2 Thessalonians 2:13

13. ειλετο, for -ατο: grammatical correction of K and the minuscules; see note on προειπαμεν (-ομεν), 1 Thessalonians 4:6.

απαρχην, in BGgrP 17, f vg syrhcl, Did Euthal Cyr Dam (ωσπερ απαρχην) Amb: certainly a favourite expression of St Paul’s, and not inappropriate, nor out of keeping with 1 Thessalonians 1:4. απʼ αρχης, which is strongly attested by אDKL (A latet) &c., d e g syrpesh cop arm aeth, Chr Thdrt Ambrst Vig, is a hap. leg. for St Paul; it well accords with the parallel representation in 1 Thessalonians 1:4 ff.: cf. Philippians 1:5; Philippians 4:15; and see Expository Note.

13. Ἡμεῖς δὲ ὀφείλομεν εὐχαριστεῖν τῷ θεῷ πάντοτε περὶ ὑμῶν. But, for our part, we are bound to give thanks to God always for you: a nearly verbatim reproduction of the opening words of the Epistle; see notes on 2 Thessalonians 1:3. The repeated ὀφείλομεν betrays in the missionaries a keen sense of personal debt for the support given them at this juncture by the faith of the Thessalonian Church; cf., in explanation of this, 1 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 3:8 f. Hence also the emphatic ἡμεῖς prefacing ὀφείλομεν, where we might have looked for περὶ δὲ ἱμῶν at the head of the sentence, to supply the main subject of the paragraph in contrast with οἱ�, οἱ μὴ πιστεύσαντες κ.τ.λ., of the foregoing: cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:4; Ephesians 4:20; also Hebrews 6:9. Contemplating the revelation of the Lawless One and the multitude of his dupes, the Apostles realize their deep obligation to God for the certainty that their Thessalonian brethren are of another disposition and have a happier destiny assured them. Περὶ ὑμῶν is emphasized by the terms that follow:—

ἀδελφοὶ ἠγαπημένοι ὑπὸ Κυρίου, brethren beloved by the Lord. In the εὐχαριστία of 1 Thessalonians 1:2-4, &c.—and precisely at the same point, viz. in grounding their position as Christians upon the Divine ἐκλογή (εἵλατο … ὁ θεὸς … εἰς σωτηρίαν)—the Thessalonians were addressed as “brethren beloved by God.” “The Lord” is Christ, as distinguished from “God” in the adjoining clauses; see notes on 1 Thessalonians 2:1, and 2 Thessalonians 1:12 above. Appalled by the thought of Antichrist, the Church finds in the love of Christ her refuge (cf. Romans 8:35-39); since He is κύριος, His love has at its command Divine power (2 Thessalonians 1:7 f.); to “the Lord” (Jesus), their strong Protector, the Apostles forthwith commit these persecuted “brethren” (see 2 Thessalonians 2:16 f., 2 Thessalonians 3:3; 2 Thessalonians 3:5). St Paul is probably reminding himself in this expression of the ancient blessing upon Benjamin, his own tribe, pronounced in Deuteronomy 33:12 : “The beloved of the Lord (ἠγαπημένος ὑπὸ Κυρίου, LXX) shall dwell in safety by Him; He covereth him all the day long, and he dwelleth between His shoulders.”

ὅτι εἵλατο ὑμᾶς ὁ θεὸς�ʼ ἀρχῆς (or ἀπαρχὴν) εἰς σωτηρίαν, in that God chose you from the beginning (or as a firstfruit) unto salvation: a reaffirmation of εἰδότες … τὴν ἐκλογὴν ὑμῶν, 1 Thessalonians 1:4; see notes. Εἵλατο is used of the “choice” of Israel for Jehovah’s people in Deuteronomy 7:6 f. and Deuteronomy 10:15 (προείλετο); in Deuteronomy 26:18 f. (LXX) it stands, Κύριος εἵλατό σε σήμερον γενέσθαί σε αὐτῷ λαὸν περιούσιον … εἶναί σε λαὸν ἅγιον Κυρίῳ τῷ θεῷ σου. Deuteronomy 7:8 accounts for this in the words, παρὰ τὸ� (cf. previous note). As respects the purpose of the choice (εἰς σωτηρίαν), the verse is parallel to 1 Thessalonians 5:9, οὐκ … εἰς ὀργὴν�; see the note there on σωτηρία. Hence those whom “God chose for salvation” are set in contrast with “the perishing,” with those to whom “God sends an ἐνέργειαν πλάνης in order that they may be judged” (2 Thessalonians 2:10 f.). Cf. with this also the paragraph on “God’s elect” in Romans 8:33-39. For ὅτι after εὐχαριστέω, cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; for the hybrid aorist εἵλατο—with its strong stem and weak ending—see note on προείπαμεν, 1 Thessalonians 4:6.

