (EGT).
1. For yap see the note on 1:8. yap is used here in an unusual way. Milligan thinks that it is almost equivalent to "however," though he cites no parallels. A better position is that of Lightfoot: "the explanation of yap is to be sought rather in the train of thought which was moving in the Apostle's mind, than in the actual expressions: `I speak thus boldly and confidently as to my preaching, for I have such a witness at hand. You yourselves know, etc.'" Grimm-Thayer deny that such an ellipse is ever found, but Liddell and Scott give it as an established usage.
2. For "visit" see p. 52, n. 49.
3. "There has probably never been such a variety of religious cults and philosophic systems as in Paul's day. East and West had united and intermingled to produce an amalgam of real piety, high moral principles, crude superstition and gross license. Oriental mysteries, Greek philosophy, and local godlings competed for favour under the tolerant aegis of Roman indifference. `Holy Men' of all creeds and countries, popular philosophers, magicians, astrologers, crack-pots, and cranks; the sincere and the spurious, the righteous and the rogue, swindlers and saints, jostled and clamoured for the attention of the credulous and the sceptical" (Neil on v. 3). Cf. also Dibelius, cited on p. 8, n. 12.
4. xevi ; Paul has it in 12 of its 18 New Testament occurrences.
5. The lasting results may also be indicated by the verb yiyowv. Frame remarks that yiyovev "denotes completed action; the facts of the visit are all in, and the readers may estimate it at its full value." Similarly, Findlay thinks that yiyowv "implies a settled result ... their work has proved thoroughly successful. Its fruit is permanent" (CBSC).
6. 6E U6. In the Greek this word comes first, but NIV puts it before "with the help......
7. The participles appear to be concessive here. "A concessive participle is used when attention is called to something having been done in spite of unfavorable circumstances" (W. D. Chamberlain, An Exegetical Grammar of the Greek New Testament [New York, 1941], p. 102).
8. "We are so used to reading about the physical and psychological sufferings of the N.T. Christians that we can easily fail to realize how shattering they must have been, and how remarkable it is that they were not overwhelmed by bitterness and despair" (Whiteley).
9. eJTapprloLaoaµsOa.
10. Bruce cites W. C. van Unnik, "it comprises both the full truth of the gospel and full freedom towards the judgement of men."
11. "It is the good news about God: it tells not only what he is like but what he has done; and not only what he has done but what he offers" (Ward).
12. &yhv (see TDNT, I, pp. 134-40). RSV, rather like NIV, renders "in the face of great opposition," but the word goes beyond opposition and denotes actual strife. Phillips has "whatever the opposition might be," but this obscures the fact that the conflict was actual, not potential. Moffatt, "in spite of all the strain," points us to an inward state, which Frame takes as highly possible. Knox renders, "with great earnestness," but this seems wide of the mark. The word &yhv in later Greek did tend to mean a state of mind, but in this context the reference seems to be rather to actual outward opposition than to inward stress.
13. mpaxX~og. The word occurs 20 times in Paul out of 29 times in the New Testament; it is a characteristically Pauline word. BAGD set forth three main meanings in the New Testament: "encouragement, exhortation," "appeal, request," and "comfort, consolation" (they put this passage in the first group).
14. O. Schmitz sees the meaning to be "the authoritative offer of salvation" (TDNT, V, p. 795). Cf. 2 Cor. 5:20.
15. Hendriksen rejects this meaning in favor of avarice or the seeking of honor, as does Denney. Neither, however, cites examples of the word used in this sense, and only strong evidence would allow such a meaning to a word with the basic sense of "uncleanness." It can mean dishonoring the body (Rom. 1:24), and it may be linked with fornication and lasciviousness (2 Cor. 12:21; Gal. 5:19). It is joined with 3Xrova~ia (Eph. 4:19; 5:3), but in both places the context has to do with impurity, and it is this that the word seems to denote. It occurs in other passages where the context does not establish the meaning, but impurity fits them all. Frame says that &xaOagoia "regularly appears directly with nopvria or in contexts intimating sexual aberration." Findlay is impressed by the fact that Paul is not elsewhere charged with fleshly impurity. He argues for "uncleanness of spirit," and says that in classical Greek the word denotes "moral foulness, dirty wars of any sort" (CGT). The word is not unlike the English "immorality"; this word may denote a lack of uprightness of many kinds, but has overtones of sexual looseness. Marshall thinks that here the word "will include sensual elements, but is not confined to them."
16. As the church grew, such accusations became part of the stock-in-trade of its enemies. See, e.g., H. B. Workman, Persecution in the Early Church (London, 1906), pp. 157ff. The Apologists regularly refuted such slanders.
17. The change in preposition from ix with akdv% and &xapOapaias to iv with So)„w switches the attention from origin to atmosphere. The appeal did not spring from error or from sexual depravity, but neither was it conducted in an atmosphere of trickery.
18. aXXa.
19. In the New Testament the implication seems to be that when the test is applied it will be surmounted successfully. By contrast jeLQatw, which also means "to test," often looks for failure, and the meaning passes over into "to tempt."
20. The verb JnomEU9fvar, rendered "to be entrusted," reminds Deissmann of the Imperial Secretary for Greek correspondence, known as o ta5 `EXXrwixa5 e twtoXa5 JTpatrEiv JTEJTiamEUµhvoS or ca~iv hli true `EXXi vixruv etiacoX6 v JTEjnam gthvo5 (LAE, p. 374). If Paul was glancing at such an exalted official, we have another indication of the dignity of his office as preacher of the gospel. Clarke points out that this has implications for our understanding of the nature of God. People today all too easily think of "an easygoing God modeled in the shape of Mr. Pickwick-genial, expansive, tractable, who can be trusted to deal leniently with both sin and the sinner; one who can be easily wheedled from his purpose, whose moral judgment will swerve when confronted by our dark idolatries, who has no more backbone than a jellyfish and the persuadable disposition of a half-wit...." It is not such a God who tests people before entrusting them with the gospel.
21. oao) answers to the preceding xaOth5 and is not the antecedent of the following ws.
22. Paul has the unusual construction of ov with the participle apEaxovnES; this puts some emphasis on the factuality of what he is saying. Elsewhere he can say "I try to please everybody in every way" (1 Cor. 10:33), but that is in the sense that he seeks to profit others, not himself.
23. Cf. J. Behm, "That the heart is the centre of the inner life of man and the source or seat of all the forces and functions of soul and spirit is attested in many different ways in the NT" (TDNT, III, p. 611).
24. The construction is yivoµar ev. It indicates that the state entered was continuous but not necessarily permanent. It is used of the incarnation (Phil. 2:7; cf. 1 Cor. 2:3; 2 Cor. 3:7).
25. Lightfoot defines tXeove~ia as "greediness" or "entire disregard for the rights of others" (on Col. 3:5). Milligan distinguishes the word from ~LXapyupia "as the wider and more active sin."
26. There is probably no significance in the change of the preposition from i with &vOprutruv to &to with v s&v and iiXXruv, for the two are often used interchangeably in Hellenistic Greek (cf. M, III, p. 259). But if there is a difference, ix denotes the ultimate source and &to rather the intermediate agent.
27. The change of connective from ovbi which links the members in v. 3 to oiin here may point to the qualities now mentioned as being more closely linked to each other than were those in the earlier verse (see Grimm-Thayer on ovbe).
28. The expression is iv Gaper elvar.
29. Frame thinks that the meaning is likely to be "to be in honour," but he quotes from a letter written to him by Dr. Milligan in which that scholar says that he "is inclined to think the more literal idea of `burden,' `trouble,' was certainly uppermost in the Apostle's thought and that the derived sense of `gravitas,' `honour' was not prominent, if it existed at all."
30. I have drawn attention to what seem to me to be the most important points in Ministers of God (London, 1964), pp. 39-61, 114-28. The literature on the subject is vast. For an advocacy of the view that the essence of ministry is to be found in the Apostolic Succession see K. E. Kirk (ed.), The Apostolic Ministry (London, 1946), and for the opposing view S. Neill (ed.), The Ministry of the Church (London, 1947), and T. W. Manson, The Church's Ministry (London, 1948). There are some valuable observations on the apostolate in A. Kuyper, The Work of the Holy Spirit (Grand Rapids, 1946), pp. 139ff. For the view that the apostolate is of Gnostic origin see W. Schmithals, The Office of Apostle in the Early Church (Nashville and New York, 1969).
31. Vi root is read by P15 N B C* D* OU°SS vg satin etc. and fi ttor by A C2? D, K P etc. Neither reading has a convincing argument from transcription, for vipttoi could have arisen by a repetition of the v that is the last letter of the preceding word, while fi ttoi could be the result of an accidental omission of an v by a scribe who had just written that letter. Paul uses vilmo5 ten times elsewhere and ilnm5 only once, so that a scribe might alter the less usual to the more usual word. But against this Paul never elsewhere calls himself a vilmo5 (always he applies the term to his converts). The difficulty of a decision is brought out by the fact that a majority of Metzger's committee went along with the attestation in the MSS and favored vipti,oi, while Metzger and Wikgren add a note arguing that "only fi ti,oi seems to suit the context."
32. Lightfoot cites a number of examples of this, but does not include a building growing (Eph. 2:21), and a body being built (Eph. 4:12).
33. "Notes on Select Readings," p. 128 (Appendix to The New Testament in the Original Greek, Introduction (London, 1907). S. Fowl has argued strongly for the reading vipnor (NTS 36 [1990], pp. 469-73).
34. Findlay cites Origen's comment: XaXovaa X6you5 6)5 JTatSiov &r to tai,Siov, and that of Augustine, delectat ... decurtata et mutilata verba inmurmurare ("delights ... to murmur shortened and mutilated words"). He adds, "But this is only a single trait of the picture: the nurse-mother (O6?itE6 to iaurf1S thxva) is child-like with her children-as far from selfish craft as they, and filled besides with a care for them 
35. iv thew vµruv, and not iv vtiv or tap' vtiv.
36. thS i6v with the subjunctive is a fairly rare construction. It seems to be a case of the late use of i6v for av and to be distinguished from the ordinary use of the indicative as denoting contingency. Findlay speaks of it here as implying "a standing contingence-`as it may be (may be seen) at any time.' " Milligan cites examples of the construction from the papyri.
37. Le., understanding iaurfg to mean "her own." Sometimes this is used in a sense equivalent to avrfS and then it means simply "her." In that case it would denote somebody else's children entrusted to the nurse's care. But here there seems to be every reason for giving iaurf g its natural sense.
38. Cf. Calvin, "a mother in nursing her children manifests a certain rare and wonderful affection, inasmuch as she spares no labour and trouble, shuns no anxiety, is wearied out by no assiduity, and even with cheerfulness of spirit gives her own blood to be sucked."
39. His verb 06knou means "keep warm" and thus "cherish, comfort." It is used of the mother bird with her young (Deut. 22:6).
40. The best-attested reading appears to be oµuLQoµsvoi (most MSS), the variant being iµuioµsvot (with 323, 629, 630, etc.), this latter verb meaning "to desire, to long 
41. Findlay sees the difference from xapSia (v. 4) thus: "xap&ia is the inner man by contrast with the outer, while 'uxil is the man himself as feeling and acting through the outer organs, the soul within the body" (CGT). ,uxil is discussed in books on the nature of man, e.g., H. Wheeler Robinson, The Christian Doctrine of Man (Edinburgh, 1926), pp. 108-9; W. David Stacey, The Pauline View of Man (London, 1956), ch. VIII. See also E. Schweizer and others, TDNT, IX, pp. 608-66; he sets forth the meaning here as "the giving of that which constitutes life, e.g., time, energy 
42. CBQ 41 (1979), p. 450. He points to the activities of Socrates in the workshop of Simon the shoemaker (p. 444) and to the Cynics active in many workshops (p. 446) to show that such a setting is not improbable for Paul.
43. 8L6th. This is equivalent to &r covro otr, "on this account," "for"; in the New Testament it always seems to mean "because." See further the note in my The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids, 1988), p. 79, n. 206.
44. ayawn roi.
45. "R. Judah said: He who does not teach his son a craft, teaches him brigandage." As the Soncino editor explains, "Having no occupation, he must take to theft" (Kidd. 29a).
46. Making money out of teaching the Law is expressly discouraged in the Mishnah. Thus Rabban Gamaliel said, "Excellent is the study of the Law together with worldly occupation, for toil in them both puts sin out of mind. But all study of the Law without (worldly) labour comes to naught at the last and brings sin in its train" (Aboth 2:2, Danby's translation). Similarly, R. Zadok, "Make them [i.e., the words of the Law] not a crown wherewith to magnify thyself or a spade wherewith to dig." "And thus used Hillel to say: He that makes worldly use of the crown shall 
47. In the New Testament there does not appear to be a great difference between 
48. xr~puoc1o is used 19 times by Paul, but only here in the Thessalonian correspondence (the word for herald is x~jpu).
49. With the verb iysvi)O~u v we would have expected adjectives (cf. v. 7). BDF note the construction as found in the classical language (#434).
50. For the essentially legal basis of righteousness in the Bible, see the chapters on Justification in my The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (London and Grand Rapids, 31965).
51. Cf. Frame, "A man is 6oi,o5 who is in general devoted to God's service; a man is Sixaio5 who comes up to a specific standard of righteousness; and a man is aµsµ tco5 who in the light of a given norm is without reproach. All three designations are common in the LXX, and denote the attitude both to God and to men, the first two being positive, the third negative."
52. eva exaocov is stronger than the simple exaocov and puts an emphasis on the individual.
53. Elsewhere he pictures himself as a mother bringing forth children (Gal. 4:19)!
54. nagaxaXovvme5. It is perhaps worth noting that the nouns corresponding to these two verbs are linked in 1 Cor. 14:3; Phil. 2:1.
55. jiapaµuOovµsvor. BAGD favor the translation "encourage, cheer up." As here, the word is often linked with jtapaxakiou. G. Stahlin says, "In the NT, however, admonition becomes genuine comfort and vice versa, so that it is hard to separate or distinguish between the two.... The unity of admonition and consolation is rooted in the Gospel itself, which is both gift and task" (TDNT, V, p. 821).
56. Some idea of purpose does seem to be expressed here by e15 to, though Moulton says, "Purpose is so remote here as to be practically evanescent" (M, I, p. 219). But this is to make the exhortation purposeless, which is not Paul's meaning. Nor is he simply giving the content of the exhortation, but exhorting with a view to a certain result in the lives of the Thessalonians.
57. There is an immense literature on the kingdom of God. G. E. Ladd has a useful survey in Crucial Questions about the Kingdom of God (Grand Rapids, 1954); see also his article in Walter A. Elwell (ed.), Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Grand Rapids, 1984), pp. 607-11, and the literature cited there. See also the article by B. Klappert on "King, Kingdom," in NIDNTT II, pp. 372-90 with its useful bibliography.
58. Cf. Milligan, "The two expressions must not however be united as if = `His own kingdom of glory,' or even `His own kingdom culminating in His glory,' but point rather to two manifestations of God's power, the first of His rule, the second of His glory."
a 16 Or them fully
59. Cf. Denney, Paul "was conscious that ... [his theology] rested at bottom on the truth of God; and when he preached it-for his theology was the sum of the divine truth he held, and he did preach it-he did not submit it to men as a theme for discussion. He put it above discussion. He pronounced a solemn and reiterated anathema on either man or angel who should put anything else in its stead. He published it, not for criticism, as though it had been his own device; but, as the word of God, for the obedience of faith."
60. xaI ffft ig is emphatic, "we, for our part." Lake thinks the proper force of the expression "can be given only if we assume that St. Paul means `we give thanks just as you say that you do'" (The Earlier Epistles of St. Paul [London, 1919], p. 87), and finds in it evidence that Paul was replying to a letter. The case was put strongly by Rendel Harris (Expositor, 5th Series, VIII, pp. 168ff.). He found other evidence for such a letter in the repeated "you know" (1:5; 2:1, 5, 10; 3:3, 4), which he argued means "as you said." Others emphasize the way new steps in the argument are brought in in 4:9, 13; 5:1. This is very similar to the way correspondents in antiquity referred to points raised in letters to which they were replying, but we can scarcely say more.
