The Church in the Time of Constantine.

I. Introduction

The term "medieval" refers to the period of history commonly known as the Middle Ages, between ancient and modern times. Historians usually consider the fall of the Roman Empire as marking the close of ancient times, and the Renaissance and the Reformation as marking the beginning of modern times. The purpose of this article is to provide a background for the study of those portions of the various lines of prophecy in the Revelation that deal with this period of history. The same is true of the article that follows, "The Reformation and Onward." For the earlier period of church history see Vol. VI, pp. 17-70, and for the church of the Reformation and more recent times, Vol. VII, pp. 41-79.

Decline of the Roman Empire.--The decline and fall of the Roman Empire covers a period of several centuries. The brilliant reign of the first emperor, Augustus (27 B.C.-a.d. 14; see Vol. VI, pp. 72-75), marked the golden age of Roman history. With a few exceptions, the emperors from Augustus on to the last one (deposed 476) were seldom more than mediocre, and the story of the Western Roman Empire throughout almost its entire lifetime of some five centuries, especially from Marcus Aurelius onward, is one of gradual decline. By the close of the 3d century a.d. the process of disintegration had reached an advanced stage. It is true that the reorganization of the empire by Diocletian and Constantine (see pp. 18-20) served, for a time, to check the downward trend, but thereafter the process of dissolution proceeded at an increasingly rapid pace. With the 4th century began the long series of barbarian invasions from the north (see pp. 20-22), which greatly hastened the process.

Although the last emperor in the West was deposed in 476, there remained an emperor in the East at Constantinople, as there had been ever since Constantine's removal of the seat of government there from Rome in 330. In fact, the Eastern Roman Empire continued for nearly a thousand years longer, to 1453. It is true that 476 is the traditional date for the end of ancient Rome, and thus of the beginning of the Middle Ages, but it is apparent that medieval times might also be reckoned from any one of various other significant points of time either before or after that year. Accordingly, some have considered the reign of Constantine the Great (the first of the long line of so-called Christian emperors) as an appropriate boundary marker between ancient and medieval times, and in view of the fact that the article dealing with the early church in Vol. VI traces developments down approximately to the reign of Constantine, the present article will follow the course of events from his time onward. Others suggest the reign of Justinian the Great (527-565) and the Gothic Wars as dividing between ancient and medieval history. However, historians generally consider the pontificate of Pope Gregory the Great (590-604; see p. 25) as the most appropriate point from which to reckon the Middle Ages. The two most significant institutions of Western Europe during the medieval period were the Roman Catholic Church and, from 800 onward, the Holy Roman Empire.

Development of the Church.--As the Roman Empire gradually declined, the church correspondingly expanded and augmented its power. As established by its Divine Founder, the church was at first characterized by admirable purity of life and clarity of doctrine (see on Rev. 2:2-6). It had a relatively simple and effective organization which stands in contrast with the complex monarchical system that characterizes the medieval papacy. Beginning as an outlawed sect, rejected and harassed by the Jews, scorned and vilified by cultured pagans, and persecuted intermittently by a pagan Roman government determined to exterminate it, Christianity nevertheless grew numerically, in extent (see The Church Before Paul's Missionary Journeys and The Church in the Time of Constantine, The Church at the Close of Paul's Ministry), and in the esteem of thinking men. See Vols. IV, pp. 834-838; VI, p. 61.

By the 3d century the church began to have its own buildings for worship, and, though not legalized itself, began to own property. Its organization became more elaborate. The presiding elders of the congregations in the large cities acquired a unique position as "overseers," and then as ruling bishops, centers of a growing ecclesiastical authority (see Vol. VI, pp. 37-43). When disputes over doctrinal matters rent the church, and sects began to form, the bishops were looked to--because of the belief in "apostolic succession"--as paragons of orthodoxy, and each in turn began to look back to his predecessors for precedents in interpreting and applying the traditions of the church. In the doctrinal disputes that occurred increasingly, confidence was weakened in the Bible as the sole expression of doctrinal faith, and tradition was appealed to more and more. As the church expanded it borrowed, sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously, from the pagans it was conquering, and practices entirely unknown in the apostolic church became a part of church life (see Vol. VI, pp. 64-67). Thus while external consolidation and expansion were being achieved, internally the church began to lose its apostolic simplicity and purity, and even before it attained legal status the foundations had been laid for the development of the proud, earth-centered church of the Middle Ages.

II. Christian Rome, the Papacy (A.D. 313-590)

Constantine and Christianity.--When Constantine the Great achieved the purple in 311 he found himself at the head of an empire that suffered from an unwieldy administrative system, a disorganized army, and a panicky economy. In addition, the morale of the polyglot population, of variegated origins and customs, was bankrupt ethically and spiritually. The policy of Constantine, a farseeing ruler, was to rally the people of the empire to reconstruct its institutions and to achieve a unity it had not enjoyed for two centuries.

He set about to reorganize the army, to strengthen the economic life of the empire, and to find a panacea for the social, moral, and spiritual ills of the people. He came to believe that a unification of all religions would be a major contribution to the unity and stability of the empire--a formidable task in the face of the endless varieties of religion and social customs that existed. Himself a worshiper of the sun in the form of Apollo, Constantine was willing to recognize Jesus Christ--"the Sun of Righteousness"--as another manifestation of the sun deity. In certain similarities between the church and paganism that had resulted from reciprocal borrowing, he at first thought he saw an opportunity for forging a unified imperial sun cult, uniting Christians and sun worshipers. His nominal conversion to Christianity did not take place until 323 or 325.

But prior to that, Constantine had taken an even more dramatic and far-reaching step. In 313 he had induced his coemperor Licinius to join him in a decree granting full religious liberty throughout the empire, particularly specifying Christianity as a sect that was henceforth to be recognized and accorded full rights. Up to this time Christians had looked upon the government as an enemy because it was pagan. They had, in obedience to Paul's admonition, honored the government as a necessary bond for holding society together, but had also applied the Lord's instruction to render to Caesar only that which legitimately belonged to him. Further, in order that God might have the precedence, Peter had instructed that, when it was impossible to do both, Christians must make the choice of obeying God rather than men. Tertullian (c. 200) and Lactantius (4th century) had both insisted that the emperor must not intrude upon the freedom of the church to worship God. Adopting these principles, the church had, in spite of lack of freedom, proceeded to do its work for God on earth, often facing persecution but also taking full advantage of toleration when it was extended.

When Constantine legalized the church in 313 it was forced to review its opinion of the state, and it hailed a benevolent government as its friend. Constantine followed his decree of liberation with other decrees favoring the church in its various operations, with grants of funds, of privileges, and of powers, both judicial and executive.

Since many Christians had been using Sunday as a day of worship for more than a century and a half, and since many sun worshipers had come to regard the first day of the week as the special astrological "day of the sun," he issued the world's first Sunday law (321), calling for rest from labor on that day (see Vol. VI, pp. 48-52).

Constantine did not make Christianity the state religion, but in some respects a bureau of the state. The church accepted these seeming benefits with gratification, not realizing the inherent danger in them until the question arose as to whether the state should dominate the church.

The death of Constantine revealed what had always been a weakness of the Roman constitution, the lack of an established provision for the imperial succession. The rule of the empire devolved upon the three sons of Constantine, one of them taking the western portion, another the central, and the third the eastern. Though the empire was not formally partitioned, its administration was divided, following an example that had been set for Constantine by the awkward arrangement of his predecessor, Diocletian. Of the three sons of Constantine, one was an Arian (see pp. 22, 23), and the church in the West, strongly anti-Arian, endured for a time the rule of an Arian emperor.

Compromise and Apostasy.--During and after Constantine's reign the church, relieved of anxiety concerning its relationships with the state, became involved in doctrinal controversies that resulted in crystallized dogma, and thus Christianity became a creedal system. The church had achieved seeming success in the sight of men, but it had already apostatized in the sight of God. Paganism had been Christianized, but simultaneously Christianity had absorbed a great deal that was pagan. The church was triumphant in the world, but not in its own soul; and when the emperor Julian, a nephew of Constantine and an apostate from Christianity who had sought to revive paganism, died of battle wounds, he is supposed to have confessed, "Galilean, thou hast conquered." He did not realize that it was the corruption of the Galilean's followers that had caused him to turn away from the Galilean.

Augustine, the North African theologian, now picked up boldly and expanded the earlier teaching of Origen of Alexandria, that the church need no longer look for its triumph to a cataclysmic end of the world at the second coming of Christ. Instead, he said, it should look to a gradual achievement of success as the victorious "city of God" on earth, conquering the satanic "city" of this world (see p. 21). To accomplish this became the hope and objective of the steadily apostatizing church as a great politico-ecclesiastical system, which has guided its policy ever since. Indeed, the church increasingly became the institutional hope of men, as the empire declined.

The decrees of Constantine and his active support of religion did not stay the fatal disease that was eating away at the heart of Rome. Political, economic, social, and moral decay continued. The fall of Rome had no single cause. It fell apart largely from internal decay, and from external causes also.

The Barbarian Infiltration.--For centuries before they became a menace, barbarian tribes to the north had been gazing over the limites of Rome, amazed at its wealth and at the comforts its people enjoyed. In the boundary wars of Rome large groups of northern tribesmen were taken captive, sold into slavery, and used as gladiators in the circuses and as auxiliary soldiers in the army of Rome. Occasionally these tribesmen would return home with stories of Rome's wealth, and the barbarians began to wish for a share in these material good things. Barbarian veterans of auxiliary legions were settled as garrison troops along the borders, to fend off attacks from their own relatives seeking to cross the border. As the pressure of these covetous tribes became greater and greater, bands of fighting men would gather around a chieftain, and families, clans, and finally whole tribes, broke across the borders. For a long time Rome was able to absorb these immigrants, settling them upon vacated lands and using them to augment the empire's depleted labor force. Occasionally, leaders of these Teutonic barbarians, mainly Germanic, attained political power within the empire, and in spite of laws that forbade the marriage of a Latin with a German, intermarriage began to take place. Everywhere west of the Adriatic and the Danube Valley the beginnings of a Romano-Teutonic culture began to form as early as the 4th century.

Arianism.--The Arian heresy (see Vol. V, p. 914; see on Dan. 7:8), adopted by several of the barbarian tribes, should be discussed here. It was a problem to Roman Catholicism and the papacy more on the ecclesiastico-political than on the spiritual and theological level. The Arians declared that they had only one God, the Father, with Jesus Christ accepted into the realm of subordination to God. This teaching appeared much simpler than Trinitarianism, and the pagan tribes who entered the empire had therefore the more readily accepted Arianism. (For a discussion of the theological aspects of Arianism, see under Additional Note to John 1 in Vol. V, pp. 914, 915.)

However, the Arian branch of Christianity never perfected a thoroughgoing ecclesiastical organization, as did Roman Catholicism with its papal hierarchy; and in the 5th and 6th centuries Arianism seems to have lacked the aggressiveness of the Roman Church. Western Catholicism had its greatest difficulty with this sect in the mid-4th century, when the sons of Constantine, one of whom was an Arian, ruled the empire. At one time the bishop of Rome actually was led to subscribe to Arian teaching. In the East, Arianism continued more strongly and weakened the Greek Orthodox Church for a time.

The Barbarian Invasions.--The time of peaceful Germanic infiltration was followed by the flood. Whole tribes moved across the borders from the north, sometimes following the river valleys and seeming to inundate the empire. The barbarian hordes came in, not to see but to possess, and where their objectives were resisted, they fought, ravaged, and destroyed. Not only the provincial cities were besieged, but Rome itself was attacked. Augustine was pondering the great theme of his book The City of God while the Vandals were besieging Carthage in North Africa (430). The people of the Roman Empire could scarcely believe that Rome and other great cities were being attacked.

The Visigoths, already Arian Christians when they moved into the empire, swept down into Italy, sacked Rome (410), then moved across the northern Mediterranean littoral into Gaul (France), and finally into Spain, where they established a kingdom. This kingdom, however, failed to survive a later invasion by the Moslem Moors of North Africa (711-719), and from its ruins has come the Spain of today. Leaving some of their number in Swabia, the Suevi moved across Gaul (406) and occupied the northwest corner of the Spanish peninsula, where was laid the foundation of present-day Portugal. The Burgundians, also Arian Christians, migrated into Switzerland, and occupied the Rhone Valley of Gaul. They left the Nibelungenlied as an epic of their struggles. The Alamanni moved across what is now Germany and settled in western areas. The Franks, a pagan Germanic people, occupied Gaul, where they soon accepted Roman Catholic Christianity. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, crossing the North Sea from the Frisian lands of the Netherlands and Denmark, landed in Britain, drove back the Celtic Britons, and became the dominant inhabitants of the land (c. 450-455). They too became Roman Catholic. The Lombards crossed the Alps and entered Italy (568), where they were a sore trial to the Byzantine governors of Italy and to the popes of Rome. They were also brought into the Church of Rome.

These were not all. The Arian Vandals had preceded the Visigoths, moving across Gaul into Spain (409), and then had crossed at the Strait of Gibraltar into North Africa, where, turning eastward, they occupied the prosperous cultured cities of colonial Rome (430). North Africa was a center of Roman Catholic Christianity, but the Vandals were of a persecuting turn of mind and were determined that the Roman Catholics should become Arian in faith. The results were unhappy indeed for the Roman Catholic Christians of North Africa, who were in no position to defend themselves. Finally the emperor Justinian, seated in Constantinople, but having the whole of the empire under his nominal rule, sent armies into North Africa, and by 534 had completely vanquished the Vandals. Under the influence of the Church of Rome, one of the "ten horns" of Daniel, descriptive of the Germanic tribes of Western Europe, was thus uprooted (see on Dan. 7:8).

In the 5th century, long before the Lombards entered Italy (568), some members of various Germanic tribes had become auxiliaries in the Roman army in the vicinity of Rome, and Odovacar, a leader of these Germanic tribes, was appointed general over the auxiliaries. In 475 the Western emperor Nepos was driven into exile, and the successful rebel Orestes elevated his 14-year-old son Romulus Augustulus to the purple. Orestes caused a mutiny among his mercenaries by refusing to accede to their demand for a division among them of one third of the soil of Italy. Odovacar now took things into his own hands, and in September, 476, he was proclaimed king, while Orestes was made prisoner and beheaded. Augustulus was removed from the throne, but his life was spared. This revolution, which occurred in a.d. 476, is sometimes considered as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire.

It must be noted that Odovacar did not claim to be emperor, nor did any barbarian king of that era make such a claim. Indeed, Odovacar took the insignia of imperial rule that he found in Rome and sent them to Constantinople, saying that he would have no use for them, nor would anyone else, for there would not again be anyone ruling as emperor in the West. The Eastern emperor was then titular ruler of the whole Roman Empire.

But Odovacar and his Arian followers soon found themselves at odds with the Roman Catholic authorities and later in trouble with the invading hordes of Ostrogoths from the East, who, under the benevolent Theodoric, occupied Italy. After less than twenty years of the Herulian and Rugian rule of Odovacar, the latter was put to death by Theodoric, and the Ostrogoths came into undisputed control. Under Theodoric's successors, the Arian Ostrogoths continued at odds with the Catholics. Then Justinian, emperor in Constantinople, came to the aid of the Roman Church, whose bishop he had recognized by law as "head of all the churches." Having only recently conquered the Vandals, he now sent his forces into Italy. For twenty years his armies campaigned against the Ostrogoths. By 538 the Ostrogoths were driven from Rome, which they occupied only temporarily afterward, and by 554 they ceased to exist as a people. Thus the third and last of the tribes that proved unable to live at peace with the Church of Rome came to an end. See on Dan. 7:8.

The tribes that remained became the forerunners of the European nations of today. They either turned from paganism to Roman Catholicism or were converted to it from Arianism.

Conversion of the Barbarian Tribes.--In England the Angles and Saxons, who had entered the empire as pagans, became Roman Catholic about the year a.d. 600. In France the Franks, who entered as pagans, became Roman Catholic before a.d. 500. Into Germany, which in the Latin and French languages is "the land of the Alemans," the Alamanni entered as pagans and became Roman Catholic at about the same time as the Franks. Into Switzerland and Burgundian France (the Rhone Valley), the Burgundians entered as Arian Christians, accepting Roman Catholicism about a.d. 520. Into northern Italy the Lombards entered as pagans and became Roman Catholic about a.d. 600. Into Portugal the Suevi, a branch of the Germanic tribe that gave its name to Swabia in Germany, entered as Arian Christians and became Roman Catholic about a.d. 575. Into Spain the Visigoths also entered as Arians and became Roman Catholics about the same time. The three principal tribes that disappeared were the Herulian-Rugians in Rome under Odovacar, the Ostrogoths, who replaced them but likewise disappeared from Italy about a.d. 554, and the Arian Vandals in North Africa, who were cut to pieces in a.d. 534. Each of these resisted Roman Catholicism and was destroyed as a people.

Greek Orthodox Caesaropapism.--Unlike the Western church, the Greek-speaking Catholic Church, which came to be called the Greek Orthodox Church, was weakened by its struggle against Arianism and by a number of other serious theological controversies that did not particularly trouble the West (see pp. 28, 29). Another difficulty experienced by the Greek Church arose from its relationships with the Roman emperors of the East, seated in Constantinople. The imperial government of the East generally dominated the Greek Orthodox Church. Although many of the Eastern emperors were weak men, the church was never able to operate independently of the government, but existed under a relationship to the state which has been called caesaropapism. This expression describes a close union of church and state, with the emperor having a large influence in ecclesiastical affairs. The line of emperors was not seriously interrupted in the East as it was in the West, and the Patriarch of Constantinople was never able to rise quite to the height of power that the pope in the West attained. Another divisive element lay in the fact that Eastern orthodoxy always acknowledged several patriarchs, equal in rank, thus depriving the Patriarch of Constantinople of full ecclesiastical power.

Papal Power Fills the Political Vacuum.--It was on the political side that the Roman Catholic Church had its difficulty with the Germanic Arians. During the Constantinian era, the period of Constantine and his immediate successors, the empire of the West experienced a serious economic depression. There had been floods, droughts, local wars, and problems of taxation and labor supply that resulted in a breakdown of the agricultural economy, and as a result thousands of acres of land were left idle. Mediterranean commerce had been seriously impeded by war, and especially by the piracy of the marauding Vandals of North Africa.

The cost of operating a clumsy and venal bureaucratic government had become enormous, and high taxes were levied upon whole communities, with the municipal authorities responsible for the payment of the heavy exactions. When unable to meet the levies, these officials were subjected to severe punishment. They frequently fled the cities to become fugitives in remote country districts, often yielding themselves to the patronage of the remaining wealthy landowners. This was the beginning of feudalism, on the economic side.

Into this situation in the Western half of the Roman Empire the barbarians infiltrated en masse. Suffering as it was under economic hardship and governmental mismanagement, the populace resisted very little the coming of the barbarians, and even hoped that with the collapse of central government and the formation of local administrations by the new earls and counts, they might enjoy some measure of economic and political relief.

The situation, of course, constituted a problem for the Roman Catholic Church and its bishops. With the collapse of Roman provincial and municipal government the Roman Catholic bishops were, in many cases, left as the most influential officials, and the people looked to them for leadership. In more than one situation the bishop served as mayor or provincial governor, and occasionally even took over command of local armed forces. When the invading tribal leaders, who bore the title of counts, moved in, there arose both political and religious rivalry between these men and the Roman Catholic bishops. Eventually, in many cases, the difficulties were solved cooperatively by the bishop and the count. It became a common practice to hold mixed provincial councils at which bishops and nobles sat down together. Ecclesiastical as well as political and economic problems were discussed at these councils. Thus, gradually, Roman life and politics in the West became Romano-Germanic life and politics, and the culture took on a new complexion. With the destruction, or conversion, of the Arian tribes, some of the causes of difference were removed. Gradually a division of power and influence was recognized, and Western Europe began to emerge from its mixed Germanic and Latin cultural background. The German bishops and abbots naturally looked to their own kings for political leadership, but they looked to the pope of Rome for leadership in ecclesiastical matters.

But the church was in a large measure the heir and preserver of the surviving elements of the old Roman culture in Western Europe. The church inherited, for example, its monarchial and hierarchical form, its language, its capital and geographical divisions, its prestige as the center of authority and culture; also certain religious rites, and even the pope's title "Pontifex Maximus." It was "the continuation of the Roman Empire." (See Source Book, No. 1359.)

The fact that there was no emperor in the West after the expulsion of Romulus Augustulus from the Western throne in a.d. 476 obviously gave the papacy a remarkable opportunity to move into the vacancy thus created. The church took as the basis of its claim to power the removal by Constantine of the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Constantinople. A monk of the latter years of the 8th century actually made this thesis of imperial evacuation the basis for a document that he wrote and titled the Donation of Constantine. In this document it was pretended that Constantine willed to the pope of Rome not only ecclesiastical authority in the West but broadly interpreted political power and material possessions that would have made him virtually ruler of the West. Such the medieval popes actually claimed to be.

III. The Early Middle Ages (A.D. 590-800)

Emergence of the Monarchical Papacy.--The 6th century witnessed a remarkable increase in papal power. It began with the papacy in weakness, dominated by the emperor Justinian in Constantinople, the emperor who had authorized the destruction of the Vandals in North Africa and of the Ostrogoths in Italy. As a matter of fact, it was the removal of these barbarian tribes that, in no small measure, opened the way for the development of papal power, and prepared for the imposing pontificate of Pope Gregory I, called "the Great," from 590 to 604.

Gregory systematized church ritual and promoted monasticism, which was gradually becoming popular in the West though still looked upon with some suspicion. He was vitally interested in missionary activity, and was responsible for sending the monk Augustine to Britain to introduce Roman Catholicism there. However, Christianity had gained a firm foothold in Britain long before this. He organized troops for the defense of the city of Rome against the Lombards, who were both a thorn in the papal flesh and a real menace to his power. He became virtually the civil governor of Rome and its surrounding territories, practically replacing the weak exarch of Ravenna, who was supposed to govern Italy for the Byzantine emperors. From then on, despite weak popes, the papacy continued to grow in power, while the influence of the emperor at Constantinople became less and less in the West and finally vanished. The distinction between Western, or Latin, and Eastern, or Greek, Christianity became more and more marked.

Monasticism.--The five centuries beginning in the mid-6th century have been called the monastic age because members of the monastic orders came to represent an increasingly large and influential segment of society. The monasteries developed leaders who exercised a molding influence on Europe and helped to strengthen the papacy.

Monasticism, which means "living alone," had existed before the Christian Era in paganism, among individuals who sought the cultivation of the inner life in seclusion and asceticism. In the church it began with individuals who withdrew from society in an attempt to practice Christianity on a higher plane than was expected of the ordinary church members. As early as the 4th century men fled, not so much from the world as from churches already become worldly to their eyes, to the desert, at first near Alexandria, Egypt, and soon elsewhere. Presently the hermits became so numerous that they gathered into communities and began to follow rules of conduct, with hours specified for devotion, meals, labor, and study. These monks soon constituted a huge army, which the church was wise enough to hold within its grasp rather than lose as critical schismatics.

The monastic movement quickly spread throughout Christendom, drawing men from normal economic, social, and family life. It spread to the Latin West, where in the 6th century Benedict of Nursia drew up a practical monastic rule, adapted to Western conditions. In time numerous monasteries following the Benedictine rule were founded over the length and breadth of Western Europe. However, the rule was virtually the only tie among them, for each monastery was autonomous. Vows of poverty, obedience, and celibacy were, presumably, to be maintained by all the orders.

Their influence was felt far beyond the cloisters, not only in religious teaching but also in administrative, economic, and political circles. As a broad generalization it can be said that only in the monasteries was the light of learning preserved and the ancient literature saved for later ages by the monk copyists. But increasing influence, wealth, and power brought abuses and corruption among both monks and clergy, which resulted in reforms introduced by the Cluniac order (see p. 29) and others.

The Rise of Islam.--Less than a century after the death of the emperor Justinian the Eastern Roman Empire was confronted by a dangerous foe, Islam. Mohammed was a little-known Arabian merchant with meager education. In his travels he had contact with both Jews and Christians and read at least a little in the Hebrew Scriptures and perhaps in the Christian New Testament. Mohammed decided that the superstitious animism of the Arabs was wrong and that there was only one God, to whom worship belonged exclusively. He began to claim that he himself was God's prophet, one of a long line which included the Hebrew prophets and Jesus of Nazareth, but of which he himself was the greatest and clearest teacher of truth.

Islam declared the utter sovereignty of God (Arabic, Allah) but knew nothing of atonement for sin and had no priesthood. There was no savior. The will of Allah was supreme, and those who lived a life of obedience to his will could anticipate enjoying the beauties and pleasures of Paradise.

Mohammed met with bitter opposition when he began to preach, but nevertheless gathered some followers. The historic birth of the movement dates from Mohammed's hegira, or flight, from Mecca to Medina. This occurred in a.d. 622, and is the date from which all Moslem chronology is reckoned.

It was only after Mohammed's death that Islam began to take on the force of a great political and military movement. The primitive spiritism of the Arabs was bankrupt as a religion, and the people of the desert were ripe for a new religious experience. Therefore Islam spread among the desert tribes as though borne upon the winds, and the Arabs proved to be fervent devotees of the new faith. The leadership of Mohammed, but not his prophetic gift, was passed on at his death to certain of his male relatives, the caliphs, who became the temporal and spiritual rulers of the growing Mohammedan empire.

The growth of this astonishing empire came just at the time when Eastern Rome was weakened by costly and bloody wars with the Neo-Persian Empire. Not until 628, only six years after the Hegira, had the emperor Heraclius been able, finally, to defeat the Persians. It was therefore an exhausted Eastern Rome that met the attacks of the furious, zealous Islamic Arabs. The Arabs struck north and attacked Palestine, Syria, and the Persian Empire at the same time. The Persian capital fell in 636. Jerusalem surrendered in 637, followed by the capture of Antioch in Syria. Egypt was taken in 640.

The Moslems now built a great fleet and proceeded westward, conquering province after province in North Africa and filling the partial vacuum created by the extinction of the Vandals. In the meantime Slavic tribes had been moving down from the north into the region of the Balkans and the Danube Valley, and the Eastern Roman Empire found itself severely pressed on all sides.

Continuing their westward march across North Africa, the Moslems crossed the Strait of Gibraltar in 711. Finding the Visigoths rent by internal disorders and politically disorganized, the former were able, within two years, to conquer all of Spain except the mountainous Biscay coast, where the Basques remained free. Twenty years later, in 732, the Moslems crossed the Pyrenees and invaded Gaul, or France, where they were halted. In a bloody battle near Poitiers they were defeated by a Frankish leader, Charles Martel, and turned back with severe losses.

France Champions the Cause of the Papacy.--Charles Martel founded what was virtually a new dynasty in France. The Franks had established themselves in Roman Gaul more than two centuries previously under their tribal leader Chlodowech, or Clovis, who led them into Roman Catholicism. Upon Clovis' death the country had been divided among his sons, and later their successors, who ruled their small kingdoms with an almost unbelievable record of petty civil war and bloody violence. The Merovingian line, descended from Clovis, was now weak. Charles Martel was the chief officer, or "mayor," of the palace. He had led the Frankish forces in conquests that had not only consolidated the Frankish kingdom but had taken over much of adjoining western and southern Germany. His defeat of the Moslems assured the safety of southern France.

Charles disregarded the rights of the last of the Merovingian house and provided that his own sons become rulers of the Frankish empire. Charles's son Pepin, who became sole ruler of the Frankish realm, took the title of king in 752 and held it until his death in 768. One of the things accomplished during his reign was a reform of the Frankish clergy. This reform was accomplished through Boniface, a monk from England who became archbishop of the Frankish church and missionary to the still-pagan Germans.

A significant act of Pepin's reign was his invasion of Italy and his defeat of the Lombards there. When he declared his intention of coming into Italy, Pope Stephen II, in recognition of his avowed objective of freeing the papacy from the pressure of the Lombards, legitimatized his claim to kingship by crowning him king of the Franks. Pepin defeated the Lombards, restored Stephen to occupancy of the city of Rome and to the properties the pope claimed, and then granted "to Peter" all the territories the Lombards had taken from the exarch of Ravenna, who had been governing Italy for the emperor at Constantinople. This Donation of Pepin, as it is called, marks the beginning of the Papal States of the Middle Ages.

IV. The High Middle Ages (A.D. 800-1216)

Charlemagne.--It was Pepin's son Charles, known in history as Charlemagne, that is, Charles the Great, who completed the rounding out of the Frankish empire and consolidated medieval Europe. He completed the conquest of the Lombards of Italy, whose iron crown he assumed, and conquered the German Saxons. He also drove the Moslems back from the region of the Pyrenees. Charlemagne strengthened the internal political organization of his empire, assigning counts to each area and organizing annual missions, or delegations, each made up of a count and a bishop, who went from place to place inspecting and regulating affairs in his name. This aided in a further reformation of the Frankish church. Charlemagne protected the church in his realm, reorganized it, and dominated it, even to the control of the pope. He enforced Sunday laws on a new basis--regarding Sunday as based on the fourth commandment. He also gave attention to a form of education, a much-needed development.

Late in the year 800 Charlemagne moved down into Italy, where Pope Leo had encountered serious difficulty with some of his personal enemies. Charlemagne investigated the case and restored Leo to his papal throne in the city of Rome. On Christmas Day the king and his retinue, along with the pope and his attendants, were at service in the old church then standing on the site of the present Basilica of St. Peter. At the conclusion of the service Leo stepped up to the kneeling Charlemagne, placed a diadem upon his head, and declared him Charles Augustus, Emperor of the Romans.

That Charlemagne had planned this affair is doubtful, but that he had given some thought to a time when he should assume the title of Roman emperor is quite probable. It had been 324 years since any Western king had borne the title of emperor of the Romans. From the year 800, almost continuously, there would be a Western Roman emperor, at least in title, until Napoleon unseated the last one in the year 1806. However, there were now really two empires, an Eastern and a Western, and not simply two portions of one empire, as formerly.

The Iconoclastic Controversy.--Theological controversy also contributed to this sundering process between East and West. What proved to be perhaps the most prolonged and bitter argument was concerned with the nature of Jesus Christ. For an extended discussion of the course of this conflict see Vol. V, pp. 911-916. It is significant, however, that these great theological controversies did not particularly involve the Western Church (see Vol. IV, p. 836). In the West, Christianity was not rent by any major divergence in theological thinking. Rome found its way along a rather practical path of doctrinal teaching during these centuries, and was able to lead along the road of Roman orthodoxy the churches it had helped to found throughout Western Europe. The fact that the East was rent with controversy and that these controversies were solved in Greek terms led to an increasing separation between East and West.

The division was accentuated by the outbreak of the iconoclastic controversy, the dispute with the "image breakers." As already noted, the 8th and 9th centuries found the Eastern half of the Roman Empire involved in a terrific struggle against the spread of Islam. The Moslems were intense monotheists, fanatically insisting that there is but one God, in Arabic called Allah. With that there came a determined rejection of the use of any kind of statue, image, or picture in religious worship. In this, Islam was marching along with Judaism, which interpreted the second commandment of the Mosaic Decalogue as forbidding any physical portrayal of Deity.

