The life and work of St. Paul

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THB THESSALONIAXS. 331
outrages of Philippi. It has been evident, even through these opening sentences
of thanksgiving, that there is in his words an undercurrent of allusion
to some who would, if they could, have given a very different account of his
conduct and motives. 1 These appeals to their knowledge of the life and
character and behaviour of Paul and his two fellow-missionaries would have
been needless if they had never been impugned. But it is easy to understand
that alike the Jews in their eagerness to win back the few members of the
synagogue who had joined the brethren, and the Gentiles vexed at the silent
rebuke against their own sins, would whisper calumnies about the new teachers,
and try to infuse into others their own suspicions. The cities of that age
swarmed with every kind and denomination of quack and impostor. Might
not these three poor Jews that silent and dignified elder, the shy, gentle
youth, and the short enthusiast of mean aspect might they not be only a
new variety of the genus goes like the wandering Galli and worshippers of
Isis, or Chaldaei, or Mathematici, or priests of Mithras ? 2 Were they not a
somewhat suspicious-looking trio 1 What was their secret object ? Was it with
sinister motives that they gathered into their communities those widows and
maidens ? Were they not surreptitiously trying to get hold of money ? or
might it not be their own exaltation at which they were aiming? Now
there were some charges and attacks which, in after days, as we shall see,
filled Paul with bitter indignation ; but insinuations of this nature he can
afford to answer very calmly. Such calumnies were too preposterous to be
harmful ; such innuendos too malevolent to be believed. In order to disprove
them he had but to appeal at once to notorious facts ; and, indeed, no elaborate
disproof was needed, for his Thessalonian friends knew, and God was witness, 8
that there had been no deceit, no uncleanness, no base motives, no secret
avarice, no desire to win favour, no fawning flattery in the exhortations of the
missionaries. They had come, not for selfishness, but for sacrifice ; not for
glory, but to pour out their hearts' tenderness, and spend their very lives for
the sake of their converts, 4
cherishing them as tenderly 5 as a nursing mother
fosters her children in her warm bosom, 6
yet waiving their own rights, and
taking nothing wliatever from them, nor laying the smallest burden upon
them. 7 The brethren knew that while they were preaching they regarded
contrast with heathen
1 1 Thess. ii. 5, 9. These phrases are not accounted for by
"
deceptions. The viiiv-roi* irierrvov A, B, C, D, E, F, G, "clinging to you;" .rpoo-fcif^oi (Theoph.);
mvrrxontvoi i>nlair (CEcumen.).
'
ii. 7, iirtoi, found also in 2 Tim. ii. 24.
instance of mere homoeoteleuton.
1
ii. 7, SoAiTj.
The ^TTIOI of , B, C, D, F, G, is an obviooi
" oneri ease " (Vuhj.). It may mean to be dictatorial (-.XA^t iroAavrw
7 n ftdpti etrai,
** Chrys.), but see verse 9 ; 2 Cor. xi. 9 ; xiL 16 ; 2 Thess. iii 8.