The life and work of St. Paul

328 THE LIFE AND WORK OF ST. PATTL.
in no small measure that fearless and glad enthusiasm which pervaded the
life of the early Church.
And thus, when Timothy had told him all that he had observed among the
brethren of Thessalonica, we may feel quite sure that, while his heart was full
of fresh solicitude, he would write to guide and comfort them, 1 and that many
days would not elapse before he had dictated the opening words :
" Paul, and Silvanns, and Timotheus to the Church 2 of the Thessalonians
in God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you, and peace [from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ 3 ]."
This opening address is in itself an interesting illustration of St. Paul's character.
Though his letters are absolutely his own, yet with that shrinking from
personal prominence which we often trace in him, he associates with himself in
the introduction not only the dignified Silas, 4 but even the youthful Timothy; 5
and in these his earlier, though not in his later Epistles, constantly uses " we "
for " I." By " we " he does not mean to imply that the words are conjointly
those of his two fellow-labourers, since he adopts the expression even when he
can only be speaking of his individual self; 6 but he is actuated by that sort of
modesty, traceable in the language and literature of all nations, which dislikes
the needlessly frequent prominence of the first personal pronoun. 7 In hia
letters to all other Churches, except to the Philippians, to whom the designation
was needless, he calls himself Paul an Apostle, but he does not use the
1 That the external evidence to the genuineness of the Epistles to the Thessalonians
is amply sufficient may be seen in Alford, iii., Prolegom. ; Davidson, Introduct. i. 19 28;
Westcott, On the Canon, 68, n. , 168, &c. The internal evidence derived from style, &c. ,
is overwhelming (Jowett, i. 1526). The counter-arguments of Kern, Schrader, Baur,
&c., founded, as usual, alike on divergences and coincidences, on real similarities and
supposed discrepancies, on asserted references and imaginary contradictions to the Acts,
are silently met in the text. They carry no conviction with them, and have found few
followers ; Baur (Paul, ii. 85 97), to a great extent, furnishing positive arguments
against his own conclusion. (See Lunemann, Br. an die Thessal. 10 15.) Grotius,
Ewald, Baur, Bunsen, Davidson, &c., consider that the First Epistle is really the second ;
but the hypothesis is against external and internal evidence, is wholly needless, and
creates obvious difficulties. It would require many volumes to enter into all these dis-
cussions for every Epistle ; but though I have no space for that here, I have respectfully
and impartially considered the difficulties raised, and in many cases shown incidentally
my grounds for disregarding them. One most inimitable mark of genuineness is the
general resemblance of tone between the Epistle and that written ten years later to the
other chief Macedonian Church Philippi. (See Laghtfoot in Smith's Bibl. Diet.)
2 So in 1, 2 Thess., 1, 2 Cor., and Gal. But in the other Epistles rote iyiois.
3 This addition is probably spurious. It belongs to 2 Thess. i. 2, and was added
because the greeting is so short. As we have now reached St. Paul's first Epistle I must
refer the reader to the Excursus which gives the Uncial Manuscripts of the Epistles, infra,
Excursus XX.
* Acts xv. 22, 32, 34.
6 Silas and Timothy are associated with him in 2 Thess. ; Sosthenes in 1 Cor. ; Timothy
In 2 Cor., Phil., Col., and Philem. Paul writes in his own name only to the Romans and
Laodiceaus, which Churches he had not personally visited. Origen says that the concurrence
of Paul and Silas flashed out the lightning of these Epistles (Horn, v. in Jerein.
588 6).
6 In 1 Thess. iii. 2, 6, and in Phil. ii. 19, Timothy is spoken of, though associated
with Paul in the greeting. 1 Thess. ii. 18, "we . . even I Paul."
7 "We " is chiefly characteristic of 1, 2 Thess. In 2 Thess. the only passage which
relapses into " I " to ii. 6.