2 Thessalonians 1:4

αυτους ημας (in this order), אBP 17 73 syrhcl; ημας αυτους, in ADGKL &c.—a Western emendation, followed by the Syrians.

ενκαυχασθαι, in אABP 17 Chr Euthal (P 17 adopt the classical spelling εγ-). καυχασθαι is read by DKL, &c. (G, καυχησασθαι), discarding the exceptional compound, or omitting the initial εν- through confusion with the final -ιν of the foregoing υμιν.

ενεχεσθε is found in B alone—hence rejected by all the editors except WH (margin): a not improbable reading, since it yields a forcible and fitting sense, and constitutes a solitary usage in this connexion; whereas the smooth and obvious ανεχεσθε is common in St Paul, and is exchangeable with ενεχεσθε by an easy itacism. See Expository Note.

4. ὥστε αὐτοὺς ἡμᾶς ἐν ὑμῖν ἐνκαυχᾶσθαι ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις τοῦ θεοῦ. So that we on our own part are boasting in you in the Churches of God,—scil. in Corinth and the neighbouring Achaian Churches springing up round that city (see 2 Corinthians 1:1; 2 Corinthians 9:2; Romans 15:26; Romans 16:5); and in other Churches with which the Apostles were in communication at the time (Paul e.g. with Antioch, &c., Silvanus with Jerusalem, Timothy with S. Galatia). 2 Corinthians 8:1-6 affords an example at a later date of St Paul’s boasting over the Macedonians to their neighbours.

The emphatic αὐτούς marks this “boasting” as unusual on the writers’ part—perhaps in view of their known reluctance (cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:6 f.) to dwell on anything redounding to their own credit (cf. Galatians 6:14; 2 Corinthians 12:1-6; yet see Romans 15:18 f., 1 Corinthians 15:10, showing how St Paul would sometimes “glory” in his work), despite which they are bound to make God’s grace in this instance, and at this stage, known throughout the Christian brotherhood. From 1 Thessalonians 1:8 f. it appears that up to a certain point the Apostles refrained from speaking publicly of the success of their mission to Thessalonica, which had advertized itself in the best possible way; but now, out of gratitude to God, and from the sense of what is due to their Thessalonian brethren, they can no longer refrain: “while others have been telling about our work, we ourselves are now constrained to glory in it.” Ἐνκαυχάομαι, another N.T. hap. leg.; but this compound is used in the LXX. Ἐνκαυχᾶσθαι ἐν, of the general ground of boast (cf. Romans 2:17; Galatians 6:13, &c.); ὑπέρ, of its specific subject matter (2 Corinthians 12:5), or that in the interest of which one boasts—see παρακαλέσαι ὑπέρ, 1 Thessalonians 3:2; ἐρωτῶμεν ὑπέρ, 2 Thessalonians 2:1 below. But ἐνκαυχᾶσθαι ἐν may be Hebraistic (ἐν= בְּ); see Psalms 51:3, Psalms 105:47 (LXX). On “churches of God,” see 1 Thessalonians 2:14.

ὑπὲρ τῆς ὑπομονῆς ὑμῶν καὶ πίστεως, over your endurance and faith. For ὑπομονή, see note to 1 Thessalonians 1:3. Since πίστις follows ὑπομονή here, and under the vinculum of the single article, it might appear to denote the moral virtue of faithfulness to the Christian cause, rather than the religious principle of faith out of which the Christian life springs (2 Thessalonians 1:3); so Bengel, Lünemann, and Bornemann interpret the word. But it is arbitrary to give it, with no mark of distinction, this double sense in two consecutive clauses; indeed it is questionable whether πίστις anywhere in Paul—even in Galatians 5:22 or Romans 3:3—means fidelity in distinction from faith. The prepositional adjunct attached to πίστις gives appropriateness and force to the repetition of this fundamental word: the Apostles “glory,” in the case of the Thessalonians, “over” their “endurance and faith (maintained) in all” their “persecutions and afflictions”; so that πίστεως ἐν πᾶσιν τοῖς διωγμοῖς ὑμῶν κ.τ.λ. is explicative of ὑπομονῆς and forms one idea therewith; cf. Acts 14:22. The maintenance of faith amid affliction was the crucial trial of this Church (see 1 Thessalonians 3:2-5); and the trial was endured unflinchingly. Well might the missionaries be proud of such converts! For the anarthrous prepositional adjunct, cf. ἐν θεῷ, 1 Thessalonians 1:1, ἐν Χριστῷ, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, and notes.

Διωγμοῖς (cf. ἐκ-διωξάντων, in connexion with τὰ αὐτὰ ἐπάθετε, 1 Thessalonians 2:13 f.; and the combination in Romans 8:35, &c.) refers to the specific attacks made on the Christians in Thessalonica, commencing with the assault on the Apostles related in Acts 17; θλίψεσιν, comprehensively, to the various injuries and vexations attending the persecution; on the latter word, see note to 1 Thessalonians 1:6.

αἶς� affords a unique example of relative attraction, supposing ἀνέχομαι to govern the genitive, as uniformly in the N.T. (see 2 Corinthians 11:1, &c.); classical rule limits such attraction to the accusative, the case governed by this verb sometimes in older Greek—a regimen conceivably occurring here for once in the N.T. (so Winer-Moulton, p. 204; and Ellicott in loc.). Since, however, the reverse attraction, from dative to genitive, occurs elsewhere, one does not see any objection of principle to the attraction here supposed upon the usual construction of ἀνέχομαι with genitive (so A. Buttmann, N. T. Grammar, and others). Probably vernacular idiom was not over nice in points like these. The grammatical anomaly may have occasioned the variant reading of B, αἶς ἐνέχεσθε (cf. Galatians 5:1), in which you are involved (see Textual Note). But this gives after all a very suitable sense; and the dative would then be regularly governed by ἐν-. The present tense shows the persecution to be going on; it seems to have been continuous from the foundation of this Church.