61. Taking o'n not as causal, but as introducing the content of the thanksgiving (so Best).
62. That is, accepting the insertion of "as" by NIV. There is nothing corresponding to it in the Greek, and Bicknell says, "its insertion seriously alters the drift of the sentence. What causes St. Paul to thank God is not the attitude of the Thessalonians to the Gospel, or their appreciation of its divine origin, but the fact that the word that they accepted is divine and therefore charged with divine power." While there is no doubt that Paul is stressing the divine nature of the gospel, yet he does seem to be thankful that the Thessalonians had recognized it for what it was. The insertion of "as" seems to be necessary.
63. tap' fffui v is to be taken with juapaka(36vne5 (so Frame), and cov O ov is in emphatic contrast. It must be taken as a subjective genitive, "the word from God," "the word originating with God," and not as objective, "the word that tells of God," "the word about God."
64. napaXa(36vmes and ibe~aoOe.
65. Xoyov &xof g. It occurs elsewhere only at Heb. 4:2 (where both nouns have the article). There is also a contrast between the merely outward reception that it 
66. evepye LLTaL. Lightfoot maintains that Paul always uses this verb in the active of God (and, by contrast, of Satan), and in the middle in all other cases. Here, then, he takes it as middle, with the subject, 5;, referring back to k6yov, not 6eov. But J. Armitage Robinson contends that in the New Testament the passive is to be understood rather than the middle of this verb (St Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians [London, 19071, pp. 241-47). Milligan and Findlay accept this. Armitage Robinson's argument is difficult to accept in its entirety, but what is quite clear is that the New Testament makes a distinction between God's working and that of intermediaries. Where God is directly spoken of, the active is used; where it is his word, or such an activity as "faith working through love" (Gal. 5:6), a more oblique form is found. Milligan would bring this out by rendering, "which is also set in operation," thus emphasizing that it is God, and not some quasi-magical power in the word itself, that works.
67. The verb is used absolutely. Even at this early stage it was not necessary to add in whom they believed, so central is faith to Christianity. See further on 1:7.
68. Bengel comments on yap: "Divine working is most of all seen and felt in affliction." Thomas remarks, "Welcoming the Word and enduring sufferings because of it often go together (cf. 1:6)."
69. The basic meaning of aUV4Ukin is indicates this, and so does the use of Now and the contrast with vto true Iou&aiouv. But the word appears to have more of a national than a racial content. As Lightfoot points out, it "would include such Jews as were free citizens of Thessalonica."
70. 'Iou&aia could be used in a restricted sense to denote the province of Judea, but it could also bear a wider sense, meaning all Palestine. The latter seems to be the meaning here. Turner calls the genitive here "mystical": the churches are OF God and IN Christ (M, III, p. 212). Cf. Gal. 1:22.
71. ixxX~oia.
72. K. L. Schmidt lists a number of titles used for religious groups and points out that the Christians adopted none of them (TDNT, III, p. 516).
73. On the church see TDNT, III, pp. 501-36. There is a useful bibliography in NIDNTT, I, pp. 305-7.
74. W. G. Kummel cites Eckart for this view and rejects it on account of "the incontestably Pauline language" of this and other disputed sections (Introduction to the New Testament [London, 1966], p. 185).
75. Cf. W. D. Davies, "Paul is not thinking of all Jews, or of Israel as a totality, from whom the election and the promise have been taken away. The term he uses is `Jews' ('Ioubalot), not `Israelites' ('Ioearl7„elmar), or `Hebrews' (`E43palot). The general Jewish failure did not include all Israel" (NTS 24 [1977-78], p. 8).
76. Grammatically the reference to the prophets could be taken with what follows to give the sense, "who killed the Lord Jesus, and drove out both the prophets and us." But it is more natural to link "the Lord Jesus" with "the prophets"; cf. Luke 11:47-48; 13:33; 20:9ff.; Acts 7:52; Rom. 11:3. Frame points out also that the argument would be weakened if Jtpo~ijta5 were attached to iX&O)~avtouv. Some expositors have taken the prophets to mean the New Testament prophets, but no sufficient reason has been produced for this. It is the continuing opposition of the Jews to God's messengers through the centuries that forms so powerful an argument.
77. sxSith w, "persecute severely" (BAGD).
78. e'5 to with the infinitive may also indicate result (see Burton, MT, 411). This is possible, but purpose seems to be Paul's meaning. Cf. Turner: "the purpose of God (final)" (M, III, p. 143). Cf. JB, "They never stop trying to finish off the sins they have begun." Best quotes Moule, "the Semitic mind was notoriously unwilling to draw a sharp dividing-line between purpose and consequence," and thinks that the clause "may be either final or consecutive or both."
79. Cf. R. H. Fuller, "he is using the familiar prophetic device of speaking of a future event as though it were already present. The certainty of the event is so overwhelming, the signs of its impendingness so sure, that it is said to have occurred, or to be occurring already" (The Mission and Achievement of Jesus [London, 1954], p. 26). Whiteley also refers to this aorist as "referring prophetically to the future."
80. els rEXo5 might also be rendered "at last" (as NIV) or "to the end" (cf. REB, "for good and all").
81. Se.
82. Cf. Chrysostom: "He says not xouproOevre5 vi&v, not SiaaJUaaOevreg vui v, not 8Laoc6Eviceg, not 60104 vrEg, but aJtop~aVLAi tEg vuiv. He sought for a word that might fitly indicate his mental anguish. Though standing in the relation of a father to them all, he yet utters the language of orphan children that have prematurely lost their parent" (cited by Frame). The word might be used of a parent without children (so that Paul may be picturing himself as a bereaved parent), just as of a child without parents; common to both uses is the sense of bereavement.
83. ajtouSb~ru. BAGD gives its meaning as "1. hasten, hurry . . . 2. be zealous or eager."
84. In late Greek the comparative tends to take over the functions of the superlative, and thus it is likely that JTepiaaothpou5 here is to be understood as elative (so Frame). Some commentators, however, maintain that in Paul it always has a strictly comparative force (e.g., Lightfoot, Milligan). But they are not at all agreed as to what has to be supplied here as the other member of the comparison (see the reconstructions in Frame). It seems simpler to take the elative sense. It is very doubtful whether the strictly comparative sense will hold in 2 Cor. 7:13, and that may well serve as a parallel to the elative sense here.
85. Moule points out that the plural may be epistolary, in which case it simply means "I wanted"; if it is a genuine plural, then others also had this desire (IBNTG, p. 119).
86. The verb is Oikou. The distinction between this verb and (3ouXoµar has been understood variously, with scholars sometimes reaching diametrically opposite conclusions. According to Grimm-Thayer, (3ovXoµar "seems to designate the will which follows deliberation" and Oiko) "the will which proceeds from inclination." This does not, however, seem to be the New Testament usage. It must be borne in mind that the two verbs are close in meaning and on occasion seem to be used interchangeably. Also that Oiko) was tending to encroach on the territory of (3oiXoµai,; in the New Testament Oiko) is used more than five times as often as (3oi Xoµai, (the figures are 207 and 37). Where the two words differ (3ovXoµai implies more strongly "the deliberate exercise of volition" (AS).
87. This is the only place in these epistles where the emphatic iyw is found (x&ytu in 3:5). thv normally implies a contrast, but this seems not to be the case here. Cf. BAGD, thv "serves to emphasize the subject in clauses which contain a report made by the speaker concerning his own state of being, esp. intellectual or emotional" (2.a). "I, Paul, indeed" is the thrust of it.
89. The Greek is xaI anal xaI Sig. The first will is usually taken as part of the expression, but this is probably incorrect. anal xaI Sig occurs four times in LXX (each time meaning "more than once," the number of times not being specified). Similar expressions occur without a preliminary will, e.g., aita~ xaI ajta~. If we can accept a tai xaL Sig as the idiomatic expression, then the first will here will be ascensive and the meaning "and that more than once." The expression occurs again in Phil. 4:16, where the meaning appears to be "both (when I was) in Thessalonica and (xai) more than once (ata~ xaI Sig) (when I was in other places) you sent...." This is very near to Frame's understanding of the expression, the difference being that he prefers the slightly stronger "repeatedly." See further my note in Novum Testamentum I (1956), pp. 205-8.
88. E. Stauffer discusses Paul's use of "we" and "I" (TDNT, II, pp. 356-62).
90. iyxortou. Lightfoot says that it is "a metaphor derived from military operations. The word signifies `to break up a road' (by destroying bridges, etc.) so as to render it impassable" (Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians [London, 1902], p. 205).
91. it ... it ... is commonly disjunctive, but Best points out that it can be copulative; that may well be the way we should take it here.
94. Paul has "Lord Jesus" or "Lord Jesus Christ" 24 times in the eight chapters of these two letters, and this is more often than anywhere else in the New Testament. The much longer Acts has it 17 times, and Romans 16.
95. napovaia.
96. See Deissmann, LAE, pp. 368-73, for examples.
92. ate~avo5 (used here; a festive garland) and S 681l[ a (the crown of royalty).
93. J. B. Lightfoot says that the idea conveyed by the word "is not dominion, but either (1) victory, or (2) merriment, and the wreath was worn equally by the conqueror and by the holiday-maker. Without excluding the latter notion, the former seems to be prominent in this and in the parallel passage; for there, as here, the Apostle refers in the context to the Lord's coming. His converts then will be his wreath of victory" (Saint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians [London, 1908], p. 157).
97. Additional Note F, p. 151.
98. See also the note on this word in G. Vos, The Pauline Eschatology (Grand Rapids, 1953), pp. 74ff.
99. Sofia originally meant "opinion" or the like (a sense not found in the New Testament). It came to mean "good opinion" and thus "praise" or "honor" (Luke 14:10; Heb. 3:3). In LXX it was used to render the Hebrew 71]] and thus acquired the significance "splendor," "magnificence." G. Kittel points out that the word does not have the meaning "radiance," "glory" in secular Greek and that in the New Testament "the word is used for the most part in a sense for which there is no Greek analogy whatever" (TDNT, II, p. 237).
1. Milligan discusses the problem of the epistolary plural in Note B in his commentary. See also O. T. Allis, Revision or New Translation (Philadelphia, 1948), pp. 61-62; A. T. Hanson, The Pioneer Ministry (London, 1961), pp. 46ff.; Moule, IBNTG, pp. 118-19. Moule holds that the plural here "must (by the very meaning of µovog) surely be `epistolary' " (IBNTG, p. 119; curiously Best says that Moule "argues µovoi almost definitely implies more than one person," whereas Moule, after the words already quoted, says "and iii.5 [ene[tpa] appears to be identical in meaning with iii.2 [ini[tVaµsv]" and proceeds to cite another epistolary plural). Cf. Thomas, "For Paul to have used `we' in v. 1 in any other than a singular sense would have defeated his apologetic desire to express his loneliness." Bruce, however, finds the epistolary plural "difficult."
2. oteyw ("forbear") means first "to cover," then "to ward off by covering," and thus "to see something through," "to bear up," "to endure." This last seems to be the meaning in each New Testament occurrence of the verb (v. 5; 1 Cor. 9:12; 13:7; though in 13:7 some exegetes see the meaning as "cover"). Another line of development from "to cover" leads to the idea of "to conceal," but although some adopt this meaning here, the sense appears to be "to endure."
3. See MM sub xatakEino).
4. Cf. Denney, "He seems to have been in many ways dependent on the sympathy and assistance of others; and, of all places he ever visited, Athens was the most trying to his ardent temperament.... Never had he been left alone in a place so unsympathetic; never had he felt so great a gulf fixed between others' minds and his own." Bicknell also remarks, "Athens was particularly uncongenial to St. Paul's temperament."
5. The textual questions are whether we should read Sraxovov (with N A P W) or ouvepyov (with B D* 33 OL'"ss) and whether to include tov 9eov (fit A P iF 81 etc.) or omit it (B 1962). Not surprisingly, the Byzantine text combines the two. Metzger argues that "the reading that best accounts for the origin of the others is xal ouvepyov cov OEov." Although this form of words occurs in 1 Cor. 3:9, it is a bold, even startling expression, and a scribe would perhaps be ready to alter it by substituting another noun or by dropping cov 9eov. Yet this is not decisive, for Suixovov cov 9eov is neither an easy expression in itself (though it does occur three times outside this passage), nor is it a usual way of referring to Timothy. Moreover, when Si,6xovo5 became a title for one of the orders of ministry, scribes may well have hesitated to apply it to one so important as Timothy. The problem is complicated and it is impossible to be sure of what Paul wrote, but our best course appears to be to accept what is perhaps the better-attested reading, 866lxovov cov 9eov.
6. See further on 2:3. veep is not well translated "concerning." The word means "on behalf of," and it often has the meaning "for the advantage of," though it is sometimes used in neutral fashion (as when Christ is said to have died vjtep our sins). Here the meaning is that Timothy's visit was to benefit the faith of the Thessalonians. T. W. Manson has argued that vRsp Tf 5 niomow v i&v "refers to the faithfulness of the Thessalonian Christians to their profession" (BJRL 35 [1952-53], p. 440, n. 2). But the word tioTLS, when used in the New Testament of people, never seems to mean "faithfulness" (see further on 2 Thess. 3:2). I see no reason for abandoning the usual meaning of the word here.
7. T6 introduces a statement in apposition to the foregoing, or, as Lightfoot 
8. aaivou. AS gives the meaning as "1. prop.... of dogs, to wag the tail, fawn. 2. Metaph., of persons, c. acc., to fawn upon, flatter, beguile." So also MM, "the Apostle dreaded that the Thessalonians would be `drawn aside,' `allured,' in the midst of the afflictions which were falling upon them." BAGD prefer here "move, disturb, agitate" and point out that this meaning is that of the ancient versions and Greek interpreters. H. Chadwick argues for such a meaning (JTS n.s. I [ 1950], pp. 156-58), as does F. Lang (TDNT, VII, pp. 54-56).
9. This interpretation is supported by the fact that the process he speaks of takes place "in" their troubles (Bruce, "in the midst of these afflictions"). We would expect "by" if the verb meant "moved." Bruce understands the verb to mean "perturbed." For 9Jiipt5 see on 1:6.
10. risaL.
11. For the whole question of suffering see C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (London, 1940).
12. Clarke asks why so many Western churches are unafflicted and goes on, "The only answer which we can give-a sad and solemn one-is that the Cross is no longer central; we have lost the vision of the kingdom of God, and have no intention of being the suffering servants of humanity. Ichabod!"
13. The use of µekXw "denoting an action that necessarily follows a divine decree" (BAGD 1.c.8).
14. Rather curiously, E. G. Selwyn sees in vv. 3 and 4 evidence of "the close connection between persecution and the approaching final judgment" (W. D. Davies and D. Daube [eds.], The Background of the New Testament and Its Eschatology [Cambridge, 1956], p. 399). While there is a good deal of eschatology in the Thessalonian letters, these verses do not seem to form part of it. Paul is talking about persecutions that have already come to pass, not those that will herald the End.
15. Also with xai, the form being xay6). The force of this is "I also," "I for my part." Frame thinks that it means "I too as well as Silvanus," but this seems to be reading rather much into the expression. We do not know whether or not Silvanus was with Paul in those days. In any case, the Greek expression seems simply to emphasize the "I." Moule thinks that the force of xai here is "I actually sent," "that is in fact why I sent" (IBNTG, p. 167).
16. Turner sees purpose in e15 to with the infinitive, "in order to know" (M, III, p. 143).
17. According to W. D. Chamberlain, this is one of only two places in the New Testament where a) toS is used with the aorist indicative, "referring to a past event where the purpose is conceived as unfulfilled" (An Exegetical Grammar of the Greek New Testament [New York, 1941], p. 188); it signifies "feared result" (BDF #370 [2]).
18. It is possible also that the subjunctive clause looks to the future. Paul is sure of the temptation of Satan and nothing can be done about it. But it was possible to do something to prevent his toil being in vain, so he sent Timothy.
