1 Thessalonians 2:13

αληθως εστιν, אaB cop (א* omits αληθως, by homœoteleuton after καθως): all other codd. reverse the order; cf. John 4:42; John 6:14; John 7:40.

13. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἡμεῖς εὐχαριστοῦμεν τῷ θεῷ�. And on this account we also give thanks to God unceasingly. At the beginning of the Epistle the Apostles gave thanks to God in remembrance of the worth of their readers; they find a supplementary ground of thanksgiving in the fact that these had “received as God’s word” “the word of hearing” coming from themselves: hence the emphatic ἡμεῖς καὶ εὐχαριστοῦμεν instead of the bare εὐχαριστοῦμεν of 1 Thessalonians 1:1, and the peculiar phrase λόγον�ʼ ἡμῶν τοῦ θεοῦ. Διὰ τοῦτο gathers its meaning from the previous paragraph: all the toil and sacrifice of the missionaries contributed to their satisfaction over the result accomplished; their consuming devotion to the Thessalonians made the thanksgiving a thoroughly personal matter: see 1 Thessalonians 2:19 f., 1 Thessalonians 3:8 f.

Accordingly the clause ὅτι παραλαβόντες λόγον�ʼ ἡμῶν τοῦ θεοῦ, κ.τ.λ., does not supply the correlative to διὰ τοῦτο (as if St Paul meant “on this account, viz. that,” &c.); but it gives the subject-matter of εὐχαριστοῦμεν (cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Corinthians 1:4 f., &c.): that (or in that) when you received the word of hearing from us—God’s word—you accepted (in it) … a word of God. Παραλαβόντες, denoting the objective fact of receiving—by way of information, tradition, or the like (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:1; 2 Thessalonians 3:6; 1 Corinthians 15:1; Galatians 1:9, &c.)—leads up to ἐδέξασθε, which indicates subjective acceptance (see 1 Thessalonians 1:6, and note; 2 Thessalonians 2:10; 1 Corinthians 2:14), the inner apprehension and appreciation of the message for what it truly is. The λόγος� is the “word” as it came to the παραλαβόντες (cf. Philippians 4:9, παρελάβετε κ. ἠκούσατε), and from the λαλοῦντες (1 Thessalonians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:4) and κηρύσσοντες (1 Thessalonians 2:9),—the word of God sounding in the ears of the Thessalonians from the writers’ lips; the phrase occurs again in Hebrews 4:2, “where, as here, it stands in contrast to the faithful reception of the Gospel” (Lightfoot). For ἀκοῆς (ἀκούω) παρά, implying a “word” lodged with the speakers (1 Thessalonians 2:3), cf. 2 Timothy 1:13; 2 Timothy 2:2; Acts 10:22, &c.; John 15:15. Others connect παρʼ ἡμῶν with παραλαβόντες. In Romans 10:17 it is said, ἡ πίστις ἐξ�, where πίστις corresponds to δέχεσθαι in this passage; an ἀκοὴ� is described in that context. Ἀκοῆς should probably be read, like its counterpart in Romans 10:8—(τὸ ῥῆμα) τῆς πίστεως—as a lax genitive of the possessor, “the word which belongs to (or is for) hearing”; as ἀκοή is διὰ ῥήματος (Romans 10:17), so λόγος is εἰς�. For ἀκοή, see further Galatians 3:2; John 12:38; Isaiah 53:1 (LXX). Τοῦ θεοῦ is genitive of subject defining the noun-phrase λόγον� and correcting παρʼ ἡμῶν,—“God’s word given you to hear from us”; cf. Colossians 1:6 b, 7; 2 Corinthians 3:5 f., 1 Thessalonians 5:19 f.; Ephesians 3:7 f.; Acts 15:7 : “the Apostle betrays a nervous apprehension that he may be unconsciously making claims for himself; the awkwardness of the position of the words τοῦ θεοῦ is the measure of the emphasis of his disclaimer” (Lightfoot).

ἐδέξασθε οὐ λόγον�, καθὼς�, λόγον θεοῦ: you accepted no word of men, but, as it truly is, God’s word. No need to understand ὡς before λόγον in either instance: the Thessalonians in point of fact did not accept a human but a Divine word; they were listening to Another behind Paul and Silas. Of the kind of hearing negatived St Paul’s Athenian audience gave an example (Acts 17:18-21). With οὐ λόγον�. κ.τ.λ. cf. 1 Corinthians 3:5-9, οὔτε ὁ φυτεύων ἐστίν τι κ.τ.λ.; also 1 Corinthians 1:12-17; 1 Corinthians 1:29-31. The phrase ἀληθῶς ἐστίν is hap. leg. in St Paul; rather frequent in St John.

ὃς καὶ ἐνεργεῖται ἐν ὑμῖν τοῖς πιστεύουσιν, which (word) is also made operative (or is working effectually) in you that believe. The active of ἐνεργέω has in St Paul a personal subject; the passive (or middle) voice is used of personal powers, influences, as in 2 Thessalonians 2:7; Galatians 5:6, &c. This relative clause carries the readers from past to present time: “God’s word,” which they had accepted as such at the mouth of His Apostles, from that time “also works on in” their hearts and lives. Ἐνεργεῖται recalls the ἔργον πίστεως (1 Thessalonians 1:1; see note),—the primary matter of thanks to God. This verb (= ἐνεργής εἰμι) signifies effective, fructifying operation (cf. Romans 7:5; Philippians 2:13); see J. A. Robinson on Ephesians, pp. 241 ff., who gives reason for rendering ἐνεργέομαι as passive in the N.T. The “word is made to work in” those “that believe,” since faith is the operative principle of the new life,—πίστις … ἐνεργουμένη (Galatians 5:6; cf. James 2:22; Hebrews 4:2). A second time ὑμῖν τοῖς πιστεύουσιν serves to designate the Christian readers (1 Thessalonians 2:10; see note); in 1 Thessalonians 1:7 πᾶσιν τοῖς πιστεύουσιν denoted Christians at large.