The controversies concerning the nature of Christ as the unique Son of God that had been rending Eastern Christianity presented a distressing contrast to the simple monotheism of Islam. More than this, from the 3d century onward there had been an increasing use in the church of pictures and, later, images of Jesus. These portrayals were used first as aids to devotion for simple Christian folk who could not read the Scriptures for themselves. Gradually the practice developed of venerating these images. The appearance of various statues of Jesus, as well as those of the Virgin Mary and of the saints, increased rapidly in the church, and the spectacle of Christians kneeling and praying before these statues became common.

All this the Moslems called idolatry; wherever they found opportunity in the provinces they conquered they considered it a virtue to destroy the images. There were many, also, within the Eastern Church itself who keenly felt Christianity's inability to meet this challenge of Islam. Hence a strong movement developed within the church to eliminate all kinds of images of the person of Jesus. Those behind this movement came to be called Iconoclasts, and as such were not satisfied merely to dispute the right of the church to have the images, they even took active measures at times to destroy them.

So serious did this dispute become during the 8th century that a second Council of Nicaea was called in a.d. 787, to decide which view was right. Should images continue to be used in the churches, or should they not? Should there be painted representations, or not? The Western Church had already made clear, through a declaration by Pope Stephen III, that it wished the use of images to continue. When the council met, Iconoclasm was condemned, the iconoclastic bishops yielded or were deposed, and image worship was restored. However, this council did not end the controversy, and eventually the Greek Orthodox Church reverted to the exclusive use of two-dimensional representations, ruling out the three-dimensional, which the Western Church maintained. Hence today one sees pictures of the Christ, but no statues, in Greek and Russian Orthodox churches, while in the Western Church one sees both.

Schism Between East and West.--It has been pointed out that in the early centuries, because of differences of language, of culture, of theological outlook, and of doctrinal views, the Eastern and Western wings of the church had gradually drawn apart. This tendency was accelerated by the virtual end of the influence of the Eastern emperors in the West, particularly after the latter had to divert their attentions and energies to stave off the spread of Mohammedanism. The iconoclastic controversy helped to widen the breach, and in the 11th century other differences were accentuated, both of ritual and of theological interpretation. Among these were the questions of whether leaven should be used in the sacramental bread (the Western Church took the view that it should), whether there should be fasting on the Sabbath (the Eastern Church took the view that there should not), and whether the clergy should marry (the Western Church taking the position that they should not). These differences, and others of less significance, presently became acute. The patriarch of Constantinople hurled anathemas at the pope of Rome, and the pope hurled anathemas at the patriarch. Finally, in the year 1054, the crisis came. The patriarch and the pope each proceeded to excommunicate the other. This schism, separating the Eastern and Western churches, has never been healed.

Division of Charlemagne's Empire.--Further note must be taken of the great changes that, by the year 800, had come into what was once the Roman Empire. The Eastern half of the empire was Greek-speaking and Greek-thinking, although it still considered itself essentially Roman. It was much restricted in territory, being pressed from the north by the Slavs and from the east and the south by the Islamic hordes. All North Africa, once a center of Latin culture, was in the hands of the Moslems, and so was Spain. The Latin language, once universally spoken in the West, was gradually developing into Italian in Italy, French in France, and so on. The Lombards and Franks were still using their Teutonic dialects. Charlemagne, the new Western Roman emperor, ruled northern Italy, and the territory from northern Spain through France and the Netherlands to the borders of Denmark, and eastward approximately to the Elbe.

Before Charlemagne died he divided the rule of his empire among his three sons. His intention was to have one son rule the central area, roughly corresponding to the Lowland region west of the Rhine, Lorraine, and Italy; another to rule over Germany, which became the basis of the so-called Holy Roman Empire; and the third to be king of France and northern Spain. Although this triple bequest was upset by the premature death of two of the emperor's sons, it laid the foundation for the national boundaries of medieval Europe, but also resulted in jealousies, disputes, and conflicts that kept Western Europe in turmoil.

The Cluniac Reform of the Church.--In the 9th and 10th centuries the papal chair was occupied by weak, and often wicked, men. The church was decadent, and spiritual and moral life suffered tragically. Culture was at a low ebb. The successors of Charlemagne restored the title of Roman emperor and intermarried with the imperial house of Constantinople. It even looked for a time as though the old Roman Empire might be restored as a united dominion, but this did not take place. Attempts were made to restore the prestige of the papacy, and several German bishops who proved capable administrators occupied the papal throne in Rome. This meant that the papacy was, for a time, under the supervision of the Holy Roman Empire.

In the 10th century there arose in France a remarkable movement for church reform, stemming from the founding (910) of the Abbey of Cluny, near Mâcon, under a modified Benedictine rule. Other cloisters were brought under the rule of Cluny, and from that order there went out dedicated men whose purpose it was to purify the church. Increasingly they gained positions of influence in various parts of Western Europe, and eventually came to dominate the church.

The Cluniac reform, as this movement is known, had a definite program. It insisted primarily on a reform of monastic life, which had deteriorated. Actually, of course, the monastery had a right to call for reform only on the monastic level. But as its pupils went out and secured places of influence in the church, the reform assumed a wider program. It called for a change in the life of the clergy. It demanded that church property should be managed for the good of the church and not for the benefit of those who had the administration of it. To achieve this end, the reformers demanded the freedom of the church from the control of kings and the nobility, who after all were but laymen, and full assertion of the rights of the church.

Since the bishops and abbots of the church were for the most part men of noble blood who wielded great political influence in their own right, it had become important for kings and dukes to secure the appointment to high ecclesiastical office of men who would cooperate with them in the administration of the affairs of their kingdoms and duchies. Hence, it had become customary for bishops and abbots to be appointed by the empire and its agents. This, the Cluniac reformers insisted, must cease. Investiture of bishops and abbots must be under the authority of the pope and at the hand of his representatives, without interference from the lay aristocracy.

The Cluniac reformers therefore condemned both the crime of simony, the purchase of church office, and also the assignment of a person to church office by lay, rather than ecclesiastical, hands. Such objectives called for nothing less than the complete revamping of the whole system of successions and appointments in the church, and brought under challenge all the manifold political involvements that held churchmen in their grip. Involved also was the handling of the vast, widely dispersed, and oftentimes feudally held properties of the church, which, it is estimated, amounted in the 11th century to about one third of the landed wealth of Western Europe. In short, the Cluniac reform was tantamount to a revolution.

Despite the widespread influence of the Cluniac reform, gross abuses which grew ever more flagrant in the church led loyal churchmen to engage in persistent efforts to secure a genuine and thorough reformation. Later, it was the persistence of abuses that convinced Martin Luther, as it had Wyclif, Hus, Jerome, and others before him, that the papacy held no divine mandate to rule the lives and consciences of men.

The Investiture Controversy.--The battle between church and state, along the lines laid down by the Cluniacs, is known as the Investiture controversy. Henry III (1039-1056), Holy Roman emperor, was very active in seeking to lift church life to a higher level. He was able to come to terms with, or to dominate, the powerful German nobles, as well as to keep the peace in Italy. He took definite steps to reform the church, and put some of his German churchmen on the throne in Rome as popes. He did not oppose the Cluniac reform, perhaps not discerning its challenge to royal and ducal power.

His son, later Henry IV, was only five years old when Henry III died in the year 1056. The imperial rule was left in the hands of regents, the queen, and some of the German nobility. For a while Henry IV was under his mother's tutelage, but later became the ward of two politically powerful archbishops of Germany. Accordingly, he probably knew far more about political machinations than he did of the finer things of life when he was declared king of Germany at the age of 15. This took place in 1066, the very same year that William the Conqueror crossed the English Channel under papal encouragement and overthrew the last of the Saxon kings of England. The powerful German nobles were restless under the boy king, and from the very beginning of his active reign Henry's problem was to keep these unruly nobles of the empire under some kind of control. He naturally sought to place his friends in positions of power, and of course desired to have his supporters installed in high church office. He therefore made appointments, both lay and ecclesiastical, as he had opportunity, of a sort to strengthen his political hand. This was quite in line with what had been done for decades, indeed for centuries, but it was contrary to the program of the increasingly powerful Cluniac reformers.

The reform movement became of greater significance when papal officers took a hand in it. Prominent among these was a deacon in the city of Rome, Hilderbrand, a Lombard of wide vision, tenacious will, and a remarkable dedication to what he conceived to be the interests of the church. He was a whole-hearted supporter of the Cluniac reform, and may indeed have spent a little time in the monastery at Cluny. Hildebrand, as deacon, worked with the reigning popes to strengthen the church in every way, and undoubtedly was an active agent in papal manipulations for a number of years before his appointment as pope. It was while he was deacon that the election of popes by the college of cardinals was instituted as a substitute for the previous disorderly method of election by acclaim of the people. This was a major triumph of the Cluniacs.

Hildebrand's election as Pope Gregory VII took place in the year 1073, when Henry IV, a young man of only 22 years, was actively working to consolidate his hold upon the empire. The new pope addressed himself in a kindly way to the young king, with the obvious hope that the latter would look to him as a father and adviser. But this friendly relationship gradually deteriorated. Henry was not willing for the pope to dictate who should occupy the German bishoprics, and eventually he defied the pope. As a result Pope Gregory excommunicated Henry. Applying the ban to Henry meant, of course, that all the German nobles and bishops who were opposed to the young king's program would use the excommunication as an excuse for repudiating him as king and setting up another in his stead.

Out of this combination of circumstances arose the famous incident at Canossa, at this late day difficult to analyze and evaluate. The excommunication had been issued in the fall of 1076. Henry, realizing the threat of the ban to his whole future career, set off across the Alps in the dead of winter, accompanied by two German bishops, hoping to come to some sort of terms with Gregory. In the meantime Gregory had started for Germany, where the nobles had requested him to come to arrange for the election of a new king. Gregory had traveled as far as the Tuscan castle of Canossa when Henry arrived asking for an audience. The pope was much perplexed as to what to do or say. He felt that Henry was unfit for the rulership, and knew that he now had the opportunity to displace him. On the other hand, if Henry was sincerely penitent, it was the pope's duty to absolve him. In his perplexity, Gregory kept Henry waiting three days outside the castle gates in the cold of January. Finally he gave the penitent Henry audience, and when Henry knelt before him Gregory absolved him.

Evidently realizing that to continue to Germany at this time would be useless in view of the turn of events, Gregory returned to Rome. Henry went back to Germany, carried his current conflict with the nobles to a successful conclusion, and re-established himself as king. His was a troubled reign, however, and he never made real peace with Gregory. Indeed, a little while before Gregory died Henry drove him from the city of Rome and installed in his place an antipope who, in turn, crowned Henry emperor. Gregory died in exile. He is quoted as saying, "I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile."

Henry IV's son, Henry V, carried on the Investiture struggle, but eventually, in the year 1122, a compromise was reached, known as the Concordat of Worms. By the terms of the agreement the pope of Rome, or his agent, was to appoint bishops to vacancies, with the approval of the king concerned. A legate of the pope was to invest the bishop with his ecclesiastical authority and insignia, while an agent of the emperor invested the bishop with his secular powers. This was only a compromise, and was not satisfactory except as a temporary means to an unquiet peace. As a matter of fact, serious struggles continued between the church and the state. The question was broader than whether the church should be free from the state. The church, because it represented the spiritual side, claimed to hold a superior authority, as speaking for God. It was a question, therefore, whether the church should dominate the state, or whether the two should work side by side, with the church continuing to own vast material resources and thereby to wield tremendous political influence. Logically, what actually happened was that when the rulers were weak and the papacy strong, the church dominated, and when the reverse was true the secular arm was able to wield the greater power. Both church and state suffered in consequence, as did the peace and progress of Western Europe.

Though at different periods of history the Holy Roman Empire included various areas of Western Europe, its center of gravity was always north of the Alps, in the German states. The political rivalry between pope and emperor that constituted the theme of the Investiture controversy also contributed in a major way to the success of the Reformation in that many of the German princes, from political as well as religious motives, proved to be ardent and effective sponsors of the great revolt against Rome.

The Crusades.--The ostensible reason for the Crusades was to rescue Palestine from the Moslems. Constantine had been concerned with preserving the holy spots in the land of ancient Israel, and Charlemagne had done what he could to protect the sacred sites in that revered land, which had been overrun by Islam only a few years before his reign.

The Arabian wave of the Moslem invasion had practically spent itself by the opening of the 10th century. But the 11th century saw the influx of a different breed of men. From the farther east came wave after wave of Seljuk Turks. These Turkish hordes, coming in touch with Islam, had accepted that religion with extreme fervor. They swept over ancient Persia and the Mesopotamian valley, then moved across Asia Minor (now modern Turkey) which had not before this fallen into Moslem hands. Thus the Turks were virtually at the gates of Constantinople. This occurred in 1071. About this same time the Seljuk Turks swept into Palestine and took Jerusalem.

The Eastern Roman emperor appealed to the West for help. Pope Gregory began to plan for a relief force. But, of course, aid for the Eastern empire was by no means Pope Gregory's only motive. The 11th century had seen pilgrimages increasing to the holy places of Palestine; however, the coming of the Seljuk Turks had interfered with these enterprises.

But Henry IV kept Gregory occupied, and it was not until 1095 that anything definite was done. In that year Pope Urban called a council at Clermont in France. The East was pressing for help. The Turkish leaders had begun to quarrel among themselves. Pilgrimages were being interfered with more and more. Besides, Western commerce with the East was suffering. There was another problem, too, that the pope must solve. There had been no respite in the petty wars among the feudal nobles of Western Europe. Blood was flowing, and castles and towns were being destroyed, with an accompanying disturbance of the countryside and of agriculture. At Clermont the pope frankly appealed to the nobility of Western Europe to cease fighting among themselves and to turn their martial energies to the nobler objectives of freeing the holy places of Palestine from the Moslems. The idea took hold with almost fanatical energy. "It is the will of God," the multitude cried.

The crusade originating at Clermont was the first, and in many ways the most successful. It was not a king's crusade. Lesser nobles led the large companies of knights who united as an army to recover the holy places of Palestine. Thousands of the fighting men of Europe took the cross, met at agreed assembly points, and moved eastward over one road or another. As they passed through or near Constantinople they received the welcome of the emperor there, and having formed their armies, proceeded eastward into Asia Minor, where they defeated the Turks. They then turned southward into Syria, taking city after city on their way. Finally the crusaders reached the city of Jerusalem. That city was taken from the Moslem forces in 1099, after a short and bloody siege, and the enemy was put to the sword, with little mercy. Eventually a Kingdom of Jerusalem was established, which was maintained for nearly 100 years. Indeed, three principalities were set up in the ancient Syrian lands. The Frankish principalities of the East were, of course, organized on a feudal basis, and all the ruling nobles took an oath of fealty to the emperor Michael of Constantinople--a cause of future trouble.

Half a century later, after the Turks retook some of the territory they had lost, the Second Crusade was organized under the fervent preaching of the famous churchman, Bernard of Clairvaux. The Second Crusade was a kings' crusade, with Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany taking the cross. This crusade, begun in 1147, had collapsed by 1148.

A generation later there arose in Egypt a great Saracen leader, Saladin. Saladin was himself a chivalric knight of Islam, but when aroused by a truce violation perpetrated by the Franks of Jerusalem, Saladin set out on a jihad, or holy war, against the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. After a short siege, Jerusalem was again in the hands of the Moslems, in the autumn of 1187. The immediate result was the declaring of the Third Crusade. This crusade (1189-1192) was unique in that it was fostered by the approval of a great church council, and was the result of a strong feeling in Europe that, by allowing Jerusalem to fall again into the hands of the infidel, God was punishing Western Europe for its sins. The emperor Frederick Barbarossa led eastward a large force of German knights, who were, however, almost all destroyed in lost battles following the accidental drowning of the emperor in eastern Asia Minor. Richard I of England and Philip Augustus of France led important contingents in the crusade, and various places in Palestine were laid under siege. However, in spite of the eminence of the leadership and the careful organization of the crusade, it accomplished very little. Most of the three years spent by the kings in Palestine was consumed in an alteration of petty fighting and truces with Saladin, the outcome of which was the recognition of mutual rights shared in certain cities of Palestine, and of the privilege of Christians to make pilgrimages to the holy places of Jerusalem. Jerusalem remained, however, in the hands of Saladin.

The Fourth Crusade, which followed quickly after the third, was the most successful of all the crusades except the first, in terms of the objective to which it was diverted, and also the most disgraceful. Planned and financed by the powerful merchant republic of Venice, the crusade was diverted from a legitimate objective in Palestine to an attack on another Christian state, the Eastern Roman Empire, at Constantinople. It did its work during the early years of Pope Innocent III (1198-1216), one of the most intelligent and most powerful of the popes. That the pope knew the Fourth Crusade would finally make an attack upon Constantinople cannot be doubted. That he ever gave his consent cannot be certainly known. But in 1204 the Western armies took Constantinople, which the Turks had been unable to do, and the Greek Roman Empire became, for a time, a Latin kingdom. There were other crusades later, all virtual failures, but none so despicable as this. It brought to the West no real gains, and so weakened the already enfeebled Eastern Empire that 250 years later, in 1453, Constantinople, the last Christian bastion in the East, fell into the hands of its Islamic foes, this time the Ottoman Turks, and Constantinople became the capital of Islam.

The High Tide of Papal Power.--Innocent III engaged in politics in other ways than the Crusades. King Frederick Barbarossa was succeeded by his son Henry VI, married to Constance, heiress of the kingdom of Sicily, which the Normans in southern Italy had rescued from the Saracens. This meant that all of Germany and Italy were now united under the Holy Roman Empire, a mighty empire awaiting the rule of Henry's infant son, Frederick II. Henry VI soon died, and there followed a struggle for the throne between Henry's brother Philip and Otto, a German noble. Pope Innocent III held the balance of power in this contest, and was indeed himself virtually emperor. Eventually Otto was the acknowledged ruler. Later Frederick II became emperor, and carried on a running battle with a succession of popes until he died in 1250. The struggle for power weakened both the empire and the papacy.

Innocent III did more than dominate the Holy Roman Empire. He compelled King Alfonso IX of Leon to straighten out his marital affairs, under pain of excommunication. He brought to heel defiant King Philip Augustus of France. He directed papal wrath upon King John of England, and actually received from John the realm of England as a grant, then turned it back to him as a feudal fief of the papacy. This was the John from whom the English barons exacted at Runnymede, in 1215, the famous Magna Charta, the first provision of which is that the Church of England shall be free. Innocent III also contributed to the theological development of the Roman Church, and it was at his demand that the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215, voted the doctrine of transubstantiation as a dogma of the church.

In 1208 Innocent III authorized and blessed a bloody crusade against the Albigenses of southern France, where culture, literature, and the arts, as well as independent religious growth, had reached exceptional heights. As a result they were stamped out without mercy.

V. The Late Middle Ages (A.D. 1216-1517)

The Inquisition.--There grew out of this and out of the doctrinal disunity, with the accompanying emergence of dissenting sects, the intolerant, persecuting institution known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Throughout the preceding centuries the detection of heretics had been the responsibility of the bishops, each one of whom was supposed to function as an episcopal inquisitorial court. But the work had been done indifferently, and heresy, schism, and sectarian division were making almost a mockery out of the unity that the church had always envisioned and vociferously claimed.

Hence the papal Inquisition was devised to supplant the episcopal function. Stimulated by crusading zeal, challenged by such defiant sectarianism as the Albigenses demonstrated, and given an example by the authoritarian discipline of the great Innocent III, a later pope formally established, in 1229, the Holy Office of the Inquisition. This instrument of torture and hatred hounded any whom the church suspected of heresy, and turned them over, when convicted, to the state to be punished by imprisonment or burning at the stake.

The Revival of Learning.--This dark period of persecution was, strangely, also a period of intellectual enlightenment. Much of this came from Islam, which contributed immeasurably to the intellectual rebirth of Western Europe. With the collapse of Western Roman imperial government in the middle of the 5th century, coinciding with the influx of the intelligent but unlearned barbarians, Western culture went into an eclipse paralleling the economic collapse that then took place. Western Christendom lived for centuries in crude and superstitious ignorance, relieved only temporarily and superficially by a revival of learning in the era of Charlemagne. Accordingly the centuries extending from the middle of the 5th to the middle of the 10th century are sometimes referred to as the intellectual Dark Ages. Dark they were, spiritually and morally as well as culturally. The term Dark Ages is extended by some to include the succeeding centuries up to the time of the Reformation, because of the crushing of dissent and religious freedom during that time by the papacy. This was spiritually a dark time, indeed. But thus to extend the application of the term is to disregard the great revivals of learning that took place after the 10th century.

There were several revivals culture, some general, some local. Of these, the upsurge of intellectual interest in the 12th century was an outstanding precursor of the wide-reaching humanistic Renaissance of the 14th and 15th centuries, which prepared the way for the Reformation.

The sources of the revival of learning were four: (1) the natural fertility of the Western European mind; (2) the small stream of Greco-Latin culture which the Roman Catholic clergy had quietly kept flowing, mainly in the monasteries; (3) a trickle of Greek learning provided by scholars fleeing from the invasion of the Ottoman Turks; (4) but chiefly, Islamic sources. When the Arabs conquered Eastern Rome and North Africa, they were culturally hungry, and were amazed at the wealth of Greco-Roman and Persian culture that came to their hands. They took it over, gave it new life, adapted it to their Arabic and Islamic ways of thought, and made it their own. The result was a brilliant Islamic civilization, centering chiefly at Baghdad on the Euphrates and at Cordova in Spain. The Jews, who had much in common with the Arabs, contributed also.

This Moslem culture the Christian peoples of Western Europe at first viewed with suspicion, as if it were a sort of magic. But gradually, through Spain and by way of the early crusades, it reached the Western mind. A revivified Greco-Roman education was provided the West in an Islamic dress. The mathematical, medical, and scientific knowledge the West thus gained was large and practical, but it was the transference to the West of ancient philosophy, chiefly Aristotelian, that aroused Western Christendom and even affected Roman Catholic theology. This intellectual revival culminated in the great Renaissance, or rebirth of learning, of the 14th and 15th centuries. By stimulating men to think for themselves, by demonstrating that the Roman Catholic Church was far from being the sole custodian of knowledge, and by leading devout men to study the Scriptures in their original languages, the Renaissance made an inestimable contribution to the Reformation.

Papal Decline and Schism.--A century after the time of Innocent III it was evident that the papacy had entered a period of decline that seemed to presage its death. Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) came to the throne at a time when nations, with the virility of a fresh nationalism pushing them on, were facing each other across the boundaries of Europe. England and France were fighting recurring wars over English feudal holdings in France, and a strong king of France was again defying a pope, this time by seeking to tax the clergy. Pope Boniface VIII endeavored to deal with kings as Innocent III had done, but the times and personalities were not the same, and he failed. The result was that succeeding popes were dominated by a strong France, and from 1305 to 1378 the popes were Frenchmen, ruling a truncated Roman Church from a tiny papal feudal holding, Avignon, in southern France. During this era, known in church history as the Babylonian captivity, the city of Rome shrank to the size of a small town, with an estimated population at one time of less than 20,000.

The Babylonian captivity of the papacy ended in an even worse perplexity for the papacy and for Europe. A pope was elected, pledged to rule from Rome, and he did. But another, a French pope insisted on reigning from Avignon. Two popes were now ruling what Boniface VIII had 75 years before proudly called "one holy church"! The division that resulted is called the Great Schism. When the Council of Pisa sought in 1409 to heal the schism by electing a pope and deposing all rival popes, it only made matters still worse, for now three popes pretended to have right to the chair of St. Peter. The situation was at last resolved by the Council of Constance (1414-17), which was able to achieve the unseating of the three rival popes and the election of one single pontiff. Another accomplishment of the Council of Constance was to order the burning of the two Czech reformers, Hus and Jerome. This the servants of the emperor did in spite of an imperial safe-conduct previously issued. After this the papacy was held by men far more concerned with the humanistic arts and literature that the Renaissance was fostering, than with the salvation of men or the welfare of the church. Only the adverse challenge of the Reformation brought to the pontifical throne popes with some sense of spiritual responsibility. The Babylonian captivity of the church and the Great Schism unmasked the weakness and corruption of the church for all of Western Europe to see, and thus prepared the way for the momentous Reformation which followed in the 16th century.

New Religious Orders.--Reference has been made to the influence of the Cluniac monastic system and of the reform it fostered. The monastic system continued, however, to become increasingly corrupt, until the people distrusted and disliked monks and felt that the church cared for nothing but wealth.

In the 12th century many reform movements rose, teaching voluntary poverty and a return to a pure and simple life, and denouncing not only the practices but also many of the doctrines of the church (see the next section). Some were preaching without church authorization and distributing the Scriptures in the vernacular instead of in the official Latin version.

The church's reaction to most of those in these groups, early in the 13th century, was not only to excommunicate them as heretics but also to prohibit the translation and use of the Bible in the vernacular, to punish the dissenters, and in some cases, to mount a crusade of extermination (i.e., the Albigenses in France). Another reaction was the founding of new orders within the church to combat heresy, using the same tactics of itinerant preaching and working among the people to convert or confound the heretics, to instruct the faithful, and to help the needy.

A new kind of religious order evolved early in the 13th century, which devoted itself to public preaching, and did not confine itself to monastery buildings. In Southern France a man named Dominic, from Old Castile, had seen the pious and peaceable lives of the Albigenses, and appealed to friends of his to join him in living equally good lives within the church and for the benefit of the church. His proposal was approved by the pope, and the Dominican order was born. This order gave much of its attention to education and took over, quite largely, the work of the Inquisition.

At about the same time a young Italian, Francis of Assisi, son of a wealthy merchant, distracted by the enormous wealth of the church and attracted by the monks' vows of poverty, decided to give up his claim upon the family wealth, renounce his social position, and devote himself to a humble life of service to the poor and needy. He invited the pope, bishops, and wealthy nonchurchmen to join him in his self-abnegation.

The idea that the church should give up all its material possessions, as a cure for all its own ills and a solution of its difficulties with the state and with feudal society, was not new. Emperor Henry V had proposed this very thing to the papacy, but the pope had then rejected it, as the pope now rejected Francis' suggestion. Francis came near to separating from the worldly church he sought to correct, thus earning its wrath. Later (1498), Savonarola of Florence was tortured, hanged, and burned for somewhat similar efforts at reform. However, Francis stayed in the church, and with the pope's approval established the order of St. Francis, to serve outside the confines of a monastery, though under monastic rules, and to devote itself to works of goodness and charity.

The Dissenting Reform Movements.--The idea of voluntary poverty for Christ's sake and the attempt to restore the simple, pure Christianity of the New Testament had far-reaching consequences. Several 12th-century "Poor Men" groups, such as the followers of Arnold of Brescia (c. 1100-1155) and Peter Waldo of Lyons (c. 1173), ended in challenging the whole papal system and in some cases calling the church Babylon and the pope Antichrist.

All of these movements were actually part of a ferment of dissent that had, for centuries, been challenging the boasted unity of the church. There were the Patarines of northern Italy (c. 1056), who attacked the immorality of the clergy. There were the Passagians, a strange sect that wandered over Lombardy admonishing men and women to hold to the true gospel. There were the Sabbatati, whose singular custom of wearing wooden shoes (sabots) with the symbol of the cross was a sectarian sign. There were the Cathari, literally, "the pure," (related to the dualistic Bogomils of the East) who were in Lombardy in the 11th century and spread over Western Europe, of whom the group in Southern France was known as the Albigenses. Though some of these were partly heretical in doctrine, their purity of life aroused the admiration of the people and the wrath of the loose-living ecclesiastics. The Albigenses were stamped out by a crusade in 1208.

Most prominent of the dissenters, and surviving still in Northern Italy, were the Waldenses, or Waldensians. When Peter Waldo and his followers were exiled from Lyons, they went into Lombardy, in Northern Italy, mingled with older groups there, and nurtured seeds of dissent already sown. These French-Italian Waldensians spread to Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, and other parts of Europe. Their early teachings, known from the writings of their Catholic opponents, were admitted to be orthodox, that is, in harmony with the Apostles' Creed, but their disregard of the authority of the church caused them to be classed as heretics. Persecution gradually reduced them to the present remnant in the mountains of Northern Italy, west of Turin.

They had "barbes," or pastors, serving groups of congregations and traveling about as missionaries and overseers. They had a communion service simpler than the mass, though they varied on the doctrine of transubstantiation. Noted for their faith in the Bible as the Word of God, they distributed manuscript copies of the Scriptures in the vernacular. Waldensians rejected the invocation of Mary and the saints, disparaged many of the rituals, denounced oaths and the death penalty, and ignored papal prohibition of their preaching. Some rejected purgatory. They disregarded holy days of the Catholics, though most of them observed Sunday. The Waldensians hailed with joy the beginnings of the Reformation, and joined hands with the Protestants of France and Switzerland. This brought their worst persecution, from French and Italian rulers, during a hundred years and more, until finally they were granted religious freedom by the Duke of Savoy in 1694. Today the Waldensians form part of the Presbyterian family of churches.

In the latter part of the 14th century in Prague, Moravia, Hus and Jerome began to teach reforming doctrines. This activity cost them their lives, but gave birth to the Utraquist (communion in both kinds) and Taborite reform movements, and the "Unitas Fratrum," or Bohemian Brethren, or Czech Brethren. These groups bade fair to sweep nearly all the Czechs, Moravians, and Slovaks into their fold. Bitter warfare waged against them by imperial armies was not able to quench the evangelical fires they started. In the 15th century the Netherlands was stirred; the Brethren of the Common Life, a semimonastic movement of men of a contemplative and pietistic spirit, began to talk in a new way of faith and the gospel.

All these reform movements, inside and outside the church, attempted, in varying degrees, to restore an evangelical type of Christianity. The fuel of reform was laid. It remained only for the sparks to fall from a chosen personality, under the right circumstances, for the fires of a great spiritual awakening to burn. The minds and souls of men were awaiting the release that the Lutheran Reformation was to bring.

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The Reformation and Onward

I. Conditions Before the Reformation

In the Middle Ages the church pervaded every domain: state and society, science and business, literature and the arts. It claimed that its power went even beyond the grave and that it could open or close the gates of heaven. The layman was born into the church. To be a citizen meant to be a church member.

From the 6th century through the 12th the papacy had gradually (and not without setbacks) become the most centralized power in Western Christendom, reaching its peak in the 13th century; but in the following centuries there appeared increasing signs of decline (see the preceding article, also Additional Note on Dan. 7 in Vol. IV). The people were spiritually undernourished, and doubt and confusion increased. Greek philosophy and pagan thought permeated theology, and controversies arose. Many popes were more interested in wars or the fine arts than in their duties as spiritual leaders. These trends, it is true, were opposed by certain leaders and thinkers such as the mystic, Bernard of Clairvaux.

Attempts to Reform the Church.--The papacy, which Bernard of Clairvaux and other mystics desired to be essentially religious, was itself a cause of disunity. The popes had found many and devious means of enriching the coffers of the church; simony had greatly increased. One after another, lucrative offices were created and offered for sale to the highest bidder, by a church that had become almost wholly mercenary-minded.

Moreover, the popes imposed themselves as the arbiters of kings and called for political differences to be submitted to them for arbitration. The controversies of the popes with secular powers brought the papacy to embarrassing division, with three popes finally claiming Peter's chair (see page 37, under "Papal Decline and Schism"). Church councils were able to resolve the problem as to papal succession, but not the more basic one of moral reformation. For seventeen years the Council of Basel, convened in 1431, attempted, unsuccessfully, to reform the abuses of the church, which had drifted into utter moral bankruptcy, a fact which a majority of churchmen acknowledged and deplored.