19. It is often said that Satan is not invariably opposed to people in the Old Testament, but this is difficult to establish. He is opposed to Job (Job 1-2), and similar opposition seems to be present in all the other places where he is referred to by name in the Old Testament (1 Chron. 21:1; Ps. 109:6; he is discredited in Zech. 3:1, 2). Cf. also the serpent (Gen. 3).
20. H. P. Liddon has a forceful passage on the existence of Satan that is still relevant after the passage of many years: "We are told that men no longer believe in 
21. evayyski oµat. It is used of the "good news" Gabriel brought to Zechariah (Luke 1:19). But such a usage is rare in the New Testament.
22. The verb is eTutoOeou, which looks like a stronger expression than the simple no0iou, though this cannot be pressed in view of the well-known fondness of later Greek writers for compound forms. More decisive is the fact that the verb does seem to have a marked emotional content in passages like 2 Cor. 5:2; Phil. 1:8; 2:26, and, we conclude, here also.
23. "The first ini denotes the basis of the encouragement; the second ini the purpose for which it was welcome; and the &6 the means by which it was conveyed, `through this faith of yours' (vµruv being emphatic ...)" (Frame). Turner also points out that vµruv is emphatic (M, III, p. 190); we might have expected that Paul's own faith sustained him, but he says "your faith."
24. He will mention it again in v. 10. He also uses the verb n omevou of their faith twice in this chapter.
25. Commentators differ about whether vvv should be taken as temporal or logical. The truth appears to be, as Lightfoot says, that "in a case like this it is almost impossible to distinguish the temporal sense of vvv ('now') from the ethical ('under these circumstances'). The one meaning shades off imperceptibly into the other."
26. On this unusual use of i6v BDF remarks, "Sporadically eav appears for 6 s t )" (#372[ 1]). Elsewhere in the New Testament only 1 John 5:15 appears to be cited for the construction. The use of the indicative rather than the subjunctive shows something of Paul's certainty that the converts stood firm. Bruce regards the indicative as "a colloquialism."
27. The verb ocipt is a late form deriving from eoc1xa; it means "to stand ... with an emphasis, to stand firm" (GT).
28. avtatobovvca conveys the idea of a recompense that is both due and adequate. Lightfoot translates, "What sufficient thanks can we repay?"
29. Introductory Thanksgivings in the Letters of Paul (Leiden, 1977), p. 157.
30. wtEQExrzEQLaaov means "quite beyond all measure (highest form of comparison imaginable)" (BAGD).
31. Turner says that ei; to i&Iv here = Iva Ibd sv (M, III, p. 143).
32. The closeness of the connection between the two ideas is shown by the fact that the two infinitives are linked under a single article.
33. xaraptii;w "really means `to put into unified and good working condition' " (Bailey).
34. vatspjµa signifies "lack, shortcoming as a defect which must be removed so that perfection can be attained" (BAGD 2).
35. Some commentators have felt that avr65 is emphatic and that, taken in conjunction with the adversative Ss, there is a strong contrast between God and either people praying (v. 10) or Satan. This seems unlikely. bi introduces a new section of the letter and does not seem to be strongly adversative (so Best). The emphatic ae r6g is sufficiently accounted for by Paul's stress on God's active rule in the affairs of people (cf. 5:23; 2 Thess. 2:16, etc.).
36. When two or more words constitute the subject, a verb that precedes the subjects or stands between them normally agrees with the first subject (see M, III, pp. 313-14). But here the double subject precedes the verb. The best explanation seems to be that Paul sees the two subjects as essentially a unity. This construction is found in Matt. 5:18; Jas. 5:3, and some other places, so that it cannot be said that the singular verb proves the oneness of Father and Son. But it can be said that in such cases it is "the totality that is emphasized" (Robertson, p. 405). J. A. Hewett objects to my saying "Full deity is ascribed to Him" (i.e., Christ), but he goes on to say that Paul used this construction "in order to avoid either a complete separation or a complete merging of the two to whom he prayed" (ET LXXXVII [1975-76], p. 54). I am not trying to say more. Paul did hold to the deity of Christ, and this construction arises naturally from that conviction. See further my New Testament Theology (Grand Rapids, 1986), pp. 42-43. Bruce does not consider the construction in itself "theologically significant," but Best finds it "surprising" and points out that "the singular may be used in Greek where two subjects are regularly thought of together."
37. Cf. Marshall, "Paul assumes the divinity of Jesus -to call him `Son of God' in the way in which Paul uses the phrase cannot mean anything else."
38. In this verse and the next we have three of Paul's 15 uses of what Chamberlain calls the "volitive optative" (i.e., exclusive of µil yivorto, which occurs another 15 times in Paul): xaneuOvvai,, n ovaoai and jepnaaevoat (see the list in Chamberlain, Exegetical Grammar, pp. 83-84). Moule remarks that the optative may express "a wish, one might say, as distinct from the more resolute resolve of the hortatory Subjunctive" (IBNTG, p. 23). Here he finds the optative "of prayerful expectation," as also in 5:23; 2 Thess. 3:16 (ibid., p. 136).
39. "The importance here is that Paul does not distinguish the two" (Whiteley).
40. Cf. Chrysostom, "Do you see the unchecked madness of love which is indicated by the words? He says tXEov&aa and rzeploaevoa instead of avn7jacL" (cited by Frame).
41. I have drawn attention to the fact and the importance of brotherly love among New Testament Christians in Testaments of Love (Grand Rapids, 1981), pp. 203-11. It is doubtful whether the infant church could have survived without it.
42. Moffatt comments, "no form of &yLruavvrl which sits loose to the endless obligations of this &y&Jnrl will stand the strain of this life or the scrutiny of God's tribunal at the end" (EGT).
43. Best inclines to this view, though allowing that "saints" is "a real alternative"; he rejects the view that both are in mind. Marshall and Whiteley also see a reference to angels.
44. Millar Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls (London, 1956), pp. 261-62.
45. This interpretation is accepted by such commentators as Bengel, Neil, Lightfoot, and Milligan, and by O. Allis, Prophecy in the Church (Philadelphia, 1945), pp. 185ff. Thomas, however, says that this possibility "can be eliminated in that Paul would hardly include two such diverse groups in the same category." It is, however, precarious to argue as to what Paul would or would not do, and Thomas does not face the critical fact that the apostle prays here that his correspondents will be strengthened at the coming of the Lord, which seems to mean that they will be here on earth, while "the holy ones" will be with Jesus at his coming. It is intelligible to say that there are certain "holy ones" who come with Jesus and to link those on earth with them, but it is scarcely so to limit the "holy ones" who are expressly said to come with him to those awaiting him on earth.
1. The expression is Xoutov ovv, a combination found nowhere else in the New Testament, though Milligan says that it occurs in the papyri. Xoijtov or to Xoijtov however, is reasonably common (Xoi tov is read here by some MSS). It means "for the rest" and may introduce an additional item (as in 1 Cor. 1:16) as well as a section of an epistle. Milligan thinks that in late Greek "it is practically equivalent to an 
2. The two verbs occur in 5:12, 14 and, of course, in Phil. 4:2-3 (where there does seem to be a difference in meaning). On the use of ipwtaw Findlay remarks, "'Epwt&w conceives the request in a question form ('Will you do so and so?') ... thus gives a personal urgency to it, challenging the answer as anew does not" (CGT).
3. The position of iv xvpio 'I luov at the end of the clause, with 4µ&S between the two verbs, probably means that "in the Lord Jesus" is to be taken with the verbs or with "we," the subject, rather than with 4µ&S. However, the connection is not so strong that a side glance at 4µ0S may not be included, especially since Paul elsewhere insists that the Thessalonians, too, were in Christ. It is, of course, possible to take the Greek in the sense, "we ask you and urge...." The main point, though, is the authority with which Paul speaks, an authority proceeding from the fact that he is "in the Lord Jesus."
4. nagakaµ3&vw was used outside Christianity as well as inside it: G. Delling speaks of great figures like Plato and Aristotle as employing it to express their link to earlier generations (TDNT, IV, p. 11). He shows that Paul used it for his inheriting "the formulated laws of Christian morality," but also that the apostle "emphasises very strongly that the life which he passes on is not in any sense inherited by him from human bearers of revelation ... but that he has received it directly from the Author of this revelation on the Damascus road" (ibid., pp. 13, 14). Paul can appeal to the tradition that had been received in churches not of his foundation (cf. Rom. 
5. 8E L
6. `iva here resumes the `iva earlier in the verse; so much has been included between "beseech and exhort you ... that" and the content of the exhortation that Paul puts in another `iva to make it clear.
7. Cf. the remark of Martin Luther, "A Christian man is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all" (The Works of Martin Luther [Philadelphia, 1915-32], II, p. 312).
8. napayyrXia is probably a command passed along (papa) a line of soldiers. From this it comes to signify any authoritative order. Though this noun is rare in the New Testament, the cognate verb is used quite often.
9. Moule gives the meaning as "in the name of the Lord Jesus," though he proceeds to ask whether it may not signify "as those who are in contact with the Lord Jesus" (IBNTG, pp. 57-58). Plainly the expression indicates that the words to which it refers are authoritative.
10. Either way also he is connecting the Father and the Son in the closest possible fashion. Denney cites this as one of the passages in which we see "this co-ordination of Christ with the Father, this elevation into the sphere of the divine in which Christ and the Father work harmoniously the salvation of men." Denney proceeds, "Every function of the Christian life is determined by it" (Jesus and the Gospel [London, 1908], pp. 31-32). See also the comment on 3:11.
11. This is not surprising considering the questionable morality of their gods and goddesses. As Rolston remarks, "It was difficult to feel a sense of guilt in the 
12. This pressure would be even stronger at Thessalonica if, as Lightfoot thought, the cult of the Kabeiroi there promoted "gross immorality ... under the name of religion," and gave rise to "foul orgies" (Biblical Essays [London, 1893], p. 258). Such practices were common in many forms of worship, and there is nothing improbable in Lightfoot's suggestion (though Bruce regards it as doubtful). R. Jewett regards "the Cabiric cult" as an important part of the life of Thessalonica. Cabirus, he says, was "a martyred hero, murdered by his brothers, buried with symbols of royal power, and expected to return to help lowly individuals and the city of Thessalonica in particular" (The Thessalonian Correspondence, p. 128). Jewett holds that what had been a popular and significant part of the life of the Thessalonian community had been incorporated into the civic cult of Thessalonica, one result of which was that many humble Thessalonians felt that they had lost their cult figure. He thinks that this may have been a factor in their decision to turn to Christ.
13. Lightfoot and Frame cite Bengel: multae suet voluntates. Bruce maintains that "the will of God for his people is not wider than their sanctification," but Best says, "Paul is not giving the total extent of that will but its relevance to one sphere of conduct." See 5:18 for a repetition of the clause about the will of God.
14. For the complex construction with its succession of infinitives in this and the next verse see the note in Frame.
15. The word is nopveia, strictly the use of the harlot (topvll), but applied to all forms of sexual sin. A. J. Mason writes, "The word is often used in late Greek for any kind of impurity . . . but here it must be understood in its strict sense. To the Gentile mind, while the wickedness of adultery or incest was fully recognized, it was a novelty to be told that fornication was a `deadly sin' " (ad loc.).
16. In The Epistle of Barnabas 7:3; 11:9 we have the expression "the vessel of His Spirit" (to oxevog tov JVvev sacog avtov), which refers to the body of our Lord. Again in Hermas, Mandate 5:2, axevo5 is the vessel in which the Holy Spirit dwells. LSJ note "the body, as the vessel of the soul" as one meaning of the word and class this passage under that head.
17. Bruce thinks that the expression refers specifically to "the genitalia," and J. Whitton, in an article entitled "A Neglected Meaning for SKEUOS in 1 Thessalonians 4.4" (NTS 28 [1982], pp. 142-43) notes the use of the Hebrew equivalent as "a euphemism for the male organ" and argues that the meaning here is "controlling one's sexual urge."
18. MM cite a papyrus dated A.D. 23 where xtaosai, is used with the meaning "have": "I swear that I have thirty days in which to restore to you the man whom I bailed out of the public prison." A meaning like "acquire" is impossible here. It should, however, be added that their own opinion of the verb in this verse is that it means "gradually obtain the complete mastery of the body." The perfect of the verb is, of course, used regularly in the sense "to have acquired," "to possess." The importance of the papyrus cited is that it shows that the present took on this meaning also. LSJ cite Luke 18:12 as another example of this use.
19. Some exegetes see a difficulty also in the use of e`aurov, feeling that it is 
20. GT cite two passages in LXX and one in Xenophon for this usage.
21. See the passages in SBk, III, pp. 632-33. C. Maurer, however, shows that in Judaism "purely formally" the word "is used of the woman only in a figurative sense. But the underlying phrases `to use as a vessel,' `to make one's vessel,' etc. are to be regarded as established euphemisms for sexual intercourse" (TDNT, VII, p. 362).
22. ayraaluu and rgsf are linked by one preposition, iv, and Findlay comments, "the `honour' of the human person has a religious basis in the devotion of the body and its functions to God" (CGT).
23. Cf. the comment of C. Wordsworth: "The deadly sin here reprobated ... was excused by parents (Terent. Adelph. I.ii.21), commended by moralists (Horat. I Sat. ii.32; cp. Cicero pro Coelio 48), and consecrated by the Religion of Heathenism, 
24. It has been remarked that "to take a wife in the passion of lust" (which would be required if we took axevo5 as meaning "wife" in v. 4) is "an extraordinarily strange idea."
25. GT give the difference between the two words jthOo5 and ittOu sia thus: "it. presents the passive, b t. the active side of a vice; b t. is more comprehensive in meaning than it.; in. is (evil) desire, it. ungovernable desire" (sub 0160o5). Similarly, J. B. Lightfoot says, "While t6EOo5 includes all ungovernable affections, i nOuµia xaxii reaches to all evil longings" (St Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon [London, 1876], p. 212). Trench affirms that eliOuµia "in Scripture is the larger word, including the whole world of active lusts and desires, all to which the aap~, as the seat of desire and of the natural appetites, impels; while the jthOo5 is rather the `morosa delectatio,' not so much the soul's disease in its more active operations, as the diseased condition out of which these spring ... the `lustfulness' ('Leidenschaft') as distinguished from the `lust' " (Trench, p. 324). AS says that t6Oo5 "represents the passive, ungoverned aspect of evil desire, as Opp. to ittOuµia, which is the active and also the more comprehensive term" (sub thOo5).
26. Cf. Moffatt, "The metaphors are drawn from trade, perhaps as appropriate to a trading community" (EGT).
27. The construction TO ii + infinitive seems to indicate something different from the appositions of vv. 3-4; it perhaps indicates purpose.
28. While "brother" in the New Testament commonly denotes another member of the Christian community, the meaning here may well be wider, "brother man." If, however, we understand it as "fellow-Christian," the meaning of the passage will be, in Bicknell's words: "This does not imply that it is allowable to wrong a non-Christian, but that it is doubly wicked to wrong a brother in Christ."
29. It is, of course, quite possible to take vnep(3aivw here as intransitive (as ARV), in which case the thought of defrauding another is to be discerned in ,nkcovextew only.
30. ev tau tpayµatr has sometimes been held to signify "in business." But while the plural to JTpayµata may have this meaning, it does not seem to be attested for the singular.
31. yap seems to refer back to the whole argument from v. 3 on, not simply to that at the end of v. 6.
32. ov ... i ti axaOapoia aXX' iv a?LaoµCu. Turner comments, "Paul carefully distinguishes ini from iv in 1 Th 47 and has a reason for the change from one preposition to the other"; he goes on to say that the construction with iv means "in the sphere of' (M, III, p. 263). Turner also says, "No one, having examined 1 Thess. 47, would charge St. Paul with anything short of precision in his use of prepositions where the finer points of theology are at stake" (Grammatical Insights, p. 121).
33. The use of the article with OEov and its absence from avOpeu tov are noteworthy: "rejects not a man, but the one God."
34. hOetew. Cf. R. MacPherson, "The primary significance of the word is to render or consider invalid (hOerov), to set aside something laid down (9er6v ti), to bear oneself toward a thing as if it were not, to ignore"; here he renders it "to ignore, to treat with contempt as deserving no recognition" (James Hastings [ed.], A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, I [London, 1906], pp. 453-54).
