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 THESSALONIANS

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THESSALONIANS

he explained the Scriptures in the synagogue, opening up the way and gradually leading his hearers to the tremendous truth that there was need the Christ should die and rise again from the dead, and that Jesus whom Paul preached was in very truth this Christ. Some of the Jews believed and took sides with Paul and Silas. It would seem that Paul stayed in the city some time thereafter, for, according to the reading of Codex Beza; (fifth century), and the Vul- gate and Coptic Versions (Acts, xvii, 4), he con- verted a large number not only of proselvtes {tuv t« <T€fioy.ivuv) but of Gentile Greeks (Kal"&i\-fivuv). In the first place, it is unlikely that a large number of theselatter were won over to the Faith during the three weeks devoted to the synagogues; for Paul did manual labour night and day, so as not to be burdensome to his converts (I Thess., ii, 9). Secondly, these converts from idolatry (I The.ss., i, 9) would scarcely have become, after so brief an apostolate, a "pattern to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia" (I Thess., i, 7). Thirdly, the Church of Philippi sent alms twice to Paul at Thessalonica (Phil., iv, 16), a fact which seems to indicate that his sojourn there was longer than three weeks. Be this as it may, the sig- nal success of Paul's apostolate among Jews, prose- lytes, and Hellenes, together with the conversion of "not a few noble ladies" (Acts, xvii, 4), aroused the Jews to a fury of envy; they gathered together a mob of idlers from the agora and set the whole city in tumult; they beset the home of Jason, found the Apostle away, dragged his host to the tribunal of the politarchs and charged him with harbouring traitors, men who set Jesus up as king in place of Csesar. That night the brethien made good the escape of their teacher to Berea. There the Gospel of Paul met with a much more enthusiastic reception than that accorded to it by the synagogue of Thessalonica. The Jews of that city drove Paul to Berea and there, too, stirred up the mob against him. He left Silas and Timothy to complete his work and went to Athens (Acts, xvii, 1-15).

II. First Epistle. A. Aulhenticity. (1) External Evidence, (a) II Thess. — The strongest external evidence in favour of the authenticity of I Thess. is II Thess., which, whatsoe\-er be its date of composi- tion, is the very earliest document that clearly pre- supposes I Thess. to have been written by Paul.

(b) Manuscripts. — The evidence of MSS. alone is such as to set the authenticity of this letter beyond all doubt; it is in the Greek text of the Codex Sinaitieus (fourth cent.), Cod. Vaticanus (fourth cent.), and Cod. Alexandrinus (fifth cent.); it is in the Old Latin and Syriac Versions, which trace its authenticity down to the middle of the second century.

(c) The Apostolic Fathers give evidence of very early use of the EpLstle as Sacred Scripture. St. Ig- natius of Antioch (d. a. d. 110-17, according to the chronology of Harnack which we shall follow in this article), in "Eph.", X, i, probably uses the dSioKeliTTias irpoadxecBai, "pray without ceasing", of I Thess., v, 17; and undoubtedly had in mind I Thess., ii, 4, when writing to the Romans (II, i) the distinctly Pauline thought oi 0i\w v/ias avdpinTrapfaKiiv dWd Sec?, "I will that ye please not man hut God". Because St. Ignatius, as the other Apostolic Fathers, cites from memory, without the exactness of later Fathers and without ever mentioning the name of the sacred writer quoted. Dr. Inge, the Lady Margaret jiro- fessor of divinity in the University of Cambridge, says: "The evidence that Ignatius knew I Thcssalo- nians is almost nil" (cf. "The New Testament in the Apostolic Fat tiers", Oxford, 1905, p. 74). Again.st such scepticism, the clear use of St. Paul by the Apostolic Fathers is of no avail. Harnack, who can- not be accused of overmuch credulity, thinks that St. Ignatius of Antioch possessed a collection of the Pauline Epistles; and that by the year 117, St.