It is doubtful whether ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς looks further back than to the time when God’s call in the Gospel reached the Thessalonians (cf. Philippians 4:15, ἐν�; also 1 John 2:7; 1 John 2:24; 1 John 3:11; John 6:64; John 15:27; John 16:4); without some indication in the context, the readers would hardly think here of a pretemporal election. The ἐκλογή of 1 Thessalonians 1:4 was associated with the arrival of the Gospel at Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 1:5; 1 Thessalonians 1:9). Then, practically and to human view, “God chose” this people—i.e. took them for His own out of the evil world in which they moved: cf. the εἵλατο σήμερον of Deuteronomy 26:18. Such “choice” is intrinsically, and as the act of God’s loving will, ἀπʼ αἰῶνος (Acts 15:18). Hence in later Epp. the “beginning” is traced to its spring, and its origin is seen in the Divine love “predestinating” its chosen “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4, &c.); the relative is grounded in the absolute ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς (1 John 1:1): cf. the double ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς of 1 John 2:7; 1 John 2:13 f., Jeremiah 2:24. But the Apostles speak here in the language of grateful remembrance, not of theological contemplation. The marginal reading of WH, ἀπαρχήν (primitias, Vulg.; see Textual Note), gives a thoroughly Pauline word—applied to persons in Romans 11:16; Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 15:20; 1 Corinthians 15:23; 1 Corinthians 16:15 (also in James 1:18; Revelation 14:4)—and is quite suitable to the Thessalonian Christians, since they were along with the Philippians the “first-fruit,” in comparison with Achaia and Corinth (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:7 ff.), of the present mission.

ἐν ἁγιασμῷ πνεύματος καὶ πίστει�, in sanctification of spirit (or of the Spirit) and faith in (the) truth: an adjunct not to εἵλατο, but to σωτηρίαν (for similar ἐν clauses attached to verbal nouns, see 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; and 2 Thessalonians 1:7 f. above). “Salvation” is defined in its subjective ground and factors—“God chose you to a salvation operative and realized in sanctification and faith”: by the same signs the Apostles “know the election” of their Thessalonian converts (1 Thessalonians 1:3-7; cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:7); on these conditions rests the σωτηρία spoken of in 1 Thessalonians 5:9. Ἐὰν μείνωσιν ἐν πίστει … καὶ ἁγιασμῷ, 1 Timothy 2:15, presents the same conditions in the reverse order. For ἁγιασμός, see notes on 1 Thessalonians 3:13 (ἁγιωσύνη) and 1 Thessalonians 4:3; 1 Thessalonians 4:7.

Πνεύματος may be (a) subjective genitive—“sanctification proceeding from (wrought by) the Spirit (of God)”: cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:7 f., Romans 15:16; 1 Corinthians 3:16 f.; and the formal parallel in 1 Peter 1:2. See 1 Thessalonians 1:6; Romans 5:5; Romans 8:2; Romans 8:23; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 Corinthians 12:3; 1 Corinthians 12:13; 2 Corinthians 1:22; Galatians 3:3; Ephesians 1:13; Ephesians 4:30; Titus 3:5, for the offices of the Holy Spirit in the initiation and first movements of the Christian life. But (b) the word gives a sense equally good in itself if understood as objective genitive—“sanctification of (your) spirit”: thus read, the phrase recalls the memorable prayer of 1 Thessalonians 5:23, ὁ θεὸς … ἁγιάσαι ὑμᾶς … καὶ … ὁλόκληρον ὑμῶν τὸ πνεῦμα κ.τ.λ. ἀμέμπτως … τηρηθείη; on this construction, sanctification is viewed as an inward state of the readers, leading them to complete salvation at the coming of Christ, just as “unbelief of the truth and delight in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:12) will bring “the perishing” to ruin through the fascination of Antichrist. This patent antithesis inclines one, after Estius (“anima, in qua sanctitatis donum principaliter residet”), to adopt (b), notwithstanding the preference of most commentators for (a): contrast μολυσμοῦ σαρκὸς καὶ πνεύματος, 2 Corinthians 7:1; and cf. Ephesians 4:23. Add to this ruling consideration the probability that the writer, if intending the Holy Spirit by πνεύματος, would for clearness have prefixed the article or attached to the generic noun some distinguishing term; and observe the fact that the genitive is objective in the parallel πίστει�. This ἁγιασμὸς πνεύματος is complementary to the ἁγ. σαρκός implied in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8. The objection that (interior) “sanctification of spirit” should follow and not precede “faith in the truth,” applies with equal force to “sanctification by the Spirit” (cf. Galatians 3:2); on the other hand, “faith in the truth” in this context involves more than the initial faith of conversion (1 Thessalonians 1:8, &c.), or “the reception of the truth on the part of the person influenced” (Lightfoot); it signifies that habit of faith by which one adheres to the truth and so escapes the ἀπάτη� and ἐνέργεια πλάνης (2 Thessalonians 2:10 f.), and includes the ὑπομονὴ καὶ πίστις (2 Thessalonians 1:4) by virtue of which believers (οἱ πιστεύοντες) “stand fast”: see next verse; and cf. 2 Corinthians 1:24; Colossians 2:5, &c. Such abiding faith leads to ultimate salvation; it is co-ordinate with, not anterior to, sanctification.