35. xai is found before the verb in N D F G etc., but is lacking in A B D and other MSS. It should probably be read and be understood in the sense "indeed."
36. The Spirit is spoken of as given e15 v sd5, "into you," and not simply vµuv, "to you." The Spirit is given to be within the believer, strengthening his innermost being. Cf. Rutherford, "God, who offers his Holy Spirit to dwell in you."
37. Some MSS have the aorist Sovta (N2 A T etc.), but the present is better supported (1t * B D F etc.), and since Paul mostly uses the aorist, scribes would tend to alter the reading to that tense. The present should surely be read.
38. It is of course possible to take the present as nontemporal and as simply referring to God as the Giver.
39. Tertullian, Apology 39.
40. ~ika& X(ia outside the New Testament almost invariably denotes affection for the brother by birth. In the New Testament, however, it always denotes love within the Christian brotherhood. It is not that Christianity sits loose to natural ties. On the contrary, it insists that they should be conceded their due and great importance, and it castigates those without natural affection (Rom. 1:31; 2 Tim. 3:3). But it catches up natural ties into the wider circle. The really significant thing is membership in the heavenly family (Luke 8:21). ~rkaS )4ia is distinguished from ay ni in 2 Pet. 1:7.
41. "But concerning" (itept be), which introduces this section, is often used when a writer turns to new topics in answering a letter (1 Cor. 7:1, 25, etc.); as a result some expositors have thought that Paul is here answering a letter from the Thessalonians. This is not impossible, but we have no knowledge of such a letter and the expression reads well without that hypothesis.
42. OEOSi&axror. In John 6:45 we have &&axroL O ov.
43. Thexai in xal yap, as Lightfoot says, "marks this statement as an advance upon the preceding one. `You are not only taught the lesson, but you also practise it, and that, to every one of the brethren throughout Macedonia, i.e., all the brethren with whom you can possibly come in contact.'"
44. It may not be without significance that in the very next section of this epistle Paul deals with problems arising out of the second advent.
45. Cf. Luke 12:35-38 for a very different way of preparing for the coming of the Lord. On this Lukan passage J. M. Creed comments, "The expectation of the Lord's return does not paralyse energy. The imperatives call up a fine picture of preparedness" (The Gospel according to St. Luke [London, 1950], p. 175). I have noted in the Introduction the view of S. Russell that it is the refusal of "the urban poor" to work for their living, even when converted to Christianity, that is in mind here (p. 9, n. 16), but that view does not seem to have been substantiated. Best finds a reference to "eschatological expectation" the "most satisfactory solution," and Bruce considers this view "quite probable."
46. Neil quotes from Paterson Smyth a story from New England "of a day during one of those times of excited expectancy of the end of the world when a sudden darkness at noon interrupted the session of the Assembly. Some cried fearfully: `It is the coming of Christ: it is the end of the world.' But the old President ordered lights to be produced: `Bring in candles,' he said, `and get on with your work. If the Lord is coming, how better can He find us than quietly doing our duty?' "
47. Some MSS read 18ials, which would put some emphasis on their "own" hands. But the attestation is far from certain (N* AD etc.), and N!V appears to be right.
48. Denney draws another inference from this section of Thessalonians. With reference to the earning of our daily bread he says: "The bulk of most men's strength, by an ordinance of God that we cannot interfere with, is given to that humble but inevitable task. If we cannot be holy at our work, it is not worth taking any trouble to be holy at other times."
49. Malherbe holds that at Corinth it is likely "that Paul's converts came from the artisans, tradespeople, and manual laborers" and that it is likely that a similar situation obtained in Thessalonica (Malherbe, p. 15). So also Barrett, who notes that the expression "implies that the great majority of the Thessalonian Christians were manual workers, whether skilled or unskilled; this is in line with all we learn elsewhere about the early Christian community."
50. The verb rendered "told" is taQayyiWo, which indicates authoritative commands. For example, it is used of commands given by military officers. Although not as exclusively military as the corresponding noun (see on 4:2), it yet gives the idea of a command with authority.
52. On tpos tov5 4o) cf. Frame, "rzpo5 = `with an eye to,' as in Col. 4:5; not corwn, `in the eyes of.' "
51. Turner thinks that the present signifies "go on walking" (M, III, p. 75).
53. The issue may be decided in favor of "nothing" by the grammatical point that xpsiav exw is more usually followed by a thing than a person. But this cannot be absolutely conclusive because in the nature of things one is more likely to speak of needing things than people.
54. D. Wenham has argued that there are significant connections between what 
55. Marshall holds that if this were the case we might well expect that Paul would have been more explicit about the relationship of judgment to the Parousia. Perhaps. But it certainly remains a possibility.
56. The passages are Rom. 1:13; 11:25; 1 Cor. 10:1; 12:1; 2 Cor. 1:8. Milligan says that the corresponding formula ytvwaxety as Oikw is very common in the papyri (it occurs also in 1 Cor. 11:3; Col. 2:1, though with the verb elbevat).
57. The present participle xotWDRivouv is used, though the perfect is more usual 
58. The verb is in the present subjunctive (XurzfOOE), and the tense points to a continuing sorrow. The verb denotes primarily an inward grief, whereas words like rzevOew, xXaiw, etc., indicate the outward expression of grief.
59. of 1oLrzoi, "the rest," means much the same as tov5 e~w, "them that are without," of v. 12. The difference is, as Findlay puts it, that "that expression implies exclusion, this implies deprivation" (CGT). Best points out that pagans are those "who know not God" (v. 5), but these concepts are related: "in so far as the pagan has gods they are unable to give him the hope that is given to the Christian by his God through the resurrection of Jesus."
60. L4E, p. 176. Deissmann comments, "Irene, who knows how to write a business letter quickly and surely, experiences the difficulty of those whose business it is to console and who have no consolation to offer.... Who could help feeling for the helplessness of this woman... ?" Milligan remarks, "The general hopelessness of the pagan world in the presence of death is almost too well known to require illustration," but he cites a few passages such as Theocritus, Idvllia 4.42, eaatibe5 ev i;wioty, &ve)vtttotot Se 8av6vtEs, "hopes are for the living, but the dead are without hope."
61. Lightfoot is of the opinion that even more striking is the difference between the inscriptions on the magnificent tombs of the heathen and those on the poor graves in the catacombs. "On the one hand there is the dreary wail of despair, the effect of which is only heightened by the pomp of outward splendour from which it issues. On the other the exulting psalm of hope, shining the more brightly in all ill-written, ill-spelt records amidst the darkness of subterranean caverns."
62. This, of course, does not exclude the natural feeling of sadness at parting. Paul is not giving a full account here, but simply drawing the attention of his friends to what was important for them to know.
63. NIV omits the 'If' before "we believe" and inserts a second "we believe" that is not in the Greek. Paul says something like "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also God will bring with him those who sleep through Jesus."
64. On the subject of death see further my The Wages of Sin (London, 1955), and the literature there cited.
65. Moore comments, "'that Jesus died and rose again' ... expresses the foundation for every aspect of Christian faith and hope." Perhaps we should notice that Paul uses the verb avioqµi for rising rather than his more usual iysipo and that he refers to "Jesus" where he usually says "Christ"; he may be using traditional language.
66. W. F. Moulton "suggested the possibility that iixogn Or1 in I Th 4" might be a true passive, `was put to sleep,' which gives a strikingly beautiful sense" (M, 1, p. 162).
67. On the grammatical reasons for favoring this interpretation Frame quotes Ellicott, "The two contrasted subjects 'Ijaov5 and xoi siiOevras btd iov 'Ijaov thus stand in clear and illustrative antithesis, and the fundamental declaration of the sentence airs avv avrw remains distinct and prominent, undiluted by any addititious clause."
68. Milligan speaks of Spa as "pointing to Jesus as the mediating link between His people's sleep and their resurrection at the hands of God," so that the argument runs: "those who fell asleep through Jesus, and in consequence were raised by God through Him, will God bring with Him." Moule understands the expression to mean, "those who have fallen asleep (i.e. died) as Christians (perhaps in contact with Jesus)" (IBNTG, p. 57). But this seems inadequate.
69. Some interpreters have felt that the expression points to martyrdom, but it does not seem definite enough for that.
70. Cf. the chapter "The Resurrection of the Church," in L. S. Thornton, The Common Life in the Body of Christ (London, 1942).
71.sv here probably has the force of "by means of."
72. Many commentators reject the view that this is a genuine saying of Jesus, alleging, e.g., that the Evangelists would not have omitted it. But is there any reason for saying that any or all of the Evangelists knew all the things Jesus said? And have we really such insight into their thinking that we can say what they would have included and what they would have omitted among the sayings they did have? If this does refer to a saying of the Lord it will, of course, have been adapted by the use of "we," "the Lord," etc.
73. Or, if the plural be pressed, it may point to a common Christian tradition. But this raises the question, Where did such a tradition originate?
74. In support of this might be urged Old Testament references to prophets speaking by the word of the Lord, 111 131 (1 Kings 13:2, etc.).
75. O. Cullmann includes this among "the relatively small number of words of Jesus quoted by Paul" (The Early Church [London, 1956], p. 65), and J. Jeremias regards it as "an independent dominical saying" (Unknown Sayings of Jesus [London, 1958], p. 5; see also pp. 64-67).
76. E. M. B. Green thinks that Paul is quoting from some Thessalonians, in which case the words would not state Paul's position (ET LXIX [1957-58], pp. 28586). I am not persuaded that this is the way the words should be taken, but at least it shows another possible way of understanding them.
77. Lightfoot gives as his paraphrase of of I,iUvrrs, OL 7tEQL?EUt6µEYOL, "When I say 'we,' I mean those who are living, those who survive to that day." Denney thinks that the natural impression is that Paul expected to be alive, but adds a note, "It is easy to state the inference too strongly. Paul tells us expressly that he did not know when Christ would come; he could not therefore know that he himself would have died long before the Advent; and it was inevitable, therefore, that he should include himself here in the category of such as might live to see it." Cf. Marshall, "We may well ask how Paul could have said `those of us who are living then' shortly and succinctly without using the actual wording employed here."
78. ov µi is often used in the Gospels where there seems to be no particular emphasis. Close examination, however, reveals that it is used without emphasis only in quotations from LXX or in the words of our Lord. When these last were translated from the Aramaic it would seem that the emphatic ov µi was commonly used as congruous with the style of deity. Moulton speaks of "a feeling that inspired language was fitly rendered by words of a decisive tone not needed generally elsewhere" (M, I, p. 192, and see pp. 39, 187-92). The important point is that this gives a natural explanation of the frequent use of the expression in the Gospels, and disposes of the idea that in the New Testament it has lost its force. Paul uses it four times only (outside quotations from LXX), and each time it has its proper emphasis.
79. Frame thinks that the fact that the second and third clauses are joined by xai indicates that they are "in some sense an epexegesis of the first." He gives the 
80. The cognate word xEkEuo' n1S denotes the "boatswain, who gives the time to the rowers" (LSJ). O. Cullmann thinks of the xhXeuaµa as pointing to God's sovereignty. He speaks of the time "when God, as in the first creation, will decide in his sovereign act (xikEuaµa, 1 Thess. 4:16) to constitute the new creation by means of the spirit of life" (The Early Church, p. 143).
81. Those who try to identify the archangel usually think of Michael, the only archangel named in the New Testament (Jude 9). Gabriel is mentioned, but he is called simply an angel (Luke 1:19, 26). Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael are mentioned in "The War of the Sons of Light with the Sons of Darkness"; see Millar Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls (London, 1956), p. 261. Jewish writings mention seven archangels and name them Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Saraqa'el, Gabriel, and Remiel.
82. Jesus likewise spoke of the trumpet in connection with the gathering of the elect (Matt. 24:31). The sounding of the trumpet is associated with the activity of the Lord in Old Testament passages (e.g., Exod. 19:16; Isa. 27:13; Joel 2: 1; Zech. 9:14). J. Klausner attests the idea for first-century Judaism (From Jesus to Paul [London, 1946], pp. 538-39). The trumpet is frequently mentioned in the descriptions of battles in the War scroll (Millar Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls, pp. 390ff.).
83. "First" must be taken here as first in relation to the events mentioned, i.e., before the rapture spoken of in the next verse. It cannot be pressed to mean first in relation to nonbelievers, as though the first and second resurrections (Rev. 20), however these are understood, were being described. That is not the thought of this passage.
84. He does not say simply avv avroi but aµa avv avrolg, and he places the expression early, before the verb. aµa is usually taken as an adverb giving a separate idea, "simultaneously, together with them." This may be so, but Lightfoot maintains that the combination aµa avv is too common to allow the words to be separated. Monte, however, denies that it forms a "compound preposition," and says further, 
85. Cf. Calvin, "As a commander summons his army to battle with the notes of a trumpet, so Christ will call the dead to Him, by His resounding proclamation, which will he heard distinctly all over the world" (The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, trans. J. W. Fraser [Grand Rapids, 1960], p. 343).
86. This point is very well made by G. E. Ladd, The Blessed Hope (Grand Rapids, 1956), passim.
87. See SBk, IV/ 1, p. 516 for the idea in Judaism.
88. el5 ajtavrrlaiv. When used of meeting dignitaries there is often the thought that the great one is escorted to the city of his destination. But it would be perilous to push the expression here to mean that the saints will escort the Lord as he returns to the earth.
89. It is possible that nothing more is added because the sequel is so well known. The teaching of "eternal judgment" is among "the elementary teachings about Christ" (Heb. 6:2). Paul may have it in mind that the Thessalonians were in no doubt on that score.
1. Paul often uses nepi be to introduce a new section (cf. 4:9). It marks the transition from relating the Parousia to the dead to pointing to its importance for the living.
2. xpovoc and xaLeos. They are joined again in Acts 1:7.
3. The two words have been the subject of a good deal of discussion, as in J. A. T. Robinson, In the End God (London, 1950); John Marsh, The Fulness of'Tiune (London, 1952); O. Cullmann, Christ and Time (London, 1951), and the chapter "Time and Times," in E. Stauffer, New Testament Theology (London, 1955). J. Barr has made some strong criticisms of the view that the two words can be sharply distinguished in The Semantics of Biblical Language (Oxford, 1961) and Biblical Words for Time (London, 1962). It appears that too much has been made of the difference between the two words, but by the same token Barr seems to have made too much of their similarity. In a context like the present one, xaip65 is the right word. Marsh cites S. H. Butcher as saying that the Greeks tried to depict xaLpos in sculpture as a "youth pressing forward with wings in his feet and back, holding a pair of scales, which he inclines with a slight touch of the right hand to one side. His hair is long in front and bald behind; he must be grasped, if at all, by the fore-lock." Marsh adds, "Thus while kairos presents an opportunity, it does not do so indefinitely" (The Fulness of Time, pp. 117-18).
4. As in 4:9 there is no need for him to do this, but he does it anyhow. He does not confine himself to doing the minimum for his friends.
5. It is widely accepted in modern theology that early Christian teaching was thoroughly eschatological. An important work is the volume of essays presented to C. H. Dodd, The Background of the New Testament and Its Eschatology (London, 1956), in which the contributors make it clear that eschatology is to be seen throughout the New Testament. Subsequent writing has underlined this.
8. Neither noun has the article, which indicates that the expression was a stereotyped one, almost a proper noun. Milligan thinks that in addition "emphasis [is] laid on the character of the day, a day of the Lord." He cites Davidson: it "belongs to Him, is His time for working, for manifesting Himself, for displaying His character, for performing His work-His strange work upon the earth." For the concept of "the day of the Lord" in the Old Testament see H. H. Rowley, The Faith of Israel (London, 1956), pp. 177-201. Rowley gives full references to the literature on the subject.
6. He uses the pronoun avroi and puts it first in the sentence.
7. Except that in Acts 1:7 neither word has the article.
9. This is one of the many points in which Paul's understanding of the End is derived from that of Jesus. G. R. Beasley-Murray has convincingly demonstrated that Paul's eschatology, as shown in these epistles, is dependent on that of Jesus (Jesus and the Future [London, 1954], pp. 232-34).
