Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical - With Special Reference to Ministers and Students #255798

He made his appearance in the synagogue, where he found ready such a point of attachment as it was his principle to avail himself of (agreeably to Rom. I. 16; ix. 4, 5, and not at variance with the geographical partition of Gal.'ii. Starting from the Scriptures of the Old Testa ment, he sketched the full prophetic image of the suffering and risen Messiah, and then he set forth the fulfilment, to wit, that in Jesus the predicted Christ had appeared. The Second Epistle shows us how he especially expounded to them the prophet Daniel. Some (not many) Jews were convinced, together with a great multitude of devout Greeks — the insufficiently attested would distinguish between devout persons (prose lytes) and Greeks (still altogether heathen); that some had been idolaters is presupposed also at l Thess. I. 9 — and, lastly, special prominence is given to the fact that not a few of the most honorable women believed not that a higher value is put upon their souls on account of their rank, but they had more opposition to overcome than others. It is moreover implied in the exhortations of 1 Thess. Iv. 6 — 11 that the majority of the converts consisted of tradesmen and mechanics. All these by God's appointment fell to the Apostle's share,* after he had preached in the synagogue only three sabbaths, though no doubt he' did so in the intervals also, as his custom was, to wit, within doors while working with his hands (1 Thess. 11. But that he still labored on in the young separated church for some time after the three sabbaths is improb able (against wieseler, Chronol. Des apast. Zeitalters, p. 40; and others i); for the Apostolic History, without giving the least hint (as in Acts xviii. 7; xix. 9) of such a continuance of labor, connects immediately with the mention of the three sabbaths the account of the uproar that drove the Apostle away. Again, that the Apostle worked at his trade proves nothing for a longer stay; and quite as little does the statement (phil. W. That the Philippians had sent him presents once and again to Thessalonica. It may even be questioned whether Paul here refers to his first residence in Thessalonica; but even so, the two communications may have followed quickly one on the other.