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I Thess. i. 9–10 and the Missionary Preaching of Paul: Textual Exegesis and Hermeneutic Reflexions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Extract

Exegetical study in the days of liberal theology assumed that Paul spoke on impulse, according to the mood of the moment, deeply moved, and with often changing emotions. Scholars read between the lines, searching for crises in the life of the apostle that might explain his changes of attitude. If we consider Adolf Deissmann's research on Paul it is not difficult to see that an interpretation assuming a far too detailed knowledge of the apostle's spiritual life is an exaggeration. The actual material of our study is the texts, not the man behind them. And Paul is not as spontaneous as was believed by the older generation of exegetes. The letters are those of an experienced missionary, used to preaching and instructing. And it is possible that in the letters he is dealing with subjects he has discussed before, so that the expressions he uses have not necessarily been new minted for this particular occasion.

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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1963

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References

page 95 note 1 On this very passage, I Thess. ii. 1–13, von Dobschütz, E. writes in ‘Die Thessalonicher-Briefe’ (Krit.-exeg. Komm. über das Neue Testament, 10. Abteilung, 7. Aufl. 1909), p. 107: ‘Versetzt man sich in die Lage des plötzlich gewaltsam von der eben erst begründeten Gemeinde getrennten Apostels, dessen Versuche nach Thessalonich zurückzukehren immer wieder vereitelt wurden, so ist nichts natürlicher als daβ er sich Gedanken macht über das Verhalten seiner Gemeinde, und bei dem Temperament des Paulus, bei der gerade für den Aufenthalt in Athen und die erste Zeit in Korinth bezeugten Depression muβten das trübe Gedanken sein.’Google Scholar

page 95 note 2 Thus Paulus (21925).

page 96 note 1 An die Thessalonicher I II, an die Philipper, 3. Aufl. (1937) (Handbuch Z. Neuen Testament, II).

page 96 note 2 In ‘Til spørsmålet om tradisjonsgrunnlaget or Apostlenes Gjerninger’, Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift, Lxi (1960), 160–75Google Scholar, Jervell has shown tha the word εναγγελίзεσαιθ in I Thess. iii. 6 should not, as generally by commentators, be weakened to mean simply ‘to bring joyful news’. The report brought by Timothy is really a gospel to Paul. He is comforted by the faith of the Thessalonians, and can now write: ‘For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.’ It is God who comforts and gives life, and it is now through the faith of the Thessalonians that God comforts Paul (p. 97). This article will shortly be published in Studia Theologica, XVI (1962), fasc. 1, pp. 2541.Google Scholar

page 97 note 1 Paul's account is to be found in i. 8–11, ii. 12–13 and vii. 4–16, interrupted by the two digressions 1. 12–11. 11 and ii. 14–vii. 3.

page 97 note 2 See my account in Paul and the Salvation of Mankind (1958), pp. 168 ff.Google Scholar; Paulus and die Heilsgeschichte (1954), pp. 162 ff.Google ScholarBornkamm, Günther has continued the German discussion of this letter, which includes Schmithals's contribution, in Die Vorgeschichte des sogenannten zweiten Korintherbriefes (1961) (SB der Heidelberger Akademie d. Wiss., Philos.-hist. Kl., Jg. 1961, 2. Abhandlung). It seems to be a common tendency among present-day German scholars to break up Paul's letters into many short sections. It is of course much easier to deal with Pauline thought when one has first edited the letters oneself.Google Scholar

page 98 note 1 But not in the relationship with Jewry, as assumed by Harnack in connexion with his well-known theory that II Thessalonians was a letter to the Jewish-Christian minority in Thessalonica (Dibelius, p. 40;) Harnack, , Das Problem des zweiten Thessalonicherbriefs (1910) (SB der Berliner Akad. pp. 560ff.).Google Scholar

page 99 note 1 The idea of recompense is extended by Paul to fields far beyond the so frequently treated question of the justification of faith and judgement according to works (Wetter, G. P., Der Vergeltungsgedanke bei Paulus. Eine Studie zur Religion des Apostels, 1912.Google Scholar) Braun, Herbert, Gerichtsgedanke und Rechtfertigungslehre bei Paulus (1930) (Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 19)Google Scholar; Filson, Floyd V.; St Paul's Conception of Recompense (1931) (Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 21). Here in Thessalonians we find, for instance, in I Thess. iii. 9, the characteristic expression τινα γάρ εúχαρıστιαν δυνάμεθα άνταποδοũναı περι úμ⋯ν κτλ.Google Scholar

page 99 note 2 In the words of Abraham to the rich man (in v. 25), of Lazarus and himself: ‘Now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.’