John Wyclif (c. 1320-1384).--Events on the Continent had their repercussion in England, where the constant interference of the pope in national affairs was deeply resented. The dissatisfaction of England was especially voiced by John Wyclif, who was trained at Oxford and later taught there. Oxford eventually became the citadel of Wyclif's reformatory movement. At first he gained a reputation as a speculative philosopher, and later as a leader in the field of ecclesiastical politics. In the 1370's he launched a movement whose objective was to reform the abuses in the church.

When, in 1365, the pope assessed England for back dues for thirty-three years, Wyclif became his country's champion in opposing the claim. He argued that England had the right not only to disregard Pope Urban V's claim but to be reimbursed for funds that had been wrongly administered by the church, and that, furthermore, England should take the initiative in imposing certain reforms on the church.

While at Oxford, Wyclif mentioned on various occasions, especially in his Sermones, the great impression made on him by the reading of the Bible, and how his eyes were thereby opened to the condition of the church. Most of his ideas are set forth in his Summa Theologiae, and more especially in his De Civili Dominio ("On Civil Government"). He strongly protested against the Avignonese system of exactions and declared that the church must not function as a temporal dominion.

Wyclif had the temperament and courage of a reformer. He attacked the doctrine of transubstantiation and proclaimed the sole authority of the Scriptures. But it was his concept of the church itself that was most effective in arousing the pope to plot his removal as a critic of papal policy. The financial situation in the church convinced Wyclif that it should seek poverty rather than power. His ideas coincided with similar trends on the Continent, where poverty was considered a virtue, and wealth, particularly money, the "root of all evil." The less the church had to do with money, he declared, the better off she would be spiritually. Like Wyclif, the Franciscans, the Spirituals, the Waldenses, and the Brethren of the Common Life considered wealth to be the cause of corruption.

Wyclif defined the church as the community of those who are predestined to blessedness; none who are eternally lost have any part in it. There is but one universal church, and Christ is its head. The church continues to exist even if it has no visible head. Yet there should be human leadership, of the right kind, and the right leader is not one chosen by cardinals but one "elected" by God. If an elector is himself not among the elect, Wyclif warned, then he may choose a false leader, an antichrist. The true leader is one whose teachings and life most nearly follow Christ, whose rule is not of this world. These ideas concerning the church are stressed in the last chapters of the Summa, entitled "On Simony," "On Apostasy," and "On Blasphemy."

Wyclif translated the New Testament into English on the basis of the Vulgate; the Old Testament translation was the work of Nicholas of Hereford. Wyclif organized a popular movement of evangelism, sending priests and laymen two by two, barefoot, and bound by no vows, to preach in all sections of England. These emissaries, the Lollards as they were referred to in the Bull of Gregory IX, survived Wyclif and laid the foundation for the later English Reformation. "Every learned man that you meet is a Lollard," said a contemporary. The Wyclifites were often called Bible men.

John Hus (1369-1415).--The influence of Wyclif went far beyond his own country. It was particularly strong in Bohemia. The most faithful of Wyclif's disciples was John Hus, who followed Wyclif's teachings almost literally. Hus was a learned man, a professor at the University of Prague, an eloquent preacher, and an ardent patriot. Like Wyclif, he was determined to reform the church, particularly the morals of the clergy. He likewise wrote an essay on the functions of the true church. In the disputation of 1412 on indulgences he quoted from Wyclif's De Ecclesia. When Pope John XXIII (later omitted from the lists as a false pope) offered full indulgence to all who would fight against the king of Naples, Hus protested vehemently. The church, he argued, must not engage in warfare. Moreover, the pope had no right to sell the forgiveness of sin. Here again, his sermons are an exact reproduction of Wyclif's.

Condemned by the pope, Hus stated that God was his protector, the only head of the church. When called before the Council of Constance in 1415, Hus went with an imperial safe conduct, but he refused to retract his alleged "errors" unless they were proved false by Scripture. "I cannot," he said, "without lying to my conscience, consider that I have committed the errors of which I am accused."

Like Wyclif, Hus proclaimed the Bible to be sole authority in matters of faith, the church to be made up of true believers, the elect, and the pope not to be infallible. Hus was branded a dangerous heretic and burned alive in 1415.

Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498).--Though Dante referred to Italy as "an abode of sorrows," others considered it a vast playground. The pope turned against medieval asceticism and was drawn into a turmoil of festivities; some priests, such as Ficino, turned to pagan literature, feeling that the church was unable to offer them solace or salvation. The worsening of moral conditions went hand in hand with the glorification of paganism. In Florence, where the Médicis were in command and had suppressed civil liberties, a Dominican preacher of the convent of San Marco, Girolamo (Jerome) Savonarola, became convinced that he had been ordained by God to denounce the corruption and tyranny of the church and its degenerate leaders. He predicted that God would punish the church unless it repented. Greatly under his influence for some time, the people of Florence ousted the Médicis and endorsed a reform in morals, the punishment of blasphemy, and the destruction of all implements that were used in amusements or gambling. The pope's attempt to appease Savonarola by offering him a cardinal's hat only increased his reforming fervor.

Preaching fearless sermons inspired by the messages of Bible prophets, Savonarola insisted on salvation through Christ alone and not by meritorious works. "When the entire ecclesiastical power is corrupt," he cried, "it is necessary to go to Christ who is the first cause and say to Him: Thou art my Confessor, my Bishop and my Pope" (trans. from Eugene Choisy, Histoire Generale du Christianisme [4th ed.], p. 80).

Savonarola was very widely opposed--by the young noblemen, by the Franciscan order, by the defenders of the Médici, and especially by Pope Alexander VI, a Borgia. Abandoned by some of his supporters, Savonarola was accused of being a false prophet and a heretic, and was strangled and then burned at the stake in 1498, upon orders of Pope Alexander. The pontiff was particularly annoyed by his attacks on the see of Rome and by his demand for a church council that would dismiss the pope as impious and corrupt.

II. The World on the Eve of the Reformation

A new world slowly came into existence about the year 1500. The transition between the medieval world and the modern age was gradual and generally imperceptible. The forces that had in large measure lain dormant preceding the Reformation period became apparent and asserted themselves with urgency and force.

The greatest menace to the West for more than 800 years had been the Moslem pressure. The Moors had taken over Spain, and the Turks later pushed from the East ever closer to the heart of Europe. In Reformation lands the Moslem peril was particularly felt. For a time Luther was so impressed by the Turkish threat that on various occasions he preached crusading sermons against the Turks, and feared that the end of the world would come before he could complete his translation of the Old Testament into German.

Among the more significant conditions that developed in Western Europe about the beginning of the 16th century are the following.

Emergence of Nationalism.--Strong, centralized states arose and threatened both the more or less unchallenged international power asserted by the papacy during the Middle Ages, and the sway of the Holy Roman Empire in Central Europe. Independent nations gradually evolved into absolute monarchies, which form of government eventually became the pattern for all of Western Europe.

Spain was dominant during the 16th century. Gaining enormous wealth from the New World, she, with her rapidly increasing sea power, posed a major challenge to other nations. France, where strong Protestant parties existed within the body politic, was drawn into a series of bloody civil-religious wars. Eventually the first Bourbon king, a former Huguenot, Henry IV of Navarre, set France on a course of expansion and colonialism that led, in the following century, to the royal absolutism of Louis XIV and to the hegemony of France on the Continent.

England became nationally conscious in the 16th century when, under the Tudors, the country expanded, independent of papal interference, and started on its own way as a nation, eventually gaining over Spain and Holland the mastery of the seas and developing a vast colonial empire. This irresistible trend toward individual nationalism is not unrelated to the religious Reformation.

In the 16th century religion was the major issue of the day. The great sovereigns of Europe had to face this issue, which affected the course of events in their realms. In England, Henry VIII (1509-1547) came into conflict with Rome. In France, Francis I (1515-1547) constantly vacillated between Protestant and Catholic influences, depending on the way the political wind was blowing. When the king needed the alliance or support of the Lutheran princes in Germany in the struggle against Charles V, a mild form of Protestantism was temporarily permitted in France. Charles V (1519-1556), head of the Holy Roman Empire, emperor of Austria, and sovereign of the German States, was the most powerful ruler in Central Europe. His dominions ranged from Austria to the New World, and from the Low Countries (now Holland and Belgium) to Spain and Italy.

The Reformation was directly influenced and advanced by this political pattern, for the ambitions of the Austrian emperor and of the king of France resulted in a constant state of war between the two sovereigns. This situation repeatedly diverted the attention of Charles V from his lifelong purpose to crush the Reformation. He was a stanch Roman Catholic, anxious to maintain order and establish unity in his vast domains scattered all over the globe, and his son, Philip II of Spain, was even more fanatically Catholic.

The Opening of the Sea Routes.--With the dawning of the 16th century the horizons were enlarged and new continents were opened. Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian discoverers found sea routes to India and the East Indies, the storehouse of spices. Columbus reached the island shores of the Western world in 1492. The globe was circled for the first time in 1519-1522 by the Portuguese Magellan. At the same time the Spaniards under Cortes took possession of Mexico. Some of these adventurers were zealous for their religion. Columbus believed that the end of all things was approaching, and one of his declared motives was the conversion of the peoples of the new lands. Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal, the "brain" of so many expeditions across the unknown seas, had a passion for the spreading of Christianity; and Magellan, whose expedition went round the world, had deep religious motives also.

Cultural Development.--The Renaissance, or rebirth, of the arts in the 15th and early 16th centuries on the pattern of the classical Greek masters consisted in the creation of new architectural styles, a revival of letters, and the fostering of the fine arts by wealthy patrons such as the M‚dicis of Florence, the kings, and the popes. The great Italian masters created works of art that attained an unsurpassed degree of classical beauty in painting and sculpture in Italy, Holland, and Germany, while France excelled in architecture. The 16th century was crowded with important men and ideas, some generously creative, others seditious. Adventurous, fearless men entered new lines of thought, discarding the revered concepts of the past. Artists, scholars, soldiers, and philosophers were drawn into this irresistible current. What had been a chimera became reality; what had been real disappeared. While the troubadours still sang their songs from castle to castle, feudalism was gradually fading away. The rebirth of the arts recaptured the vision of the beauty of antiquity, while the press became an effective means of propaganda. The frantic desire to be free caused some to catch the light that came from that "chasm of science" referred to by Rabelais. Even the human body lost its mysteries. While young Servetus discovered the pulmonary circulation of the blood, Rabelais, in an anatomical dissection before an interested audience at Lyons, explained the fabricam corporis (the fabric of the body).

Science.--Copernicus (1473-1543), a contemporary of Luther, advocated the revolutionary idea that the sun, and not the earth, is the center of the universe, and that the earth revolves around the sun, not the sun around the earth. That was heresy. The church clung to the ancient Ptolemaic theory that the earth was the center of the universe, and that all the heavenly bodies circled around it. Peter Lombard (c. 1100-c. 1160) had declared, "Just as man is made for the sake of God--that is, that he may serve Him--so the universe is made for the sake of man--that is, that it may serve him; therefore is man placed at the middle point of the universe" (Albert C. Knudson, Present Tendencies in Religious Thought, p. 43). Copernicus was considered a heretic by Protestants as well as Catholics. He did not dare advocate his ideas openly, nor did Galileo (1564-1642), who also believed that the earth was rotating on its own axis while circling around the sun. For this scientific heresy Galileo was imprisoned, tried, and barely escaped execution by outwardly renouncing his scientific opinions. The medieval superstitions hung on until, after some time, men saw the light and had the courage to follow it.

The growth of science and wealth was both a challenge and a threat to Christianity. It was a threat because it increased a desire for wealth and encouraged the exploitation of new-found continents for selfish motives; the love of gold often resulted in the oppression, if not the elimination, of natives. It was also a challenge to bring Christianity to far-flung places. The Jesuits had some idea of overseas missions, but the Reformers had little concept of world evangelism; the missionary vision came later, with the Pietist sects. The new science was a threat to the Catholic Church because it aroused men to think for themselves. And there were Protestants as well as Catholics who denounced the new theory, proposed by Copernicus, that the earth moved around the sun.

Intellectual Unrest.--A revival of liberal culture and a new spirit of criticism helped to unmask certain fraudulent documents that had been used for some eight centuries to bolster the authority of the church, for example, the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals and the Donation of Constantine. The shaky foundations of the medieval systems were affected by the new thinking. The new concepts developed by Northern European humanism were rapidly diffused in the universities and through the pamphlets that came from the presses of Basel and Paris. Again, the enthusiasm for new learning was a challenge and a threat to the Christian--a challenge because it offered almost unlimited possibilities for the propagation of the gospel, in which the new inventions were an unexpected help; and a threat because of the spirit of skeptical criticism that could easily undermine the foundations of a positive Christian faith. This was evidenced in the feud between Luther and Erasmus concerning the freedom of the human will. Erasmus endorsed the idea that the will is free, while Luther argued, presumably from the Bible, that the will is in bondage. Erasmus did not ultimately command the confidence of all Protestants, and the Catholics placed his books on the Index after the Council of Trent (1545-1564).

Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466?-1536) is called the prince of humanists. His keen mind and vast knowledge contributed much to the reform movement at a certain time. Erasmus' ideal was to appeal to the consciousness of Christendom through the Sacred Writings; to that end he published (1516) the New Testament in Greek (see Vol. V, p. 141). The text was accompanied by a Latin translation, with annotations. Luther used this text in his lectures on Galatians, and it was through Erasmus' text that Luther was made aware of the inaccuracies in the Vulgate. This Greek text enabled Martin Luther to translate the New Testament in the short period of a few months. Outstanding Germans, like Reuchlin, for example, also contributed to the knowledge and the furtherance of the gospel.

In England Thomas More, the author of Utopia, envisioned an ideal world of happiness and social justice, whereas John Colet of Oxford sought to solve the problems of his day through education. The humanists, the intellectuals of the Reformation Era, aimed at a solution of the troubles of their age by going back to the thinking of ancient Greece and Rome. They held that man was able to contribute to his own salvation, and would be helped best by education and an enlightened leadership. Emphasis was placed on human rather than divine means of improvement.

Economic Unrest.--Another significant characteristic of this period was a great increase in wealth, resulting in part from the discovery of gold on the new-found continents and in part from improved business methods. This wealth, however, was largely controlled by a few princes, and much of the land was held by the church. In Germany, for instance, nearly one half of all land was owned by the church. In France the situation was similar. The serfs and peasants who worked the land and were attached to the soil had no freedom. To fish or to hunt on the land where they worked was forbidden, and to cut down a tree on that land could be punished by death.

The average man in Renaissance times was hungry and cold. The vast majority of the population were not able to live on their meager income. Martin Luther referred to these deplorable economic conditions in his tract of 1520 addressed To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation. He indicated that the times had changed and that the poor could not be oppressed any longer. The peasants understood this to mean that Luther would henceforth be their spokesman and defender.

Superstitions.--A belief in the merit of works and in the miraculous power of relics was cynically endorsed and encouraged by the church. Almost every prince, certainly every church, had relics that were an important source of revenue. In Luther's day "relic religion" was rampant. Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, Luther's prince and friend, was a zealous collector of relics. By 1509 his collection listed 5,005 items. By 1520 it had grown to include 19,013 holy bones. Those who viewed the relics on All Saints' Day (November 1) and made the stipulated contribution might receive from the pope indulgences for the reduction of time in purgatory, either for themselves or for others, to the extent of 1,902,202 years and 270 days. In utter contempt Luther exclaimed on one occasion: "What lies there are about relics! One claims to have a feather from the wing of the angel Gabriel, and the Bishop of Mainz has a flame from Moses' burning bush. And how does it happen that eighteen apostles are buried in Germany when Christ had only twelve?" (in Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand, p. 296).

Opposite the Church of St. John Lateran in Rome is the Scala Sancta, the 28 stairsteps which, it was supposed, had stood before Pilate's palace. He who ascended these stairs on his knees, reciting on each step a paternoster, presumably accomplished the release of a soul from purgatory.

Indulgences.--Penance was taught and practiced in the church before the Council of Nicaea (a.d. 325). It consisted in the following steps: (1) the contrition of the heart, (2) an auricular confession, (3) satisfaction by good works, and (4) absolution, or forgiveness, of sins, pronounced by the priest in the name of God. In the 8th century, in some countries, at least some of the good works could be replaced by cash donations to the church. From this came papal indulgences, first granted in the 11th century to those who, "from devotion," went on the Crusades; then to those who made certain contributions to the Crusades or, later, to various church projects. Absolution now preceded the prescription of penance. In the 13th century penance was declared a sacrament (see Vol. VI, p. 44), but it was more than a century later that the theology of indulgences was explained as payment of the debt of penance from the church's "treasury of merits," on which the pope could draw. It was held that on the penitent's confession to the priest, God forgave the guilt of the sins confessed and the eternal punishment, but that the sinner still had to bear the temporal punishment either in this life or in purgatory, before he could enter heaven. An indulgence was the remission of all or a part of the temporal punishment that remained due on account of sin, after its guilt had been forgiven. It was granted on condition of penitence and the performance of prescribed good works, such as prayers or other good deeds, or giving money to the church.

The Treasury of Merit.--The martyrs, the saints, the apostles, and especially our Lord and His mother had done more than their share of good works, it was believed, and what was over and beyond the need for their own salvation had been deposited in a supposed "treasury of merit." These surplus merits of the saints were said to be transferable to those whose accounts were in arrears. Of course, the pope, as the alleged successor of St. Peter, held the keys to this treasury of merit, and he could loose men from temporal punishment by assigning them credit from this "treasury." The transaction was then called an indulgence. That point was discussed, later, by Luther standing before Cajetan at Augsburg in 1518.

The practical value of indulgences, therefore, was the remission or payment of penalties that were due after a person had received absolution. But half a century before Luther, Pope Sixtus IV had declared that the efficacy of indulgences extended to purgatory for the benefit of the dead "by way of suffrage" as well as for the living "by way of absolution," not so much the remission of the debt of punishment as its payment from the church's treasury of merits.

Undercurrents of Reformation.--Even before Martin Luther began to call for reformation of the church there existed a widespread faith among simple, pious Christians that went back to the Lollards, the Hussites, the Waldensians, and the Brethren of the Common Life, all of whom advocated the translation and circulation of the Bible and the reading of devotional literature. Many of those pre-Reformation movements were eminently mystic. The true evangelical mystics emphasized a life of prayer and meditation and access to God without the interposition of a mediating priesthood. They stressed the religion of the heart and feeling rather than that of the theologian. This intense religious devotional life was an important means of preparing the way for the Reformation in the hearts of thousands.

Generally speaking, these earlier attempts at reformation were not aimed at separation from the Catholic Church. None, in fact, had started with the aim of breaking away from the church. Many of these pre-Reformation groups continued to accept the priest and the rites of the church, but only as aids to the spiritual life. Even Martin Luther had no thought, at first, of breaking with the church. He attempted only to correct abuses. In fact, the great Reformers did not break with the church primarily because it was corrupt in practice and in teaching, but rather because the church refused to accept the principle of Holy Scripture as the basis of its teachings. The Reformers were concerned with a changed way of life, but even more with acceptance of the principle of justification by faith. The primary clash between the Reformers and the Catholic Church was on the basis of the acceptance or rejection of the great Reformation principles: (1) the Bible as the only acceptable authority for faith and practice, (2) justification by faith alone, without the merit of good works, and (3) the priesthood of all believers. When the Catholic Church refused to accept these principles, the great secession in the Western Church was inevitable.

III. The Reformation in Germany

Martin Luther's Early Experiences.--The movements for separation from the Church of Rome and for the liberation of conscience sprang up simultaneously in various places. The roots of Protestantism go back to the early church--to Augustine, to the Waldenses, to the mystic preachers and sects of the Middle Ages, to Wyclif and John Hus. But above all, Protestant teaching has its roots in the Bible, particularly in the epistles of Paul.

Martin Luther, foremost of all Reformers, was born at Eisleben, November 10, 1483. His parents were industrious citizens and strict in rearing their seven children. Martin was reared in a typical German Christian home. The fear of God and belief in the reality of angels and demons deeply affected him. He learned to conform closely to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. His manner of life was that of the peasant, whose language and temperament remained with him all his life. He was sturdy, diligent, brilliantly endowed, and was considered an excellent student. His studies followed the usual medieval pattern. He attended the famous University of Erfurt, where he was trained by Occamist teachers (cf. p. 42), who were the modernists of the time. Occam had taught that Christianity cannot be demonstrated by reason but must be accepted by faith on the authority of the teachings of the church. Occam doubtless exerted some influence at the beginning of Luther's studies, but Luther later turned against these "hoggish theologians," as he called them. After obtaining his Master's degree he began to study law in harmony with his father's desires.

Two months later, in July, 1505, Luther suddenly announced his decision to become a monk. Very impressionable, he had been frightened by a bolt of lightning, and in terror of death promised St. Anne that he would become a monk if his life was spared. Although the decision was abrupt, his high-strung temperament and sensitive conscience were ready for that step. At Erfurt he had experienced an intense sense of moral guilt. This became more frequent in his later life. He entered one of the Observant Augustinian cloisters at Erfurt. It is significant that he became a disciple of Augustine, who is credited with much of Protestant theology. Luther was, as he said, more carried into the monastery than drawn into it. His friends were amazed, and his father was highly displeased, for the move deprived the latter of the fond hope that his able son might offer him security in his old age. But Martin Luther had made a vow to St. Anne, and he purposely selected an order that enforced strict discipline as this alone seemed, at the time, to promise peace of mind and the salvation of his soul.

But the monastic life brought him neither peace of soul nor conviction of having received salvation. Staupitz, the vicar-general for Germany, ordered him to study theology, and in 1507 he was ordained priest. In celebrating his first mass he was so overcome by awe at the idea of entering into the very presence of God that, as he later said, he would as soon have run away. Many months of distress of soul followed. He referred often to that anxious period in the monastery by depicting the terrors of his heart, especially when he lectured on Galatians. He fasted often, prayed with intensity, mortified his body, went to long confessions every day, yet he did not attain assurance of salvation, and eventually his anguish became unbearable.

On a visit to Rome in 1511 on business for his order he was shocked by the carelessness of the Italian clergy and the corruption of relic-ridden Rome. He ascended Pilate's staircase on his knees, saying a prayer on each step in the belief that he could thus release a soul from purgatory. Luther's son Paul heard his father refer to this staircase incident when he was eleven years old, and recalled it in 1582, thirty-six years after his father's death. The son said, writing of his father, that when Martin Luther "was saying his prayers on the steps of the Lateran Staircase, the verse from the prophet Habakkuk entered his mind, ... `the just shall live by faith'" (trans. from Otto Scheel, Dokumente zu Luthers Entwicklung [1929], p. 210).

However, Luther seems to contradict his son's later report when he recalls the staircase experience in his sermons and commentaries. His most significant statement was made in 1545 (one year before his death). Recalling this incident, he said: "In Rome I wanted to deliver my grandfather from Purgatory, and I ascended the Staircase of Pilate, reciting on each step a `Pater Noster.' For there was a belief that he who prayed in this way would save a soul. But when I arrived at the top, I was thinking, `Who knows if it is true?'" (Predigten des Jahres 1545, col. 1, 9ff., Nov. 15, 1545, WA 51, 89, trans. from Scheel, op. cit., p. 197). Both recollections could be true.

Back in Germany he pursued his theological studies, as instructed to do by his superiors, but he was greatly influenced in his thinking by Gabriel Biel, of the Brethren of the Common Life. Biel was a disciple of Occam, and his ideas were quite fashionable in the Germany of Luther's day. Luther also diligently read Pierre d'Ailly, Gerson, Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas, and especially Augustine. The doctrine of predestination made him particularly restless and more distressed than ever. The thought of an arbitrary God who would predetermine a man's salvation caused him great distress. In fact, he was afraid of God, and went so far as to say that he came to "hate" God. His heavy duties gave him no release of soul. He was appointed professor of theology at Wittenberg, a university that had been founded in 1502 by Frederick the Wise of Saxony, who later became Luther's sympathetic protector.

Light finally entered Martin Luther's soul. The Reformer found God by direct contact when it dawned upon him through meditation and study that man is justified by faith alone without either the deeds of the law or the merit of good works. The road to peace and salvation was open before him. In his lectures on the Psalms (1513), Romans (1515), and Galatians (1517) he reasserted that faith is not merely an intellectual yielding to God's will but a complete surrender and a full confidence in God through Christ. His insistence on faith was so definite that when he translated the New Testament he added the word "alone" to "faith" in Rom. 3:28. This word is not in Scripture, he well knew, but argued that it had been used before by others such as Ambrose in translating this passage, and was satisfied that this concept is in harmony with the spirit of Bible teaching. Although he would not dismiss good works from a Christian life, he definitely discarded them as a means of earning God's grace.

When Luther saw the light of the gospel his course was set. He had the solution to his own problem with regard to salvation, but that did not prevent him from having spells of depression from time to time. In fact, with regard to the Christian life, he was of the opinion that a true Christian is at the same time justified and yet in another sense a sinner to the last day of his life. He felt compelled henceforth to pass on to others what he had experienced, particularly by means of his lectures, sermons, and writings. Like other priests of his time, he insistently pressed for a moral reformation of the church.

Beginning of the Reformation.--In 1517 indulgences were sold all over Germany by Tetzel, a Dominican monk. The entire proceeds were, officially, to help in the building of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, which seemed, to most men of that day, a worthy objective. In reality, 50 per cent of the revenue from the sale of indulgences had been allotted to the payment of a debt contracted by Albrecht of Brandenburg, who had purchased, among others, the archbishopric of Mainz. As explained on p. 48, the issuance of indulgences was based on the belief that the pope could draw on the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints, a storehouse of supererogatory works, to remit the temporal penalties for sin both for the living and for souls in purgatory. And Tetzel claimed for these indulgences even more than the church officially taught.

For some time Luther had openly questioned the validity of indulgences, especially since the people bought them in the erroneous belief that they were buying God's forgiveness and the right of absolution. To him this traffic was a scandal, because forgiveness is the free gift of God and cannot be sold. God forgives freely, as Luther knew from experience; no intermediary priesthood is needed, and the church has no jurisdiction over forgiveness. The true treasury of Christ, he argued, is the treasure of God's infinite grace. Luther attacked the entire system of penance and indulgences. The Ninety-five Theses, which he posted, in Latin, on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, are commonly regarded as beginning the Protestant Reformation.

The Ninety-five Theses proved to be an immediate and immense success. Luther himself was surprised, and questioned later whether he would have drafted them had he realized what their effect was to be on the minds of the people. He wrote apologetically to the pope six months later. But the battle had now been joined, and Luther was not a man to back down. His adversaries, such as Prierias, argued that the church is right and that the pope does not err. In the course of the struggle Luther was led step by step to assert that both pope and council could err. "The word of God alone is infallible," he declared, implying that the pope's authority is to be rejected (trans. from Choisy, Histoire Generale du Christianisme [4th ed.], p. 88).

At Augsburg, in 1518, the papal legate, Cardinal Cajetan, asked for Luther's submission to the pope's authority. But Luther had become a Christian in his own right, and he refused to submit to any pope. He would accept only the authority of Scripture, saying, "I would rather die, be burned or exiled, than go contrary to my conscience" (ibid. [1923 ed.], p. 95). Luther's attitude strongly resembled that of Hus a century earlier at the Council of Constance. This analogy was immediately and astutely seized upon at the debate at Leipzig in 1519, where Luther was cross-examined by Dr. John Eck, a humanist professor at the University of Ingolstadt. Luther's cause was now endorsed by new friends, notably Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560), who rallied to his defense. Despite a warning by his friends, Luther made certain statements that were sure to incriminate him in the eyes of the church, such as, "In condemning Hus's teachings on the church, the Council of Constance condemned truth" (ibid. [4th ed.], p. 89).

It is popularly believed that the theological teaching of the Catholic Church is unified. The truth is that before the Reformation it was in a state of almost infinite variation and complete confusion. Indeed, it was the Reformation that ultimately forced the Roman Catholic Church to revise and unify its theology, which it did at the Council of Trent (1545-1563). Greater diversity of thought, though without visible confusion, still exists within the Church of Rome than most Protestants or Catholics realize. Martin Luther was the first evangelical Reformer to cut a Bible-oriented path through the theological jungle. He had no apology to offer for the fact that he and his friends were "all Hussites without knowing it." The Leipzig debate clearly put Luther in the same camp as the heretic who had been burned at the stake a hundred years earlier. He had broken with the Catholic Church of Rome and against it placed the Bible as the sole guide and interpreter for the individual Christian.

In 1520 Luther advocated his views in a number of Reformation tracts. The best known of these are: The Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, warning the princes that times had changed and that they should cooperate in the new Reformation movement if they wanted to survive; The Babylonian Captivity, in which Luther developed the thought that the papacy must be challenged in its form of worship and in the sacraments; and The Freedom of the Christian Man, a mystical discussion of the fact that a Christian justified by faith is a freeman, yet a servant of God to his brethren.

In 1520 Luther was condemned on the basis of forty-one errors that the Vatican claimed to have found in his writings and was excommunicated from the church by the papal bull Exsurge, Domine. He was granted the normal sixty days' delay for submission, before the decree should become effective. Instead, on December 10, 1520, before the teachers and students of Wittenberg University, he threw into the fire the papal bull, together with some of the writings that had endorsed papal authority, such as the Isidorian Decretals.

Luther at Worms.--In 1521, a year after his condemnation by the church, Luther was summoned to appear before the Imperial Diet, which the young ruler, Charles V (1519-1556), recently crowned emperor, had called, to examine, among other items, the religious question. Lutheranism had become a major issue in Germany, and the emperor's paramount concern was the unity of the empire; heresy obviously was a major political as well as religious peril. Now that Luther had been excommunicated by the church, the state was held responsible to deal with him from a civil and political angle. By this time Lutheranism had gained immensely in favor with the people and also with the princes of the German States. When Luther heard that he had been summoned to the Imperial Diet at Worms, he wrote, "I will reply to the emperor that if I am being invited simply to recant I will not come. If to recant is all that is wanted, I can do that perfectly well right here. But if he is inviting me to my death, then I will come. I hope none but the papists will stain their hands in my blood, Antichrist reigns. The Lord's will be done" (in Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand, p. 179).

When Luther appeared before the diet on April 17, 1521, he was asked two questions: (1) whether the books piled before him were his, and (2) whether he would recant all or part of his views. He answered affirmatively to the first question, and as for the second, he asked time for reflection. On the next day he gave an answer that reflected his indomitable and contagious courage as a Christian man: "Since then Your Majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason--I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other--my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen" (ibid., p. 185).

This was a dramatic hour. At the risk of his life, this simple monk and university professor of peasant stock dared the state's authority after the church had pronounced him a heretic and had excommunicated him. Above all, Martin Luther was convinced that he could not do anything against his own conscience, whose "prisoner" he was. The seed of modern liberty was contained in his action of humble obedience to his inner voice, and all Protestantism yields with him to Scripture alone and acknowledges the full surrender of the will to Christ.