10. The addition is found in some MSS of 2 Pet. 3:10, and it occurs, e.g., in KJV. But it is absent from P12 N B P T etc. and should not be read.
11. For the question of whether Paul expected believers to undergo the events of that Day or escape them, may I refer once more to the very sane and able discussion in G. E. Ladd, The Blessed Hope (Grand Rapids, 1956). Ladd argues for a premillenarian, posttribulationist coming of the Lord. Although his subject is so very controversial, his discussion is in a thoroughly irenic spirit and is on a high plane throughout.
12. The thought of the previous verse is continued without a connecting particle (though some scribes felt the need of one and inserted bi or yap).
13. When believers are mentioned in v. 4 it is with the words fseic be, &Sek4oi. This expression indicates a marked contrast with the preceding, who must accordingly be unbelievers. But we scarcely need the grammatical point; the sense is clear enough.
14. The present, Xeywaw, indicates that they will still be saying these words at the very moment when the "destruction" comes "suddenly." On the construction see E. A. Abbott, Johannine Grammar (London, 1906), p. 385.
15. &a0h)veia = a privative + aokkw, "to make to totter." MM inform us that in the papyri "the noun occurs innumerable times in the commercial sense, `a security'." Frame considers the two words (rendered "peace" and "safety") to be "virtually synonymous," but he notes Ellicott's distinction: "elprlvrl betokens an inward repose and security; hoo XrLa a sureness and safety that is not interfered with or compromised by outward obstacles."
16. algvi&o5, elsewhere in the New Testament only in Luke 21:34.
17. Some expositors hold that the figure of childbirth is another way of indicating unexpectedness. But from early days in her pregnancy the mother-to-be is aware of the approximate time of the birth. The idea of inevitability is much more clearly indicated than unexpectedness.
18. The construction `iva ... xarakdplI is an example of what Burton classes as "Clauses of Conceived Result." In such clauses "the action of the principal clause is regarded as the necessary condition of that of the subordinate clause, the action of the subordinate clause as the result which is to be expected to follow from that of the principal clause" (MT, 218, 219). BDF think that iva is "substituted for the infinitive of result" (#391[5]).
19. Nevertheless it should be noted that many scholars accept the plural. The principal reason is that scribes would not be likely to alter xki g to xximag, whereas the reverse procedure is readily intelligible. This is of course true, but deliberate alteration is not the only explanation of the variant. If xkingg were original, xkima5 could easily arise by a process of mechanical corruption, the ending being assimilated to that of the nearby vµa5. The reading xXe rnic is favored also by the possibility that there is a reminiscence of the words of our Lord reported in Matt. 24:43; Luke 12:39. Furthermore, in this context the sons of darkness who are surprised are not awake and watchful, like thieves, but asleep or drunken. Marshall further argues against thieves overtaken by day that "this extension and allegorisation of the metaphor is unlikely to be original."
20. For this idiom in Semitic or Greek see the note in A. Deissmann, Bible Studies (Edinburgh, 1901), pp. 161-66. It is not without interest that one of the Qumran scrolls is called "The War of the Sons of Light with the Sons of Darkness." Turner speaks of the construction as "the Hebrew genitive of quality" (M, IV, p. 90).
21. Cf. Bruce, "The day had not yet arrived, but believers in Christ were children of day already, by a form of `realized eschatology.' The day, in fact, had cast its radiance ahead with the life and ministry of the historical Jesus and the accomplishment of his saving work."
22. The Western text reads "you" (D* F G etc.), but "we" is much more probable.
23. apa ovv is a strong expression indicating that what follows is a necessary conclusion. In the New Testament it is found only in the Pauline writings.
24. The verb for "sleep" here (NIV, "are asleep") is xaOevSou, and not xoiµaou as in 4:13-15. It is probably not without significance that xaOEv80) is sometimes used of carelessness in moral issues (e.g., Eph. 5:14). Nor is it insignificant that it was used of the disciples in Gethsemane, after which Jesus said to them: "Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation" (Mark 14:38).
25. ypWopew is a verb formed from the perfect iypi)yopa (from iysipw), "to have been roused." Whereas aypunvew indicates simply the absence of sleep (AS relates it to aypu tvo5, "seeking sleep"), yp~yopeou has also the idea of a determination to keep awake.
26. Nevertheless it should be noted that a warning against drunkenness is joined with an appeal to be watchful for the coming in two other passages, Luke 21:34 and Rom. 13:12-13.
27. Since drunkenness "may suggest either stupid unconsciousness or abnormal exultation," Frame suggests that the exhortation may be "either to perfect control of the senses without which vigilance is impossible or to quietness of mind (4: 11) without which the peaceable fruits of righteousness essential to future salvation are unattainable." H. Preisker remarks, "he demands sobriety, and issues a special warning against the tension which might easily be caused by eschatological speculation" (TDNT, IV, p. 547).
28. Cf. O. Bauernfeind, who notes that in the New Testament v4eiv "consists in acknowledgment of the reality given with God's revelation and in discharge of the resultant ministry by worship, hope, love and warfare" (TDNT, IV, p. 939; he interprets the word as "hope" in the present passage).
29. It is counted as especially blameworthy when people "carouse in broad daylight" (2 Pet. 2:13).
30. The two occurrences of "get drunk" in this verse represent two different Greek verbs. The first is u Ovaxou, which in the active means "to make drunk" and in the passive "to get drunk," "to become intoxicated." The second, µsOvou, denotes "to be drunk." But in this passage it does not seem as though the difference is to be pressed; the two words are being used as synonyms. RSV, however, renders "those who get drunk are drunk at night."
31. fffu i5 Se. The participle ovine is causal; RSV renders "since we belong to the day" (cf. IBNTG, p. 103).
32. Just what the connection is between the day and the armor of the soldier is not easy to grasp (perhaps the soberness expected of soldiers?), but Paul makes the same transition in Rom. 13:12-13.
33. Cf. Isa. 59:17 with its description of Yahweh as a warrior armed. See also Wisd. 5:17-22.
34. Calvin comments, "He omits nothing of what belongs to spiritual armour, for the man that is provided with faith, love, and hope will be found in no department unarmed."
35. Though Frame identifies it as the participle "of identical action," Findlay thinks that it forms "a part of the exhortation: v4ruµsv enjoins a state; s'vbuoassvot an act belonging to the state, and that goes to determine and characterize it" (CGT).
36. lento, used in John 15:16; 1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11; 1 Pet. 2:8. F. J. A. Hort, discussing the use of this verb in the last-mentioned passage, says that it is "a somewhat vague word in itself," but adds that it "expresses simply the ordinance of God, perhaps with the idea of place added, that is, place in a far-reaching order of things" (The First Epistle of Peter [London, 1898], p. 123).
37. Monte sees nsei here (read by N * B 33) as synonymous with vnep (IBNTG, p. 63), so that it does not matter greatly which we read (but vnep should probably be accepted).
38. Moore points out that "Paul offers no explanation in these epistles as to how Christ's death was vicarious, nor why. This is because there was, in the matters under discussion in these letters, no occasion or necessity to do so." Cf. Wilson, "The simplicity of the reference points to the Thessalonians' familiarity with the doctrine of Christ crucified."
39. Milligan thinks that the use of the aorist ~i)owsEv points us "to this `life' as a definite fact secured to us by the equally definite death (t. anoOavovros) of our Lord."
40. It is difficult to see any real difference in meaning between 6-re with the subjunctive, and i& with that mood (used, e.g., in Rom. 14:8). Burton regards the construction here as due to a preference for ei;Th ... eiiTE "in spite of the fact that the meaning called for a Subjunctive" (MT, 253).
41. "With" is &µa avv, for which see the note on 4:17.
42. The latter expression, 6L5 toy Eva, is very unusual, but it does not seem to differ greatly in meaning from the preceding &kkilkoug. Lightfoot thinks that it is "somewhat stronger" than &kkilkou5. Malherbe denies that the two expressions are equivalent; he holds that Ely toy eva signifies "person to person" (NTS 36 [1990], p. 388).
44. Calvin pungently deduces from the phrase "work hard" "that all idle bellies are excluded from the number of pastors."
45. Deissmann argues that the word springs from the life of the manual laborer. "With regard to all that Paul the tentmaker has to say about labour, we ought to place ourselves as it were within St. Paul's own class, the artisan class of the Imperial age, and then feel the force of his words" (LAE, p. 313). Paul uses the verb in 14 of its 22 New Testament occurrences; it may be used of the work of women (Rom. 16:12) as well as of that of men.
43. For the verb epoucaw see the comment of Findlay quoted in the note on 4:1.
46. Cf. Frame, "the correlative xai ... xai suggests that of the various activities involved in To1D5 xonLmvta5 iv vµiv, two are purposely emphasized, leadership in practical affairs, and the function of spiritual admonition." Best holds that the word here signifies "caring for you," and he cites the relation of a father to his children (I Tim. 3:4-5, 12). But in those passages, too, there is the thought of oversight.
47. MM say that neootrlµs means "'put before,' `set over,' and intrans. 'preside,' `rule,' `govern.' " They cite a number of examples to show that the tenn is used in the papyri of the activities of many kinds of officials. A. J. Malherbe firmly rejects the idea that we have a reference to officebearers and says of the translation "who are over you in the Lord" that it "is incorrect.... The verb proistemi here describes caring for someone...." He goes on, however, to admit that "the moral philosophers do not describe their pastoral care with these two terms" (Malherbe, p. 90; he puts a good deal of emphasis on the relationship of the moral philosophers to their students). We must not, however, interpret Paul by what the philosophers did. He was not a philosopher but an apostle; he was writing not about a philosophical school but a church.
48. vouertiM is found in the New Testament only in the Pauline epistles and in Paul's speech to the elders of Ephesus (Acts 20:31). J. Behm says that strictly the verb means "to impart understanding (a mind for something)" and further, "It denotes the word of admonition which is designed to correct while not provoking or embittering" (TDNT, IV, pp. 1019, 1021).
49. 7jyio sat usually means "to deem." The meaning "to esteem" is found very rarely, if at all, outside this passage. This has led to other suggestions (see Frame's note). These, however, are unconvincing, and the context makes it clear that "esteem" is right.
50. Le., if we read vnepex ECnaaG5 (with B D* F G). The related vJTepex- uepiaaov is found in Eph. 3:20; 1 Thess. 3:10 (and in N AD2 Tin the present passage).
51. Additional Note G.
52. Which is oxo)a ou (1 Cor. 7:5); cf. the use of oxoXi), "a school." Yet it should be borne in mind that oxoXa ou can have the idea of culpable idleness, as we see from Exod. 5:8, 17 (LXX).
53. icuv aaOavcuv here refers to the weak spiritually, as most commentators agree. The word can mean weak physically, but the sense of this passage is not "look after those who are unable to work," but rather "look after those who are weak in the faith." It is sometimes suggested that this means people like those troubled with problems associated with meat offered to idols (1 Cor. 8:7), or those with moral weakness. But we have no reason to see such a definite reference here, and it is better to take the term as a general one.
54. Wilson cites Lenski, "Longsuffering toward all means not only toward all in the three groups mentioned but toward all, including even outsiders, who may be very trying at times because of their hostile actions. The verb means to hold out long before taking action; God himself is longsuffering toward us."
55. The combination of second and third persons, opace [dl tic, perhaps conveys the idea that the whole group is being held responsible for the conduct of each individual. They are not only to abstain from retaliation, but to be sure that none of their number retaliates. "Blessed are the peacemakers" (Matt. 5:9). Bengel comments, "A person who has received an injury, and is in a passion, sees too much; his neighbours therefore ought to see (for him)."
56. Cf. Calvin, "For particular excuses are wont to be brought forward in some cases. `What! why should it be unlawful for me to avenge myself on one that is so worthless, so wicked, and so cruel?' But as vengeance is forbidden us in every case, without exception, however wicked the man that has injured us may be, we must refrain from inflicting injury." Denney brings out the difficulty we experience in restraining ourselves by reminding us that "revenge is the most natural and instinctive of vices."
57. &thw also means "persecute"; "It is striking that Paul the former persecutor could use a verb meaning `pursue' or `persecute'.... Did he want his readers to put the same intensity into altruism as he had put into his persecution?" (Ward). It is used of the pursuit of love (1 Cor. 14:1); peace (Heb. 12:14); righteousness (1 Tim. 6:11).
58. Lightfoot points out that "on the other hand, it may be said no less truly that sorrow is especially the Christian's heritage. For with a fuller sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, of the fearful significance of death, he has more abundant matter for sorrow in the scenes amidst which he moves, than those whose convictions are less deep. Yet the two attitudes are not antagonistic. They may, and do, coexist." Cf. also W. A. Visser 't Hooft, "It is one of the impressive aspects of the life of the Church in history that the churches under pressure or under persecution know so much more about the secret of Christian joy than the churches which live in circumstances of tranquillity" (The Renewal of the Church [London, 1956], p. 73). He goes on to point to New Testament passages where "suffering is understood as the merciful act of God by which he tests the faith of his people" (ibid.).
59. Paul's verb is tpoosvxea9e, which expresses devotion, the Godward look, rather than Seoµat, which would fasten attention rather on our need (see on 3:10). JTpoosvxoµar is the more comprehensive term, and can include the other words for prayer.
60. The expression here, iv navri, does not mean "at every time," and, indeed, it seems to be differentiated from tavtone in 2 Cor. 9:8. Rather, it means "in every thing," i.e., "under all circumstances" (cf. Phillips, "whatever the circumstances may be"). But in practice praying "at every time" means much the same.
61. This is probably to be understood as RSV, "this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you," but some understand it as GNB, "This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Christ Jesus." Both of course are true, but perhaps the former is more likely to be Paul's meaning.
62. Both Ouµo5 and opyij are used.
63. Jewett finds here "the presence of conflicts over ecstatic manifestations in the congregation" and "tendencies to stamp out such ecstatic manifestations entirely." He holds that the position of these injunctions (the final topic in the final section) is important; the discussion "assumes a position of emphasis and particular congregational relevance for the letter as a whole" (Jewett, pp. 101, 102). But it is difficult to regard this as a balanced view. There is no reason to see ecstatic manifestations in 1:5-6, so that these two short verses (seven words only in the Greek) form the only place where such manifestations are to be found in the letter. These seven words do not give us the clue to the whole even though they do come near the end. And it is far from certain that Jewett's interpretation of those words is the right one.
64. Mandate 10:2, 3 (cited from Lightfoot's edition). The word for "cheerful" is tXapov.
65. The use of ti with the present imperative and not the aorist subjunctive probably represents a command to cease quenching (though Bruce regards this as doubtful; Best, however, says of the five imperatives in vv. 19-22, "µij with the present imperative implying that the practices rejected are already in existence"). If the construction is used strictly, it implies that some, at least, of the Thessalonians were quenching the Spirit. Paul calls on them to stop.
66. The verb i~ouOEvew is a strong one, with the meaning "to make absolutely nothing of." Findlay says that it "denotes contempt objectively, as it bears on the person or thing despised; while xaca~poviou (1 Cor. xi.22) describes contempt subjectively, as it is in the mind of the despiser" (CGT). µij with the present imperative here signifies "Stop treating prophecies with contempt."
67. "But" (NIV omits) should probably be read before "test," for it has excellent manuscript attestation (it is read by W B D G K P etc.). It should be understood as adversative; prophecy is not to be despised but neither is it to be accepted without proper testing.
68. yivroOr rpanei;Lrai SoxgioL. J. Jeremias cites and discusses the saying (Unknown Savings ofJesus [London, 1958], pp. 89-93). He notes that this saying is quoted more than any other noncanonical saying of Jesus and comments, "The indefatigable Resch has assembled no less than thirty-seven quotations and twenty allusions, in which the consensus with regard to the wording and interpretation is remarkable" (p. 89). We should probably regard this as a genuine saying of Jesus.
69. Rutherford brings out some of this in his translation: "Rather, assay all things thereby. Stick to the true metal; have nothing to do with the base."
70. Frame says, "It is questionable whether in Paul's usage to ayaOov and to xaXov (v. 21) can be sharply differentiated" (on v. 15).