page 100 note 1 Paul and the Salvation of Mankind (1959), pp. 36 ff.Google Scholar; Paulus und die Heilsgeschichte (1954), pp. 28 ff.Google Scholar

page 101 note 1 My remarks are based upon Jervell's article, mentioned above, p. 96, n. 2.

page 101 note 2 von Dobschütz, E., op. cit. p. 77, points out that it is surprising to find ‘God’ before ‘idols’ in V. 9. In contrast to the usual procedure in missionary preaching of first showing the vanity of idolatry and then preaching the true God, Paul here brings his hearers to God, and from this it naturally follows that they abandon the idols.Google Scholar

page 101 note 3 Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (4 1924), p. 117Google Scholar, here quoted from Alfred Plummer, A Commentary on St Paul's First Epistle to the Thessalonians (1918), p. 13, which quotes from the English translation, Mission and Expansion of Christianity, 1, 89.Google Scholar

page 101 note 4 Op. cit. pp. 81–2: ‘Exkurs: Die paulinische Missionspredigt.’

page 101 note 5 Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments neu übersetzt und für die Gegenwart erklärt (3 1917), II, 9.Google Scholar

page 101 note 6 Das Neue Testament Deutsch, Teilband 8, 5. Aufl. (1949), p. 127.Google Scholar

page 101 note 7 The Epistle to the Thessalonians (1950) (The Moffatt New Testament Commentary), pp. 26f.Google Scholar

page 101 note 8 Épîtres de saint Paul aux thessaloniciens (La sainte Bible …l'École Biblique de Jérusalem) (1954), p. 38; 2° éd. revue (1960), p. 36.Google Scholar

page 101 note 9 Saint Paul, Les Epîres aux Thessaloniciens (1956) (Études Bibliques), pp. 387–97. The view is not expressed in so many words, but is found in the above-mentioned commentary, of which Rigaux is one of the authors.Google Scholar

page 101 note 10 The Epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians (1956), pp. 39 f.Google Scholar

page 101 note 11 Les deux épîtres de saint Paul aux thessaloniciens (1957) (Commentaire du Nouveau Testament, XI a), p. 24. Masson denies that we here have a summary of Paul's missionary preaching, but then writes: ‘Cependant, derriére des expressions stéréotypées du langage missionnaire, et qui n'ont rien de spécifiquement paulinien, on devinc les grandes affirmations de l'Évangile (v. 5), de la Parole du Seigneur (v. 8): la venue dans le monde du Fils de Dieu, sa mort et sa résurrection, sa venue glorieuse, imminente, et le jugement des vivants et des morts.’Google Scholar

page 101 note 12 Der erste und zweite Thessalonicherbrief (1903) (Kommentar z. Neuen Testament, hrsg. von Th. Zahn, Bd. XII).Google Scholar

page 101 note 13 St Paul's Epistles to the Thessalonians (1908).Google Scholar

page 101 note 14 A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistles of St Paul to the Thessalonians (1946) (The International Critical Commentary).Google Scholar

page 101 note 15 Plummer's commentary has been mentioned above, n. 3.

page 102 note 1 Attempts have been made to find Jewish, Jewish-Christian and gentile-Christian thoughts and formulas in our verses. Thus Hans, Kosmala, Hebräer-Essener-Christen. Studien zur Vorgeschichte der frühchristlichen Verkündigung (1959) (Studio Post-Biblka, I), by deleting the name of Jesus discovers a purely Jewish-Essene way of thinking in I Thess. i. 10.Google ScholarWilckens, Ulrich, Die Missionsreden der Apostelgeschichte. Form- und traditionsgeschichtliche Unterswhungen (1961) (Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Allen und Neuen Testament, 5) holds that I Thess. i. 9f. and Heb. v. 11 ff. contain brief references to the first missionary preaching, which was given to the newly created churches as the first tradition (pp. 80ff.). According to Wilckens, it is a missionary preaching to gentiles. Wilckens draws a sharp distinction between these two texts and Acts xiv. 15–17 and xvii. 22–31, although he believes that the two Acts texts are based on the same plan.-It would be significant if there were a connexion between Acts xvii. 22–31 and I Thess. i. 9–10, since both these texts according to tradition go back to Paul, and the statements in that case are nearly contemporary (from the second journey, in Athens and Corinth respectively), but the only feature really connecting the two texts is the introduction of Jesus and his resurrection in an eschatological context. The other features that might be mentioned are only moderately alike.Google Scholar

page 102 note 2 Already von Dobschütz, E., op. cit. p. 79Google Scholar, mentions that Jesus' death on the Cross, a central point in Pauline preaching, recedes into the background in i. 10, but he does not draw the conclusions from this arrived at by more recent research. Wilckens, , op. cit. pp. 81 f., concludes from the un-Pauline terminology in i. 910 that we have here a traditional plan.Google Scholar

page 102 note 3 Die Thessalonicherbriefe (1894) (Krit.-exeg. Kommentar über das Neue Testament, 10. Abth., 5. and 6. Aufl.).Google Scholar

page 103 note 1 See my remark at the end of note I, p. 102 above.