The Wartburg Translation of the New Testament.--An imperial edict soon condemned Luther as "an obstinate schismatic and manifest heretic." He was to be held in custody for the duration of his life, and he and his friends were to be deprived of the status of free citizens. They were not to be granted hospitality anywhere. The printing and the selling of his books were forbidden. Luther remained under the shadow of this edict for the rest of his life, but it was never enforced within the boundaries of the electorate of Saxony. His princely friend, Frederick the Wise of Saxony, took him into protective custody and hid him in the castle of Wartburg, in Saxony. There Luther remained under an assumed name for about nine months. During that time he wrote a number of books and sermons, but spent most of his time translating the New Testament from the Greek text. Later he translated the Old Testament also. Luther's German Bible is one of his most significant achievements, and is to German readers what the King James Version is to English readers. His was by no means the first translation of the Bible into German, but it reveals his genius in making the Bible speak a German tongue that could be understood by the common folk and in all the sections of the country, which was linguistically divided by numerous dialects. The German Bible became a cherished possession, not only because it helped to standardize the language, but also because it brought the Word of God to bear in a living way upon everyday life.

The religious revolution could not be halted in Germany, and often it reached alarming proportions. Luther had to leave his hiding place temporarily to take over the leadership of the movement in opposition to the radicals, self-styled prophets of Zwickau, whose fanaticism was fanned by Thomas Münzer. Although a dynamic leader, Luther was not able to retain the loyalty of all who had wished for a change. Many humanists, reformers, and entire segments of the population, such as the peasants, deserted and opposed him.

The Peasants' Revolt.--The year 1525 was most important in the life of Martin Luther. He married Katherine von Bora. Marriage is a personal matter, but his was of particular significance as evidence that he had renounced the vow of celibacy, which he had taken upon becoming a monk and later a priest. He had already expressed some of his views concerning marriage in his Monastic Vows (1522), a tract which he dedicated to his "dearest father." This work, according to Justus Jonas, a co-worker of Luther, "emptied the cloisters." Luther argued that monastic vows rest on the false assumption that the so-called holy orders confer upon a person a special and unalterable character. Luther's marriage was significant in that the Reformer thereby broke irrevocably with the medieval monastic ideals and resolutely adopted the normal, scriptural mode of life for persons dedicated to religious activities. This revolutionary step took courage, and Luther knew that he would be criticized for it perhaps more than for any other. He insisted that marriage was not a sacrament of the church but a civil institution, and at the same time a holy and sacred estate.

The same year saw a bloody uprising of peasants in southern Germany. When Martin Luther had, a few years earlier, written to the nobility of the German nation that "in Christ there is neither slave nor free" (see p. 52), the peasants believed that he would join them in a fight for freedom. They looked upon the Reformation as the means to obtain that liberation, even by the use of force. In some sections of Germany, as for example in Hesse, the peasants had come to terms with their prince. In Swabia their grievances were expressed in Twelve Articles, which demanded the elimination of intolerable abuses, the reduction of taxes, and the right to fish and hunt. Possibly the peasants would have come to terms in southern Germany also had it not been for the fanaticism of ill-advised leaders such as Thomas Münzer.

Luther stated that the peasants should never use force, and he bluntly warned them that if they should take up the sword, they would perish by the sword. These warnings, however, went unheeded, and the peasants began to plunder, murder, and violate the lands of their overlords. Luther felt compelled to act. In his fiery tract Against the Murderous and Thievish Hordes of Peasants he stated that since the peasants had disregarded his warning and had taken up the sword, he felt compelled to call upon the lords to establish order by force of arms. "Smite, slay and stab" them like mad dogs, he ordered (Bainton, op. cit., p. 280). From that time on, the peasants of southern Germany considered Luther a traitor, and this attitude on his part was one reason why the southern states of Germany were lost to Protestantism. Even though Luther had little choice in the matter, it is true that thereafter he gave his support to the princes rather than to the people when their interests clashed. This attitude of Martin Luther is defended by some historians as unavoidable, and denounced by others as an irreparable error.

Luther also encountered difficulty with the increasing radicalism and fanaticism of certain religious extremists whom he referred to as Schwårmer. Among them was his former colleague Andreas von Carlstadt, who had divergent views on the Lord's Supper, which he considered only a memorial and not a sacrament (see Vol. VI, p. 44). Ulrich Zwingli of Zurich, was of the same opinion as Carlstadt, and since this teaching concerning the Lord's Supper was another threat to the unity of Protestants, Prince Philip of Hesse asked that the protagonists of each faction come to Marburg in 1529 to iron out their differences. The prince, to be sure, also had political unity in mind as an objective. The differences of opinion between Luther and the others were not removed, and the chasm widened between the Lutherans, on the one hand, and the Reformed, or Evangelicals, on the other.

The Diet of Augsburg and the Schmalkaldic League.--In 1530 Luther's partisans presented to the Imperial Diet of Augsburg, in Bavaria, their confession of faith, the Confessio Augustana, written by Melanchthon. Luther was not present in person at Augsburg because he was under the imperial ban and could not leave Saxony. This confession was a remarkably mild and considered statement of Lutheran beliefs, wholly free of polemic. In fact, it seemed too mild to many, including Luther himself, who waited in the castle of Coburg in southern Saxony while his fellow Lutherans met at Augsburg.

There were still a number of leading men in Germany who thought that a reunion of Catholics and Protestants was possible. However, it became apparent that this was but a dream, and it became necessary for the Protestant German princes to form an alliance, known as the Schmalkaldic League, in 1531. War between the two factions broke out fifteen years later. The Protestant articles of Schmalkald in 1537 clearly stated the points of difference with Rome. In 1555 the peace of Augsburg granted Lutherans and Catholics equal rights in Germany, on the basis of a principle adopted at the Diet of Speier in 1526, which required a resident of any German state to accept the form of religion professed by its prince if he desired to remain there.

IV. The Reformation in Switzerland and France

Ulrich Zwingli.--Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) was born in the mountains of eastern Switzerland and studied in Basel, Bern, and Vienna. For ten years he functioned as priest in Glarus. First as a priest and later as a minister of the gospel, he carried a lifelong burden for the soldier. Often he accompanied soldiers onto the field of battle as a chaplain, and finally died as such in battle. Early in life Zwingli had been attracted by the teachings of the humanists. He was particularly moved by a poem in which Erasmus complained that men do not go to Jesus Christ for the solution of their religious problems, despite the fact that in Him alone can they find "happiness, forgiveness and salvation." Zwingli was early convinced that salvation comes through faith alone, without the merit of good works.

In 1518 Zwingli came to Zurich as cathedral priest and began forthwith to preach expository sermons on the Gospel According to St. Matthew. In 1520 he surrendered the papal pension that he had received for five years, and avidly read Luther's writings. He refused to approve fasting at the Lenten season, thus scandalizing his superior, the bishop of Constance. From then on he sought to base his teachings and his life on Scripture alone. Scripture was to him architeleµs--the first and the last word. He soon attacked the celibacy of the priests, monastic vows, and salvation by works. With ten other priests he asked the bishop and the government of Zurich and the governments in various regions of Switzerland for permission to preach the gospel freely.

In sixty-seven theses Zwingli stressed the authority of the Bible, the mediation of Christ, and justification by faith. Inevitably he had to face the issue of whether the Christian should obey God, who speaks in the Bible, or Rome. On Easter, in the year 1525, a communion service in the German language replaced the Latin mass in the cathedral at Zurich, marking the formal commencement of the Reformation in that city. The government of Zurich took over the leadership of the church from the bishop of Constance. In 1528 Bern likewise adopted the Reformed form of worship, following a debate conducted by Zwingli, Oecolampadius of Basel, and Bucer of Strasbourg.

In comparing Zwingli with Luther, it appears that Zwingli's religious experience was not so emotional as that of the German Reformer, but more placid and more in harmony with humanism. Whereas Luther was distressed by the question, "How can I be justified before God?" Zwingli was deeply aroused by Roman paganism and by the ignorance and superstition that prevailed throughout Christendom. His aim was to restore gospel simplicity, and he was impressed neither by mysticism nor by an elaborate form of worship. To him the Lord's Supper was simply a memorial, and he opposed Luther's idea of consubstantiation. The reformation of the church in Switzerland led to civil war. In 1531 Zwingli accompanied the Protestant troops on the battlefield of Kappel, where he was slain. He was an ardent patriot, a pattern for Christian statesmen. His work was continued in Zurich by Heinrich Bullinger.

John Calvin.--John Calvin (1509-1564) belongs to the second generation of Reformers. He began his work in Geneva when Luther had virtually finished his task. Born in the province of Picardy, in northeastern France, Calvin studied the humanities in Paris and law in Orléans and Bourges. He came to the conviction that the assurance of forgiveness and the certainty of salvation are to be found in the Bible. While he was at the University of Paris there was also in the student body Ignatius de Loyola, founder of the Jesuit Order. Calvin's first love was humanism. Endowed with a keen mind influenced by the wisdom of the past, he would have chosen the career of a humanist rather than that of a religious reformer, had he had his way. He wrote well in Latin, as his commentary on Seneca's De Clementia ("On Clemency") testifies. He was only twenty-three years of age when that work caught the attention of the leading humanists.

Just when and how Calvin became a Protestant cannot now be ascertained. His association with Erasmus and Lefèvre d'Étaples, his contacts in Orléans, the reading of Luther's books, and the influence of Robert Olivétan and some of his teachers helped to bring about his conversion. While he was in his teens his father had purchased a few church benefices for him, but in 1534, at the age of twenty-five, he surrendered his ecclesiastical benefices when he refused ordination to the priesthood. Calvin left France for Basel, where he published in Latin the Institutio Religionis Christianae, known in English as Institutes. This, at first, followed in six chapters the Apostles' Creed. He was only twenty-six when he produced what was to be, by far, the most influential single work on Protestant teaching. He translated this work into French and revised it in 1541. Calvin further revised and enlarged the Institutes until it reached its final form in 1559, a book of eighty-three chapters.

The Institutes, in final form, is a comprehensive treatise dealing with (1) the knowledge of God as Creator and Sovereign, (2) the knowledge of God as Redeemer in Christ, (3) the means by which the grace of Christ can be obtained, and (4) the means used by God to lead us to Christ. Though Calvin's ideas were not altogether new, he set forth in a novel way what he thought had been taught in the Christian church before the Roman Catholic Church altered the basic teachings of the apostles. The Institutes is the most inclusive systematic presentation of the Protestant faith ever written. Calvin, of course, considered the Scriptures to be the authoritative record of God's works; his entire system is based on God's sovereign will, which transcends everything. He dedicated this monumental work to the king of France, before whom he sought to present evangelical Christians as loyal citizens instead of as subversives, as their foes charged.

Passing through Geneva in 1536, the same year in which Reformed worship was introduced in that city, Calvin was urged by Farel to remain and assist him in his labors. Together with Farel he endeavored to create a model church, a spiritual government based on a harmonious collaboration between church and civil government. Finding it impossible to carry out the plan for Geneva at that time, Calvin remained there little more than a year upon this occasion.

In April, 1538, the two Reformers were ousted from Geneva for refusing to comply with measures they regarded as civil interferences in church affairs. Calvin found refuge in Strasbourg and served the French community there as pastor and teacher, besides revising the Institutes. He married Idelette de Bure, the widow of an Anabaptist. In Strasbourg, Calvin also worked out the church liturgy that became the basis of church organization in his later work. In attending some of the German diets he met and formed a friendship with Melanchthon. Meanwhile, a government more friendly to Calvin was formed in Geneva, and he was urged to return, but the thought of returning to a city from which he had been ousted was most repugnant to him. Calvin wrote to Farel that he would prefer to endure a thousand deaths rather than this cross (of returning to Geneva). But Farel insisted, and finally Calvin gave in. "If I were given the choice, I would do anything rather than yield to you in this matter," he wrote to Farel; "but since I remember that I am not my own, I offer my heart as if slain in sacrifice to the Lord" (in Williston Walker, John Calvin, pp. 259, 260).

For the next fourteen years Calvin fought incessantly with his adversaries in Geneva. More than fifty persons were exiled, imprisoned, or executed. The most sensational of these cases was that of Servetus, who was executed in 1553. Servetus was rated a heretic by both Catholics and Protestants because he was in disagreement with basic Christian teachings, particularly the doctrine of the Trinity. Calvin, who in his early experience had himself been in difficulty over this doctrine in his controversy with Bolsec, considered it his duty to rid the Christian church of Servetus, who was obnoxious not only to him in Geneva but also to leaders elsewhere in Switzerland whose opinion Calvin had solicited and obtained in this particular case.

The condemnation of Servetus gave Calvin a decisive advantage in Geneva, for henceforth his position was unchallenged, and he carried forward his plan to reform the morals of the church. He published the final edition of the Institutes and was instrumental in having Theodore Beza called to the leadership of the newly founded academy at Geneva. Of a frail physical constitution and constantly besieged by ailments of various kinds, Calvin died in 1564. But he had solidly established his church government in Geneva and had set a pattern for evangelism that brought the Protestant faith not only to his native France but also to Holland, England, and America. Geneva had become a center of attraction for leading men of many countries. One of them was John Knox of Scotland, who spent some time in Geneva.

The characteristic traits of Calvinist Reformation are: (1) The central place given to the doctrine of the sovereignty of God in creation, in government, and in the redemption of the world (predestination). For more than a hundred years historians have affirmed that predestination is the central theme of Calvin's theology. But it is more acceptable to state that, in Calvin's view, belief in predestination is rather the ultimate result of our faith in God's grace. In the first Latin edition of his Institutes (1536) predestination is not discussed as a separate doctrine. (2) The institution of church discipline through the Consistory, the body of pastors and ministers of Geneva, who governed moral disorders and repressed false teachings. (3) The government of the church by leaders elected by church members. This presbyterian synodical system gave great importance to the cooperation of lay members in the affairs of the church and directly influenced the representative political form of government in democratic countries. (4) The teaching that in the Lord's Supper the sincere participant receives with the bread and the wine the virtue of the body and the blood of Jesus Christ, namely, the graces that are represented by the elements. (5) Calvin's genius as organizer and as propagator of the faith, which led him to create a system that enabled Protestantism to spread rapidly. One of the main methods consisted in the training of ministers, evangelists, and teachers in the newly founded academy of Geneva. This academy later became the University of Geneva, which Thomas Jefferson referred to as one of the two "intellectual eyes" of Europe; in his opinion the other "eye" was Edinburgh.

Luther was able to free the Christian conscience from Roman legalism; Zwingli liberated Christian thinking from the errors and abuses of Roman paganism; but Calvin was the educator of the Christian conscience, which he submitted to the authority of God. By educating the Christian conscience and organizing masterfully the Christian church, he helped to prepare men for the advent of political and religious freedom.

The Huguenots of France.--In the reign of Francis I (1515-1547) attempts were made by humanists and evangelicals to reform the church. Foremost among these were the Fabrisians, or the followers of Lefèvre d'Étaples (Faber Stapulensis). In 1521 they gathered around Guillaume Briconnet, the bishop of Meaux. Theirs was an attempt to eliminate the abuses of the church and to stress a more evangelical preaching. Most influential in sponsoring this humanistic pre-Calvinist movement was Margaret of Navarre, the sister of King Francis. Learned and interested in the ideas of the "biblicists," she invited some of them to preach in the Louvre, the king's palace in Paris. She wrote a number of works that have a Lutheran flavor, especially The Mirror of the Sinful Soul, in 1531. With changing political conditions the king of France was intermittently interested in new ideas, and favored the "Lutherans" of France. When he needed the help of the German Lutheran princes, the Lutherans in France had a moment of respite. The king's cousin, Louis de Berquin, was a conspicuous but ill-advised French "Lutheran" executed for his faith in 1529. "If Francis had upheld him to the last, he [Berquin] would have been the Luther of France" (Theodore Beza, quoted in Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, vol. 2, p. 69, art. "Louis de Berquin").

After the death of Francis I and his gifted sister, the kings of France tried to restore Roman Catholicism. Meanwhile, the minority Protestant group--the Huguenots--had become a political faction. The Huguenots soon counted leading noblemen in their midst--Henry of Navarre, Anthony de Bourbon, Admiral de Coligny, and Louis of Condé, France's best general of the time. In 1562 an intermittent religious civil war broke out in France. This had political and religious causes, and lasted till 1594. The outstanding event was the bloody St. Bartholomew's Massacre in August, 1572. When the leading Huguenots came to Paris to attend the marriage of their king, Henry of Navarre, many of them were slaughtered, together with countless thousands of the rank and file of the Huguenots.

A Huguenot, Henry, king of Navarre, a grandson of Margaret, was offered the crown of France on condition that he would abjure Protestantism. This he did for political expediency, but during his reign as the first of the Bourbon dynasty (1589-1610), he favored the Huguenots as ministers and advisors. He promulgated the Edict of Nantes (1598), which was easily the most liberal freedom charter granted thus far in Western Europe. It declared the Roman Catholic religion to be the national religion but granted the Huguenots a remarkable degree of freedom. They were no longer to be persecuted for the sake of religion, but no Reformed service was allowed to be held in Paris or within 20 mi. of it. He assigned cities of refuge to the Huguenots, who were also given the right to hold public office. Henry IV had just devised, with his minister Sully, a plan of universal understanding and peace, referred to as the "great design," when he was assassinated by Ravaillac, a fanatical monk, in 1610. The Edict of Nantes was partially abrogated in 1628 by Cardinal Richelieu and was completely revoked by Louis XIV in 1685.

Freedom of Conscience.--The Church of Rome is, historically, intolerant in principle, holding that since it is the only true church, no other church has any right to exist. How can error and heresy have rights? it asks. Baptism unites the soul bodily to the church, which demands unconditional submission to the priest as a requisite for salvation. Thus it is the church's right and also its duty to bring the heretic back to the fold, to save his soul. If he refuses, it is better that he be put to death, for he is a constant danger to pious souls. This principle stands unrepudiated, but the church, in its 1917 canon law, has rendered inoperative all penalties beyond excommunication.

Protestantism clearly enunciated the principle of freedom of conscience, but it remained only a principle for a long time. In practice Protestantism also demanded full submission to what it considered the Unam Sanctam, the "One Holy Church." Those who opposed these teachings were disciplined, if not put to death as was Servetus in Geneva. Prior to the French Revolution people were expected to accept the religion of their prince (see p. 55). In one German region, the Palatinate for instance, the inhabitants had to change their religion six times in less than a century because of the fact that the successive rulers represented different religious faiths.

In France, when the Edict of Nantes was revoked, persecution of the Huguenots raged again. The atrocities perpetrated in the name of religious unity in the kingdom finally aroused the public conscience. Louis XVI granted civil status to Protestants in 1787, by the Edict of Toleration. Emperor Napoleon in 1804 proclaimed it to be his intention and firm determination that freedom of worship be maintained. He affirmed his conviction that the rule of the law ends where the rule of conscience begins and that neither the law nor the ruler can do anything against that freedom. But that liberty was officially condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors in 1864. A formal and complete separation of church and state became effective in France only in 1905.

V. The Reformation in England

Establishment of the Anglican Church.--With the way prepared by Wyclif's Lollards, the English Reformation took great strides forward in the 16th century. However, the English Reformation differs from those on the Continent in three noteworthy respects: (1) Two antipapal movements progressed simultaneously in England in the 16th century--the religious movements embodying humanistic, Lutheran, and Wyclifite influences; and a political movement that aimed at placing all religious authority with the king instead of with the pope. (2) There were constant conflicts, especially at the end of the century, between Romanizing and Protestant parties within the Anglican Church. (3) There was a marked tendency in England toward a compromise in matters of doctrine and liturgy. A man of great conviction could not assert his views, partly because of the strong-willed sovereigns of the Tudor dynasty, especially Henry VIII. Thus the Anglican theology does not show the same vigor and independence as the religious systems of Calvin and Luther.

Henry VIII (1509-1547) took several decisive steps: he proclaimed himself sole head of the Anglican Church, and later dissolved the monasteries. The king remained Roman Catholic in doctrine and liturgy, and crushed all opposition: Catholics were hanged for treason and Protestants for heresy. More favorable to Protestantism was his son Edward VI (1547-1553). Protestant leaders were invited from the Continent to England, and under the direction of Thomas Cranmer the Book of Common Prayer, in two successive editions (1549, 1552), showed a marked trend toward compromise with Protestant teaching. Next, Mary Tudor (1553-1558) was a fervent Catholic, like her mother, Catherine of Aragon. She was encouraged in her pursuits by her husband, Philip II of Spain, the son of Emperor Charles V. Several hundred leading Protestants were executed on the fields of Smithfield near London, among them Cranmer, Ridley, Hooker, Rogers, et cetera. During her reign many Protestants escaped and found refuge on the Continent in Frankfurt, Strasbourg, Geneva, and various German towns.

With the advent of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), Protestantism regained strength in England. Many of the exiles of the Marian period returned, and brought back the conviction that even though the Anglican Church was the recognized state church of England, its doctrinal reforms did not go far enough. Queen Elizabeth loved pageantry and pomp in the church. She was Protestant in doctrine, but introduced into Anglican liturgy and rites many practices that displeased English Reformers. But increasingly the Puritan element gained in importance, demanding change to a more simple and less sacerdotal form of worship.

In order to define church doctrine, the Thirty-nine Articles of faith were promulgated in 1571, a modification of the Forty-two Articles of the reign of Edward VI. All priests and ministers were required to subscribe to them. The Church of England was defended by eminent scholars such as John Jewel, bishop of Salisbury, who wrote the Apologia pro Ecclesia Anglicana (1562), the first methodical statement of the position of the Church of England against the Church of Rome. Even more remarkable was Richard Hooker's Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1594, 1597). Hooker took a position against Catholicism as well as against the Puritan Presbyterians. It was his opinion that the episcopal form of government was best for the Church of England. He saw church and state as two aspects of the same commonwealth, both of which were to be under the direct leadership of the sovereign.

During the reign of Elizabeth I there was a Roman Catholic revival led by Cardinal William Allen (1532-1594). A graduate of Oxford, he refused to take the oath of allegiance to Elizabeth, and later went to Rome. In 1568 he founded a seminary in Douai in Spanish Flanders, across the Channel and easily accessible to English Catholics. Many English missionaries were trained there to return to their mother country. A Catholic translation of the Bible into English was produced, the Douai-Rheims Version. The New Testament was published at Rheims in 1582, the Old Testament in two volumes at Douai, in 1609. English Catholics had great hope, and used all kinds of schemes and intrigues, some of which centered on Mary Stuart (1542-1587), Queen of Scots, who by blood relationship had a claim to the throne of England.

Puritans and Separatists.--Much more influential in Elizabeth's reign than the Catholics, were the Puritans. Their aim was to "purify" the Church of England from all vestiges of Romanism. Among them were many who had been trained on the Continent, particularly at Geneva. Puritans differed among themselves as to the measure in which they should manifest their loyalty to the sovereign. Some advocated a presbyterian form of church government. Prominent among the leading Presbyterian Puritans under Elizabeth was Thomas Cartwright. John Whitgift, the Archbishop of Canterbury, arranged for Cartwright to be deprived of his professorship at Cambridge. Whitgift, as nominal head of the Anglican Church, stood for absolute loyalty to Elizabeth's policy of uniformity.

Even more radical than the Puritans were the Separatists, or Independents. The Puritans asked to remain within the Church of England, which they longed to see cleansed from all traces of Catholicism. On the other hand, the Separatists, or Independents, like the Anabaptists on the Continent, believed the formation of churches separate from the state church to be a necessity. They were separatists in that they withdrew from the Church of England, and were independents in that they believed in the full autonomy of a local church. They envisioned each congregation, with Christ as its head, as a self-governing church, electing its own pastor and other officers after what they supposed to be the pattern of the New Testament. Their outstanding pioneer leader was Robert Browne (c. 1550-c. 1633), a graduate of Cambridge, who began as a Puritan.

Among those who had returned from the Continent during the 16th century was John Knox (c. 1505-1572). Ordained a priest in Scotland, he and some of his young followers joined a group in St. Andrew's Castle and soon preached Protestant views. After being captured and taken to France for nineteen months as a galley prisoner, he went to England, where the Reformation was favorably viewed by Edward VI. Under Mary Tudor's reign he fled to the Continent and went to Geneva. There he became an ardent disciple of John Calvin.

The visit of John Knox to Scotland in 1555 gave a great impetus to the Reformation in that land. In 1557 the Scotch nobility, for political and religious reasons, entered into a covenant to establish "the more blessed word of God and his congregation." They were accordingly called the Lords of the Congregation. In 1561 Scotland officially went over to the Reformation, but the regent's prohibition of Reformed preaching resulted in a civil war. The Scottish Parliament adopted a confession that had been drafted by Knox and was definitely Calvinistic in spirit. Knox demanded and obtained the protection of the civil authorities to bring about the changes he deemed necessary. In order to reorganize the church according to his principles and on the pattern of Calvin's church in Geneva, Knox wrote The First Book of Discipline. A system of schools was planned, with advanced education in universities. This insistence on the importance of education was greatly emphasized by the Reformers generally. The First Book of Discipline also encouraged a wholesome spirit of independence. Public worship was reorganized according to Knox's Book of Common Order adopted in 1564, which showed the marked influence of Calvin and which remained a standard work in the Presbyterian Church until 1645.

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, married to Francis II of France, returned to Scotland upon the death of her husband. A loyal Catholic, she attended mass in her chapel in Scotland. From his pulpit of St. Giles in the Cathedral of Edinburgh, Knox thundered against this revival of the mass and pointed to the frivolities of Mary's court. For a while it seemed that Catholicism stood a fair opportunity of succeeding again in Scotland. Mary's unfortunate matrimonial ventures with Lord Darnley, a Roman Catholic, and her scheming to succeed to the English throne after the reign of childless Queen Elizabeth, did not improve her standing with the Protestant nobles of Scotland. Civil strife in Scotland drove Mary out of her homeland to seek refuge in England, where she was executed in 1587 on the charge of complicity in a plot to assassinate Elizabeth. Knox, eloquent, fiery fighter for the Lord, lived to see his cause triumph in Scotland.

The Puritans Fight Royal Absolutism.--With the passing of Elizabeth Tudor, a new dynasty came to the English throne, the Stuarts of Scotland. James VI of Scotland, son of Mary Stuart, became king of England as James I (1603-1625). From the outset he turned against the Catholics and extreme wings of Protestantism alike. In 1604 he ordered the priests banished, and Parliament confirmed the Elizabethan laws against Catholics. This eventually led to the famous Gunpowder Plot, which was an attempt to eliminate the king and the House of Lords. The discovery of the plot aroused a great anti-Roman Catholic feeling, leading to even more stringent acts against Catholics.

The Presbyterians were opposed to the episcopal form of church government and to the notion of the divine right of kings. The king was determined to make the English people conform to the established Anglican Church. The rigor and dogmatism of the Puritans were only enhanced by the sovereign's attitude; they stressed strict observance of Sunday, Bible reading, and services in the homes, and insisted on purity of morals. Among the Puritans under James I there were various factions: (1) the Presbyterians, who preferred a church government by a regularly elected board of presbyters, or elders; (2) the Independents, who insisted on the voluntary and free aspect of a church as a community of believers and who considered the government of the church to reside in the parish, or congregation; (3) the Baptists, who came mostly from the Independents. They advocated adult baptism, mostly by immersion, considering infant baptism incompatible with true Christian belief and practice.

The King James Bible.--James I was also opposed to a demand for a mild Protestant reform that was submitted to him by the Puritans in 1603 in the Millenary Petition (so called because it was supposed to have a thousand signatures). In 1604 a conference of bishops and Puritans was held at Hampton Court; the one tangible result was the initiation of a new Bible translation. During the preceding dynasty two new versions of the Bible had been issued, the Bishops' Bible, used chiefly in the churches, and the Geneva Bible, based on Tyndale's New Testament, with another translation for the Old Testament, basically that of the Bishops' Bible. To produce this new translation James appointed fifty-four scholars, divided into various companies of nine men each, working individually. A committee of twelve went over the entire text. They used the original languages in the best available texts. The work began in 1604 and ended with the publication of the translation in 1611. Although it is referred to as the Authorized Version, there is no proof that it ever enjoyed the formal approval of the king. This version does not bear the stamp of the genius of one particular man, as is the case with Luther's German translation. It was the product of many minds; and in spite of many other translations that have been published, it has remained the standard and beloved text of the English-speaking world for three and a half centuries.

Emigration of the Separatists to America.--As the Separatists, or Independents, were persecuted in England, some of them at first sought refuge on the Continent, particularly in Holland, a Calvinist stronghold. It was in Amsterdam that the first English Baptist church arose among the Separatists, under the leadership of John Smyth, who died in 1612. The Separatists, who were despised by the conservative Anglicans and even by a large body of English Puritans, did not find the solution to their problems in Holland, and entered into negotiations with the Virginia Company. They were invited to the Virginia Colony by Sir Edwin Sandys, who granted the Leyden congregation land in what was called the "northern parts of Virginia." Instead of bringing them to the territory for which they had negotiated, however, the Mayflower, upon which the 102 Pilgrims had embarked for their new home, took them in November, 1620, to the barren shores of Cape Cod, which belonged to the Plymouth Company. The Pilgrims were not legally entitled to settle there; besides, no government had been provided for this region. Consequently, before landing, the settlers drew up a charter of their own, a document called the Mayflower Compact. Each member agreed to support the majority; all men made up the assembly, which became both a legislative and a judicial body, and which chose a governor and his assistants. Out of these beginnings, as the number of inhabitants and communities increased, they developed a system of sound government for the local units, and each of these sent representatives to the general court, or assembly, of the whole colony. Incidentally, of the approximately one hundred Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower, a mere dozen or so constituted the membership of the first church.

A second exodus of English nonconformists to the New World took place in the reign of Charles I, among them being a number of Puritans. A group of these nonconformists met at Cambridge, England, under the leadership of John Winthrop and organized a company, the control of which rested with those who went to America. They secured land rights on Massachusetts Bay, up the coast from Plymouth, and during 1630 about one thousand of the Puritans came. This was referred to as the Great Migration. By 1642 the colony contained sixteen thousand persons.

Massachusetts Bay Colony was based on theocratic principles, Old Testament legislation being made a pattern for the punishment of sorcery, blasphemy, idolatry, gambling, and the breaking of the "Lord's Day." The acts of these settlers were at least as intolerant as those of the men from whom they had fled. Disagreements in Massachusetts led to the beginning of another colony, Rhode Island. Its founder, the young pastor Roger Williams, and later Mrs. Anne Hutchinson and her followers, were driven out of Massachusetts because of their religious views. In 1636 Williams and others founded Providence on Narragansett Bay; it was to be a "shelter for persons distressed in conscience." In 1638 Mrs. Hutchinson's followers settled at Portsmouth, on a nearby island, and a little later the settlement at Newport was begun. All these towns were granted complete freedom of religion and speech, and in 1663 they formed a union and received a charter from Charles II.

