T 11 I. 



8M 



T II E 



hit own letters to the ThenuJonians, coupled with the fact of 

 his receiving money from Plulippi more than once while 

 he was at Theisalonica (Phtlijiji., iv. Hi , it would wem 

 that he remained fur some time in that city. Still he was 

 unable to carry his designs into e\. 'he uncon- 



verted Jews stirred up a persecution against him, BO that 

 himself and hi* companion* were tent away by night by 

 the brethren ' to the neighbouring city of Beroea. Here 

 again the Jews of Thessalonica stirred up a tumult against 

 St. Paul, so that he was obliged to retire to Athene, leav- 

 ing however Silas and Timothy at Beroea. At Athens he 

 was subsequently joined by them, and being naturally 

 anxious about his recent converts at Then Monica, and 

 when he could no longer forbear' (1 Thru., iii. 1), he 

 sent Timothy from Athens Mo establish them, and to com- 

 fort them concerning the faith.' St. Paul then visited 

 Corinth, and on the return of Timothy with good tidings 

 of their faith and charity, and that they had a good remem- 

 brance of him always' (.1 'Mr*., iii. 6), he wrote his first 

 epistle to them, A. D. 52. from Corinth, and not from Athens. 

 as the subscription of the epistle imports. 



It was one of the enrliot, if not the very first, of all St. 

 Paul's epistles, and in chap. v.. ver. U7. lie' expresses Ins 

 desire that it should be read not at Thessalonica only. >> : 

 in all the churches of Macedonia. Its genuineness has 

 always been admitted : together with the second epistle, it is 

 quoted and recognised as the work of St. Paul, by Irenceus, 

 Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, and all subse- 

 quent ecclesiastical writers. (Lardner, as quoted in Home's 

 Introduction, vol. iv., p. 372.) The immediate occasion 

 of St. Paul's writing this Kpistle was the favourable intelli- 

 gence brought by Timothy of the steadiness with which 

 the Thessalonians adhered to Christianity in spite of the 

 persecution with which they were assailed by their own 

 countrymen. Besides being exposed to direct persecution, 

 there can be little doubt that they were also in danger of 

 being moved by the reasonings of their religious adver- 

 saries, to which the sudden disappearance of St. Paul from 

 Thessalonica, and his apparent desertion of them at a 

 critical moment, might give some plausibility and apparent 

 confirmation. To counteract the natural result of all this 

 ue of the chief objects of Timothy's mission, and the 

 First Kpistle to the Thessalonians was written with the 

 same design. Accordingly in chap, i., after a short intro- 

 duction, in which he couples the names of Timothy and 

 Sylvanus (the Roman form of Silas) with his own, he ex- 

 presses his thankfulness fortheir 'work of faith and labour 

 of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Chri>t,' 

 and then (vers. 5-10) reminds them of the proofs of power 

 and of the Holy Ghost ' with which the preaching of the 

 gospel among them was accompanied, as evidences of its 

 truth, and commends them for the constancy of their faith. 



In chaps, ii., iii., as a further confirmation of the truth ol 

 the gospel, he reminds the Thessalonians of the conduct and 

 character of himself and the other preachers of Christianity. 

 That as a missionary and apostle of Christ, ' he had .suf- 

 fered, and been shamefully entreated' that in preaching 

 the gospel, he had sought neither temporal profit, nor 

 favour, nor honour. He also explains and vindicat. 

 own conduct in leaving them, and says that alth. 

 from them in presence, he was not iii heart, that 1 

 endeavoured to see them again with great desire, but had 

 been hindered : till at last, when he could no longer fo 

 he sent Timothy to them, at whose good tidings of them 

 he expresses the greatest satisfaction and joy. 



In chap. iv. St. Paul exhorts them to persevere in 

 the observance of the duties and practical virtu 

 Christianity, in conformity with the commandments he 

 had given them at first : and further enj. 

 sorrow or lament over those that were dead, but rather 

 (even as they believed that .Tc,i.s died and rose agai 



forward to their resurrection, when the day of the 

 Lord Jews, that is, the day of judgment. me. 



Inchap. y. (1-5) St. Paul warns the Thc-alonians of the 

 ncertainty of this event, and concludes the epistle with a 

 ranch ,,) anj admonitions addr. l\ t,. 



"hole church, partly to its pastors and tea. 

 ipied with some reproofs, which, as we n 



*K < ?r"i. ror ^ the "Tegularities and failings 

 ' Thesialonians were not yet exempt. 