71. xath ou is a word of many meanings, as the notes of Frame and Milligan, as well as the lexicons, show. Most of its usages, however, stem from the two main ideas, "hold fast" and "hold back." The former is the meaning here.
72. Notice that while the good is viewed as a unity, evil is of many kinds. There is some dispute as to whether nov1pov should be taken as a noun (as NIV) or as an adjective ("abstain from every evil sort"). It is probable that NIV is correct, but there is no real difference of meaning.
73. The conjunction Se. This could, of course, be simply a connective with the sense "now," but it is perhaps more likely to be adversative here. The opening to this prayer is the same as that at 3:11.
74. It is found in Rom. 15:33; 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:11; Phil. 4:9 (also Heb. 13:20), while "the Lord of peace" occurs in 2 Thess. 3:16.
75. Cf. Frame, "consecration includes not only religion, devotion to God, but conduct, ethical soundness."
76. o)vors2 sic (here only in the New Testament). Lightfoot says that this word "not only implies entirety (which exhausts the meaning of 6kous), but involves the further idea of completion"; cf. Bailey, it "suggests finality as well as completeness."
77. Frame thinks that "spirit" probably denotes the divine Spirit who dwells in believers and marks them off as different from unbelievers. Bicknell, however, maintains that this idea is "surely absurd. To speak of a `portion' of the divine Spirit introduces an idea of spatial division which contradicts the essential nature of Spirit. Nor is it easy to see how the Holy Spirit can in any sense need to be kept entire."
78. Cf. H. Wheeler Robinson, "this is not a systematic dissection of the distinct elements of personality; its true analogy is such an Old Testament sentence as Deut. vi.5, where a somewhat similar enumeration emphasizes the totality of the personality" (The Christian Doctrine of Man [Edinburgh, 1926], p. 101). Paul's inclusion of the body is significant, as Best points out, "To the Greek for whom the body was the tomb or prison of the immortal soul its ultimate fate was unimportant; for Paul there is no existence without the body (cf. 1 Cor. 15)."
79. Hendriksen has a long note on this verse during the course of which he maintains that there are two clauses here. He thinks that &oxX~pov applies only to tvevµa, something along the lines of the Berkeley Version, "May your spirit be without flaw and your soul and body maintained blameless." I cannot see any real reason for breaking up to 7tv i3ta xaL fl l'uxll xaL to a6pa. The unemphatic possessive v1&v applies to all three, and so, it seems, does oXoxX~pov. It is not uncommon for an adjective to agree in this way in number and gender with the nearest noun in a list, the whole of which it qualifies. There is, moreover, the point that it is difficult to take the adverb & th uttw5 simply with c1lQTlOEi11 (how could God keep people other than blamelessly?). It must surely, as Findlay points out, define &oxX~pov, so that the sentence will mean, "In full integrity may your spirit and your soul and your body be preserved,-found blamelessly so ..." (CGT). It is possible to agree with Hen- driksen's main point, that the verse does not give us a trichotomist view of the nature of man, without accepting this piece of linguistics.
80. It is found, e.g., in Jas. 1:4, where its meaning is brought out by the following iv o & vi keuth swot, "lacking in nothing."
81. It is used of the stones of the altar in Deut. 27:6 (LXX), while Philo and Josephus use it of sacrificial victims.
82. Milligan draws attention to the fact that it is found in sepulchral inscriptions at Thessalonica, and he quotes one of them.
83. His expression issv tp Rapouoia.
84. "This is the central theme of the Bible: the faithfulness of God in spite of the faithlessness of his people" (Rolston). It is a theme to which Paul recurs. That God is faithful is the basis of the call of the Corinthians and is mentioned in the thanksgiving that opens the first epistle (1 Cor. 1:9). It is the same faithfulness that assures them that they will not be tempted beyond their capacity (1 Cor. 10:13). It is 
87. "In the ancient world one kissed the hand, breast, knee, or foot of a superior, and the cheek of a friend. Herodotus mentions kissing the lips as a custom of the Persians. Possibly from them it came to the Jews" (C. H. Toy, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Proverbs [Edinburgh, 1899], p. 453, n.). In New Testament times a host was expected to kiss his guest (Luke 7:45), and it was the goodwill it symbolized that made Judas's betrayal of Jesus with the use of a kiss so dreadful (Luke 22:48).
85. See Rom. 15:30; Eph. 6:19; Col. 4:3-4; 2 Thess. 3:1-2; cf. Phil. 1:19.
86. If "also" in some MSS is genuine, the meaning will be "pray for us as well as for yourselves and other people," or "pray for us as we have been praying for you"; perhaps the latter is more likely.
88. The first explicit mention of the kiss used in the liturgy is found in Justin's description of a communion service: "Having ended the prayers, we salute one another with a kiss" (1 Apol. 65). Despite the confident assertions of some New Testament scholars, there is no evidence for the practice as a liturgical observance before this.
89. This is explicit in The Apostolic Constitutions (4th century). The deacon calls on the congregation: "Salute ye one another with a holy kiss," whereupon "the clergy salute the bishop, and the laymen the laymen, and the women the women" (The Liturgy of the Eighth Book of `The Apostolic Constitutions', ed. R. H. Creswell [London, 1900], p. 51). There is a useful account of the practice in J. G. Davies [ed.], A Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship [London, 1972], pp. 187-88).
90. It is often said that &vayivthown always means to read aloud, but the examples cited by Milligan show that it sometimes means simply "to read." The same examples make it difficult to hold, as some do, that reading was always aloud in antiquity. While there is no reason to doubt that reading was often aloud (cf. Acts 8:30), it is very difficult to believe that educated people had not learned to read silently. K. Lake and H. J. Cadbury consider this "surely incredible" (The Beginnings of Christianity, IV [Grand Rapids, 1965], p. 97).
91. Some MSS read "holy" before "brothers," and this reading has good MSS support (including P16vid Nv_ A K etc.), it is urged that it is the more difficult reading, it could have been dropped (but not added) by homoioteleuton, and it fits the context. But despite all this it is unlikely to be the true reading. The adjective is unnecessary; all the brethren, as Paul's insistence on sanctification shows, were holy. Again, the expression "holy brothers" is found in no other place in Paul's letters. The better MSS omit "holy" here. Its presence is explicable in that it may well have crept in from the previous verse. It is not surprising, accordingly, that almost all commentators omit it.
92. The verb he uses is the rare evopxi o (only here in the New Testament, and not often elsewhere). This seems to be a strengthened form of opxitou (Mark 5:7; Acts 19:13). It is an extraordinarily strong form to employ in such a connection.
93. Lightfoot thinks that Paul had a presentiment of a misuse of his name, a presentiment that, in the light of 2 Thess. 2:2, we see to have been amply justified. In the nature of the case we cannot verify or disprove such a conjecture, but it seems better to look for another explanation.
94. It has been suggested also that Paul had a tender concern for the bereaved. He feared that some of them might be absent when his words of consolation were read, and in this way he ensured that everyone would come to hear what he had written.
95. The shortest of all is in Colossians, fl x6EQl5 µe9' vµruv (the endings of the Pastorals are similar).
96. Cf. Denney, "Whatever God has to say to us-and in all the New Testament letters there are things that search the heart and make it quake-begins and ends with grace.... All that God has been to man in Jesus Christ is summed up in it: all His gentleness and beauty, all His tenderness and patience, all the holy passion of His love, is gathered up in grace. What more could one soul wish for another than that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ should be with it?'
a 1 Greek Silvanus, a variant of Silas
1. Similarly Bicknell comments: "The Greek makes plain that the Father and Christ are one source. It is remarkable that even at this early date the Son is placed side by side with the Father as the fount of divine grace, without any need of comment."
2. Findlay speaks of the Father as "the ultimate spring" and the Lord Jesus Christ as "the mediating channel" of grace and peace (CGT). While we may feel that this is the true position, yet it does not arise out of the expression used here. The Father and the Son are closely linked, and no distinction is made between them. It is pertinent to notice in this connection that, whereas Paul seems usually to link peace with the Father and grace with the Son, he does not differentiate between them in his salutations.
3. Roger D. Aus has argued that the words are derived from a liturgical setting (JBL92 [1973], pp. 432-38). Now it is true that some ancient liturgies have expressions like "bounden duty," so that this must be seen as a possibility. But the fact is that we have no knowledge of liturgies used in the church as early as this or even of whether the early church used liturgies at all (were they entirely charismatic in their worship?). Until some evidence is found this must remain conjectural.
4. The verb he uses, 60FAoµev, is unusual in thanksgivings (though it occurs also in 2:13). It carries the idea of personal obligation, whereas bci would denote something more in the nature of external compulsion.
5. xae65, as Frame points out, "in Paul is slightly causal." Thus it must he taken with oOriXoµsv, and not as indicating the degree or the manner of the thanksgiving.
6. Phillips exactly reverses the meanings of the two expressions in rendering, "I thank God for you not only in common fairness but as a moral obligation!"
7. Of these two verbs Lightfoot says, "The words utepau~&vcL and t? eov&~ei are carefully chosen; the former implying an internal, organic growth, as of a tree; the other a diffusive, or expansive character, as of a flood irrigating the land." Paul has a special fondness for compounds with vtep.
8. ware indicates the consequence of the preceding.
9. The dative might be understood as "within the churches," but there is not much difference in meaning.
10. But see an article by T. F. Torrance, "One Aspect of the Biblical Conception of Faith" (ET 68 [1956-57], pp. 111-14), the short reply by C. F. D. Moule (ibid., p. 157), and the further notes by both writers (ibid., pp. 221-22). Torrance speaks freely of the faithfulness of people, as well as that of God. But if I understand him aright, his "faithfulness" is a constant trust in God. He strongly emphasizes the priority of the faithfulness of God. BAGD begin their treatment of the word with, "that which causes trust and faith -a. faithfulness, reliability."
11. This is the usual meaning in the Greek Bible. In nonbiblical writings it has other meanings, such as "pursuit."
12. There is a problem regarding the grammatical connection between vv. 4 and 5. Most translations supply "this is," but Bruce points out that it is also possible to take evS tyµa as in apposition with at5 aveX oOe. There is not a great deal of difference in sense. The main problem is seeing how "persecutions and trials" demonstrate "that God's judgment is right."
13. The New Testament often links present suffering and future glory, as in Jesus' own teaching (e.g., Matt. 5:11-12).
14. Jouette M. Bassler takes this very seriously. She argues from 2 Baruch where we read things like "His judgments which He has decreed against you that ye should be carried away captive ... in order that, at the last times, ye may be found worthy of your fathers." She argues that similarly Paul is saying that God sends suffering (righteous judgment) on his people now, and the fact of their suffering is an indication that God is making them worthy of their future inheritance. See the article "The Enigmatic Sign: 2 Thessalonians 1:5" (CBQ 46 [1984], pp. 496-510). It may legitimately be objected that this is unlike anything we know to be Pauline, and that the date of the Jewish writings Bassler cites is rather late to be a convincing parallel to New Testament teaching.
15. ev& Lyµa occurs here only in the New Testament. It means "evidence, plain indication" (BAGD). The judgment is usually held to be the judgment at the last day (so, e.g., Best, Bruce); if this is the way to take it, then the bearing of believers under their present sufferings shows what will be the case at the end of the age. "God sustains their faith now and will own it at the judgment. Their experience is therefore a pointer to God's righteous judgment" (Ward). Marshall holds that Paul is referring to present judgment.
16. Cf. Frame, "Since the object of boasting specified in v. 4 is not suffering, but the constancy of their endurance and faith in the midst of persecution, ev& Lyµa is not to be taken with the idea of suffering alone ... but with the idea of endurance and faith in spite of persecutions." Best interprets ev&&Lyµa in this way: "The Thessalonians are not sure of their position on the day of judgement; Paul says: `I have boasted about you; this is a sign that God will count you worthy then.'" But Paul's boasting is surely an inadequate reason for the Thessalonians to be confident on judgment day. It is much more likely to be the way God has enabled them to bear their sufferings.
17. The construction is e15 to with the infinitive. The weakening of the telic force of this construction in late Greek leads a few interpreters to think that it may denote here either the content of the righteous judgment or its result. But in Paul the construction usually denotes purpose, and there is no real reason to think that the telic force is lacking here. Way renders, "a token ... of His purpose that you may be adjudged worthy."
18. For "the kingdom of God" see the note on 1 Thess. 2:12. Here the thought is that of the kingdom in its future rather than its present aspect.
19. veep.
20. The verb hvrano&& alL, "to recompense," is a compound that conveys the thought of a full and due requital. It is used in a similar way of God's judicial recompense in Rom. 12:19. For "trouble," see on 1 Thess. 1:6, where NIV translates the same word as "suffering."
21. Cf. the reactions assigned by Jesus to one and the same king, with regard to one and the same servant, "The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go," "in anger his master turned him over to the jailers" (Matt. 18:27, 34).
22. Similar teaching may be found in the Qumran scrolls, e.g., "with God is the judgment of every living man; and he will repay to a man his recompense" (from the closing psalm in "The Manual of Discipline," cited from Millar Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls [London, 1956], p. 386).
23. As in the slackening of a taut bowstring.
24. Frame quotes E. von Dobschutz, "these two little words belong to the genuine Pauline touches for the sake of which no one, with any feeling for the way in which the mind of Paul works, can give up the authenticity of this brief epistle."
25. h toxaXusptg (cf. 1 Cor. 1:7). The preposition is iv (iv cf h toxawlp L), which signifies rather more than "at." It is not simply that the retribution will take place "at" the revelation; it will itself form part of that revelation. G. Vos has a useful note on atoxaXuipt5 in The Pauline Eschatology (Grand Rapids, 1953), pp. 77-79.
26. On this whole description Neil comments, "The most notable feature is the reticence of the description. What in normal apocalyptic literature would have included a lurid picture of the tortures of the damned and the bliss of the righteous, in Paul's hands becomes a restrained background of Judgment with the light focussed on the Person of Christ as Judge."
27. In the expression ayyiXouv M va uau5 avrov Frame takes avrov with the whole of the preceding and renders, "his angels of power." However, as a number of commentators point out, the position of avrov (after 8vvaµeuu5) is a principal reason for rejecting this translation. In this position it is very difficult to take avrov as applying principally to "angels." It seems better to read it with the noun it follows, "the angels of his power."
28. Another view is that of Moore, who notes that 8vvalu5 is a circumlocution 
29. iv nupl ~Xoy6g, "in fire of flame." We might have expected the simpler iv ~Xoyl nup65, "in flame of fire" (which is actually read by some MSS). However, iv nupl ~Xoy65 is well attested, and the expression is found in a few other places, e.g., Sir. 8:10; 45:19. It is a genitive of quality (BDF #165; they see the construction in LXX and draw attention to the inversion of the construct state in Hebrew and many translations).
30. T. F. Glasson says, "The source of this doctrine is not the teaching of Jesus. We cannot conceive Him talking of Himself as coming with flaming fire rendering vengeance upon them that know not God. Nor is the conception due to Paul; there is nothing distinctively Pauline about it as there is in the case of Justification by Faith, `in Christ', and `the fruit of the Spirit'. This Parousia teaching was evidently part of the Christian tradition at that time and the language betrays its origin in the O.T." (The Second Advent [London, 1947], p. 168). He thinks that the connecting link between the eschatology of the Old Testament and that of the church was "the conviction that Jesus was Lord" (ibid., p. 171). It is true that the early church made good use of the Old Testament, but Glasson has to resort to a good deal of critical surgery to empty the teaching of Jesus of all idea of the second coming. T. W. Manson shows conclusively from the standpoint of modern criticism that Jesus looked for his second coming in judgment (The Teaching of Jesus [Cambridge, 1943], pp. 260ff.). See also G. R. Beasley-Murray, Jesus and the Future (London, 1954). Dr. BeasleyMurray shows clearly that Paul's eschatology depends on that of Jesus, and that Jesus did teach that he would come again.
33. If this distinction can be sustained (as Marshall, e.g., argues) it will readily apply to the two groups of persecutors at Thessalonica.