Charles I and the Puritans (1625-1649).--The doctrine of the divine right of kings, which was brilliantly advocated in France by the Jesuit Cardinal Richelieu, made of the king of France (Louis XIII in this instance) a monarch reigning by God's favor, and it was to God that the king was presumably accountable. This idea became fashionable in England under the Stuarts, who were attracted by the Roman Catholic concept of government. Charles I, whose wife was the sister of Louis XIII, was convinced that as king he should rule by divine right and by seeking the welfare of the people; he must not in any way submit to control either by his subjects or by Parliament. Charles attempted to let Parliament interfere as little as possible with his policies, and the relationship between king and Parliament became strained from that time onward. Ill advised by Strafford and Laud, the king purposed to rule eventually without Parliament. His attempt to force episcopacy and the English Book of Common Prayer on Scotland was one of the reasons for the conflict between Parliament and king. The Puritans, favoring the parliamentary rights and being in the majority in Commons, were greatly opposed to the Book of Common Prayer and to episcopacy. The civil war that ensued in 1642 was fought on one side by the king's men, the Cavaliers, and on the other by the Puritans and the Parliament, the Roundheads. The war turned out favorably for the Puritans, and the king fled to Scotland. Upon his return to England, he was tried and condemned for state treason, and beheaded in January, 1649.

The Westminster Assembly.--Parliament abolished the use of the Book of Common Prayer and substituted for it a form of worship framed by the Westminster Assembly. This assembly, called to advise Parliament on religious questions, was composed of clergy and laity, mostly Puritans, and convened in 1643. In addition to the "Directory for the Public Worship of God" it drew up what is usually called the Westminster Confession of Faith. This was completed in 1647 and was debated in Parliament, but was never formally authorized by that body. The Confession of Faith endorsed the Puritan form of worship and was expressed in two catechisms. These became the symbol of the Scottish Presbyterian churches, and set forth the Reformed system of theology and church government. They were shaped much less by Calvin than by either the Augustinian or the Covenanter theology. The assembly was influenced also by the Irish articles of 1615, which were attributed to Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656), of the Church of Ireland. He is best remembered for drawing up a Biblical chronology that was long accepted (see Vol. I, p. 179). The archbishop, however, refused to come to the Westminster Assembly.

The Church Under Oliver Cromwell.--After the victory of Parliament over the king's men, the execution of Charles I created a political vacuum. A republic was proclaimed while the Long Parliament was still in session, but after 1653 Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector of the British Commonwealth. He strengthened the navy, fought the Catholics in Ireland, opposed Spanish expansion, and resisted the rising menace of Dutch sea power. Most of all, Cromwell changed England into a Puritan theocracy in which the army was supposed to fight the battles of the Lord. Chiliastic movements continued to grow or to spring up, such as the Ranters, Diggers, Seekers, and Levellers. There were also the Fifth Monarchy Men, who were convinced that the four monarchies of Daniel 2 had now passed and that Christ's kingdom, the fifth monarchy, was about to begin. They proposed to hasten its advent, even at the price of armed violence.

Cromwell's era was an age of remarkable men such as Milton, Bunyan, and George Fox. The Society of Friends, or Quakers, founded by George Fox, soon took root on a much firmer basis than the other religious movements. When Fox, who was of very humble birth, came to the realization, in 1647, that he was to be converted by following the "inner light," the entire world appeared new to him, and even the earth had a "new smell." He renounced oaths and insisted on honesty and the speaking of truth, practiced simplicity in dress, food, and action, refused to participate in war, and denounced formalism in religion. Fox's message found a great response in England and Wales, on the Continent, and in America. Many became his followers.

Cromwell endeavored to prevent religious chaos. He achieved a degree of religious toleration, but also endorsed a national church supported by the state. The Book of Common Prayer was not to be used in its services, and there were to be no bishops. But the Bible was to be preached, and ministers were therefore to be carefully chosen. They were to be supported by the tithes, from a central fund. All Protestants except Quakers were tolerated. The clergy might be Presbyterian, Independent, or Baptist; Episcopalians might meet for worship if they did so quietly, and even Roman Catholics were left alone if they did not disturb the public peace.

Restoration of the Stuarts.--After Cromwell's death in 1658 the country fell into anarchy, and the restoration of the Stuart dynasty was inevitable. Charles II (1660-1685), the "merry king," son of the beheaded Charles I, was greatly influenced by Catholic diplomacy. He admired and emulated Louis XIV of France. He took action against the Puritans by the Act of Uniformity (1662), which resulted in the exile and imprisonment of thousands of Puritans. By the Test Act (1673) only the Anglican profession of faith was approved.

Charles II was succeeded by his brother, James II (1685-1688). Though the latter was an avowed Roman Catholic, Parliament, with a Tory majority at that time, took no action. This was doubtless largely because of the fact that the king's two daughters, Mary and Anne, were Protestants. But in 1688 a son, James, was born and baptized a Catholic. It thus became evident that Roman Catholicism was to be perpetuated. The realization of this produced a bloodless change of government commonly referred to as the Glorious Revolution, and brought to the throne William of Orange and Mary Stuart. The main consequence of the Glorious Revolution was the enactment of the Bill of Rights by Parliament in 1689. James II had fled to France; Mary and her consort, William of Orange, the stadholder of Holland, ruled as constitutional Protestant sovereigns. The Bill of Rights declared illegal many of the measures of James II and stipulated that no Roman Catholic should ever wear the crown of England. The bill granted partial religious freedom to various Protestant confessions. Catholics and Socinians were not granted freedom of worship, nor was anyone admitted to public office or matriculated in a university if not a member of the Anglican communion. Marriage and baptism were to be valid only when performed by an Anglican priest.

VI. The Catholic Counter Reformation

The Jesuits.--Protestant forced the Catholic Church to redefine its theology, to reorganize its church, and to reappraise its method. The most active agency in the Counter Reformation was the Jesuits, a product of Spanish Catholicism. In fighting the Moors the Catholics had developed a fierce religious and patriotic fanaticism. In the 16th century Spain had become the leading nation of the world, and Spanish royalty sought to establish its absolutism in politics and religion.

In pursuing this latter aim Ignatius de Loyola (1491-1556) was particularly and efficiently active. The founder of the Jesuit Order started as a soldier. Wounded in 1521 in the battle of Pampeluna, he abandoned his military career and decided he would become a devoted soldier of the pope and specialize in the suppression of the church's enemies. After anguishing inner struggles he offered his services to the pope in order to propagate the Catholic faith and repress heresy. He founded (1534) the Society of Jesus at Montmartre in Paris. This was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540, through the bull Regimini militantis Ecclesioe. The Jesuits make the usual monastic vows; in addition they make a particular vow of obedience to the pope. The order was founded on the principle of complete surrender of individual judgment and on military discipline. Loyola wrote a tract, Spiritual Exercises, indicating how the will of the individual could and must be subjected, and how each person might submit completely to the will of his superior, who personifies Christ. This principle is opposed to the Protestant idea that the individual must obey his conscience enlightened by the Scriptures, which are the supreme authority in matters of faith.

The Jesuits were able to restore confidence to German Catholics. They took over the schools and took the initiative in all important endeavors. They also gave direction to statesmen through a Machiavellian opportunism, and encouraged the idea of mental reservation. They are to be regarded as having instigated many of the actions taken against the Protestants, such as the St. Bartholomew's Massacre, and also the great crises in Germany that culminated in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). The Jesuits proved to be a militia that enabled the church to apply its methods of absolute authority and to centralize all its power in the papacy.

The Council of Trent.--The pope dreaded the meeting of a church council, but he was urged to call a council by Emperor Charles V, whose ambition still was to achieve political and religious unity. The council, which was organized in 1542 at Trent, an Italian and imperial city, met intermittently from 1545 to 1563. The meeting of a council was overdue; from many sides such a meeting had been requested, and Luther himself at the outset of his reformatory work had asked for such a gathering. When Pope Paul III called this council he feared political pressure, the precedent of the reforming councils of the 15th century not having been reassuring. But he was offered effective help by the Jesuits. The emperor, hoping that the problem of German unity would be solved, requested a representation of Protestant princes as well as of Catholics. From the beginning the pope was interested merely in doctrines he wanted defined, as opposed to the Protestant views voiced in the Augsburg Confession of 1530.

In the first period (1545-1547) Catholic doctrine was defined in an answer to Protestant views. At the beginning the Spanish Dominicans, the disciples of Thomas Aquinas, were leading out, but they were soon supplanted by the Jesuits. The source of truth, it was decreed, is found in the Bible and tradition; this gave the church power to interpret the Bible in its own way. In the definition of justification, divine grace was confirmed as a basic teaching, but the doctrine of the merit of good works was also retained. Thus, man cooperates with divine grace by means of free will, but good works increase the chance of justification. Justification depends on the sacraments, which are a means of salvation, and begins with baptism, the first of the sacraments. It is increased by confirmation and the eucharist and, if lost, can be regained by penance.

In the second period of the council (1551-1552) the emperor demanded that the Protestants participate in the debates but in the first phase of the council Protestant influence was so weak that it was disregarded. Yet when Pope Julius III opened this council it seemed that there might be a basis of agreement between the two confessions. However, the emperor's wish for a union was suddenly annulled by the defection of Maurice of Saxony, who left the emperor to serve the Protestant cause. This forced the emperor to leave the Council of Trent abruptly, and it also ended all Protestant participation in the council.

After ten years of interruption the Council of Trent resumed its sessions, entring upon its third period (1562-1563). Meanwhile, Protestantism had taken firm root in Germany and was officially recognized by the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. On the Catholic side, the Jesuits had reverted to methods of the Inquisition, and the delicate question of episcopal power was debated at great length. Henceforth, the main dogma is that of the church, a divinely instituted and guarded hierarchy. The ordinary Catholic is best advised to let the priest be his guide, his "director of conscience." One influential leader, Cardinal Borromeo of Milan, a specialist in religious education, urged the founding of theological seminaries.

The council particularly affirmed the following basic religious institutions: (1) the pope, in whose hands is vested the power of the church, as vicar of Jesus Christ; (2) the Latin text of the Bible (the Vulgate) as alone accepted, but not available to the layman; (3) the seven sacraments. In addition, theological seminaries were to be built, and the Congregation of the Index was created to examine all printed matter, in order to shield the orthodox Catholic from harmful publications.

VII. Religious Revivals From About 1650-1750

Pietism in Germany.--After the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 it was hoped that the problem of German Catholics and Protestants living together in peace had been solved. However, in spite of the principle (adopted fifteen years earlier) that each region should have its own religion, the situation worsened, and the two confessions eventually crystallized into two political factions. Tension came to a tragic climax in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), which started with the Bohemian revolt against the Holy Roman Empire. The conflict was precipitated by attempts to install Catholic governors over recognized Protestant districts, in contravention of the Peace of Augsburg. In addition to the religious reasons for this war, there were also political motives. After some years Denmark was drawn into the conflict, then Sweden, and finally France. The dramatic moment came when the king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, being induced to help the hard-pressed Protestants on the Continent, and doubtless also to make political gains for Sweden, entered the conflict. In one of the fiercest battles of the war, at Lützen (1632), the Swedes won a brilliant victory, but Gustavus Adolphus was killed.

The French minister, Cardinal Richelieu, who partially abrogated the Edict of Nantes, intervened on the Protestant side in the Thirty Years' War because his ambition on the political scene was to crush the Catholic House of Austria, France's traditional enemy on the Continent. The war ended with the important Treaty of Westphalia (1648), which, generally speaking, brought religious peace to Western Europe. It also constituted an elaborate political charter for Western European countries and recognized a number of new sovereign states. Hardly was the devastating Thirty Years' War over, however, when Louis XIV invaded the Palatinate--on three different occasions--to plunder and burn. This caused mass emigrations of Germans, many of whom William Penn welcomed in his newly acquired Pennsylvania.

In less than a hundred years, Lutheranism, with which the Reformation had started, crystallized into a formalistic and dogmatic movement. What might be called a new scholasticism came into being in Lutheran Germany, based on an elaborate and subtle theological system. Many God-fearing Lutherans among the clergy, and also in the rank and file of the church, were alarmed at the religious formalism. In 1621 Johann Arndt reminded his contemporaries that in order to be a good Lutheran it was necessary first to begin being a good Christian. In an important work entitled Vom Wahren Christentum ("True Christianity") he insisted on a deep Christian experience, and stressed the importance of personal piety.

In revolt against the trend toward dogmatic theology and a formalistic ritualism there arose a movement--unorganized but effective--known as Pietism, whose chief purpose was to revive personal, experimental religion. Its chief leader in Germany was Philipp Spener. In 1660 Spener came in contact with Jean de Labadie, a former Jesuit priest who later became a pastor of the Reformed church. Labadie urged the organizing, wherever possible, of conventicles, or small study groups.

Philip Spener (1635-1705) was born at Ribeauville in Alsace. He studied theology in Geneva and was appointed minister in Frankfurt in 1666. He learned from Sebastian Schmidt in Strasbourg that a detailed study of the Confession of Faith should give way to an exegetical study of the Bible. Spener's preface to Arndt's book, Wahres Christentum, became the important part of the book, and was published separately in 1675 under the title Pia Desideria ("Pious Wishes"). It had a much wider circulation than the book of which it originally constituted only the preface. Pia Desideria contains the basic principles of Pietism. Spener recommended an assiduous study of the Bible in cottage meetings (conventicles) and small gatherings for edification and mutual encouragement called collegia pietatis. He urged closer participation of lay members in the affairs of the church. He called for simpler methods in teaching the Bible and urged pastors to be less ritualistic and dogmatic and to keep very close to the Scriptures in their sermons. He laid great stress on the study of the prophecies, and awakened a new interest in eschatology, particularly in the second advent of Christ. Spener was called to pastor various large churches, particularly those of Dresden and Berlin. But the real center of Pietism in Germany was Halle, where he became administrator of the university. Spener called a disciple, August Hermann Francke, to be a professor, and insisted that the Bible should be taught and studied on exegetical principles. From that university came the first Lutheran missionaries in 1695.

One of the most important results of Pietism was the new formation of church known as Unitas Fratrum, or Unity of the Brethren, which was founded by Spener's godson Count Zinzendorf (1700-1760). When quite young, Zinzendorf gave his heart to the Lord, as he wrote in his diary, after having been impressed by a painting by Domenico Fetti representing the thorn-crowned Saviour. The painting bore this legend: "This is what I have done for you--what have you done for me?" Into his domain at Herrnhut in Moravia he welcomed Protestant refugees from persecution. Zinzendorf had the gift of getting men of various backgrounds and temperaments to live together harmoniously in a church which he called the "Unity." From the Hussites he borrowed the episcopate, from the Pietists a conservatist confession, from the Calvinists a strict moral discipline, from the Presbyterians church organization, and from the Lutherans the central teaching of justification by faith. He melded all these elements into a Moravian form of Christianity that has found expression in the beautiful Moravian hymns that have comforted Christians all over the world. Zinzendorf was notably evangelistic--and missionary-minded. Lay members should work diligently in various phases of home missions, evangelism, and even foreign missions.

Pietism had an unfortunate clannish tendency, and a form of religious pride arose among some of the members of the "college of piety." At times artificial means were recommended to lead men to repentance. But in spite of these shortcomings Pietism was a worthy reform movement within the Lutheran Church, and exercised a decided influence on the early Methodists.

Religious Revival in England; The Methodists.--Following the Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689 the moral and religious conditions in England were deplorable. Like the Lutheran Church, the Church of England had become altogether formal in its worship and dogmatic in its teaching. It was incapable of lifting the vision of the people or of ministering to their spiritual needs. An awakening was urgently needed. That awakening began in 1729, when a few students at Oxford University formed a religious circle. They were nicknamed "methodists," and sometimes "the holy club," because they followed a methodical pattern of life, including regular periods of fasting, weekly communion, and prayer at appointed times.

John Wesley (1703-1791), the leader of Methodism, was in contact with the Moravians early in his life. As a priest of the Church of England he accomplished his religious duties with great conscientiousness, revealing an enormous capacity for work. In 1735 he went as a missionary to America to convert the Indians. Upon reaching Georgia he was met by a Moravian who bluntly asked him whether he knew Jesus Christ. In spite of this unexpected reception, which he resented at first, Wesley preached to large audiences in America. But he was painfully conscious of the fact that he himself was not yet a converted Christian.

Back in London in 1738 he came to his own, since famous, heartwarming religious experience. When, in a Moravian meeting, he heard a lay brother read Martin Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans he felt his heart "strangely warmed," an occasion often referred to as Wesley's conversion. That evangelical conversion, described in his own diary, occurred on May 24, 1738. When the Church of England refused its pulpit to Wesley and his main co-laborers, especially George Whitefield, the Methodists began preaching in open places. After 1739 they engaged in popular evangelism. They organized those who now followed them in large numbers into a religious community divided into parishes, or congregations (subdivided into "classes"), headed by conservative pastors, who were required to "move" every three years.

Wesley displayed exceptional talent as an organizer and promoter. Theologically he was Arminian, and thus opposed to a deterministic predestinarianism. His favorite themes were Christian perfection and holiness. Methodism greatly changed the cold religious climate of England and brought new life and action to the Anglican Church. It led also to other developments, such as the founding of the London Missionary Society in 1795,the Church Missionary Society in 1799, the Religious Tract Society in 1799, and the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804. Methodism also had political and economic influence. The abolition of Negro slavery in the British colonies by Parliament in 1833 was chiefly the work of William Wilberforce, who was strongly influenced by the Methodists. Indeed, it would be difficult to measure the full effects of John Wesley's preaching.

VIII. High Lights of the Past Two Centuries

Rationalism and Deism.--Not only was Western Europe torn by Protestant and Catholic rivalries, but among Protestants there were endless theological discussions, sometimes within the same denomination. The Lutherans had attempted to define their views in final form in the Formula of Concord (1580). The Calvinists had reached some sort of agreement of teaching at the Synod of Dort in 1618, and also by the Consensus Helveticus of 1675. The wars of religion that tortured all European countries caused many people to turn against religion in general, and a rationalistic, anti-Christian reaction was the natural result. Many English deists--who conceived of God as a remote being so busy with other affairs that He had little or no time for this world and its problems--took a definite stand against the ecclesiastical conversatism of the Anglican Church and against the dogmatism of the Puritans as well. Their avowed aim was to revert to a religion of nature and to discard revealed religion, that is, the religion of the Bible. The French philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650) doubted knowledge in general, excepting morals and religion. Basing his philosophy on self-reality, he said doubt is real; doubting is thinking. He expressed it in the well-known formula cogito ergo sum, "I think, therefore I am." There was an ever-increasing trend toward reason, until reason was finally deified and worshiped for a short period during the French Revolution.

Those who did not altogether discard Christianity attempted to make it conform with reason. John Locke (1632-1704) rejected whatever was contrary to reason as being inadmissible. In his work entitled The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695), while holding that the Bible contains truths that human reason could not discover and that are attested by miracles, Locke maintained that nothing in the central messages of the Scriptures is contrary to reason, and that miracles are not unreasonable. By stressing the ethics of Jesus and the consonance of Christianity and reason, Locke hoped to bypass theological argumentation. He was an ardent advocate of religious toleration.

Some scientists remained loyal to the teachings of revealed religion as set forth in Scripture. One remarkable example is Isaac Newton (1642-1727), a genius in the field of mathematics and physics and author of the theory of universal gravitation. Newton held that the ideas of time and space are not absolute, a concept that was re-examined by Albert Einstein, who in his studies in relativity claimed that human notions concerning time and space are relative to the observer. Einstein spoke of Newton as not only an inventor of genius in respect to specific methods and to mathematical and physical demonstrations, but also as a master of the empirical material then known. Newton was a dedicated and devoted student of Bible prophecy; he traced fulfillments of Bible prophecy throughout history. His Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John, 1733, published posthumously, was the outcome of many years of study.

Quite the opposite of Newton's ideas were those of Henry St. John Bolingbroke (1678-1751). Despising all cults that were the product of enthusiasm, fraud, and superstition, he nevertheless conceded to Christianity the right to ration truth. An advocate of freedom of thought, he supported an established church in the interests of the state and of public morals. Even greater was the influence of David Hume (1711-1776), whose deistic criticism emancipated the scientific method from the concept of a deity achieved through reason. Hume directed his criticism against the justification of religion by means other than rational. He admitted the possibility of miraculous occurrences, but maintained that there existed a possibility of error on the part of the observer or historian. Prominent among those who rejected the Christian way of salvation was Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), whose History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire attempted to give a dignified and pragmatic treatment of the rise of Christianity. In the 19th century the fundamental principles of deism were subjected to the influence of skepticism, pessimism, and pantheism, but concepts of so-called natural religion largely retained their old character.

Deism had many facets. In general, deists believed in a God who created the original cell of life. They thought that the God of the universe, the great Builder and "watchmaker," made universal laws that are in accord with reason. All practices and beliefs that cannot be understood or endorsed by reason must be discarded as superstition; they are used by the clergy for profit. Deists reject the belief that God has ever revealed His will to men; extreme deists hold that God creates, but maintains no connection with His creatures. Therefore they reject the church, the Scriptures, and faith in Christ as God incarnate. They teach that a man can find his own way to happiness and the improvement of his intellectual lot without the assistance of religion.

The 18th-century insistence on reason applied not only to philosophy and religion but to politics as well. When "enlightened despots" such as Frederick II and Joseph II ruled in the name of reason they enacted laws in the interest of their subjects. For instance, slavery was to be abolished because its abolition was reasonable. There was a general desire to enlighten the people and to popularize scientific knowledge. This enlightened rule was fostered, particularly in France, by the deists, many of whom were among the Encyclopedists. The most eloquent of French deists was Voltaire (1694-1778), a clever, daring critic who entered into a brilliant polemic against intolerance in church and state as well as against the claims of a transcendent church. Voltaire was greatly influenced by Newton, but his ideas on toleration came mostly from Locke and Shaftesbury. He had views not unlike those of the self-styled philosophers, the Encyclopedists, who held that God indeed existed and that He had created the world, but that all religious institutions are impostures. Voltaire's statements were clear and extremely witty, but Voltaire himself was neither deep nor methodical, and his work can be referred to as "a chaos of clear ideas." He was an avowed enemy of Christian teaching; he summed up his views by stating that "dogma leads to fanaticism and strife; but morality [ethics] leads to harmony." His greatest contribution was his courageous and eloquent defense of freedom of opinion and liberty of expression. He openly took the defense of those who were unjustly persecuted because of their ideas. He risked his fortune and his reputation in order to rehabilitate the families of Protestants such as Jean Calas, and politicians like the French governor of India, Lolly-Tollendal, who had been unjustly accused of mismanagement. Voltaire was an infidel because he rejected the Christian way of salvation, but he was not an atheist. His last words were, "I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition" (S. G. Tallentyre, Voltaire in His Letters, p. 222).

His contemporary, J. J. Rousseau of Geneva, saw the individual conscience as the center of religion. He conceived that man is good by nature, but that he becomes corrupt by associating with other men. Rousseau (1712-1778) proceeded to demonstrate that man must be educated on an entirely different basis than heretofore (Eﾁmile), that he must change his concept of the world and justice in general (Essay on Inequality), and that the state must be reorganized, based on mutual agreements among the various social classes (Social Contract). His ideas directly inspired 19th-century socialism. The basic element of religion he considered to be feeling, or sentiment. To Rousseau sentiment was the basis of a metaphysical system, and this the result of experience under the influence of philosophy, but redeemed from formalism by constant reference to sentimentality and emotion as the primary source of religion. Rousseau found the essence of religion, not in the cultivated intellect, but in the naïve and disinterested understanding of the uncultured. With Rousseau natural religion had a new meaning: "Nature," by him no longer considered as universality in the cosmic order, is primitive simplicity and sincerity in contrast with artificiality.

Rationalism and deism attempted to eliminate from religion its very essence; deism is not an answer to the question of how man can reach salvation and obtain redemption and reconciliation; it is merely a philosophy attempting to explain the world. One of the disciples of rationalism was the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), who pointed to the limits of human intelligence, using the principle of ethics. He argued that God and the reality of the living soul are the postulates of practical reason. Kant's contributions from a religious and practical point of view consist in his insistence on duty and the immutable fact of God's moral law.

The French Revolution and Christianity.--Whereas the Middle Ages were favorable to an increase of papal power, the influence of rationalism and the increase of knowledge in the 18th century helped to develop civil and political power. Particularly in France, secularism found a ready soil. The Gallican (French) Church had attempted to put a national stamp on Catholicism. By the Concordat of Bologna, 1516, the kings had the right to appoint the bishops. The power of the state was still more increased by the Reformation. In 17th-century France the pope had only a limited jurisdiction and was strictly confined to religious matters; he was denied all interference in temporal affairs. In the 18th century, civilian communities were no longer considered dependent on the church, and the state gained an ever-increasing ascendancy in France.

The state was considered a means of obtaining liberty and happiness. This notion was held in various Western countries and even in the colonies. It is basic in the American Declaration of Independence, where "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are mentioned as the fundamental inalienable rights of man.

The French Revolution was another product of the same concept. There was an urge to build a world based on the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity, and to realize at last an order of things that would respect the "rights of man." The minds of men were ready for a change, and feudal society in France came to an end. New ideas eloquently created a climate for the Revolution, which started in 1789 when the representatives of the three orders of French society met in Versailles. They were possessed of no intention to overthrow the government of Louis XVI. There were, however, complaints concerning abuses in taxation, representation, and general injustice toward the majority of the population, the Third Estate. An elaborate constitution was drawn up that would limit the absolute power of the monarchy, one section of it being the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, by which the National Assembly would recognize the supremacy of the state, and the church was to be subservient to the state.

In 1792, when France declared war on Austria, the revolution stepped up its pace and became more aggressive and violently revolutionary by eliminating the erstwhile "enemies" of the people, the aristocrats, and the political and social institutions through which they had enforced their will. The constitution was voided in June, 1792, and in August the first serious popular uprising led to the imprisonment of the king and to his trial and execution five months later. In 1793 an anti-Christian wave swept over the land, and war was declared on religion. Reason was deified, and many churches became so-called temples of Reason. For several weeks the most rabid atheists held absolute sway, but after a short time the Cult of Reason was replaced by the Cult of the Supreme Being. When Napoleon became first consul he concluded a concordat with the church in 1801, granting the papacy many of its former privileges.

The Catholic Church in the 18th Century; The Jansenists.--The Jesuits excelled in the art of transforming so-called mortal sins into venial sins by stretching mental reservation and by using an ambiguous construction of language (amphibole). They went so far as to state that one could act against one's own conscience as long as "probable opinion" is available. The teacher of probabilism was the Jesuit Escobar. Even the papacy condemned his ideas, and therefore he formally repudiated his teachings on probabilism in 1687, but continued to teach them in another form. The most serious foes of the Jesuits were the Jansenists, who went back to the Augustinian concept of salvation by grace alone. The founder of Jansenism was a Dutch professor at Louvain, Cornelius Jansen (1585-1638). He closely followed Augustine's teachings, whose works he had read thirty times. Jansen was particularly attracted by Augustine's teaching on grace as it had developed in his struggle against the Pelagians. In his work Augustinus, Jansen taught that God's grace is the only means of salvation. He endorsed the doctrine of double predestination (men are predestined either to salvation or to damnation). The Jesuits, on the other hand, insisted on the doctrine that man by free will cooperates in his own salvation and makes his own redemption to a large degree. The center of Jansenism in France was the Abbey of Port Royal near Paris, where a number of remarkable people such as Nicole, the Arnaulds, Du Vergier, the prior of St. Cyran, and particularly the brilliant physicist and mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) lived according to the ideas of Jansen.

Pascal undertook to stigmatize and expose the fallacious reasoning of Jesuit casuistry. In his Provincial Letters (the first of which appeared in 1656), published in sixty editions, Pascal ably countered the system of the Jesuits by his brilliant and somewhat ironic invectives. Pascal also undertook to write a scientist's apology of Christianity, but death overtook him while he was relatively young. His jottings and notes for his works were published as PenseŒes ("Thoughts"), and even so remain one of the beautiful and masterful apologies of Christianity.

As for the Jesuits, their activities expanded into many fields of endeavor, suggesting Machiavellian methods even in public finance, commerce, and politics. Deep resentment was the result, and the Jesuits soon felt the opposition of several governments. Their order was ousted from Portugal in 1759, from France in 1764, and from Naples in 1767. In 1773 Pope Clement XIV suspended the order, but his successor hastened to re-establish it.

The Catholic Church in the 19th Century.--The Catholic Church was also affected by liberalism, through the efforts of Robert de Lamennais, but in 1850 this trend toward liberalism was suppressed by what is known as ultramontanism. The latter looked "beyond the mountains"--meaning to the pope in Rome--for authority and direction in matters of faith and philosophy. Pius IX (1846-1878) completely removed from Catholicism any trace of moderation. In 1854 the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary was proclaimed. The Syllabus of Errors (1864) accused the modern state of being a means of propagating indifference and irreligion. It denounced freedom of conscience and condemned Bible societies as "pests." In 1870 the doctrine of papal infallibility was proclaimed by the Vatican Council and made retroactive. "Infallibility" means that a papal decision pronounced ex cathedra--with the aim of instructing the church what to believe and to do--becomes authoritative for the church. Thus the matter of the supreme authority of the church over the conscience, left undecided at Trent, was officially realized. The promulgation of this dogma caused a split in the church. There were men, such as Gratry, Dupanloup, and Maret, who preferred to make church councils the ultimate authority within the church. These "Old Catholics" refused to support the decree of papal infallibility and went their own way. But, for practical purposes, the Jesuits and the Redemptorists (founded by A. Liguori in 1732) were able to make victory for the church complete.

In Germany events took a different turn. In 1873 Bismarck ordered that Catholic and Protestant cults be placed under state control. Ministers were to be trained and to be appointed by the state. The ultramontanist Catholics, of course, resisted this policy successfully in a monumental struggle known as Kulturkampf ("culture struggle"). In fact, in 1880 they forced Bismarck, known as the "chancellor of iron and blood," to concede to their demands and to desist from further attacks on the Catholic Church. Needing the Catholic vote, he made an agreement with Pope Leo XIII. A similar situation existed in France, where an increasingly strong anticlerical movement led by Léon Gambetta came into existence. His watchcry was, "Clericalism--that is the enemy." Great efforts were made to free the country from the domination of the priests, who were no longer allowed to teach in the public schools. But the clerical-anticlerical issue continued to exist, as was evidenced in the sensational case of Dreyfus in 1898. Finally, in 1905, separation of church and state was adopted in France. The republic guaranteed freedom of worship and refused to recognize or subsidize any religious confession. Church properties continued to belong to the state, which placed them freely at the disposal of duly constituted churches who worshiped in them. The pope was obviously opposed to this law of separation, and further expressed concern, not only about freedom of religion, but about the increase of modernism in religious ranks, as voiced in Pius X's encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis, 1907.

The Anglican Church in the 19th Century.--The Methodists had revived a certain measure of evangelical spirit within the Anglican Church. This trend developed into what came to be called Low Church, which was preponderant in the first half of the 19th century. The so-called High Church wing of the Anglican Church stresses the supposed apostolic and divine origin of that church, and makes much of form and ritual, whereas the Low Church considers the church as an institution to be mainly human in its origin and minimizes form and ritual. The evangelical element in the Low Church, particularly under the leadership of Lord Shaftesbury, was chiefly responsible for the suppression of certain social abuses and the creation of many institutions dedicated to welfare and to home and foreign missionary endeavor. The Low Church was not primarily concerned with theological matters or with the forms of worship. The rather prosaic dogmatism of the Low Church helped to provoke a mystic and ritualistic reaction named Puseyism, after its leader, Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882), professor of Hebrew at Oxford.

