Christian world which he clearly had in mind. In 213-313 he ardently professes his love for them and his eagerness to revisit them and explains why it was impossible for him to do so. In the remainder of the letter (41-12) he stresses certain of his earlier teachings, the importance of which he more fully appreciates in the light of the information which has come to him. As occasionally elsewhere in his letters, he speaks on the basis of the direct authority of Jesus (42). It is significant that where Paul stands most squarely on Jesus' teachings the social note is strongest. Chapter 41-12 is an important supplement to our gospel records, for it ranks in date and authority with the early collection of the teachings of Jesus attributed by tradition to the Apostle Matthew. The teachings here present the lofty standard of social morality that Jesus held up before his followers. It does not teach asceticism but absolute fidelity to the marriage relation. It demands still more: the marriage bond was not to be made an excuse for gratifying the sensual passion, but each man is enjoined to treat his wife purely and honorably as a divine creation. This passage is a luminous reflection of Jesus' chivalrous attitude toward the weaker and more dependent members of society and especially toward women. The ideal here set forth is as important and certainly as valid to-day as when Paul contrasted Jesus' standard with the gross and brutal sensuality of the contemporary heathen world. Paul also emphasizes Jesus' law of brotherly love and each man's obligation quietly to attend to his own business as his first and fundamental contribution to the welfare of society.

Paul then discusses in 413-511 the much-debated question of what would become of those who died before Jesus' second coming and how soon that appearing would be. In 415 he quotes Jesus as the authority for the statement that, "we, the living, who survive until the Lord comes are by no means to take precedence of those who are fallen asleep." Nowhere in the gospels do we find the exact basis of this statement. Possibly Paul had in mind Jesus' declaration that "he who loses his life for my sake and the gospel's shall find it" (Mark 835), or perhaps the allusion may be to Jesus' mild rebuke of James and John, who asked to have the first place in the coming kingdom. In his general teaching regarding Jesus' second coming, Paul clearly reflects his Jewish inheritance and reiterates the current apocalyptic hopes which are found in the contemporary writings of the Sibylline Oracles, the apocalypses of Enoch, Baruch, and IV Ezra. In his two letters to the Thessalonians, Paul's expression of his belief in Jesus' second

ས.

THE CONTENTS OF I THESSALONIANS

coming reaches its climax-in fact, II Thessalonians marks the beginning of its subsidence. When a decade later Paul finally faced death, he spoke not of Jesus' coming, but of his going to Christ (Phil. 123). The Contents and Authenticity of II Thessalonians. Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians is little more than an appendix to I Thessalonians. It has, however, all the characteristic divisions of a typical letter. Chapter 1 contains Paul's words of greeting and thanksgiving for the steadfastness of the Thessalonian Christians. In 21-12 he aims to correct certain misunderstandings regarding his teaching about the second coming of Christ. In 213-17 he expresses his strong confidence in the Thessalonians. Chapter 31-15 consists of concluding exhortations, and 316-18 contains his blessing, personal autograph, and farewell. Throughout this second letter he repeats and emphasizes the same points as in the first. The parallelism is so close that many scholars have regarded II Thessalonians as the work of another hand. The mark of Paul's style and thought are, however, indelibly stamped upon it. While it deals with the same conditions that are reflected in I Thessalonians, it nevertheless marks progress. In I Thessalonians Paul had poured oil on the fiercely burning expectation of Jesus' speedy coming. Now he aims to hold in check that over-ardent hope. In so doing he voices certain popular beliefs which clearly antedate the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. It is, therefore, far easier to hold that they came from the lips of Paul than from the pen of a later editor. Paul probably wrote his second letter to the Thessalonians only a few months after the first. Intimations had evidently come to him that his first letter had been in part misinterpreted and he therefore wrote in haste in order to correct the false inferences which had been drawn from it.

VI. Paul's Aim in II Thessalonians. A recent writer (Harnack) has suggested that in this second letter Paul had especially in mind the Jewish Christians in Thessalonica. They, rather than the Gentile Christians, would naturally be most interested in the apocalyptic hopes which in their origin were distinctly Jewish rather than Greek. Possibly they had intimated that in his first letter Paul had reflected only a part of the current hopes which gathered about the doctrine of Jesus' second coming. In his second letter he adds what was a constant factor in Jewish eschatology. It is the allusion to the arch-enemy of God, the Anti-Christ, whose activity it was believed would reach its climax before the appearance of the Christ to overthrow this foe and to establish his visible kingdom on earth. In Paul's