34. There is also the point made by Lightfoot, "But if by roil µfl etb6cnv Oeov are meant the heathen who rejected the Gospel when offered to them, they are not distinct from TO is µT] vnaxotiovOLV; and if on the other hand the heathen world generally is signified, this is opposed to the doctrine which St. Paul teaches in Romans ii."
31. See the note on the cognate word translated "punish" in I Thess. 4:6.
32. For the close connection between the Father and the Son see the note on I Thess. 3:11.
35. Cf. Lightfoot, "While the simple o l would define the persons themselves, o hive; regards them as members of a class, and points to their class characteristics."
36. The word is Sixii, on which Findlay says, "It connotes justice in the penalty, punishment determined by a lawful process." He distinguishes it from other words for punishment thus: "Punishment is 8ixi1 from the point of view of the dispassionate judge; x6W(ng from that of the criminal; cLt.o)pia from that of the injured party" (CGT).
37. The expression is found in the Qumran scrolls, namely, in "The War of the Sons of Light with the Sons of Darkness" (Millar Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 390).
38. Cf. the discussion by G. Dalman, The Words of Jesus (Edinburgh, 1902), pp. 147-62.
39. This is certainly the meaning of dno in Isa. 2:10, LXX (of which this may be a reminiscence), and I take it as the most likely meaning here. Others have suggested, however, that it may be temporal, "from the time of the Lord's appearance," that it may indicate the source, "proceeding from the face ... ," or that it may be causal, "by reason of the face."
40. Way renders, "Irrevocable destruction that bans them from the presence of the Lord."
41. Cf. Denney, "If the gospel, as conceived in the New Testament, has any character at all, it has the character of finality. It is God's last word to man. And the consequences of accepting or rejecting it are final; it opens no prospect beyond the life on the one hand, and the death on the other, which are the result of obedience and disobedience.... What God says to us all in Scripture, from beginning to end, is not, Sooner or later? but, Life or death?"
42. "When" is orav, the indefinite conjunction. The fact of the Lord's coming is known; the time is not. Thus Paul says "whenever."
43. The simple infinitive, which is common in this sense after verbs of coming and the like.
44. Cf. Calvin, "Paul declares that our Lord Jesus in no sense reserves His glory to Himself but possesses it only in order to radiate it to all the members of His body" (cited in H. Quistorp, Calvin's Doctrine of the Last Things [London, 1955], p. 172).
45. Cf. the chapter "The Glory of His Coming," in L. Berkhof, The Second Coming of Christ (Grand Rapids, 1953).
46. He suggested emending stLOTE15 , "was believed," to e ttactft "was confirmed."
47. i~' vµa5 is not a usual construction after µapTVpiov, with which most commentators connect it here (in Luke 9:5 µapTVpiov e7t' arrow is "a testimony against them"). Indeed, no instance parallel to this one appears to be cited. Milligan thinks that we must be content "either to regard this as a unique construction, intended to emphasize the direction the testimony took, or (with Lft.) connect i~' vµa5 with E7ttomi Oii in the sense `belief in our testimony directed itself to reach you.' " Bruce finds Lightfoot's rendering "too awkward to be acceptable" and prefers the simpler "to you."
a 12 Or God and Lord, Jesus Christ
48. Iva is probably to be taken not simply as giving the content of the prayer, but with a telic force, "in order that."
49. a~Low means "to deem worthy," "to reckon as worthy." Cf. the note on the compound xam 1~ u in v. 5. RSV renders "make you worthy," but Bailey comments, "In no other passage known is the meaning `to make worthy,' but always `to deem worthy.'"
50. The collect for Easter Day in the Book of Common Prayer expresses the thought of this passage: "We humbly beseech thee, that, as by thy special grace preventing [i.e., preceding] us thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect...." The thought that all our goodness comes from God is to be found in the Qumran scrolls, e.g., "For the way of a man is not his own, a man does not direct his own steps; for judgment is God's and from his hand is blamelessness of conduct" (Millar Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 388).
5 1. G. B. Gray speaks of the Hebrew as frequently using "name" "as almost an equivalent of the `personality' or `character' or nature of the person or thing named; and consequently, when a writer wishes to express forcibly the nature of a person or place, he says he will be called so-and-so, or his name will be so-and-so" (HDB, III, p. 478).
52. It is of course possible to take avr6) as neuter, referring to the Name, when the translation would be "in it." Frame adopts this view, and understands iv "of ground." However, it is much more usual in the New Testament to speak of believers as being "in Christ" than to use the expression "in the Name" in such a connection as this. Notice that believers are said to be glorified "in" Christ, and not simply "with" him.
53. The language is that of Isa. 66:5 (LXX), but there "the Lord" is Yahweh. This is another example of the tendency of the New Testament writers to speak of the Lord Jesus in language used of Yahweh in the Old Testament.
54. Moore notes this possibility but sees a reference to Father and Son as more probable. Turner says, "'Our Lord and God Jesus Christ' would be the correct rendering" and adds, with reference to a number of passages with this construction, "the simple grammarian may be forgiven for suspecting that special pleading has contributed to the debilitation of tremendous affirmations in the New Testament" (Grammatical Insights, p. 16). This may well be the case, but Turner has here reversed the order of "God" and "Lord," an alteration that is not unimportant.
1. There is a good treatment of the passage by G. Vos, The Pauline Eschatology (Grand Rapids, 1953), pp. 94-133.
2. spwimµsv Si. Paul uses the verb 4 times only (3 of which are in the Thessalonian correspondence); it occurs 62 times in the New Testament.
3. The preposition rendered "concerning" is vnep, which usually means "on behalf of." Here it is more or less equivalent to nEgi, but it has its own particular emphasis. It signifies something like "in the interests of the truth concerning" (Motile, "in connexion with the coming," IBNTG, p. 65). J. B. Lightfoot discusses these two prepositions and remarks that vnep has "a sense of `interest in,' which is wanting to neQC' (Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians [London, 1902], p. 73). This probably accounts for its use here.
4. Cf. Ward, "The coming and the assembling are united by one Greek article. Paul was thinking of one event, not two. At the climax of history the Lord will not be without his church, and his church will not be without him."
5. Deissmann notes the use of the term (e tiovvaywyrl) for a collection of money. He thinks that it differed from the more common avvaywyrl "scarcely more than `collecting' from `collecting together.'" He adds, "the longer Greek word was probably more to the taste of the later period" (LAE, p. 103).
6. J. E. Fison says about 2 Thess. 2:1ff., "It should be faced up to for what it 
7. Knox's translation, "Do not be terrified out of your senses all at once" (following the Vulgate terreamini), is not quite what is wanted. The verb oakevou refers to motion rather than to terrifying. In 1 Thess. 3:3 Paul has used a different verb with a similar meaning; he strongly opposes the instability of some of the Thessalonians.
8. The preposition ato, "from," adds the thought of the mind departing "from" the normal.
9. This is not the only place where Paul's words remind us of expressions used by Jesus. See H. A. A. Kennedy, St. Paul's Conception of the Last Things (London, 1904), pp. 167-68. This is more than a matter of verbal agreement; there is a unity of underlying ideas, a point that G. R. Beasley-Murray also makes in Jesus and the Future (London, 1954), pp. 232ff.
10. The construction, employing a threefold Sui, emphasizes the means "through" which the result is brought about.
11. thS Sr' fffui v strictly means "as through us" and points to a claim that a divine communication had been made "through" God's servants. It is to be taken with all three of the preceding, which are closely linked. Paul is denying that the report emanated from a revelation made to him or from any words of his, spoken or written. Some scholars feel that it is only the letter that purports to come from Paul (BDF #425 [4] presupposes an ellipsis of yeypa t thviic), but there seems to be no good reason for restricting the application of the phrase in this way.
12. Cf. Frame, `avsotjxev means not `is coming' (Epxetat 1-5:2), not `is at hand' (ijyytxev Rom. 13:12), not `is near' (syyv5 e(Jtw Phil. 4:5), but `has come,' `is on hand,' `is present."' Later he cites Lillie as maintaining that those who favor the meaning "is at hand" do so "from the supposed necessity of the case rather than from any grammatical compulsion." Bicknell gives "is now present" as "the only possible translation of the Greek." B. B. Warfield, by contrast, uses strong language to indicate his disagreement with such views. He holds that the verb signifies "is upon us" (The Expositor, 3rd Series, IV, p. 37).
13. There is a sense in which Christians are even now living in the end time. The decisive victory has been won. Cf. 0. Cullmann, "Just as the `Victory Day' does in fact present something new in contrast to the decisive battle already fought at some point or other of the war, just so the end which is still to come also brings something new. To be sure, this new thing that the `Victory Day' brings is based entirely upon that decisive battle, and would be absolutely impossible without it. Thus we make for the future precisely the same confirmation as we did for the past. It is a unique occurrence; it has its meaning for redemptive history in itself; but on the other hand it is nevertheless founded upon that one unique event at the mid-point" (Christ and Time [London, 1951], p. 141). Those in error at Thessalonica, however, were not thinking that the decisive event had occurred in its completeness, but rather that "Victory Day" had already dawned.
a3 Some manuscripts sin
14. Cf. the remark of Origen cited by J. Jeremias, "It may be-in view of the fact that there were people among the Jews who claimed to know from books either of the time of the destruction (of the universe) or about other secret things-that therefore he (Paul) wrote this (2 Thess. 2. 1 sq.), warning his followers not to believe the claims of these people" (The Eucharistic Words of Jesus [Oxford, 1955], p. 76, n. 1).
15. W. Schmithals and others see a reference to Gnosticism here. Against this (a) there is no real evidence that Gnosticism was as early as this, and (b) the Gnostic meaning is not a natural understanding of what Paul wrote.
16. Moulton finds the tone of subjunctives like this "less peremptory than that of the imperative, as may be seen from their closeness to the clauses of warning" (M, I, p. 178).
17. This is not to deny that there will be an apostasy in the last times, and one 
18. Lightfoot maintains that the word might apply to Christians or Jews, either of whom might be said to depart from God, but it can have no reference to Gentiles. Denney thinks that Paul is describing events in which the church is but a spectator, and that the term applies accordingly to the Jews. H. A. A. Kennedy says that the word "can only mean a revolt against God. Therefore it must take place among the people who acknowledge the true God, i.e., the Jews" (St. Paul's Conception af'the Last Things, p. 218). Such views may be a little too confident. If the word means "rebellion" it may well apply to the rebellion of the creature against the Creator. It is thus not impossible to envisage its use with reference to others than Jews.
21. Knox renders "the champion of wickedness."
22. avoµia5 is read by N B 81 sah boh Marc Tert etc. and <apiias by A D G K L P etc. Since Paul does not use &voµia very often, copyists would be more likely to alter it to &µaptia than the reverse. Metzger also points out that yap ... avoµia5 in v. 7 "seems to presuppose &voµia5 here."
20. It is not certain whether the xai indicates that the rebellion and the revelation of the Man of Lawlessness are to be thought of as simultaneous, or whether the second is to follow the first. They are obviously closely connected, though not identical. "Man of Lawlessness" is of course a Hebraism signifying a lawless man, one characterized by lawlessness.
19. "His style is that of a speaker, not of a studied writer; such broken sentences are inevitable, and explain themselves, in animated conversation" (Findlay, CGT).
23. See The Antichrist Legend (London, 1896).
24. T. F. Glasson thinks of the figure of the Man of Lawlessness as being derived ultimately from the Old Testament. In his opinion some early Christians took certain ideas from their Scripture, modified them, and produced this figure (see The Second Advent [London, 1947], pp. 180ff.). It is well that we bear in mind that this concept is biblical, whether we call the being Antichrist, Man of Lawlessness, Man of Sin, or anything else. There is no warrant for thinking that it was derived from current mythological speculations or from extracanonical Jewish literature (see G. Vos, The Pauline Eschatology, pp. 94ff.). But that does not mean that the idea was a novelty fashioned by the early church in isolation from the Master and such great figures as Paul. The teaching of Daniel was taken up by our Lord (Mark 13:14), and it is from him that it becomes Christian tradition. From the first, Christians understood that the appearing of this evil being in the end time was inevitable.
25. From the time of Theodore of Mopsuestia many expositors have held that the Man of Lawlessness is practically an "incarnation" of Satan, somewhat analogous to Christ's incarnation.
26. A. Deissmann explains this as due to "an echo of LXX Is. 57:4 thxVa atouXeia5" (Bible Studies [Edinburgh, 1901], p. 163).
27. The language resembles that in a number of passages in Daniel, notably Dan. 7:25; 8:9ff.; 11:36ff., but it is not likely that Paul was quoting. Rather, he had so often read and pondered the sacred Scripture that his language was naturally that of the Old Testament.
28. Paul uses a rather rare word, cripaoµa, which includes anything at all that can be worshipped. It is used of gods and images, but also of shrines, altars, etc. Taken in conjunction with the preceding "everything that is called God," it emphasizes the complete refusal of the Man of Lawlessness to brook any rival of any kind.
30. Some scholars have felt that the religious associations of the Man of Lawlessness imply that he will be claiming to be the Christ, i.e., a Hebrew pseudoMessiah. Vos has shown this to be untenable (The Pauline Eschatology, pp. 114ff.).
29. thS 9e6v is read by D2 F Ir'a' Eus, but this looks like an explanatory gloss.
31. r me.
32. E. Stauffer cites similar claims from the apocalyptic literature, such as "I am the anointed one" (Apocalypse of Elijah 31:40), "I am God, and before me there has been no God" (The Ascension of Isaiah 4:6). These are cited in his New Testament Theology (London, 1955), p. 215.
33. Milligan cites examples of the verb in the sense "'nominate' or `proclaim' to an office."
34. "Explicit, ultimate blasphemy. Not `a god,' for all gods have been banished" (Ward).
35. The verb is gkEyov. The imperfect form favors the continuous sense, though, since in the case of this verb the imperfect is often used in a sense close to that of the aorist, it cannot be pressed. Most commentators favor the continuous sense.
36. Some interpreters understand xaL vvv as logical, marking simply the transition to a new stage of the argument. The temporal sense, "as to the present," however, seems much more to the point. RSV reads "you know what is restraining him now," but vvv is surely to be taken with oibame, not xatexov (so Bruce and others); "you must now be aware" (NEB; though REB drops the "now" with "You know, too").
37. Turner regards the two as synonymous (M, III, p. 21).
38. D. W. B. Robinson has argued for this meaning (F. L. Cross [ed.], Studia Evangelica, II [Berlin, 1964], pp. 635-38).
39. Vos has an interesting note on the possibility of taking the verb in the sense "hold in possession" (The Pauline Eschatology, p. 133, n. 20).
40. Tertullian held that the passage referred to the Roman state (On the Resurrection of the Flesh 24).
41. The restraining power "appears to be the Jewish state. For the continued existence of the Jewish state was both graciously and naturally a protection to Christianity, and hence a restraint on the revelation of the persecuting power" (Biblical and Theological Studies [Philadelphia, 1952], p. 473; reprinted from The Expositor, 3rd Series, Vol. IV [1886], pp. 40-41).
42. Christ and Time, p. 164.
43. Ibid, p. 165.
44. The Threat to Faith (Rome, 1967). Best, however, has shown that there are serious weaknesses in Giblin's position (Best, p. 299).
45. The Threat to Faith, p. 230.
46. Cf. E. Stauffer, "The civil power is set up as a bulwark against the powers of chaos, but it can only keep these powers in check, never really subdue them. The fight against them will never come to an end, and in the end it must succumb to their final onslaught" (New Testament Theology, p. 85). Dietrich Bonhoeffer speaks of "the restrainer" as "the force of order, equipped with great physical strength, which effectively blocks the way of those who are about to plunge into the abyss. . . . The `restrainer' is the power of the state to establish and maintain order" (Ethics [London, 1956], p. 44). Bengel, too, thinks that "the civil authority" is in mind (p. 221).
47. d5 to 6toxaXv497jvar indicates purpose, the purpose of God.
48. A somewhat similar expression occurs in the "Thanksgiving Psalms" in the Qumran scrolls, namely, the "mystery of evil" (Millar Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls [London, 1956], p. 333).
