FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THE SS ALONl ANS. ! Go 



Another &eeming discrepancy is found in the ninth verse 

 of the first chapter of the epistle : " For they themselves 

 show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, 

 and how yc turned to God from idols, to serve the living 

 and true God." This text contains au assertion that, by 

 means of St. Paul's ministry at Thessalonica, many idola 

 trous Gentiles had been brought over to Christianity. Yet 

 the history, in describing the effects of that ministry, only 

 says, that " some of them," the Jews, " believed, and con- 

 sorted with Paul and Silas ; and of the devout Greeks a 

 great multitude, and of the chief women not a few." Chap 

 17 : 4. The devout Greeks were those who already worship- 

 ped the one true God ; and therefore could not be said, by 

 embracing Christianity, " to be turned to God from idols." 



This is the difficulty. The answer may be assisted by 

 the following observations. The Alexandrine a'nd Cam- 

 bridge manuscripts read, for tCjv oej3o(ih'o)v 'ETJJjvuv ■no7.v '7r?Jj-&og^ 

 Tuv GEl3o(xevuv Kut 'EX7i7jV(jv TToTiv TTlTj^og- in which reading they 

 are also confirmed by the Vulgate Latin. And this reading 

 is, in my opinion, strongly supported by the considerations, 

 first, that ol ceiSofievoi alone, that is, without 'F2A?/ve^, is used 

 in tiiis sense in the same chapter — Paul being r.ome to 

 Athens, dieTiiyEro ev ry ovvajuyy rolg ^lovdatoig km Tolg oejSofxsvotr ; 

 secondly, that ae^ofiivot and 'EAA/>£f nowhere come together. 

 The expression is redundant. The ol cie;3o[i£voc must be 

 'E7il?/veg. Thirdly, that the ical is much more likely to have 

 been left out, incurid nianiis, than to have been put in. 

 Or, after all, if we be not allowed to change the present 

 reading, which is undoubtedly retained by a great plurahty 

 of copies, may not the passage in the history be considered 

 as describing only the effects of St. Paul's discourses during 

 the three Sabbath-days in which he preached in the syna- 

 gogue ? And may it not be true, as we have remarked 

 above, that his apphcation to the Gentiles at large, and \\u 

 success among them, were posterior to tbia '^ 