Beginning in 1833, Pusey and his friends John Henry Newman (1801-1890) and John Keble (1792-1866) published a series of Tracts for the Times. In these tracts the various Oxford theologians reverted to the sacraments as the only channel by which divine grace could be conveyed to the sinner, and only when properly administered by a duly ordained priest. The conviction of these men was that the true church of the 19th century must revert to the church of the 4th century and that the Anglican Church has its roots in the church of the Apostolic Fathers. The church alone could convey salvation and teach the true meaning of the Scriptures. In 1845 Newman was converted to Roman Catholicism. The men of the Puseyist movement were remarkably intelligent and zealous and able to reach certain men and women that Methodism had not been able to contact. Opposed to these Anglo-Catholics was the so-called Broad Church (latitudinarian) wing of the Anglican Church. Its members were stanch rationalists, opposed to the ritualistic formalism of the Puseyists and to the literalistic dogmatism of the Low Church party.

Modern Theology.--Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), sometimes referred to as the "father of modern theology," taught that Christianity is, above all else, a way of life and that piety is the best source of Christian teaching. Alexandre Vinet had a similar influence on French theology. Like Pascal, Vinet referred to conscience as the essence of Christianity. Theological radicalism--the school of Tübingen--led to a more rigorous historical method in the study of the Bible and its background. Ferdinand Christian Baur (1792-1860) endeavored to date the writings of the New Testament. David Friedrich Strauss (1808-1874), in his first Life of Jesus (1835), presented the history of the gospel as a myth created by the imaginations of the early Christians and conditioned by messianic prophecies and hopes. In France, Ernest Renan (1823-1892) described the powerful personality of Christ, but Renan saw in Jesus a visionary who was a creation, and the victim, of His times (Life of Jesus, 1862). A great number of other "lives of Jesus" following the so-called historical, or rationalistic, method were published in the 19th century. Higher critics considered the Bible to be no different from any other book, and denying the basic fact of divine revelation, analyzed the Scriptures as they would an ordinary text.

Nineteenth-century liberalism was a revolt against the despotism of the state. It was an era when numerous free churches came into existence. In 1900 the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church, which was independent from the state, merged and formed the United Free Church of Scotland, comprising some fifteen hundred parishes. Finally, in 1929, the official state Church of Scotland and the United Free Church merged into one, when it was ascertained that the church would be autonomous and would not be subject to state intervention.

Attempts to Unify Protestantism.--While Catholicism centralized its teachings in the Council of Trent and strengthened the papal power by the proclamation of papal infallibility in 1870, Protestants have been haunted by the dream of a federation of all the churches. More and more the conviction has grown that denominational differences should not prevent the large denominations and the so-called historic churches from pooling their resources and carrying on a common program of activity at home and abroad.

From its inception the Christian church has been divided because of heresy and idolatry within and opposition from without. The two greatest blows to the unity of Christendom came in the 11th century, when the East and the West were divided, and in the 16th century, when the Reformation broke up the Western Catholic Church. Today the divisions in Protestantism are so great that the leaders of Ecumenism--the movement for church union--do not now think of attempting to unite all denominations. Their primary objective is to confine themselves to the unity of the "churches," not of the "church." They would divide Christendom into a number of great church "families," such as Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Calvinist, Methodist, and Independents.

The attempt to unite Protestants started in Scotland with the creation in 1846 of the Evangelical Alliance, when 200 clergymen belonging to 217 different denominations, all claiming to belong to orthodox Protestantism, accepted the challenge to unite. Another such effort was the Young Men's Christian Alliance, with headquarters in Geneva. In 1895 the World Christian Endeavor Union formed a federation of Christian young people. Very significant was the World's Student Christian Federation, founded in 1895 by John R. Mott.

The 20th-century ecumenical movement began in 1910 with its first Edinburgh meeting. Of this World Missionary Conference, John R. Mott was presiding officer and organizer. At that time the urgency of Christian united effort was discussed, especially with reference to missions. A Faith and Order conference was also planned, but was canceled when World War I made it impossible for the delegates to assemble. In 1920 the Lambeth Conference, spearheaded by the Anglicans, sent out a call for Christian unity. In 1925 the Universal Christian Council for Life and Work met, with the gifted Swedish Lutheran bishop, Nathan Söderblom, as its sponsor. In 1927 the World Conference on Faith and Order met in Lausanne. In 1937 two meetings were held, a conference at Oxford on "Life and Work" (stressing practical Christianity), and a conference at Edinburgh on "Faith and Order," led by the Frenchman, Pastor Marc Boegner. At a similar conference at Utrecht in 1938 the leading clergymen were Archbishop William Temple and John R. Mott.

In 1948 an important ecumenical meeting convened at Amsterdam under the slogan, "Man's Disorder and God's Design." Four hundred fifty delegates attended, and it was there that the World Council of Churches was officially called into existence. Many religious bodies, such as the Unitarians, Lutherans (Missouri Synod), Christian Scientists, Mormons, Southern Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, and, of course, the Roman Catholics, did not join. Although it is conceivable that Ecumenism might unite the churches, at least outwardly, there are fundamental internal obstacles that seem almost insurmountable.

Since the 1961 General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in New Delhi, when the majority of the members of the Orthodox Churches found themselves within the World Council, there has been greater concern for seeing also the Roman Catholic Church, 700 million strong, join the World Council of Churches in the future.

Bibliography

_On Pre-Reformation Times

Coulton, G. G. Five Centuries of Religion. Vol. 4. The Last Days of Medieval Monachism. Cambridge University Press: 1950. By a distinguished specialist, and based on an extensive use of sources.

Lea, Henry Charles. A History of the Inquisition of Spain. 4 vols. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1906-1907. A standard work.

Lechler, Gotthard Victor. John Wycliffe and His English Precursors. Translated by P. Lorimer. 2 vols. London: The Religious Tract Society, 1884. Still the most exhaustive biography on Wyclif.

Pastor, Ludwig. The History of the Popes From the Close of the Middle Ages. Translated from the German by various scholars. 36 vols. St. Louis: 1902-1950. This is a standard work by a Catholic scholar who used the archives of the Vatican.

Spinka, Matthew. John Hus and the Czech Reform. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1941. An excellent study stressing some of the ways in which Hus differed from Wyclif, and how Hus desired a reformation of the church.

_On the Reformation

Bainton, Roland H. The Reformation of the 16th Century. Boston: Beacon Press, 1952. This is a popular brief summary by an outstanding Luther specialist.

Flick, Alexander Clarence. Decline of the Medieval Church. 2 vols. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930.

Goldschmidt, E. P. The Printed Book of the Renaissance. Toronto: The Macmillan Company, 1950.

Grimm, Harold John. The Reformation Era. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1954. A general survey from 1500 to 1650. Excellent and concise.

Huisinga, Johan. The Waning of the Middle Ages. London: E. Arnold & Co., 1924.

Hyma, Albert. Renaissance to Reformation. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1951.

_______. The Christian Renaissance. Grand Rapids: The Reformed Press, 1924.

Johanssen, Johannes. History of the German People at the Close of the Middle Ages. 17 vols. St. Louis: B. Herder, 1896-1925. From a Catholic point of view.

Kidd, B. J. Documents Illustrative of the Continental Reformation. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1911. A useful collection of texts, many dealing with Lutheranism.

Lea, Henry Charles. History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences. 3 vols. Philadelphia: Lea Brothers and Co., 1896.

Randall, John Herman, Jr. The Making of the Modern Mind. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1926.

Smith, Preserved. The Age of the Reformation. New York: H. Holt & Co., 1920. An excellent survey of the Catholic and Protestant attempts to reform the church.

Taylor, Henry Osborn. The Mediaeval Mind. 2 vols. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1930.

_On Martin Luther

Bainton, Roland H. Here I Stand. Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Cokesbury Press, 1950. This is a beautiful picture of Martin Luther based on accurate scholarship and thorough knowledge of the sources and secondary works, written by a stylist.

Boehmer, H. Road to Reformation. Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1946. A well-written defense of Luther. Luther's life had been attacked by Roman Catholic writers, especially the Jesuits Denifle and Grisar; and Boehmer attempted to defend Luther as a leader and a man.

Grisar, Hartmann. Luther. Translated from the German by E. M. Lamond. 6 vols. St. Louis: B. Herder, 1913-1919. A critical study of the Protestant Reformer by a Jesuit.

Landeen, William M. Martin Luther's Religious Thought. Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1971. An excellent study.

Schwiebert, Ernest George. Luther and His Times; the Reformation From a New Perspective. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950. A comprehensive study by an American Lutheran, particularly interesting for the educational background of Luther and a study of the German universities of that time.

Works of Martin Luther. Edited by Henry Eysta Jacobs. Philadelphia: A. J. Holman Co., 1915-1932. An edition of Luther's works in English.

_On Ulrich Zwingli

Köhler, Walther. Huldrych Zwingli. Stuttgart: K. F. Koehler, 1952.

Simpson, S. Life of Uhlrich Zwingli, Swiss Patriot and Reformer. New York: The Baker & Taylor Co., 1902. This work is based on extensive research.

Zwingli, U. "Sämtliche Werke" in the Corpus Reformation, 2d series, vols. 88-100. Herausgegeben von Dr. Emil Egli ... und Dr. George Finsler. Berlin and Leipzig: C. A. Schwetschke und Sohn, and Leipzig, M. Heinsius Nachfolger, 1905-1944.

_On John Calvin

Beza, Theodore. The Life of John Calvin. Translated by H. Beveridge. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Christian Education, 1909.

Calvin, John. The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Translated from Latin. 7th Amer. ed. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Christian Education, 1936.

Choisy, Eugene. Calvin, Educateur des consciences. [Paris]: Editions de "La Cause," n.d.

Wendel, Francois. Calvin: The Origins and Development of His Religious Thought. Translated by Philip Mairet. New York: Harper and Row, 1963. An excellent modern study of Calvin's life, especially valuable on his theological teachings.

_On Ignatius of Loyola and the Catholic Reformation

Boehmer, Heinrich. The Jesuits. Philadelphia: The Castle Press, 1928. One of the best histories of the Jesuits.

Dudon, Paul. St. Ignatius of Loyola. Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Company, 1949. Written by a Jesuit and based on extensive research.

Outram, Henry. The Spirit of the Counter Reformation. Edited with a postscript by John Bossy. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1970. Considered a classic.

Sedgwick, Henry Dwight. Ignatius of Loyola. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1923. By a non-Catholic.

_On the Reformation in the British Isles

Buchan, K. Oliver Cromwell. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1934.

Burrage, Champlin. The Early English Dissenters in the Light of the Recent Research. Cambridge: The University Press, 1912. Very valuable because it contains a great selection of original documents.

Clarke, Henry William. History of English Non-Conformity From Wycliffe to the Close of the 19th Century. 2 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1911-1913.

Davies, Horton. The English Free Churches. London: Oxford University Press, 1963.

Dickens, Arthur G. The English Reformation. New York. Schocken Books, 1964.

Hughes, Philip. The Reformation in England. 2 vols. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1951.

Underwood, Alfred Clair. A History of the English Baptists. London: 1947.

Westcott, Brooke Foss. A General View of the History of the English Bible. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1927.

I. The Isle of Patmos

A Description of Patmos.--Patmos is a small island in the Aegean Sea, one of twelve known collectively as the Dodecanese, also, at times, the Sporades. It is about mi. (c. 90 km.) southwest of the ruins of Ephesus, which are near the present Asia Minor coastal town of Kusadasi (see The Journeys of Paul).

In shape, Patmos is something like a horseshoe or crescent, with both ends pointing toward the mainland of Asia Minor. It is less than 10 mi. long by 6 mi. wide (16 by 10 km.). It covers about 12 sq. mi. (31 sq. km.) of land. It is so small as to be quite insignificant except for the fact that it is mentioned in the first chapter of Revelation. Its highest point, about 800 ft. (244 m.) above the sea, is called Mt. Saint Elias. See illustrations facing p. 736.

Once Patmos had three harbors, though today only one, Scala, is in use. This is a sheltered port where ships anchor in the harbor instead of tying up at a wharf. Small boats come out to the ships and take passengers and cargo ashore. Once ashore, passengers find two hotels waiting to accommodate them, and a few taverns and cafes. The 2,500 inhabitants, Greeks, are hospitable folk.

The island is mountainous. Much of it is covered with rocks, and the barren land is broken and rough. Patmos appears to be of volcanic origin, and though some terraced gardens have been made, the produce is insufficient. Food has to be brought in from nearby islands. Wells and springs provide a water supply for daily use and make unnecessary the importation of water, though some of the neighboring islands are not so fortunate.

Although the land is not productive it would seem that a few palm trees once grew there, because the island was earlier called Palmosa. Today there are a few pine, olive, and fruit trees. Some of the inhabitants engage in sponge fishing, the principal commercial enterprise. Some raise grapes, cereals, and vegetables. The island does support a number of goats, by which means some milk and dairy products are provided. The women do a little knitting.

There are limited opportunities for employment, but many of the inhabitants have relatives in the United States who send checks back home to help provide for their kinsmen. The Isle of Patmos once belonged to Turkey, then to Italy, and now to Greece. The people chafed under the Turks, and rejoiced when the Italians liberated them. But after the second world war the island was transferred to Greece.

Patmos is a lonely island. There are a few stores, which are sturdily built of stone in the old-fashioned style; also a small number of potteries. Picturesque flat-roofed houses, gleaming with whitewash, line the few, irregular streets on the hillsides, from which the climber can gain a delightful view of the sea and many islands.

When the main monastery was built in the 11th century the plan was to allow no women on the island. But this rule was disregarded when fishermen and others came there to live. At one time it was said that only three hundred men lived there and that the women outnumbered them twenty to one. It has been estimated that there are about 300 chapels on Patmos; some of these are extremely small and of limited use. Once it was said that Patmos was "full of monks and pirates"! The fierce pirates are gone, but the peaceful monks of the Greek Orthodox Church remain.

The Patmos Monastery of St. John.--In 1088 the Byzantine emperor Alexius Comnenus made a written deed, or decree, called the Golden Bull, giving Patmos, for all time, to Christodulus and those who should succeed him. They were to hold it free from all taxes. Some are convinced that the Christian monastery was built on the spot where an Artemis temple had anciently stood. Ross published the finding of an inscription, mutilated though it was, indicating that the ancient goddess was the Scythian or Tauric Artemis. The embalmed body of Christodulus was shown in a small side room off the monastery chapel.

The strong towers of the monastery walls confirm the belief that the monastery was built primarily to serve as a safely protected residence for the monks of St. John, and also as a refuge for other inhabitants of the islands, against pirates and similar intruders. It is stated that Christodulus took workmen from the island of Cos to help build the monastery, which is a memorial to the writer of the Apocalypse.

There is one modern road leading up the steep ascent from the port of Scala, past the apocalyptic cave, to the monastery. This road is used by the buses and taxis.

Chief of all the documents in the monastery library is the Bull of Alexius Comnenus, authorizing the founding of the institution. It is 9 ft. long and about 16 in. wide. The writing is large and easily read. Other manuscripts and documents in the library include a 7th-century edition of Job written in uncial letters on vellum. This manuscript is beautified with illustrations representing Job's sons and daughters and Job's personal history. Another prize is called the Porphrios Codex, which contains most of Mark's Gospel. Henry Tozer reported that other parts of the same manuscript, containing fragments of other Gospels, were to be found in the Vatican (six leaves), in the British Museum (four leaves), and in Vienna (two leaves). (See Henry Fanshawe Tozer, The Islands of the Aegean, p. 190.) He called it Codex N, and identified it as a quarto manuscript of the 6th century. It has double columns, and is written on a variety of purple vellum said to be rare. The names of God and of Christ were written in gold. The monastery became famous for its 900 precious manuscripts and many old printed books.

The monks of Patmos, like those of Cyprus and many other places, know too little about the Bible. It has surprised some learned visitors to find that most of the monks have but a limited education. A century ago Tischendorf was astonished to find that they did not have a single document dealing with the text of the Apocalypse. (See James Culross, John, Whom Jesus Loved, p. 76 n.)

Monastery treasures are well guarded. These consist of miters, crowns, crosses, of various sorts--some containing precious jewels--vestments, priests' staves, and religious paintings. Highly valued relics are also among the treasured possessions of the monastery. The monks claim that besides the body of Christodulus they have various bones or pieces of bones of other holy men of past ages. They preserve the shoes and the staff of the founder of the monastery. Also, at times, the monks display a chain by which, they assert, John was bound when he was a prisoner.

The Apocalyptic Cave.--About halfway down the hillside from the monastery is a stone cave about the size of a small apartment. An unconfirmed tradition declares this to be the place where John lived while on Patmos. Today the cave is lighted by hanging lamps, and above it, a fairly large chapel has been built. In the roof of the cave are three large cracks which the monks tell the visitor were caused by an earthquake when the Lord said, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." They have a tradition that the three cracks represent the members of the Trinity, and consider the meeting of the three at a common center as indicating the unity of the Trinity.

One visitor was shown iron hooks driven in the roof and told that John's bed was suspended from them. Another curious tradition says that a stone ledge along one wall was the desk, or table, at which John stood to write the Revelation. A hole in the wall, near the floor, is said to be where he placed his head while kneeling in prayer, and another small niche cut in the stone wall, about two ft. from the floor, where he is supposed to have placed his hand while lifting himself up from prayer.

Other features of interest inside the cave are the apocalyptic symbols painted in color on the once-white ceiling. Among these are the seven angels pouring out the seven last plagues from their vials, the woman standing on the moon wearing a crown with twelve stars, and the beast of Revelation 13 coming up out of the earth. However, the dampness of the cave has caused the paint to blister and peel so badly that the pictures are greatly damaged.

On one side wall are seven panels on which are inscribed the promises to the seven churches. Outside the cave, over the door, is a plague bearing a quotation from Gen. 28:17, "How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Originally these words were spoken by Jacob after his dream of the ladder that reached from earth to heaven. The monks hold that the place where John is believed to have seen his vision of the things recorded in the Revelation was likewise as "the gate of heaven" to him.

II. John in Exile

John on Patmos.--As to whether John was banished to Patmos, various divergent views have been set forth. Some who are not certain that John was banished to Patmos still admit that he was there for a time, and that he wrote the Revelation there. However, C. M. Yonge quotes an "Ancient Latin Hymn" entitled "The Exile of Patmos," which iterates the strong traditional belief:

"Through Rome's infuriated city,

From Caesar's judgment chair,

They drag Christ's beloved disciple,

The Saint with silver hair.

"To desert islands banished,

With God the exile dwells,

And sees the future glory

His mystic writing tells."

(In The Pupils of Saint John the Divine, p. 71.)

Victorinus, in his Latin commentary (c. a.d. 300), claims that John was on the island of Patmos, "condemned to the labour of the mines by Caesar Domitian" (Commentary on the Apocalypse, on ch. 10:11; ANF, Vol. 7, p. 353). Ramsay, though believing John to have been sent to Patmos as an exile, denies that mines existed on the island (see W. M. Ramsay, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia, p. 85). Ellen G. White says that "Patmos, a barren, rocky island in the Aegean Sea, had been chosen by the Roman government as a place of banishment for criminals; but to the servant of God this gloomy abode became the gate of heaven. Here, shut away from the busy scenes of life, and from the active labors of former years, he had the companionship of God and Christ and the heavenly angels, and from them he received instruction for the church for all future time" (AA 570, 571).

The overwhelming testimony of the large majority of authorities in the early church favors the view that John the son of Zebedee was indeed an exile on Patmos. As Bishop Trench observes, the Romans considered it a common form of punishment to banish criminals "or those accounted as such, to rocky and desolate islands" (Richard Chenevix Trench, Commentary on the Epistles to the Seven Churches in Asia [1861], p. 18).

Critical View That John Was Not on Patmos.--In spite of John's reference to being on Patmos (Rev. 1:9), a few critics of great name have challenged the fact. Knowing full well the testimony of Tertullian, Origen, Eusebius, Jerome, and others, Eichhorn wrote in his Introduction to the New Testament:

"`The banishment of John to Patmos must be a mere matter of imagination. ... For real history nowhere says, that John was banished to Patmos; and what ecclesiastical tradition says respecting this, has no other source than the Apocalypse interpreted in an unpoetical manner, which has substituted fact in the place of fiction'; Einleit. II. 367"

(Moses Stuart, Commentary on the Apocalypse, vol. 1, p. 257).

Eichhorn further argued:

"`But banishment was the penalty for making proselytes to the Christian religion, in those times; and Patmos was a very appropriate place for exile. John, therefore, imagines that had been done to him, which was so commonly done to Christians who were his contemporaries; and thus he places himself in the most complete solitude, a condition most of all appropriate to such visions as the Apocalypse relates;' Einleit. § 190"

(Stuart, op. cit., p. 258).

To these objections Stuart aptly replies by asking:

"... what more reason is there to doubt that John was in Patmos, when he saw the visions described in the Apocalypse, than there is to doubt that Ezekiel was by the river Chebar, when he saw the vision related in the first chapter of his work? Or that Daniel was in Shushan, in the palace, in the province of Elam (Dan. 8:2), when he saw the vision of the ram and the he-goat? ...

"If Patmos be merely a fictitious place, why should John select it? Why did he not rather choose Sinai, or Carmel, or Hermon, or the Mount of Transfiguration where he had before seen Moses and Elijah from the heavenly world conversing with Jesus? These were consecrated spots, as one would naturally suppose, and therefore they would most readily occur to his mind, as appropriate places for a revelation. Why choose a Grecian islet, not once named elsewhere in all the sacred books, and scarcely twice or thrice by all the ancient writers of the heathen world?"

(loc. cit.).

Another critical scholar, though conceding that John was possibly on Patmos, fails to see that he was there as an exile, but thinks he was taken there for the sole purpose of having the visions recorded in the Revelation. To this argument Stuart again says:

"Why this was necessary, or specially useful, to John as the subject of divine communications, he does not tell us. ...

"That John, then, was at Patmos, and was there as an exile, when he saw the apocalyptic visions, there remains no good reason to doubt. And so the united voice of antiquity declares. Whether this union of the ancient fathers depends on any other testimony, except what John himself has given in 1:9, we do not and cannot know, unless some new evidence respecting this matter should hereafter be presented. Enough, if it has been shown what the proper meaning of John's words is"

(op. cit., pp. 259, 260).

The Life of an Exile.--Two kinds of exile are said to have been used by the Romans: (1) deportatio, or exile for life to some isolated place, together with a loss of property and other rights; (2) relegatio, exile for a limited time, or it might be for life, without loss of possessions or rights. After mentioning this fact Stuart asks: "Who can show us, that the exile of John was not one of the latter class? Such was that of Ovid, as may be seen in his Tristia ii. 135 seq.; and Tertullian twice applies relegatur to the banishment of John, Apology 5; Prescription Against Heretics 36; and Jerome does the same" (op. cit., p. 262).

Even though, as we have seen, Ramsay believed that "there were no mines in Patmos," which may have been true, yet even he believed that John was condemned to hard work of an extremely severe variety (W. M. Ramsay, The Teaching of Paul in Terms of the Present Day, p. 61). He even refers to John's convict life on Patmos as a "living death" (ibid., p. 61).

Some have suggested that John worked in stone quarries on Patmos. Although it is possible that such quarries once existed, the modern inhabitants of the island appear to know nothing of them. At least it is likely that some form of hard labor was required of prisoners.

Edwin R. McGregor relates something of the suffering that John probably endured:

"... It [Patmos] has ever been practically isolated from the rest of the world. ... A more cruel prison could not have been found in the Roman Empire, for a man of ninety-five, of fully developed social instincts, refined morals, cultivated intelligence, and of lofty religious aspirations. His life in the estimation of the tyrant Domitian would be of short but painful duration, exposed to the severe privations and hardships of such an exile"

(Patmos the History of the Kingdom of Heaven the True Church of Christ, p. 263).

From the above statements, and many more of a similar nature that might be presented, it seems to be a safe conclusion that John was completely isolated during his exile, and could not have known much of what was taking place in the outside world, even in the churches he loved so much. Yet this experience, like that of Joseph in the prison house in Egypt, was overruled by God for a blessing. Ellen G. White declares, "Even in Patmos he made friends and converts" (AA 573). Everything that wicked men and demons combined to do to hinder John's testimony failed to keep him from being heard by sinners in need of the Saviour. See illustration facing p. 737.

John's Residence After Leaving Patmos.--It seems reasonable to credit the ancient tradition that John returned to Ephesus in Asia Minor after his release from Patmos, and carried on an important ministry among the churches of Asia Minor long after all the other apostles had died.

In a discourse entitled Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? Clement of Alexandria says, "Listen to a tale, which is not a tale but a narrative, handed down and committed to the custody of memory, about the Apostle John. For when, on the tyrant's [Domitian's] death, he returned to Ephesus from the isle of Patmos, he went away, being invited, to the contiguous territories of the nations, here to appoint bishops, there to set in order whole churches, there to ordain such as were marked out by the Spirit" (xlii; ANF, vol. 2, p. 603). Domitian was assassinated on September 18, a.d. 96, by Stephanus, a freedman. When Nerva succeeded him, he is said to have given liberty to those who had been imprisoned unjustly by Domitian and to have freed John and permitted him to reside at Ephesus. John was by this time a very old man.

The Seven Churches of Revelation

I. Introduction

The seven cities to whose churches John wrote his well-known letters from the island of Patmos were in western Asia Minor. Two of them, Ephesus and Smyrna, were large port cities. Three, Thyatira, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, being centers of industry and commerce for the areas in which they were located, enjoyed great prosperity and economic importance. Sardis and Pergamum, having formerly been capitals of powerful kingdoms, still possessed great political prominence in the time of John. The whole area in which the seven churches of Revelation were found is rich in historical memories of the early Christian period, and played a great role in ancient history. In this brief article only a few of the historical high lights can be mentioned.

Most of the coastal cities of western Asia Minor were founded by Anatolian tribes, but at an early time they were taken over by Greek colonists. For this reason western Anatolia possessed a strong Greek culture for many centuries. During the 7th and 6th centuries b.c. the powerful Lydian kingdom, which ruled over more than half of Asia Minor, had its capital at Sardis, one of the seven cities of Revelation. This kingdom gave way to the rule of the Persians when Cyrus defeated Croesus and in 547 B.C. took his fortress capital, though it had been considered impregnable. During the following two centuries a continuous but not quite successful struggle against the Persian rule was carried on by the Greeks of Asia Minor's western coastlands, until Alexander the Great freed them from the Persian yoke. Much military action was again seen during the Hellenistic period following Alexander's death. It was during this time that the wealthy kingdom of Pergamum was established. It ruled this area for almost 150 years, until it was taken over in the 2d century b.c. by Rome. For more than four centuries Rome administered it as the "Province of Asia," with Pergamum as its political capital.

It was during that time that some of the cities, whose names are well known to us from the book of Revelation, experienced their greatest glory and wealth. They also underwent a tremendous religious change, as paganism gave way to the Christian religion. The apostle Paul was probably the first Christian missionary who brought the gospel to western Asia Minor. He visited some of its cities several times during his various missionary journeys (Acts 18:19; 19:1; 20:17; 1 Tim. 1:3), and lived in one of them, Ephesus, for three years (Acts 20:31). From that city the gospel rapidly spread to other important parts of Western Asia Minor. The churches of at least two of the cities of this area were favored by Paul with personal letters--Colossae, Ephesus (see Introduction to Ephesians), and Laodicea (Col. 4:16). One other church in this area, Hierapolis, is mentioned by name (Col. 4:13).

Ephesus later became for many years the center of the rich ministerial activity of John, until his work was stopped by the persecution of Christians during the reign of Domitian toward the end of the 1st century. After having been tortured, the aged apostle was exiled to Patmos, a tiny island in the Aegean Sea (see pp. 80-85). It was on volcanic, rocky Patmos, which lies about 35 mi. (55 km.) off the coast of Asia Minor and about 55 mi. (c. 90 km.) from Ephesus, that John saw in vision the history of the Christian church throughout the ages until the end of time, and it was on Patmos that he received the divine messages for the seven churches (see Rev. 2; 3).

After the apostles and other missionaries had laid a good foundation in the 1st century a.d., Asia Minor became a stronghold of Christianity for many centuries. Some famous Church Fathers hailed from western Asia Minor, and several important church councils were held there. Gradually, however, Eastern Christianity lost its vitality and spiritual strength, with the result that it was unable to withstand the determined attacks of non-Christian invaders who poured into Asia Minor from time to time during the Middle Ages and who finally took over the whole area permanently. The last to come were the Turks, who not only occupied the country but, as Moslems, eradicated Christianity so thoroughly that though one can find ruins of Christian churches in most cities, only a few Christian sanctuaries are still in use today.

The cities of the seven churches lie in comparatively close proximity to one another. The distance between any one church and its nearest neighbor is never greater than 50 mi. (80 km.), and the distance between the northernmost church, Pergamum, and the southernmost church, Laodicea, is about 137 mi. (c. 220 km.) in a straight line. The The Journeys of Paul shows that they are so situated that it is possible to visit them in the sequence given in Revelation 2 and 3 without retracing one's steps. Passable roads connecting the seven cities have existed from earliest times, and excellent roads were built during the Persian period, as classical authors testify. The Romans, who were known throughout the ancient world as great road builders, also improved and extended the existing system of roads. Hence, travel conditions between the seven churches were comparatively good during the time of the apostles. But after the breakup of the Roman Empire the roads were neglected. For centuries tourists have complained about the poor condition of the roads in Asia Minor, which make travel extremely difficult and tiresome. Some of the roads are hardly passable for modern vehicles during the winter. The present government, however, is making progress toward remedying this situation.

Western Asia Minor is a region favored by nature. Proximity to the Mediterranean Sea results in a comparatively mild climate. Coastal cities like Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamum enjoy a pleasant climate all the year round. Inland cities like Laodicea and Philadelphia, although sharing to some extent the continental climate of the central Turkish highland, with some snow in the winter, are nevertheless close enough to the Mediterranean to benefit from its warm winds most of the year. The country is mountainous, and in some parts very rugged. Agriculture flourishes. Northern fruits, such as cherries, apples, and strawberries, grow, as well as olives and dates, typical fruits of the Mediterranean belt.

A number of medium-sized rivers irrigate this area, of which some have famous names in ancient history. One of them, the Maeander, for example, flows toward the sea in such a winding way that its name has been immortalized in the verb "to meander," by which the winding course of any river, like that of the Jordan in Palestine, is designated.

II. Ephesus

The Christian church at Ephesus was the first to receive a letter from John while he was exiled on the island of Patmos. The city had priority also in many other respects. With Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria, Ephesus shared the honor of being one of the largest and most important cities in the Eastern world during the period of the Roman Empire. But it was most honored for possessing one of the largest and most famous temples of antiquity, the Artemision, dedicated to the goddess Artemis, whom the Romans called Diana.

Unlike some other famous ancient cities of western Asia Minor, Ephesus now lies in ruins, its site abandoned. In its vicinity stands only a struggling Turkish village by the name of Aya Soluk, a corruption of Hagios Theologos, "the holy theologian," a title given first to John and later transferred as a name to the town. Its official name is now Seljuk. This village lies about 35 mi. (56 km.) south of Izmir (Smyrna) and can be reached by road or railway.