mind the one who still held in restraint the secret forces of lawlessness was evidently Rome. It has even been suggested that here is a play on the name of the then reigning emperor, Claudius. Evidently Rome had not yet assumed in the minds of the Christians its later rôle of the Anti-Christ. Nowhere is Paul's good sense as a pastor and leader better illustrated than in this second epistle to the Thessalonians. Like every progressive Jew, he still held, as firmly as, for example, we to-day hold the theory of evolution, that the Messiah's work would not be complete until he established a visible kingdom on earth. It is through these letters of Paul, as well as through the influence of the books of Daniel and Revelation, that the old, popular Jewish apocalyptic hopes gained such a firm hold on Christianity that they constantly crop out to-day, not only in the cults of the Millerites and Second Adventists, but even in the earnest exhortations of certain of our most popular evangelists. In the face, however, of all his Jewish inheritance and firm beliefs, Paul strove in his second letter to the Thessalonians to counteract the evil effects of this hope, which, we see, was a mistaken one, and to deliver the church from the perils which threatened it. In the first place, he called their attention to the fact that the present situation did not supply all the conditions which were popularly supposed to precede the advent of the Messiah. In the second place, he held up before them his own example and teaching, how he toiled hard at his trade, working night and day, even though he shared with them the hope of Jesus' early reappearance. Finally, he enunciated a great and far-reaching economic law: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat." This is the heart of Paul's social philosophy, and it is one of his great contributions to the science of society. It is even more striking, because it was set forth at a moment when he expected even in his own lifetime to behold the end of the present social order. Time and deeper knowledge have demonstrated the futility of the old Jewish apocalyptic hopes, the practical evils of which Paul himself appreciated, but the great social and economic principle which he laid down abides awaiting full acceptance and application.

§ CLVI. PAUL'S WORK AT ATHENS AND CORINTH

While Paul was waiting at Athens for Silas and Timothy, his spirit was stirred within him as he beheld the idols that filled the city. So he argued in the synagogue

PAUL'S DISCUSSIONS WITH THE ATHENIANS

dis

cus

with

Jews

(Acts

with the Jews and the devout proselytes and also in the Paul's market place daily with those whom he happened to meet there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also sions came across him and certain of them said, What has this the worthless picker-up of scraps of learning to say? Others and said, He seems to be a herald of foreign deities. This Greeks was because he preached Jesus and the resurrection. 1716-21) Then taking him up to the Areopagus they said, May we know what this new teaching of yours is? For certain things that you are saying sound strange to us; therefore, we want to know what they mean. (For all the Athenians and the foreign visitors to Athens spent their time at nothing else than telling or hearing about something new.)

So Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, Men of Athens, I observe that in every respect you are most religious. For as I passed along and saw the objects which you worship, I even found an altar with the inscription,

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.

Now I proclaim to you that which you worship in your ignorance. The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doth not dwell in shrines made by human hands. He is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, for he it is who giveth life and breath and all things to all men. He hath created all nations from a common ancestor that they may inhabit all the surface of the earth. He hath also fixed for them their allotted periods and the boundaries of their abodes that they may seek for God on the chance of finding him in their groping for him, although he is not far from each one of us; for it is in him that we live and move and exist, as certain of your own poets have said, For we also are his offspring. Therefore, as the offspring of God, we ought not to imagine that the divine nature resembles gold or silver or stone, the product of human art and invention. These ages of ignorance God overlooked, but he now commandeth men that they are all everywhere to repent, since he hath fixed day on which he will judge the world justly by a man whom he hath destined for this.

Paul's to the court Areop

speech

of the

agus (22-81)

Its effect (32-34)

Paul's

preaching at Corinth

And he hath given proof of this to all by raising him from the dead.

But when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some sneered, while others said, We will hear you again on this matter. So Paul withdrew from their midst. Certain men, however, joined him and believed, among whom were Dionysius, the Areopagite, a woman called Damaris, and some others with them.

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife, Priscilla, for (1814) Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul visited them and, as he was of the same trade, he remained with them and they all worked together, for by trade they were tent-makers. On every sabbath he argued in the synagogue and tried to persuade both Jews and Greeks. By the time that Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was engrossed in preaching the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. But as they opposed and abused him, he shook out his garments in protest, saying, Your blood be on your own heads! I am not responsible; after this I will go to the Gentiles.

Paul's activity in Corinth

(7-10)

Paul's defense

before Gallio

Then Paul went to the house of a devout proselyte called Titus Justus, which adjoined the synagogue. But Crispus, the president of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with all his household; and many of the Corinthians hearing, believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul in a vision at night, Have no fear, speak on and do not stop, for I am with you and no one will attack you to injure you; I have many people in this city. So Paul settled there a year and six months, teaching among them the word of God.

But when Gallio became proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose against Paul and brought him before the tribunal saying, This man is inducing people to wor(11-18) ship God contrary to the law. But when Paul was about to begin his defense, Gallio said to the Jews, If it had been a misdemeanor or wicked crime, I might reasonably listen to you, O Jews; but as these are merely questions of words and names and your law, you yourselves can attend