page 103 note 2 Missionswissenschaftliche Forschungen, 2.

page 104 note 1 2. Aufl. 1933; 3. Aufl. 1959.

page 104 note 2 In his Presidential Address ‘Jesus, the Christ’, N.T.S. VIII (1962), 101–16, van Unnik thus mentions on p. 103 that ‘kerygmatic’ has several different meanings.Google Scholar

page 105 note 1 Comparison may be made with I Cor. iii. II: ‘For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.’ The suggestion that Paul's decision in Corinth was something new, due to a presumable fiasco in Athens, in the apostle's attempt to preach philosophically to a philosophical audience, must be rejected. See Wendland, H.-D.: ‘Die Briefe an die Korinther’ (5 1948) (Das Neue Testament Deutsch, 7), p. 17Google Scholar, and my Paul and the Salvation of Mankind (1959), p. 158, n. 1Google Scholar; Paulus und die Heilsgeschichte (1954), p. 150, n. 61.Google Scholar

page 105 note 2 See Paul and the Salvation of Mankind (1959), pp. 135–67Google Scholar; Paulus und die Heilsgeschichte (1954), pp. 127–61. Ulrich Wilckens's book Weisheit und Torheit. Eine exegetisch-religionshistorische Untersuchung zu I Kor. 1 und 2 (1959) (Beiträge zur historischen Theologie, 26) has been written by a promising young scholar, who unfortunately continues the familiar attempts to find a particular doctrine of wisdom among the Corinthians.Google Scholar

page 106 note 1 Cf. I Thess. i. 5.

page 107 note 1 Cf. Menoud, Philippe-H., La mort d'Ananias et de Saphira (Actes 5. 1–11), Aux sources de la tradition chrétienne, Mélanges offerts à Maurice Goguel (1950), pp. 146–54.Google Scholar

page 107 note 2 See Erik, Peterson, ‘Die Einholung des Kyrios’, Z. f. syst. Theol. VII (1929/1930), 682702.Google Scholar

page 108 note 1 In detail the following parallels may be compared: with άναμένεıν τóν υιóν έκ τ⋯ν οúραν⋯ν v. 2: ‘the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night’; cf. v. 4. V. 6: ‘not sleep, but watch and be sober’ (these two verbs are covered by άναμένεıν); cf. v. 8: νήфωμεν and the picture of arming for battle that follows. iv. 15f.: ‘For the Lord himself shall descend … and so shall we ever be with the Lord’. With óν ήγεıρεν έκ τ⋯ν νεκρ⋯ν v. 10: ‘(our Lord Jesus Christ) who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.’ iv. 14: ‘For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.’ With ιησοũν τόν ῤνόμενον ήμάς έκ τής óργής τής έρχομένης v. 9: ‘For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.’ iv. 15: ‘We which are alive shall not prevent them which are asleep’, cf. v. 16–17. iv. 15f.: ‘For the Lord himself shall descend…and so shall we ever be with the Lord.’

page 108 note 2 Frame, , op. cit. p. 88Google Scholar, writes: ‘The total phrase θεóς και άληθıνóς seems to be unique in Gk. Bib.’ Of this expression Dewailly and Rigaux, op. cit. 2° éd. (1960), p. 36, write: ‘réunis déjà Jr 10, 10’Google Scholar. See the apparatus of Jer. x in Ziegler's edition, Göttinger Septuaginta, xv (1957), 201.Google Scholar

page 109 note 1 Paul and the Salvation of Afankind (1959), p. 206, n. IGoogle Scholar: Paulus und die Heilsgeschichte (1954), p. 200, n. 12.Google Scholar

page 110 note 1 Krit. exeg. Kommentar über das Neue Testament, von Heinr, . Aug. Wilh. Meyer, 10. Abtheilung, Die Briefe an die Thessalonicher, bearbeitet von Dr Gottlieb Lünemann (1850) (four editions in all).Google Scholar