In Seljuk can be seen the ruins of an ancient aqueduct that formerly provided Ephesus with water. To the west of the village lies the sacred hill of Ephesus, the top of which is now occupied by the ruins of a Byzantine castle, while the ruins of the Basilica of St. John the Theologian lie on the southern slopes of this hill. Originally only a small chapel had stood on this site, where according to tradition John was buried, but a magnificent basilica 370 ft. (113 m.) in length was erected in its stead by the emperor Justinian (a.d. 527-565). In beauty and size this church was surpassed only by the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople. This church, like most others in Asia Minor, now lies in ruins, and of its marble walls and buttresses only stumps remain.

To the southeast of the Basilica of St. John lies the ruined monumental Mosque of Sultan Isa I, a structure 197 by 173 ft. (60 by 53 m.) that was built in the 14th century. Near the mosque is the site of the famous Artemision, now a deep depression in the ground that for parts of the year is filled with water. If a signboard had not been placed there by the Antiquities' Service, drawing the attention of tourists to the fact that it is the site of the great Temple of Diana, most visitors would pass by without recognizing it as the place where once stood one of the most famous structures of antiquity.

So thoroughly was this temple destroyed that its very site was forgotten. From 1863 to 1874 J. T. Wood carried on excavations at Ephesus on behalf of the British Museum, spending some $80,000. His main goal, to find the Artemision, he realized after several years of search and after having removed 132,000 cubic yards (100,900 cu. m.) of earth. Even then he discovered no more than the foundation stones of the great structure, buried under 20 ft. (6 m.) of debris and soil. Wood found that the temple proper had stood on a platform, which was reached by a flight of ten steps surrounding it on all sides. The temple was 425 ft. (130 m.) long and 220 ft. (67 m.) wide, covering four times the area of the famous Parthenon of Athens. It had 117 columns (Pliny, erroneously, says 127), which were 66 ft. (20 m.) high and 7 ft. (2.13 m.) in diameter. Thirty-six of them had sculptured drums of human figures in life size.

From ancient records we learn that the former Temple of Diana was in process of building for 120 years prior to its completion between 430 and 420 B.C. This edifice is said to have been destroyed in 356 B.C., the year in which Alexander the Great was born, and was then rebuilt in greater splendor than before. The famous statue of Artemis, goddess of hunting and fertility, stood in the inner sanctuary of the temple. It was said by some ancient writers to have been made of black wood partly overlaid with gold, but leaving the head, arms, hands, and feet uncovered. Others, like the town clerk of Paul's day (Acts 19:35), claimed that it had fallen from heaven, for which reason some scholars think that it was made of a black meteor. Whatever the material may have been, the statue was a symbol of fertility, for which reason Artemis was depicted with many breasts.

The fame of the Artemision was due to many factors. Its size and the beauty of its architecture made it one of the most glorious buildings of antiquity. It was included by the ancients as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Furthermore, numerous statues and other works of art produced by the most famous artists of the Greek world stood in the Artemision had added to its fame. Many kings and wealthy private individuals donated works of art to this temple as dedicatory gifts. Numerous feasts connected with the cult of Diana were celebrated on its grounds. These were occasions of much eating, drinking, and gross immorality. The most spectacular of these feasts lasted for several days during the month Artemisios (March-April), which was dedicated to Artemis. During that month many visitors came to the city, and it was probably upon such an occasion that the riot against Paul took place (see Acts 19). The temple was also known as a place that granted the right of asylum to political fugitives, a privilege highly valued in ancient times. Furthermore, one of the richest and most skillfully managed banks of antiquity was administered by the priests of this temple. The result was that great sums of money were deposited in its vaults.

It is therefore not difficult to understand that any effort to undermine the authority and fame of this institution would encounter a most determined opposition from the population of Ephesus and from all those interested in perpetuating its system. In ancient inscriptions and by the town clerk of Ephesus the city is called the neoµkoros, "temple keeper" (Acts 19:35, RSV), or "custodian," of the great Artemis, a title of which the Ephesians were extremely proud. Therefore, when Paul's work at Ephesus diminished the financial income of those who made their living in connection with the cult of Artemis, a great uproar was the result.

Although Paul, who had spent nearly three years laboring in Ephesus, left soon after the riot, the seed he had sown brought a plentiful harvest, and two centuries later the whole area was largely Christianized (see The Church in the Time of Constantine). Consequently the Temple of Diana lost its significance, and when it was burned by the Goths in a.d. 262, its influence had been reduced to such an extent that it was not rebuilt. Its marble columns were taken down and used in the building of Christian churches, some of them as far as Constantinople. What remained of this great world wonder was used by the local population as a stone quarry. Its large marble blocks were either cut up and used in building houses or burned to lime. Finally, the whole site was covered with debris, and the location was entirely forgotten until Wood rediscovered it in modern times.

A short distance to the south of the site of the Artemision begins the ruined site of the city proper, the largest city of Asia Minor during the time of the apostle Paul. On the basis of available evidence it has been estimated that Ephesus had a population of 225,000 in the 2d century b.c. The city grew extensively in size during the Roman period.

Ancient Ephesus, situated on the left bank of the Caÿster River and on a small bay that formed a natural harbor, was an important commercial center. It owed this importance, not to the Caÿster, which was neither the longest nor the most important river of western Asia Minor, but to an advantageous geographical location between two most important rivers which watered a rich agricultural area--the Maeander on the south and the Hermus on the north. For this reason many wealthy business houses were located in Ephesus, and its busy economic life made this city one of the richest of antiquity.

Coming from the Artemision, the ancient visitor entered the city through the Gate of Koressos, of which there are but fragmentary remains. Close by are the ruins of the stadium and those of the Gymnasium of Vedius--there were several gymnasiums found in every large Greek city--where young men practiced for the athletic games.

Continuing on the modern road leading through the ancient city, one soon reaches the comparatively well-preserved Great Theater, probably the largest of Asia Minor. It was a monumental structure whose 66 rows of seats were built into the western slopes of Mt. Pion. It seated 24,500 viewers. The orchestra had a diameter of about 100 ft. (30.5 m.) while the auditorium was 650 ft. (198 m.) in diameter. The stage has collapsed, but its supporting pillars are still standing as well as parts of its sculptured back wall, which in ancient times was three stories high. This great amphitheater, where political gatherings were held, was the scene of the riot against the apostle Paul, vividly described in Acts 19:23-41. Whenever an important issue had to be decided the people went to the theater to hear it discussed and to make their decisions known to the administration. See illustration facing p. 353, Vol. VI.

The building of theater seats on the natural slopes, where hills or mountains were available for such a purpose, simplified construction, and also definitely improved the acoustics. From the highest row of seats of the theater one has an excellent bird's-eye view of the remains of the ancient city and its environs. To the north is the winding course of the Caÿster River. Somewhat closer by, partly hidden by trees and shrubbery, are the massive ruins of the Church of Saint Mary, in which two famous church councils were held, that of a.d. 431, which officially declared Mary to be the mother of God, and the so-called Robber Council of a.d. 449.

At the foot of the theater begins the Arkadiane, a 36-ft. (11 m.) street, the main connection between the center of the city and the ancient harbor to the west. Its white marble pavement glistens in the sunlight. Still standing are remnants of colonnaded streets, which were lighted at night. At the end of the Arkadiane, where formerly the harbor lay, there are now lush green fields, more fertile than any others in the vicinity, since they were formed by alluvial soil carried down the Caÿster. The present coast of the Aegean Sea lies about 3 mi. (5 km.) farther to the west. The silting up of the harbor, which the ancients were unable to prevent in spite of diligent efforts, was one of the reasons for the decline of Ephesus as an important mercantile city, and for its eventual abandonment.

To the west, behind the former harbor, rises the hill Astyages, on the slopes of which an ancient structure is pointed out as the traditional prison of Paul. However, there is no reliable evidence that the apostle was ever jailed in Ephesus. to the south lies Mt. Koressos, on whose ridge lie the remains of the Hellenistic city, whose wall formerly encircled Ephesus for a distance of 36,000 ft. (c. 11 km.) and enclosed an area of 1,027 acres (416 hectares).

In the valley between Mt. Koressos and Mt. Pion are the ruined public buildings of the ancient city. Among these are the large agora, the "market place"; the Serapeum, a temple dedicated to the Egyptian god Serapis; the library of Celsus; extensive Roman baths; aqueducts that brought water from the mountains to the city; the odeum, "a small music hall"; and others.

The agora, or market place, was the center of the social and economic life of every ancient city, and the size of the agora of Ephesus, of which only parts have been excavated, shows how important the city must have been. On all sides it was flanked by colonnaded sidewalks, behind which were shops. A number of these have been excavated and some even reconstructed, so that the modern visitor can visualize their former appearance. But what a contrast between the past and the present! Once this place was the busy center of a populous city in which the visitor saw beautiful buildings and statues, as well as an active metropolitan life. Now he is surrounded by broken columns, wall stumps, and heaps of earth and debris not yet excavated. Of the busy and noisy life that once filled this center of one of the Eastern world's largest cities, nothing is left. Of a great stone arch erected in honor of the emperor Augustus and his family by two freedmen of Agrippa, a few large blocks are lying in the agora. The inscription, or dedication, calls Augustus the pontifex maximus, or chief high priest, of the empire, a title that was later taken over by the bishops of Rome.

South of the agora lies the famous library of Celsus, which in the course of time rivaled in importance that of Alexandria. It consisted of a lecture hall, and a reading room surrounded by alcoves in which expensive manuscripts were stored. The ruins of this famous library, founded in the time of John's ministry by one of Ephesus' most wealthy citizens, impresses the modern visitor.

III. Smyrna

Smyra, now Izmir, is one of the most beautifully situated cities in Asia Minor. It lies at the head of a gulf, 40 mi. (64 km.) inland, and has a harbor well protected by surrounding mountains. The fact that it is a port city to which ocean ships have access, yet is situated in the heart of the region, has always given Smyrna an advantage over other cities of western Asia Minor and made it one of the most important trade centers of that area. To this can be added the fact that it lies in the fertile valley of the Meles River and that it enjoys ready access to the hinterland and to important cities such as Pergamum, Sardis, and Ephesus.

The earliest settlement was founded at a site to the north of the modern city by an Anatolian people called Lelages. From about 1100 B.C. it was peopled by Greek colonists, first by the Aeolians and later by the Ionians. Even when the city was in the possession of foreign powers such as the Lydians, Persians, or Turks, the majority of its population was usually Greek. The present site of Smyrna was chosen by Lysimachus, one of the generals and successors of Alexander the Great. In this he revealed good taste and keen foresight. Built against the slopes of the mountains surrounding the eastern part of the Hermaic Gulf, Smyrna has become one of the most important, as well as picturesque, cities of Western Asia.

The climate is pleasant, and profuse vegetation adds charm to the scenery. There are olive, cypress, fig, pomegranate, and plane trees, and even the date palm. The chief products of export today are the famous Smyrna figs, tobacco, silk, and the well-known Smyrna carpets. Minerals found in the mountains of the Smyrna region since ancient times include iron, manganese, gold, silver, mercury, lead, copper, and antimony. Some soft coal is mined in the region. Anciently, another attraction of Smyrna was its warm springs, which were frequented by people suffering from arthritis. Taken internally, the waters were said to relieve intestinal troubles.

There were thus excellent reasons why Smyrna became a rich and populous city, In fact, until the end of World War I it was the second largest city in Asia Minor, having a population of about 250,000. After the great fire of 1922 nearly destroyed the city and killed thousands of its inhabitants, and after tens of thousands of Greeks were driven out of Smyrna in 1922 and 1923, the city's population diminished. But according to the 1970 census it stood at 520,838. The size of its ancient population is not known.

As the modern city is built on top of ancient Smyrna, only a few ruins are now visible. Remnants of the old city walls of Lysimachus can be seen in a few places in the vicinity of modern Izmir, also several picturesque but ruined aqueducts. The ruins of the citadel, which dominate the scenery, are of Byzantine origin; only their lower parts go back to Roman and Hellenistic times. Like most ancient cities, Smyrna possessed a great number of pagan temples, but few remains have been found. Statues, however, which formerly must have stood in these temples, are occasionally discovered in excavating for foundations of new houses.

The most interesting ruins of the ancient city are those of the agora, or market place, which was found in the heart of the modern city after World War I. For a long time archaeologists had unsuccessfully searched for the agora of Smyrna, which was famous in ancient times as the only agora constructed in three stories. The lowest level of shops was below ground, another row of shops was found at the street level, and a third row was on top of the colonnaded sidewalks surrounding the whole market place. Since its discovery, excavation and some restoration work has been carried out, which affords a modern visitor a vivid impression of this, the most famous market place of antiquity. The subterranean halls and shops are well preserved; in fact, some are in so excellent a state of preservation that they could be put to use in their present state. Of the ancient structures at the street level only a few columns now remain, and all traces of the second-floor level vanished long ago.

The ancient people of Smyrna were especially proud of their city as the birthplace of Homer, most famous of all Greek poets. Many ancient tourists visited Smyrna to pay homage to the memory of this illustrious man, as they would to other cities for the purpose of worshiping famous gods.

The Christian community in Smyrna has experienced numerous and severe periods of persecution. It is of interest to note that since ancient times the name Smyrna has been interpreted to mean "myrrh," a bitter but aromatic gum resin obtained from East Africa and Arabia, which symbolized bitterness and suffering. Modern scholars discredit this traditional interpretation in favor of a derivation from Samorna, the name of an Anatolian goddess who was worshiped in this city. Whatever the true interpretation of the city's name, it is a historical fact that the Christians of Smyrna have been seen more suffering than those of any other city of the region.

The city has frequently been destroyed, sometimes by earthquakes, more often by foreign armies. In the Christian Era it has been conquered and sacked by the barbarous Goths, the cruel Mongols, the fierce Seljuks, the zealous Crusaders, and in modern times by the Kemalist Turks. As an example of the horrors at times experienced by the Smyrneans, mention may be made of the massacre of almost all the inhabitants of the town by Timur (Tamerlane), the bloodthirsty Mongol conqueror of the 14th century who built a tower with the heads of captured Smyrneans. Even in modern times some of the greatest of massacres have taken place in Smyrna, as, for instance, in the struggle between the Greeks and the Turks after World War I. The city repeatedly changed hands, and unspeakable atrocities were committed in which it is claimed that tens of thousands perished.

The Christian community in Smyrna has suffered repeated persecution ever since John's time, as famous martyrs have laid down their lives within the walls of this city. Doubtless the most illustrious of these was Polycarp, a disciple of John and later bishop of Smyrna. He was burned alive (c. a.d. 155), either in the stadium or in the great theater, both being pointed out as the place where he met his death. Yet his death and the deaths of other valiant martyrs brought much fruit during the ensuing decades and centuries. Smyrna became one of the strongest centers of Christianity in the eastern half of the Roman Empire, and was the last city of Asia Minor to yield to the Moslem conquest. Until World War I four out of every five inhabitants were Christians, which fact proves how tenaciously Smyrna's population had kept its religion. Yet it has finally shared the fate of all other Christian centers of Asia Minor, and has now succumbed to the Moslems. When the Greeks were driven from Smyrna by the Turks under Kemal Pasha in 1922, the Christian community there received its deathblow.

IV. Pergamum

Pergamum, situated in a wide valley about 3 mi. (5 km.) north of the Caicus River and about 15 mi. (c. 24 km.) from the sea, was another of the famous cities of Asia Minor. The palace, temples, theaters, gymnasiums, and other public buildings of ancient Pergamum were built on the summit and on the slopes of a high hill. The residential section of the city lay at its foot, at the site in the plain where lies where likes the modern town of Bergama (population c. 20,000).

This city was founded by Greek colonist. Though not much is known of its early history, it seems already to have been important in the 5th century b.c., as can be seen from the fact that it coined its own money as early as 420 B.C. More is known of its history from the 3d century b.c. onward. At that time Lysimachus, one of Alexander's generals and successors, deposited his state treasure of 9,000 gold talents in its strong fortress. After his death in 281 B.C. this treasure was appropriated by his custodian Philetaerus, who made himself ruler over Pergamum (283-263 B.C.). He became the founder of the rich Attalid dynasty, which occupied the throne for about 150 years. Although the history of the independent kingdom of Pergamum was short, it left its mark on the ancient world, and the wealth of its kings became proverbial, like that of the earlier Croesus of Sardis.

King Attalus I (241-197 B.C.) was the first great ruler of the kingdom. He had to fight against the Gauls, the ancestors of the Galatians of New Testament fame, who had invaded Asia Minor from the west and had settled in the center of Anatolia (see Additional Note on Acts 16). When the Gauls were decisively defeated in 240 B.C. Attalus was able to add much new territory to his kingdom. When he died, Pergamum ruled over all of Mysia, Lydia, Caria, Pamphylia, and Phrygia, a territory comprising almost half of Asia Minor. The wealth which poured into Pergamum from these areas in the form of tribute was used to beautify the capital to such an extent that it became one of the most wonderful cities of its time. It had so many temples, theaters, gymnasiums, and other monumental public buildings that it was acclaimed as the richest city in the world.

During the time of Eumenes II (197-159 B.C.), the next king, a library was founded, which grew into a collection of 200,000 manuscripts. This library aroused the jealousy of Ptolemy V of Egypt (203-181 B.C.). Fearing that it would soon excel the library of Alexandria, he imposed an embargo on papyrus, the most common writing material of the ancient world. Since Egypt was the only country in which papyrus rolls were made, he hoped in this way to curtail the production of books in foreign countries. This emergency became a blessing in disguise, for it led the bookmakers of Pergamum to invent parchment, the finest writing material ever produced. Parchment is a fine leather made of the hides of young animals, such as calves, lambs, or kids, by a refined tanning process. It has advantages over ordinary leather, which was also used as writing material by the ancients. Since this new writing material was invented at Pergamum, it received the name of pergameµnos in Greek and pergamenus in Latin. From these words the modern Pergament in German, parchemin in French, pergamino in Spanish, and parchment in English are derived.

Eumenes' library was later removed from Pergamum by Mark Antony and presented as a gift to Cleopatra. In the Arabic conquest of Egypt it was destroyed, along with many other book collections of the ancient world.

Also during the time of Eumenes II, the great Altar of Zeus, the masterpiece of Pergamum's famous works of art, was erected; of this more will be said later. One of the most formidable technical works dating from his reign was an aqueduct for carrying water, under pressure, to the acropolis of Pergamum. This water came from mountain springs which lay higher than Pergamum's acropolis hill, by means of a pipe line several miles in length that crossed the plain in which the city is situated. Never had such an ambitious work been attempted in antiquity, nor was it imitated for centuries. The remains of this aqueduct are still visible.

Eumenes II was followed by only two more kings, Attalus II (159-138 B.C.) and Attalus III (138-133 B.C.). The reason Pergamum ceased to be an independent kingdom was that the last-mentioned monarch, a great admirer of Rome, willed his kingdom to the Romans. They took it over after his death, and, by 129 B.C., had organized part of it as the province of Asia, with Pergamum for a capital. Although in the course of time Pergamum lost some of its fame to Ephesus and Smyrna, and finally saw Ephesus become the capital of the province, nevertheless it remained for centuries one of the most illustrious and wealthy cities of western Asia Minor.

A Christian church was established in Pergamum during the apostolic age, as is indicated in the third letter found in the book of Revelation (ch. 2:12-17). This letter mentions the good qualities of the church and the fact that Antipas, a faithful martyr, had been slain in this city, but also severely rebukes the Christians of Pergamum for tolerating idolatry and immorality within the church. The city became a Christian center and retained that position for centuries. In a.d. 1304 it was conquered by the Seljuks, and 32 years later by Suleiman. Since then it has been Turkish, and has gradually diminished in size to the insignificant town that it now is.

Since 1878 excavations have been carried out intermittently by the German Government among the ruins of Pergamum, mainly on the acropolis. During these years an extensive area has been uncovered, which gives the modern visitor a good concept of the layout of the ancient city. Descriptions of the various temples dedicated to Zeus, Dionysus, Athena, Demeter, and other gods, as well as descriptions of the ruins of the royal palace, of the various theaters, gymnasiums, and other public buildings would become tiresome. Only two of the most famous structures in Pergamum will be briefly described, both of which have been declared by different Bible commentators to be "Satan's seat" mentioned in John's letter to Pergamum (Rev. 2:13). One of these structures is the Altar of Zeus, already mentioned, which was built by Eumenes II in the 2d century b.c., and the other is the Asclepieion, one of the most famous of all ancient hospitals.

The Altar of Zeus was not only a tremendous structure, being 127 ft. (37 m.) wide, and 40 ft. (12 m.) high, but also a masterpiece of art and architecture. It consisted of a two-story hall built in the form of a horseshoe, with the lower part covered with beautiful sculptured reliefs depicting the war between Pergamum and the Gauls. The upper parts were formed by colonnades. This illustrious altar structure naturally formed a great attraction to the city, and some commentators have thought it to be "Satan's seat" to which the revelator referred. K. Humann, the first excavator of Pergamum, discovered this altar and extracted its sculptured slabs of stone from the Byzantine city walls in which they had been incorporated in later times. All this material was transported to Berlin, where the whole altar was reconstructed in the "Pergamus Museum," and fortunately escaped destruction from the ravages of World War II. After the war it was dismantled by the Russians and shipped to the East, but was later returned. See illustration facing p. 737.

The other great and famous landmark of Pergamum, thought by some commentators to be the "Satan's seat" mentioned in Revelation, was the Asclepieion, a large compound dedicated to Asclepius, the god of healing, one of the four main gods of Pergamum. This large compound, to which multitudes of sick people traveled from great distances to find relief from their ailments, has been excavated since 1928. In it were found the ruins of several buildings, such as halls in which the patients were kept and received water treatments, an amphitheater where they were entertained, and subterranean rooms where they were put to sleep to receive in their dreams divine messages as to the treatments they should get. Finally, it contained also a round temple in which the patients deposited their offerings before leaving the compound, just as modern patients pay their bills in the business office of a hospital before being discharged. In the courtyard of this Asclepieion stands a monument with the two Asclepius snakes in relief, the symbol of the medical profession, which has been in use from ancient times to the present day.

The most famous physician of antiquity, Galen (c. a.d. 130-c. 200), was born in Pergamum and trained in the medical profession in its Asclepieion. He studied further at Smyrna, Corinth, and Alexandria. His influence in the field of medical science was strongly felt throughout the Middle Ages, and his writings show that the physicians of his time had some scientific knowledge about the functions of the human body, as well as about the healing power of certain medicines and therapeutic methods of treatment.

V. Thyatira

Thyatira was an old Lydian city lying on the river Lycus, a tributary of the Hermus, in the northern part of Lydia, but so close to the border of Mysia that even the ancients frequently referred to it by mistake as a Mysian city. Its early history is not well known, except that it was a holy city of the Lydian sun god Tyrimnos, depicted regularly as a horseman god. By the 3d century b.c. the city had apparently fallen into decay, and was founded anew by Seleucus Nicator (305-281 B.C.), who colonized it with Greeks. From that time on Thyatira remained one of the smaller Hellenistic cities of western Asia Minor. Although it became the commercial center of the Lycus Valley, it was never a metropolis like Ephesus, Smyrna, or Pergamum.

Since the city seems to have enjoyed a rather tranquil and peaceful life during most of its existence, its history is rather colorless in comparison with the history of cities like Smyrna or Ephesus. The nearest Thyatira came to being involved in a war was in 190 B.C., when Antiochus the Great put his military forces in this city in anticipation of meeting the Roman army. However, the ensuing battle between him and Scipio took place at Magnesia, some 75 mi. (120 km.) south by west of Thyatira, and by this good fortune the city escaped harm.

The ancient city is buried underneath Akhisar, a town with a 1974 population of 46,167, whose chief industry is now rug making. The Turkish name Akhisar, "White Castle," comes from the white ruins of a medieval castle that lie near the modern town. Scientific excavations have never been conducted in this town, but in diggings carried out by the townspeople for the laying of foundations for their houses ancient artifacts have frequently been found. Numerous inscriptions have thus come to light, and these have found their way into various museums.

Ancient Thyatira was a city of guilds. In no other city of Western Asia were the various craftsmen organized into well-disciplined guilds as in this city. Among them the guild of the dyers occupied a most prominent place. The dyers of Thyatira had learned to make purple dyestuff from the madder root instead of the shellfish, as was done in other purple-producing centers of the ancient world. This purple dye, now called Turkish red, enabled the dyers of Thyatira to compete successfully with other centers of dyemaking. Lydia, one of the first converts of Paul in Philippi, was called "a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira" (Acts 16:14). Apparently, this Anatolian city had business agents in foreign countries such as Macedonia, in which Philippi was situated.

Ancient Thyatira possessed a temple, dedicated to a deity called Sambathe, in which an officiating prophetess gave oracles. Some Bible commentators have though that the words of John about "Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants" (Rev. 2:20) refer to this oracle-giving prophetess in the temple of Sambathe. The correctness of this interpretation is, however, questionable, and it is equally uncertain whether W. M. Ramsay is correct in seeing references in this fourth letter of the Revelation (ch. 2:18-29) to the compromising Christian members of certain guilds. He thinks that many church members were still living under the discipline of their respective guild organizations, to which they had belonged before they became Christians, and that they continued to take part in some of the immoral and questionable practices during feasts and other gatherings.

That the church of Thyatira lost its purity and experienced troubles in the early centuries of the Christian Era, seems evident from a remark made by the Church Father Epiphanius, who claims that in the beginning of the 3d century the whole city and its environs had embraced the Montanist heresy. Otherwise not much is known of the history of the Christian church of this city, whose spiritual condition became a type of the fallen church of the entire Middle Ages.

VI. Sardis

Nearly 50 mi. (80 km.) east of Smyrna and 3 mi. (5 km.) south of the river Hermus lay Sardis, the capital of the Lydian kingdom. Its acropolis was built on a spur of the northern slopes of Mt. Tmolus, to which the river Pactolus, a tributary of the Hermus, formed a natural moat on two sides. The earliest city had lain entirely within strong protective walls on the acropolis hill, but later extended to the plain at its foot.

The city first appears in history as the capital of the Lydian kingdom, in the 7th century b.c. It was here at about this time that coins were invented and used as money for the first time in history. Thus the ancient Lydians gained the honor of making an invention of lasting and worldwide importance.

On the history of the Lydian kingdom and the conquest of Sardis by Cyrus the Great see Vol. III of this Commentary, pp. 50-54. After its conquest by Cyrus, Sardis, the proud and rich capital of a kingdom, became the seat of a Persian satrap, and in the palace in which once the fabulously rich kings of Lydia had resided, the Persian satraps took up their domicile. About 500 B.C. Sardis experienced its first major tragedy, when the Ionians rose up in rebellion against the Persian rule and burned the lower city. Darius the Great was furious and wanted to avenge this crime. He ordered his servants to remind him every morning of the fire of Sardis. The Persian wars against Greece were the result of Darius' anger, and it was from Sardis that Artaphernes, Darius' brother, started out on the first Persian campaign against Greece in 490 B.C. Sardis was also the seat of Cyrus the Younger, who, as satrap, fought the famous battle at Cunaxa in 401 B.C. against his brother Artaxerxes II, following which Xenophon and his 10,000 Greeks gained immortal fame.

The city changed hands frequently after the Persian period. Alexander the Great took it in 334 B.C., and Antigonus, one of his generals, took it again 12 years later. From 301 B.C. Sardis was in the hands of the Seleucids for more than 100 years. It was during this period that the acropolis was captured in the same way as it had been in the time of Cyrus. In 218 B.C., during a siege by Antiochus the Great, a Cretan soldier scaled the wall and opened the city to the besieging forces.

In 190 B.C. the city became part of the kingdom of Pergamum, for some 60 years. When this kingdom was taken over by the Romans in 133 B.C., Sardis shared its fate, having already lost much of its importance to cities like Ephesus and Smyrna. In a.d. 17 it was badly damaged by an earthquake, but Tiberius assisted in its reconstruction by exempting it from taxes for five years and providing it with extra funds. Once more Sardis experienced a period of prosperity, and after the breakup of the Roman province of Asia in a.d. 295 it again became the capital of Lydia. The city came successively under the rule of the Byzantine emperors, the Arabs, and the Turks. In the 15th century and after, the acropolis was abandoned, and Sardis gradually became a village. After changing fortunes through the centuries, Sardis was leveled by an earthquake in 1595. Thereafter the population dwindled until only nomads remained. The city that had once been the capital of one of the three leading kingdoms of the ancient world (Lydia, Babylon, and Egypt) ended as a heap of ruins.

Before excavations began, the corrosive forces of nature had cut deeply into the sides of the acropolis hill and thus laid bare broken walls and unidentified structures. Two protruding columns were all that could be seen of the large temple of Artemis, the mother goddess of Asia Minor, whose worship somewhat resembled that of the Artemis (Latin, Diana) of Ephesus.

This temple had fallen into ruin, and was deeply covered with debris when an American expedition from Princeton University, directed by H. C. Butler, began its excavation (1910-1914, 1922). Only the tops of two of its many columns were protruding from the soil, thus betraying to the explorers the site of the ancient temple. As they removed a 50-ft. (15 m.) layer of debris and soil, the whole temple was uncovered, and its lower parts of masonry were found to be comparatively well preserved. Many of its columns were found standing to about half their original height. We are therefore able to form an accurate picture of the ground plan and the structural details of this great temple, which measured 330 by 165 ft. (100 by 50 m.). The columns were of about the same size as those of the Artemision of Ephesus, and two of them are still standing to their original height of 66 ft. (20 m.), with their capitals in place. Many of the others are preserved to a height of about 30 ft. (9 m.). Built up of drums about 7 ft. (2.13 m.) in diameter, the columns rest on bases that contain exquisite sculptured leaf designs, each different from the others.

Beside this temple stand the remains of a small brick church from the period after Constantine. No traces remain of the church to which the letter of the Revelator was addressed.

The Sardis of John's time was still in the process of reconstruction after it had been destroyed by the earthquake of a.d. 17. Its glory seemed to have already departed when he reminded the Christian community there that the city had a name, or reputation, for being alive while in reality it was dead (Rev. 3:1). However, the city recovered, and by the year 200 it had reached the peak of its growth and area, with a population estimated at more than 100,000. It was a provincial capital under Rome.

From 1958 to 1971 excavations were conducted in Sardis by Harvard and Cornell universities, with other organizations, directed by G. M. A. Haufmann. These excavations produced many works of art, other objects, and inscriptions, which threw much light on the life of the city from pre-Lydian to Islamic times. Many buildings were excavated and several partly restored, including a gymnasium and a large synagogue.

The present Turkish village at the site bears the famous ancient name in only slightly altered form, Sart.

VII. Philadelphia

Philadelphia was situated on the river Cogamus, a southern branch of the Hermus. As an inland city of Anatolia it lay about 75 mi. (120 km.) east of Smyrna, and was built upon a terrace 650 ft. (198 m.) above sea level on the eastermost slopes of the Tmolus Mountains. Behind the city are volcanic cliffs which were formed in historical times, although no written records of volcanic activity are extant. As in other volcanic areas, the soil around Philadelphia is most fertile, with the result that some of the finest vineyards of western Asia Minor are found in the vicinity of this city.