49. The ellipse may be filled in more ways than one. Most scholars see some such sense as N/V, but Lightfoot gives the meaning as "Only it must work in secret, must be unrevealed, until he that restraineth now be taken out of the way." He points out that Gal. 2:10 affords "an exact parallel both to the ellipse after µovov, and to the position of o XaTEXwv an before the relative word rw5 for the sake of emphasis."
50. Thomas argues for this view, citing the use of both masculine and neuter for the Spirit in John's account of the discourses in the Upper Room. He holds that "The special presence of the Spirit as the indweller of saints will terminate abruptly at the parousia as it began abruptly at Pentecost. Once the body of Christ has been caught away to heaven, the Spirit's ministry will revert back to what he did for believers during the OT period." But Paul does not speak of a reversion to the Old Testament pattern; he says that the restrainer will be taken out of the way. The Spirit was not "taken out of the way" in Old Testament times; indeed, he engaged in vigorous action at times (e.g., Judg. 14:6; Ezek. 37:1).
51. Cf. A. E. J. Rawlinson, "The eschatological element in the Christian creed gives expression not only to the Christian conviction of the reality of the world to come, but also to the recognition (a) that the ultimate verdict upon human life and its issues is the verdict of God, (b) that the ultimate victory in the struggle between evil and good is the victory of God, and (c) that the ultimate satisfaction of the human spirit is not to be found in the sphere of things visible and temporal but in the sphere of the things eternal and invisible" (The New Testament Doctrine of the Christ [London, 1926], p. 123, n. 1).
52. Following the reading of K A D* G P 33 1241 sah boh etc. It is possible to regard the shorter text as authentic and think of pious scribes as inserting 'Iioov5, but it seems more likely that it was omitted in some MSS either accidentally or in order to conform it to the prophecy of Isa. 11:4.
53. The verb rendered "destroy" is xatapyiou. Something of the difficulty of translating this verb is seen in that KJV employs 17 different equivalents in its 27 occurrences. RV gets rid of 7 of these, but introduces 3 new renderings; to add further to the confusion, the English and American revisers do not always agree. In later translations the variety continues (I now have a list of over 80 translations that have appeared in reputable versions). The verb has the basic meaning "to render idle" (apyov = a + epyov). Thus it comes to signify "to nullify," "to rob of force and effectiveness." C. Clare Oke thinks that "our modern totalitarian word `liquidate' is an exact equivalent" (ET 67 [1955-56], p. 368, n. 1). This is interesting but may be going a little too far. In the present passage the verb refers to depriving the Man of Lawlessness of all significance rather than to his destruction (which is the meaning of aveWL).
54. The word is iJt 1aveux. "It adds here the idea of a conspicuous manifestation of God to help His people by His presence" (Bicknell). A. Deissmann speaks of it as "another cult-word" and gives an example of its use of the "Epiphany of Augustus" (i.e., the coming of the Emperor) (LAE, p. 373). Similarly, E. Stauffer cites an inscription referring to "the first year of the Epiphany of Gaius Caesar" as showing "the way the inhabitants of Cos calculated their time after the visit of a prince of the house of Augustus" (New Testament Theology, pp. 314-15, n. 709).
55. Paul uses the present tense, fatty, which indicates the certainty of this coming.
56. "Because" is &v9' 6v. The preposition avri often has the thought of correspondence, and this may well be in view here. "In requital of their refusal to entertain the love of the truth," as Findlay puts it (CGT).
57. Cf. Moore, "Near to hand lay the answer that some are drawn of God to faith in Christ, others are attracted by Satan to allegiance to Antichrist; but to the mind schooled in the Old Testament and committed to the gospel of Jesus Christboth certain of the sovereignty of God-this would admit of an intolerable dualism and could not for a moment be contemplated."
58. Cf. Neil, "Men start by rejecting the Gospel voluntarily; they then reach the stage when they are unable to tell what is gospel and what is fallacy. This is the powerful `delusion' which Paul rightly regards as an Act of God."
59. The present may also carry a hint that what will take place on the grand scale when the Man of Lawlessness comes is even now at work in principle in the case of lesser people. Whenever people refuse the truth, God sends the working of error.
60. Paul uses this expression elsewhere; see the note in my The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids, 1988), p. 90.
61. Notably in God's putting a lying spirit into the mouths of the false prophets (1 Kings 22:23; cf. Ezek. 14:9). Similarly, an action of Satan (1 Chron. 21:1) may be ascribed to God (2 Sam. 24:1). God is sovereign, and no evil power has independent existence. God uses evil to forward his purposes, and thus, in a sense, may be said even to originate it.
62. An interesting partial parallel is to be found in the "Habakkuk Commentary" in the Qumran scrolls. The commentary on Hab. 2:12-13 begins: "This saying means the preacher of the lie, who enticed many to build a city of delusion in blood and to establish a congregation in falsehood for the sake of its honor, making many grow weary of the service of delusion and making them pregnant with works of falsehood, that their toil may be in vain, to the end that they may come into judgments of fire" (Millar Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 389). In The Manual of Discipline God is thought of as creating the evil spirit as well as the good (p. 374). In the closing Psalm we read, "apart from thy will nothing will be done ... everything that has come to pass has been by thy will" (p. 389).
63. 7t60rEi0 followed by the dative, as in v. 11; cf. also 2 Tim. 1:12.
64. There is also an unusual construction with Evboxhou; this is the only place in the New Testament where it is construed with the simple dative. Elsewhere we find iv pointing to that "in" which the good pleasure lies. The dative will denote "inclination towards," "favor to."
65. Way's rendering, "but have actually gloated over iniquity," is probably too strong, but it brings out their delight in evil.
66. Cf. Bicknell, "In the Greek we is as emphatic as the language can well make it." He thinks that this is "best explained as reiterating the fact that their founders are bound to thank God for their condition in spite of the discouragement of some of their converts."
a13 Some manuscripts because God chose You as his firstfruits
b15 Or traditions
67. Thus we find sxkiyoµat, xpoopit ou, xpoyivwaxw, and words of more general meaning like ci ftl, (as in 1 Thess. 5:9), &~ibou, xaca~66(D, etc. The word here is e %aco.
68. It is found in Deut. 26:18, and the compound tpoatpeo saL in Deut. 7:6-7; 10:15.
69. He uses xpo true altuvouv, xpo xaca(3oXfg xooµou, and &xo cruv altuvouv. The expression here is &x' &px~g, which is used of the beginning of things in Isa. 63:16; Matt. 19:4; 1 John 2:13. The variant reading, &napxiv, "as a firstfruit," is preferred by many commentators. The meaning would be first in contrast to others yet to come, or first in Greece. The former is not very natural, and against the latter is the fact that the Philippians were converted before the Thessalonians. Bruce favors "firstfruits"; he rejects various views of what "firstfruits" means and appears to favor "the church as a whole is the 6Exapx1j of mankind to God." But Paul is speaking of the Thessalonians ("you"), not the church as a whole. Both variants have good manuscript support. Transcriptional probability may be held to favor &x' &px~S, for this is not a typical 
70. Notice that in this verse all three Persons of the Trinity are mentioned. This is not yet the official statement of the doctrine, but it represents such an understanding of the Persons and work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as was bound, in the end, to give rise to the dogma.
71. The word is iMLL .
72. Cf. T. F. Torrance, "In Greek `faith of the truth' is an awkward expression, but it is clear from the Old Testament background that for St. Paul neither pistil nor aletheia will express fully what he is after, and so he puts both words together to convey what the Old Testament means by 'emeth and/or 'emunah" (ET 68 [1956-57], p. 113). C. F. D. Moule objects that Torrance ignores the fact that "the loose genitive may be objective rather than subjective," and he speaks of his "astounding interpretation" of this verse (ET 68 [1956-57], p. 157). Turner also argues that this expression "can scarcely involve a subjective genitive; God has chosen us for salvation by way of our faith in his Truth" (Grammatical Insights, p. 110).
73. Denney draws attention to "the new world which the gospel created for the mind of man." The profound thoughts in these two verses were "addressed originally to a little company of working people, but unmatched for length and breadth and depth and height by all that pagan literature could offer to the wisest and the best."
74. Like the following "hold to," the verb is present imperative, signifying continuity. "Stand firm continually ... keep holding fast" ("go on preserving," Turner, M, III, p. 77).
75. O. Cullmann has an important chapter "The Tradition," in The Early Church (London, 1956), pp. 59-99. He argues that the tradition that is passed on by the apostles "is not effected by men, but by Christ the Lord himself' (p. 73).
76. Verbs used of delivering it include bibo u, tapabibw[U, SiSaow, yvWpit w, napayyeXXw.
77. It is preceded by avr65, which makes the expression somewhat more emphatic.
78. Cf. Lightfoot, "There is probably no instance in St Paul of a plural adjective or verb, where the two Persons of the Godhead are mentioned."
79. The optative aapaxa7„eoai is apt in a prayer: "May he encourage...." Burton finds this "Optative of Wishing" 35 times in the New Testament and says, "It most frequently expresses a prayer" (MT 176).
80. The importance of a "good" hope should not be overlooked. J. E. Fison has reminded us that hope is a necessity for any movement that would grip people's 
1. For to )ouMov see the note on XoGnov ovv in 1 Thess. 4:1. It marks the transition to a new section, here from the main section of the letter.
2. KJV's "even as it is with you" limits the meaning of the expression unduly, just as NIV does in another direction.
3. The verb noµai, is a general term for rescue, whereas verbs like "redeem" are more restricted ("redeem" = free by the payment of a price). In the Bible pvoµai, often has the idea of deliverance with power. Milligan suggests that the use of the preposition ato here, rather than ix (as in 1 Thess. 1:10) lays stress "perhaps on the deliverance itself rather than on the power from which it is granted."
4. Notice that the dart; that ends this verse is immediately followed by the JLac65 that begins the next. Paul is fond of such wordplays. Knox tries to bring out the connection by rendering, "the faith does not reach all hearts. But the Lord keeps faith."
5. Cf. this statement from the closing Psalm of the "Manual of Discipline," "For the faithfulness of God is the rock I tread, and his strength is the staff of my right hand" (Millar Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls [London, 1956], p. 387). The Scrolls often express their authors' complete dependence on God.
6. Cf. the vision recorded in Acts 18:9-10, where the Lord encouraged Paul to continue his work at Corinth.
7. Cf. Findlay, "The passage depicts a personal conflict, not a war of principles" (CGT).
8. Cf. the similar expression in Phil. 2:24.
9. The Qumran scrolls often speak of the steadfast love of God. For example, in the closing Psalm in "The Manual of Discipline" we read: "on his steadfast love I will lean all the day." "As for me, if I slip, the steadfast love of God is my salvation forever" (Millar Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls, pp. 386, 388).
10. Cf. Moffatt, "It is by the sense of God's love alone, not by any mere acquiescence in His will or stoical endurance of it, that the patience and courage of the Christian are sustained."
11. Chrysostom understands the meaning as "That we should endure even as He endured, or that we should do those things, or that with patience also we should wait for Him, that is, that we should be prepared" (p. 393). KJV is not unlike this with "the patient waiting for Christ." But while this understanding of the text would fit in with the eschatological emphasis so marked in these letters, it is an unlikely understanding of this genitive.
a16 Or tradition
12. There is a textual problem as to whether we should read "they received" (napeX6E(3oaav) or "you received" (nape) h me). Not much hangs on the decision, for in either case Paul is directing his readers' attention to the original proclamation. Each reading has good, though not decisive, attestation. napeX6(3oaav is favored by many scholars as the harder reading. It is possible, however, that it arose by what Westcott and Hort call "an ocular confusion" with the ending taphboaiv in the corresponding place in the line above (The New Testament in the Original Greek, Introduction [London, 1907], Appendix, p. 172). In general it seems likely that napek6E(3ene is to 
13. Malherbe draws attention to the fact that philosophers like Seneca held themselves up as patterns for their followers (Malherbe, pp. 52-53).
14. The expression uric 8&-L tLt.eloOai, fiµa5 is, as Lightfoot points out, an abridgment for n6 g Sei vµa5 OTeputamely ware µrµeloOai, fiµa5, "how you ought to walk so as to imitate us" (cf. 1 Thess. 4:1). The present expression, besides being more terse, puts an emphasis on u LoOai, and thus keeps the thought of imitation prominent.
15. "Without paying for it" is the translation of Soupeav, "gift-wise," "by way of gift."
16. See the notes on 1 Thess. 2:9 for the force of the language employed both there and here.
17. For ovX ot6 ovx exoµsv i ovoiav cf. 1 Cor. 9:4, 5.
21. Cf. Rutherford, "Why, when we were with you, we were always telling you that there should be only one rule, `No work, no bread.'"
22. "Ov Oikou is not the mere contradictory, but the contrary of Oikou ... not a negative supposition (el µij), but the supposition of a negative" (Findlay, CGT). Paul is not speaking of those who cannot find work, nor of those who through injury or illness are not able to work, but of those who deliberately choose not to work.
23. Wilson quotes A. Harnack, "The new religion did not teach `the dignity of labour.' What it inculcated was just the duty of work."
20. LAE, p. 314. Neil thinks that "It belongs to the universal realm of common sense."
18. xaI yap ("for even") should be taken in the sense "for also" or "for indeed."
19. otL does not mean "that," but is Ott recitative introducing the words of the command (BDF #397[3]).
24. For this construction with the present tense as equivalent to the perfect, see Burton, MT 16. Best regards it as equivalent to an aorist (p. 339).
25. Chamberlain detects force in the compound with t is "'I work around,' `I overdo the matter,' and therefore `become a busybody' " (p. 144).
26. RET& fiouxia5. The µsta marks the attendant disposition. Cf. Bicknell, quietness "probably is in contrast not to the meddlesomeness of the idle, but to the restlessness of mind that they fostered in themselves and in others." Milligan says that fiouXia "differs from fiQ tia in denoting tranquillity arising from within rather than from without." The cognate verb fiouxai;ou occurs in 1 Thess. 4: 11.
27. Chrysostom relates this to the disciplining of the idle and finds a limit on withholding food: "Withdraw yourselves, he says, from them, and reprove them; do not, however, suffer them to perish with hunger" (p. 394).
28. The use of µij with the aorist (µil eyxaxi (nlTE) implies that they had not begun to grow weary. Moulton points out that µij with the aorist subjunctive is infrequent in Paul; he finds only three genuine examples (M, I, p. 124).
29. The conjunction be has left no mark on most translations, but it certainly links what follows with the preceding. It may mean no more than "and," but it is also possible that it has some adversative force, setting the person who disobeys the letter over against those who do not tire of doing right.
30. "Word" (NIV, "instruction"), of course, here means "command" (cf. the use of "the ten words" for the Ten Commandments).
31. Grammarians used the term in the sense rota bene (see MM). It meant more than just a passing notice, and implied serious attention.
32. ouvavaiiyvuµr is an expressive double compound, with a meaning like "mix up together with."
33. There are many examples in the Qumran scrolls of the withdrawal of fellowship, especially in "The Manual of Discipline." Exclusion for varying periods is the penalty for a number of offenses; one that is not without its interest runs: "One who lies down and goes to sleep during a session of the masters [shall be punished] thirty days" (Millar Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 380). A curious provision in the two-year punishment of a traitor is that he may not "touch the sacred food of the masters" during the first year, while "during the second he shall not touch the drink of the masters" (p. 381).
34. Taking xai in the sense of xaitoi.
35. The verb is vouOehho0, for which see the note on 1 Thess. 5:12. Cf. its use in 1 Thess. 5:14
36. Moule regards the verb here as an optative "of prayerful expectation" (IBNTG, p. 136). There are similar optatives in 1 Thess. 3:11, 12; 5:23; 2 Thess. 2:17; 3:5.
37. Cf. Lightfoot, "The disjunctive particle bi is slightly corrective of the preceding. It implies: `Yet without the help of the Lord all your efforts will be in vain.'"
38. LAE, pp. 170-72.
39. That is, if we assume that the addition of "all" is significant, and is included in view of the specific disturbances noted earlier. This assumption is likely, but we should notice that Paul could use a similar expression in Rom. 15:33, where no such inference is to be drawn. At the very least we can say that nobody is excluded.