Polycarp of SmjTTia had a complete collection {eine game Sammlung) thereof before him and veritably lived therein (cf. Chronologie der altchristlichen Lit- teratur, I, 249, note 2). In the "Pastor" of Hermas (a. d. 140), we find the phrase of I Thess., v, 13, "Be at peace among yourselves" {eipr)yeiicTe iv iavToXt) several times, used almost as it occurs in the Alexan- drian and Vatican Codices (cf. Hermas, "Simil.", VIII, vii, 2; "Vis.", Ill, vi, 3; III, ix, 2, 10; III,xii,3). The Apologetic Fathers are clear and to the point. St. Irenaeus (a.d. 181-9) cites I Thess., v, 23, expressly attributing the words to the Apostle's First Epistle to the Thessalonians ("Contra haereses", V, vi, 1 in P. G., VIII, 1138), and I Thess., v, 3, as the saymg of the Apostle (ibid., V, xxx, 2 in P. G., VII, 1205). TertuUian quotes at length passages from each of the five chapters of I Thess. to prove his thesis of the resurrection of the body ("Liber de resurrectione carnis", xxiv, in P. L., II, 874); and uses the Epistle against Marcion ("Adv. Marcionem", V, xv in P. L., II, 541). St. Clement of Alexandria (a. d. 190-210) verv often cites this brief letter — cf. "Piedagogus",

I, V, 19 (Stahlin's ed., I, 101) and "Stromata", I, i, 6 (Stahlin's ed., II, 5) for I Thess., ii, 5-7; "Stromata",

II, xi, 4, IV, xii (StiihUn's ed., II, 138 and 286), for an allusion to I Thess., iv, 3, and an accurate citation of six verses (3-8) of the same chapter; "Paedagogus", II, ix. III, xii, IV, x.xii (Stahhn's ed. I, 206 and 288, and P. G., VIII, 1352) for the appeal to almosu every ver.se of I The.ss., v, i. e. verses 5, 8, 13, 15, 19, 22; "Stromata", I, xi (Stahhn's ed., II, 34) for a quota- tion from the same chapter. So strong is the external evidence in favour of the authenticity of I Thess. as to convince all scholars save only those who, on ac- count of internal evidence, deny to Paul the authen- ticity of all his Epistles.

(2) Internal evidence. — In I Thess. all the main Pauline doctrines are taught, — the Death and Resur- rection of Je-sus Christ (i, 10; iv, 14; v, 10); His Divinity and Sonship of the living God (i, 9, 10) ; the resurrection of our bodies (iv, 15-18); the mediator- ship of Christ (v, 10); the call of the nations to the Kingdom of Christ, which is the Church (ii, 12), sanc- tification by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (iv, 8). The plain and direct style, the writer's affectionate concern for his spiritual children, his impatience of Judaizers, the preponderance of personal over doc- trinal statements, the frank and honest self-revela- tion of the writer — all these distinctly Pauline char- acteristics argue strongly for the authenticity of this letter.

Baur, the prime mover of neo-Tiibingen ideas, w:xs the first to wave aside recklessly all external evidence and seriously to attack the authenticity of I Thess. from internal evidence (cf."Der Apostel Paulus",ed.2, II, 94). He was followed by Nowack, " Der Ursprung des Christentuins " (Leipzig, 1857), II, 313; Volkraar, "Mose, Prophezie unj Himmelfahrt" (Leipzig, 1867), 114; and Van der Vries, "De beiden brieven aan de Thessalonicensen " (Leyden, 1865). The rea- sons which impel Baur and his followers are trivial. (i) The lack of doctrine makes the letter unworthy of Paul. We have noted that the main heads of Paul's teaching are included in this short letter. Moreover, the letter is a most touching revelation of the great heart of St. Paul and as such alone is befitting the out- spoken Apostle, (ii) The Epistle is a clumsy for- gery. The author has workecl up his story from .\cts. Paul could not have written ii, 14-16. It is far-fetched to compare the woes inflicted by the Jews upon the Church of Thessalonica with the ills they wrought upon the Church of Judea. It is un-Pauline to set Jewish Christians up !us an example to Gentile converts (Baur, op. cit., 482). These purely subjec- tive objections are worthless. The .\postle was too broad-minded to be tied down to the narrow ideas of Baur. True, in his later letters — to the Romans