 ". ' Mfned coincidences between this Epistle and 

 -ties ' are commented upon by Paley in 

 *or Paulino;,' pp. 293-311. 



fi 



The Second Epistle to the Thessalomans was written 

 soon after the first, and ii>m the same place. Silvanus and 

 Timothy being joined with the apostle in the inscription of 

 this Epistle, as well as oft: and an in chap, in.. 



vcr. '2. he request* the prayers of the The.ssalonians lor ln- 

 !i Ir.erance 1'min wicked men, it is not improbable that he 

 wrote it soon after the insurrection of the Jews at Corinth, 

 when they drained liiin before Gallio, and accused liim of 

 persuading men to worship God contrary to the law. 



This Epistle seems to have been occasioned by tlu- in- 

 formation which St. Paul received on t) I tin- 

 church at Theesalonica from the messenger who cm 

 his first letter to the elders of the church, and his report of 

 the effect produced by its contents. From some expres- 

 sions in that Epistle (iv. 15 ; v. 4-6), compared with chap- 

 ter ii. of the Second, it m that a number of 

 Thessalonians had come to the conclusion that the day of 

 judgment was at hand, and would happen in their genera- 

 linn. To correct this misapprehension, and to pre\ent the 

 anxiety and the neglect of secular affairs which resulted 

 from it, appears to nave been the main object and desimi 

 of St. Paul in writing this Second Epistle to th 



Accordingly, in chap. i.. alter a short introduction, the 

 apostle proceeds to commend the growing frith and chant) 

 of the Thessalonians, and to express his joy at their 

 patience under tribulation, of which he had heard from 

 the messenger who carried his first letter, and he assures 

 them of his constant prayers for their welfare. 



In chap. ii. he rectifies their mistake about the day of 

 judgment, and warns them against those who might at- 

 tempt to deceive them on that subject. Ii;. ttin^ 

 their minds at rest about it, he assures them that the 

 event would not come to pass until ' a great apostacy ' had 

 overspread the church, and the revelation of -the liian of 

 sin, the son of perdition,' should have taken pla. 

 phrases have been variously interpreted, but the generality 

 of Protestant commentators have agreed ii: them 

 to the Roman pontiff's and the Romish church. Some in- 

 deed understand them to apply to the rise of Mohamme- 

 danism, and others to the revolt of the Jews from the 

 Romans. The Romish church contends that one person 

 only is meant, and not a series or succession of pcrs< 



Whatever the apostle meant by these phrases, he in- 

 forms the Thessalonians that this mystery of iniquity was 

 already secretly at work, though its full operation was pre- 

 vented by a restraining power i rrir<x<>vX which the early 

 Fathers of the Church generally understood to be that of 

 the Roman emperors and emp'irc. (Tertullian, Apolog., 

 p. 31.) 



In chap. iii. the apostle desires their prayers for himself 

 and his fellow-labourers, and then reproves some of the 

 Thessalonians for their idleness and irregular life, lie 

 concludes with his apostolic benediction, and writes the 

 salutation with his own hand, which, as he informs them, 

 was a token of the genuineness of that and other E[< 

 similarly authenticated. 



This Second Epistle to the Thossalonians is the shortest 

 of all St. Paul's Kpistles, but not interior to any of them in 

 style or spirit, and it is also remarkable as containing a 

 distinct prophecy of the corruptions and delusions which 

 wen- to arise in the Christian church. 



The undesigned coincidences between this Epistle and 

 the ' Acts of the Apostles ' are given in Paley's ' I 

 Paulimi'.' pp. :J12-:JJ. 



(Mackrught, On the Apostolical I'.jiisilc/t, vol. iii.. pp. 

 1-1'Jl; Home, Iiitn>(iu<-ti<,n to the Critical Study qf th 

 \ol.iv., p. :t72; Collyer, Sacra! lnt> I'/iri'ler, 

 vol. ii.. p. J7"> ; 1 ' / to the New Ti'xtnnn nt ; \V : 



On th 'it.) 



THKSS.U.n.M'CA now *iA;iAi), an antient city of 



Ionia, in the district of Mygdonia, was formerly 



called Thcrme or Therma : it is in W 38' N. lat. and 



22 96' E. long., about ten miles east of the an: 



Kchcdorus. at the head of the modern Gulf of Saloniki, 



.lied the Thermaic Bay. from the antient name 



of the city. It was at first an inconsiderable place under 



its old name of Thcrme. by which it was Known in the 



i llemdotus and Thucydi, -< ylax, 



who, in his 'I'eriplus,' ma! 



Gulf. Herodotus, in his '] :i. IJs . speaks <>f it. 



as a place whei. made some May on his inarch 



into Greece, and from which he had a commanding view 

 of the mountains of Olympus and Ossa in ThegsMy. A 