Philadelphia was the youngest of the seven cities to which the letters of Revelation were addressed. Founded in the reign of King Attalus II Philadelphus of Pergamum, it received the name Philadelphia, "Brotherly Love," in honor of King Attalus' loyalty to his elder brother Eumenes II, who had preceded him on the throne of Pergamum. Philadelphia was called by various names. In the 1st century a.d. it was renamed Neo-Caesarea in honor of the emperor Tiberius, who assisted in the recovery of the city from the destructive earthquake of a.d. 17. Later it returned to its former name, and in Vespasian's time it added the name Flavia after the emperor's family. It was known as Philadelphia when John wrote the Revelation (ch. 3:7-13) letter to the church of that city. The modern name of Philadelphia's successor is Alashehir. This name has been explained by some visitors, misled by an insufficient knowledge of Turkish, to be an abbreviation of Allah-shehir, "the city of God." The name really means "the reddish city," because of the reddish color of the volcanic soil on which the city is built.

Since Philadelphia lay on a main road between upper Phrygia and Smyrna, it became an important inland city and amassed enough wealth to build sumptuous temples and other magnificent public buildings. For this reason ancient writers referred to Philadelphia as Little Athens. Yet it never obtained the political, economic, or religious importance possessed by some of the other cities already described.

Christianity seems to have entered Philadelphia in the apostolic period, as must be concluded from the fact that the Revelation includes a letter to the church in this city. Otherwise, nothing is known of the early history of that church. In later times Philadelphia became the seat of a bishop, and in the 13th century was the Christian center of the whole country of Lydia, being the residence of an archbishop. During the following centuries it appears as a stronghold of Christianity, with much moral strength to withstand the onslaught of barbarian nations that repeatedly overran Asia Minor. The citizens of Philadelphia had every reason to be proud of their history in this respect. Successfully they withstood a siege by the Seljuks in a.d. 1306 and forced the enemy to withdraw, and again remained unconquered in a.d. 1324, when the Seljuks made a second attempt to take the city. No other city of Asia Minor could boast of such a valiant record. Yet after a long resistance the city fell to the Turks in a.d. 1390, and was then conquered by Timur (Tamerlane) in 1402. The Philadelphians were no match for Timur's fierce Mongolian hordes, although they put up a heroic resistance. The city was taken by storm, and Timur built a wall of the corpses of Philadelphia's gallant victims, as he had built a tower of the skulls of captured Smyrneans during the siege of their unhappy city. The spot where this gruesome event took place is still pointed out by the citizens of Alashehir.

This catastrophe neither destroyed the will of the Philadelphian Christians to survive nor quenched their determination to remain faithful to their religion. It seems that they were conscious of the admonition to hold what they had, so that no man would take their crown (Rev. 3:11). Even when the whole country was eventually taken over by the Turks, and Christianity in Asia Minor died a slow but certain death, Philadelphia remained, like Smyrna, a Christian city. It is a remarkable coincidence that the two cities, Smyrna and Philadelphia, which retained their Christian character and population longer than any other cities of Asia Minor, are the same cities whose churches were so pure and blameless in John's time that the letters written to them are the only ones containing no words of rebuke.

At the end of World War I the majority of the population of Alashehir was still Christian. However, the city then shared the fate of Smyrna, and saw its Christian population driven out by the Kemalist Turks in 1923. For this reason the modern visitor finds in this city only the ruined buttresses and walls of a large cathedral, in the center of the city beside a well-kept Moslem mosque, and hears, instead of the bells of a Christian church, the imam's call to prayer from the height of a minaret.

A visit to old Philadelphia not only is a sad experience to a Christian visitor but also brings disappointment to the archeologist who seeks for remains of the city's glorious past. He finds the miserable remnants of the old city wall a habitation of storks and overgrown with weeds and grass. A few unidentifiable ruins remain but nothing of the glorious temples, the stately gymnasiums, and the grand theaters of antiquity, through which Philadelphia had once earned the name Little Athens. The destructive work of the past centuries has been so thoroughgoing that hardly any trace of its former greatness can be found.

VIII. Laodicea

Nearly 100 mi. (c. 160 km.) east of Ephesus was Laodicea, the last of the seven cities to whose churches John addressed the letters found in Revelation. It was in the valley of the river Lycus, which flows between mountains that rise to heights of 8,000 and 9,000 ft. (2,440 m. and 2,740 m.). This river Lycus in Phrygia, a tributary of the river Maeander, should not be confused with the Lycus on which Thyatira was situated, a tributary of the Hermus. Laodicea was not far from the Phrygian Lycus at an elevation of about 800 ft. (c. 250 m.) above sea level, on the main road from Ephesus to the Euphrates. It was founded probably by Antiochus II (261-246 B.C.), one of the Seleucid rulers of the Hellenistic era, who named the city after Laodice, his sister and wife, and populated it with Syrians and Jews transplanted from Babylonia. During the first century of its existence Laodicea was an insignificant town, but its importance increased rapidly after the formation of the Roman province of Asia in the 2d century b.c.

Lying in a country where great flocks of black sheep were raised, Laodicea became the trade center for glossy black wool and for black garments of local manufacture. Both the wool and the garments were exported to many countries. The city was also known as an export center for the famous Phrygian eye powder, and as a strong financial center, with several great banking houses that attracted much wealth. It obtained, furthermore, fame for being near the temple of Men Karou, where a well-known school of medicine was conducted.

Thus Laodicea was known during Roman times as one of the richest cities of the East. The emperor Nero called it "one of the illustrious cities of Asia," when offering the Laodiceans financial help for reconstruction after a severe earthquake had destroyed it in a.d. 60. The proud and wealthy citizens, however, refused this aid and told their would-be benefactor that they had enough financial resources to rebuild their city without help from outside.

A knowledge of the history of Laodicea, of its wealth, and chief products adds to the meaning of certain statements in the letter John addressed to its Christian community (Rev. 3:14-22). Its members felt that they were "rich, and increased with goods" and had "need of nothing," while in reality they were spiritually "wretched, and miserable, and poor" (v. 17). But the Lord advised them not to trust in the gold of their banks, but "to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich" (v. 18). He also counseled them, "buy of me ... white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear" (v. 18). Some commentators see in this a reference to the fact that the Laodiceans were proud of the glossy black garments produced in their city and exported to many countries. Why, then, should anyone say that they were "naked" (v. 17)? Commentators also believe that the pride of the Laodiceans in their famous Phrygian eye powder was the background for the counsel "to buy of me ... eyesalve, that thou mayest see" (v. 18).

That the Christian church at Laodicea was founded in the early apostolic period is attested by the apostle Paul, who addressed a letter to it, which seems to have been lost (see on Col. 4:16). The church seems to have grown rapidly, so that Laodicea became the seat of a bishop in the 2d century. One of its bishops, Sagaris, died there as a martyr in a.d. 166. Mentioned in various records are other Christian martyrs of Laodicea who laid down their lives during the persecutions of the first centuries of the Christian Era. In the 4th century the city was the seat of an important church council.

In the 11th century the city was conquered by the Seljuks, but the Christian Crusaders recovered it in a.d. 1119. Two centuries later, however, it was destroyed by the Turks, and has never been rebuilt. In its stead a new city, which bears the name Denizli, was founded near a spring of water in the vicinity of Laodicea. Building material for this new city was obtained from the ruins of old Laodicea, which was used as a quarry. The Turkish name of the ruined site is now Eski Hisar, meaning "Old Castle."

Scientific excavations have never been carried out at this site, although a large area covered with ruins promises rich rewards to any archeological expedition that puts the spade into it. Two Roman theaters are comparatively well preserved, and a large stadium can also be recognized. Colonnades, aqueducts that brought water to the city, and the ruins of early churches are also visible, although definite identifications of the various ruins can be made only after excavation.

History of the Interpretation of the Apocalypse

I. Bird's-eye View of Advances and Recessions in Exposition

Apocalypse Rejected, Then Re-established.--When the Christian Era dawned, the book of Daniel was already established as an integral part of the Old Testament canon, but the book of Revelation was not written until about a.d. 100. Some three hundred years were required before it was finally accepted in all quarters as a genuine writing of the apostle John, and consequently canonical.

The reason for the hesitancy was that certain extravagances had early attached themselves to the interpretation of the prophecy of the 1000 years of ch. 20. The chiliasts, who fervently taught the reign of the saints with Christ on earth during the 1000 years, had injected certain concepts of fantastic fertility and prosperity that would allegedly mark the period. These "carnal" extravagances, which had been drawn from both Jewish apocalyptic and pagan tradition, in time brought the entire book under criticism and challenge. The aftermath of such questioning persisted as late as Luther's day, and forms part of modernism's critical charges in our time.

Complement and Completion of Daniel.--The book of Revelation is clearly the complement, the completion, and the unveiling of the prophecies of Daniel. But by John's time Rome, the fourth world power in the Daniel series, had become the historical starting point, just as Babylon had been for Daniel. The Apocalypse unfolds various features characterizing the period of this fourth world power--its rule, its divisions, the religio-political conflicts, and the triumphant outcome. The Apocalypse outlines the great conflict between the true church and the false in the entire Christian Era. It introduces powers and developments not brought out in Daniel's cryptic outline.

Culminates With Last-Day Crisis.--The Revelation stresses the developments and sequences of the last things, known theologically as eschatology. It sets forth major events of the last days--the final movements in the great conflict of the ages. It outlines God's last message and appeal to men, the ultimate issues that terminate in the close of probation, the punishments poured out upon impenitent apostates, and the glorious and eternal triumph of righteousness. It includes the rise of the second advent movement and message, and characterizes the remnant, the seventh and final segment of the true church of the centuries. It is therefore pre-eminently a "present truth" prophecy, highly pertinent for today, and should be understood in relation to the expositional background of the centuries.

The book of Revelation throws light and understanding upon the Old Testament prophecies, especially the predictions of Daniel. The symbols and time periods of the two great apocalyptic prophecies, Daniel and the Revelation, are tied inseparably together.

Time Prophecies Are Involved.--The value of a coordinated approach to the two books may be seen in the unfolding of the year-day principle in the variously repeated time periods of 1260 days--42 months, or 3 1/2 times. This year-day principle had been applied in the early church; Tichonius used it of the 3 1/2 days of the two witnesses. Then Joachim of Floris (c. 1130-1202) extended it to the flight of the "woman," or church, of Rev. 12 into the wilderness for 1260 years. That new application was a fundamental advance. In time it led to a similar application to Daniel's longest prophetic period, the 2300 year-days, which eventually came to be recognized as spanning, besides the 1260, 1290, and 1335 year-day periods, the 10 days of unparalleled persecution in the early church, the 3 1/2 days of the two witnesses, and the "five months" and the 391 years of the woe trumpets of the Apocalypse. Only the 1000-year period of Rev. 20 was seen to lie beyond the scope of the 2300 days.

Battle of Centuries Over Millennium.--Some features of the Apocalypse were discerned with remarkable clarity and accuracy at the time of fulfillment, widely heralded then, and consistently retained thereafter. Other aspects were subject to gross distortions and setbacks that permanently affected the understanding and welfare of the church and the nations, more than was the case with any of the prophecies of Daniel.

Tichonius and Augustine thrust the 1000 years back to begin at the first advent and to span the Christian Era. Augustine's exposition of this perverted view of the millennium became the basis of the dominant concept and philosophy of the Middle Ages, that the Catholic Church was the reign of Christ on earth. While repudiated by Protestantism, the Augustinian millennium remains to this day the standard position of the Roman Catholic Church.

Not until some time after the Reformation was the millennium restored to its chronological place at the end of the age--as introduced by the second advent and bounded by the two resurrections. Soon thereafter a second perversion appeared. Daniel Whitby, Anglican rector, introduced in 1703 his revolutionary thesis that the 1000 years was a future glorious period preceding the second advent, an era during which the world would be converted through combined human endeavor and the effusion of the Spirit. Wars would cease, he declared, and universal righteousness and equity would prevail on earth.

Postmillennialism delays the second advent until the close of at least 1000 years. In this way another major misconception concerning this great prophecy of Rev. 20 was brought into being. This fallacy produced the inevitable reaction of the latter-day premillennial second advent message, which declared that the cataclysmic end of the age would occur at the second personal and glorious advent of Christ and the literal resurrection of the righteous dead. Later, the views of one wing of modern premillennialism has produced considerable reaction from advocates of amillennialism, a view that makes the millennium refer figuratively to the whole Christian age.

Catholic Counterinterpretations and Modern Protestantism.--The Protestant Reformers contended that the papal system was the prophesied Antichrist, portrayed under the multiple symbols of Daniel's little horn, Paul's man of sin, mystery of iniquity, and John's beast, Babylon, harlot, etc. Two astute Jesuits parried with the contention that Antichrist was not a professedly Christian system spanning the Middle Ages, but a single individual; Antichrist, according to Francisco Ribera, was a Jew in the distant future, who would reign in Jerusalem, or, according to Luis de Alcazar, a pagan Roman emperor of the past who ruled in the early centuries. Thus Roman Catholics shifted the antichrist completely out of the Middle Ages. Acceptance of either thesis would effectively counter the predominant Protestant view.

In time these counterviews came to be adopted by the great majority of Protestants, who are probably unaware of these Jesuit antecedents. Most fundamentalists have adopted Ribera's futurist contention that the Beast-Antichrist is a malevolent, atheistic tyrant who will appear and do his exploits at Jerusalem within 3 1/2 literal years at the end of the age. Thus futurism places most of the book of Revelation in the so-called end-time. On the contrary, modernists largely accepted Alcazar's preterist thesis. They designate the Beast-Antichrist as a persecuting Roman emperor far in the past, and apply the entire book of Revelation to the beginning of the Christian Era. Thus modern divided Protestantism has largely abandoned the clear Protestant Reformation witness on Antichrist for interpretations based on one or the other of these two mutually exclusive views projected by the Catholic Counter Reformation.

Expositions Involving Symbols in Revelation.--In the 19th-century Old World advent awakening and also in the New World Millerite movement, the standard historicist positions on prophecy were quite largely taken over from Reformation and post-Reformation expositors. However, there were basic differences between these two wings of resurgent premillennialism, especially on the nature of the millennial reign. The literalists gave rise to the later fundamentalist futurism, while the Millerites, from whom Seventh-day Adventists came, gave further development to the historicist position. More study had to be given by the Millerite forefathers to the book of Revelation than to Daniel, which was more fully grasped and understood. Limited concepts, inherited from the earlier Protestantism, were corrected and carried further: such as (1) the contemporary timing of the three angels of Rev. 14, and their messages; (2) the first advance beyond the general Protestant misconception of the 1000 years as a "temporal" kingdom to the view that the millennium is for the redeemed only; and (3) the view that not only Babylon, the mother in Rev. 17 and 18, but also her daughters, had errors from which separation would become necessary.

The Exposition of the Three Angels' Messages.--The specifications of the three angels' messages of Rev. 14, especially the third message in the setting of the larger section of Rev. 12 to 20, became the special area of the most intensive study and the greatest advance in understanding by the Seventh-day Adventist pioneers in the years following 1844. The seals, the trumpets and their time periods, the two witnesses, the two women (churches) of Rev. 12 and 17, had already been widely discerned in both the Old World and the New. The real significance of the second symbolic beast of Rev. 13 had been glimpsed. But in the 19th century a systematic or integrated prophetic interpretation was developed in the remnant church, an edifice for which the book of Revelation, along with Daniel, became the inspired blueprint.

Having seen the over-all setting and framework, we are now ready to trace the progressive development of the individual prophecies that make up the book of Revelation.

II. The Seven Churches Cover the Christian Era

Interest in identifying the seven churches of Rev. 2 and 3 can be traced back to the latter part of the 3d century to Victorinus, bishop of Pettau (died c. 303), the first systematic commentator on the Revelation. He apparently introduced the principle of repetition as characteristic of the Apocalypse--that the seven seals, trumpets, and vials are not consecutive, but repetitive, each series covering the Christian Era. The seven churches, Victorinus believed, symbolized the church universal in seven phases, or seven classes of Christians. But the allocation of the respective divisions as time periods was left until later, and only gradually perceived.

Periods Progressively Identified.--Several centuries elapsed, during which the Tichonius-Augustine school of spiritualized interpretation dominated the exposition of the Apocalypse. Then gradually men began to return to the historical view of the prophetic outlines. The Venerable Bede (c. 673-735), Britain's 8th-century theologian, church historian, and earliest known expositor of the Revelation, held that the seven churches are "figures of the whole sevenfold church," and hinted of a historical sequence. Sardis, he thought, referred to the time of Antichrist, and Laodicea to the period of the scarcity of faith prior to the Second Advent. The Glossa Ordinaria, attributed to a German abbot, Walafrid Strabo (807-849), applied the sixth church epoch similarly, and Bede's influence is seen also in Haymo, bishop of Halberstadt, also of the 9th century. An Italian bishop, Bruno of Segni (d. 1123), and a Scottish abbot, Richard of St. Victor (d. 1173), extended the vision of the seven churches from the birth of the church to the end of time.

Pierre Jean d'Olivi of southern France, leading light among the 13th-century Spirituals, believed he was living near the end of the 5th period of the seven churches that span the Christian Era. In the 11th century Berengarius, canon of the cathedral at Tours, and later head of its school, in battling transubstantiation contended that the see of Rome was "Satan's seat," thus possibly alluding to the state of the church typified by Pergamos. On the contrary, the literary giant of his time, Albertus Magnus of Cologne (d. 1280), mentioned the "heresy of Mohammed" as Jezebel in the Thyatira church.

Protestant Identification of Thyatira.--Although as early as the 14th century the Lollard scholar, Walter Brute, trained at Oxford, applied the Smyrna period to the ten years of violent persecution under Diocletian, the churches seem to have been little discussed in the Reformation century, perhaps because Luther saw them as the literal, ancient churches. But the seven-period view continued to be held by later writers such as the illustrious Heinrich Bullinger (1562-1607), chief pastor at Zurich; John Bale, of Ireland (1495-1563); Thomas Brightman (1562-1607), Puritan scholar and one of the fathers of English Presbyterianism; Thomas Beverly (fl. 1670-1700), Independent minister; Charles Daubuz (1673-1717), exiled Huguenot; and Theodore Crinsoz de Bionens (1690-c. 1750), Swiss theologian and Orientalist. It became common Protestant teaching that the period of the popes was the Thyatira church, during which the Roman Jezebel taught, with the remaining churches extending through the Reformation and on to the judgment. Even from the fringes of Catholicism comes the voice of Pierre Algier, French jurist and Jansenist, who declared that the "Jezebel" of the Thyatira church indicated the Jesuits.

Sardis and Philadelphia Periods Indicated.--Daniel Cramer (1568-1637), Lutheran professor, found the characteristics of the seven churches in the religious groups of his day, especially the Zwinglian and Calvinist churches. Heinrich Horch (1652-1729), Reformed theologian of Heidelberg, likewise applied Sardis to the post-Reformation church, the dead works of which must be shaken off in the Philadelphian period. About the beginning of the 18th century we find among the German Pietists the belief that they were then living in the Philadelphian age.

Laodicea Followed by the Advent.--In the widespread British advent awakening of the early 19th century a typical list (Morning Watch, September, 1830) allocated the seven churches thus: (1) Ephesus, from the apostles to the persecutions of Nero; (2) Smyrna, till the accession of Constantine; (3) Pergamos, from the elevation of Constantine to the rise of the little horn at the beginning of the 1260 years; (4) Thyatira, the testimony against the papacy during the 1260 years; (5) Sardis, from the end of the 1260 years until the preparation for the coming of the Lord; (6) Philadelphia, the period of preparation, until the Lord comes; (7) Laodicea, the "only one entirely future" just before the end. There was general agreement on Thyatira as the papal apostasy period and Laodicea as the last-day condition before the second advent (for example, Joseph D'Arcy Sirr [1794-1868], Irish rector; Louis Gaussen [1790-1863], Swiss Protestant theologian; and London's Edward Irving [1792-1834]), but there were slight variations on the last three churches. Some (such as "R.H.," in the Christian Herald of January, 1830) made Sardis the 16th-century Reformation and Philadelphia the spiritual emphasis of the early 19th century, in which they were then living. Gaussen had Philadelphia as the Reformation. But the general pattern was now securely established. John Bayford, one of Joseph Wolff's sponsors, declared that "the church is now in Laodicea," with the final judgments impending at the second advent.

"10 Days" Generally Dated A.D. 303-313.--As early as the 14th century Walter Brute had applied the "ten days" feature of prophesied persecution in the Smyrna period to a.d. 303 to 313, the terrible persecution begun by the emperor Diocletian. This became the generally accepted interpretation. It is mentioned by various 19th-century British expositors, such as George Croly, Irish scholar; Thomas Keyworth, British Hebraist; Edward Bickersteth, secretary of the Church Missionary Society; and Thomas R. Birks, Cambridge professor. And Croly adds, "Days are in prophetic language years."

Interest in North America.--Early New World expositors, like Protestant European exegetes, had connected Thyatira with the papal period, for example, Roger Williams (c. 1603-1683), cofounder of the first Baptist church in America, and Samuel Osgood (1748-1813), former Postmaster General. So there was essential unity among many prophetic exegetes on both sides of the Atlantic regarding the seven churches.

By the time of the North American second advent movement, in the fourth and fifth decades of the 19th century, the now virtually uniform position was that the seven churches extend "from Pentecost till the Day of the Lord," to quote Adam Hood Burwell (c. 1790-1849), a missionary to Canada. Among the Millerites this interpretation of the seven churches was taken for granted rather than stated. For example, Henry Jones, Congregationalist minister, took as axiomatic seven periods, or states, of the church, with Laodicea as the now-present state. To this, Elon Galusha, Baptist pastor, agreed.

So the recognition of the seven churches was by this time progressive, consistent, and rather uniform across the centuries, including the one ten-day time period as of a.d. 303-313.

III Seven Seals Likewise Span Christian Era

Earliest Concepts Fragmentary.--Attempts at the exposition of the seals date back to the early centuries. Irenaeus of Gaul (c. 130-c. 202) merely alludes to Christ as the rider of the white horse. Tertullian (c. 160-c. 240), ecclesiastical writer of Carthage, in passing, comments on the fifth seal as future and the sixth seal at the time of the final dissolution of earth and sky, at the end of the world. But it was Victorinus who first gave the over-all scope of the seven seals, explaining that they span the period between the first and second advents, which he of course thought a short period.

To him the first seal, the crowned rider on the white horse, symbolized Christ's church going forth on its victorious mission to the world, with Christianity triumphing over paganism. The second, the red horse, meant the coming wars. The third, the black horse, stood for famines in Antichrist's time, and the fourth, the pale horse, the coming destructions. The fifth seal pointed to the coming reward of saints and sinners. The sixth seal, with its signs, symbolized harbingers of the last events. The seventh seal introduced the everlasting rest in Christ's kingdom.

Medieval Understanding Broadened.--Andreas, Greek archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia about the 7th century, saw in the seals (1) the victory of the apostolic church, (2) the struggle and warfare caused by the church, (3) the backsliding of the unfaithful, (4) the plague in the time of Maximian, (5) the cry of the martyrs, (6) the time of trouble under Antichrist, and (7) the final good things of God for the blessed. In the 8th century the Venerable Bede set forth a sevenfold division of the Apocalypse. The first seal is the primitive church; the sixth, the time of antichrist; and the seventh the beginning of eternal rest. But the other four are not time periods. Seals two, three, and four are the threefold war against her by persecutors, false brethren, and heretics; the fifth seal is the glory of the victors in this war. Bede's was regarded as the standard view until the 12th century, followed by the Glossa of Walafrid Strabo and by the exposition of Haymo of Halberstadt.

Bruno of Segni (d. 1123) progressed to the idea that the first five seals reveal the gradual worsening of the church, with the sixth as the last tribulation under Antichrist. Then Anselm of Havelberg (d. 1158) took the next step and made the seals seven historical eras, from the primitive gospel purity to the eternal rest at last. He also attempted to show where they fitted into history. The second horse, red with martyrdom, is the period to Diocletian; the third, the church blackened by the heresy of Arius and others; the fourth, pale under the impact of hypocrisy, counterbalanced by Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, and others. The fifth concerns the martyrs who suffered for God; the sixth refers to the world convulsed under Antichrist. In the seventh seal the church reposes in heavenly bliss.

Influenced by Anselm, Joachim of Floris introduced his sevenfold division of the Christian Era embracing (1) the primitive church down to the death of John, (2) the pagan persecutions to Constantine, (3) the Arian controversy to Justinian, (4) the Saracens to Charlemagne, (5) the Roman clergy and monks to Joachim's time, (6) the judgment of Babylon, and (7) the final sabbath of rest. Joachim's new emphasis on historical interpretation was followed by the 13th-century Joachimites, such as Pierre Jean d'Olivi, who agreed that the first four seals represent the early hardships, the pagan persecutions, the Arian heretics, the hypocrites, but added that under the fifth seal, then in progress, the see of Rome had become the seat of the beast.

Comprehensive Coverage by Pre-Reformation Men.--Coming to pre-Reformation times, we find R. Wimbledon, a Lollard preacher, explaining the seven seals in the familiar successive periods of the early church, persecution, heresies, hypocrites, etc. In the time of Antichrist he sees, significantly, the devil's ministers hindering the preaching of the gospel. John Purvey (d. 1428), associate and successor of Wyclif and writer of the first Protestant commentary, taught essentially the same series, as did Savonarola, reformer of Italy, martyred in 1498, who saw in the pale horse the time of lukewarmness--applicable in his own day to the Church of Rome, in which no love is left.

Amplification in Reformation Times.--In Reformation times Martin Luther applied the seals to the physical or political evils, such as wars, famines, pestilence, and martyrdoms, rather than to time periods. But Theodor Bibliander, Swiss exegete (d. 1564), understood the seals to be successive periods. And John Bale (d. 1563), saw in the fourth seal the church when the bishops sought preeminence, as when Pope Boniface III took it upon himself to be God's vicar on earth; and in the souls under the altar, in the fifth seal, he saw the martyred Waldenses and Albigenses. Francois Lambert, first French monk converted to Protestantism, believed that after the persecution portrayed under the seals, the 1000-year pause of Rev. 20 will follow under the last seal.

Both John Hooper (martyred, 1555), bishop of Gloucester and Worcester, and Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), Archbishop of Canterbury, applied the fourth seal to the papal period, as did post-Reformation writers such as King James I of England and David Pareus (1548-1622), a noted Calvinist professor at Heidelberg.

Counter Reformation Introduces Futurism.--In Counter Reformation times the Jesuit Francisco Ribera, in his futurist exposition, held that the seals cover the (1) apostolic era, (2) early persecutions, (3) heresies, and (4) persecutions by Trajan. But he believed that the phenomena of the sixth seal indicated signs just preceding the second advent at the end of the age. Thus he skipped the intervening centuries. His fellow futurist, Cornelius of Lapide, Belgium (1567-1637), placed all the seals in the future. On the other hand, Luis de Alcazar, the preterist, relegated them all to the past, before the fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70.

Mede Applies His Strange Theory.--Joseph Mede, Cambridge professor, writing in 1627, advocated his strange concept limiting the first six seals to imperial Rome up to Diocletian and Constantine, with the trumpets as the unfolding of the seventh seal. In this system he was followed by a number of writers.

In opposition, however, others extended the seals over the whole history of the church--such as Thomas Burnet (1635-1715), English clergyman and author; Matthaeus Hofmann of Silesia (who looked for the fifth seal to end in 1747); Johann H. Alsted of Herborn (1588-1638); and Matthias Hoë von Höenegg (1580-1645), court preacher in electoral Saxony in the time of the Thirty Years' War.

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), renowned Cambridge professor, had the first four seals related to civil affairs during the heathen Roman Empire, with the perversions and persecutions of the papal man of sin under the fifth seal, and with the seventh seal opening on the Day of Expiation.

Little Change in Colonial America.--In pioneer Colonial America Thomas Parker (1595-1677) placed the sixth seal along with the last trumpet and vial, the end of the 1335 years, and the last judgments upon antichrist. And a scholarly Boston layman, Samuel Hutchinson (1618-1667), believed that the seals, as well as the trumpets, were far along in their fulfillment. Dr. Benjamin Gale of Connecticut (1715-1790) believed that the seventh seal, the seventh trumpet, and the seventh vial would all "terminate at one and the same period of time, viz., with the destruction of mystical Babylon."

Lisbon Quake a Fulfillment.--When the devastating Lisbon earthquake occurred in 1755, Thomas Prentice, Congregational clergyman, applied the sixth seal as well as Matt. 24:27 to this catastrophe. He called it a harbinger of the end of the world and the coming of the Lord to judgment, when the supreme fulfillment will take place.

Nineteenth-Century Advent Awakening.--Just before the 19th-century Old World advent awakening, Andrew Fuller (1754-1815), Baptist theologian of Ketteringham, England, reverted to Mede's theory that the seventh seal continues the trumpets. But a French Dominican, Père Bernard Lambert, in 1806 considered the sixth seal the literal convulsions in heaven and earth just before the great consummation, with the half hour's silence a brief respite before the last fearful judgments. On the contrary, James H. Frere in 1815 placed the fulfillment of the seals in the Western Empire of Rome, paralleling the seven trumpets in the Eastern Empire.

Many British writers in the early 19th-century advent awakening held that the seven seals cover the Christian Era, as did also French Judge Pierre J. Agier and the Swiss professor Louis Gaussen. Henry Drummond, M.P. (1786-1860), saw in the seals the Christian church through the centuries changing from purity to apostasy, with the sixth as "the punishment of the papacy, beginning at the French Revolution," and the seventh destroying "all Christendom." Several believed that the sixth seal involved the French Revolution--James Leslie of Edinburgh, Matthew Habershon, English church architect, and William Anderson, Scottish Presbyterian minister. But William Cuninghame (1813), Alexander Keith of Scotland (1826), and George Croly of Ireland (1827) held the sixth seal to be yet future.

American Expositions.--A few 18th-century or early 19th-century non-Millerite American expositors--Uzal Ogden, William F. Miller, Aaron Kinne, and Ethan Smith--followed Mede in confining the first six seals to the early centuries. But Dr. Amzi Armstrong, Presbyterian educator and minister, in 1815 held the predominant view that the seals set forth the history of the church (1) from apostolic "white," (2) through the "red" pagan persecutions, up to the time of Constantine, (3) during the "black" period of famine for the Word of God from Constantine to the barbarian invasions, (4) the "pale" period of the extinction of spiritual life until the Reformation, (5) the revival of the martyr spirit, (6) the great concussions, when the stone kingdom shall smite all earthly kingdoms, and (7) the millennial peace and rest.

Samuel M. McCorkle, a Disciples layman, declared that the seven seals take us through the introduction of Christianity, early pagan persecutions, the civil establishment of the church, consequent corruptions, ecclesiastical persecutions, the church rolled together as a scroll and removed, and finally the descent of the New Jerusalem, or the millennium.

To Adam H. Burwell in Canada the seven seals, along with the seven churches and the seven trumpets, end "in the great day of wrath, and the coming of the Son of Man." The leaders in the Millerite movement wrote little on the seals. Their minds were engrossed with the seven trumpets, the two beasts, the two women of Rev. 12 and 17, the two witnesses, the time periods, and the millennium. They accepted as axiomatic that the seven seals covered the Christian Era. They were in accord with the best scholarship of the past.

IV. Prolific Exposition Develops on Seven Trumpets

The exposition of the trumpets spreads over fifteen centuries, beginning with Victorinus in the 3d century, and in modern times the trumpets have been treated with increasing interest, among writers from many countries and many denominations, reaching a peak by mid-19th century. Most of the expositors dealt with one or both of the time periods, that is, the "five months," or 150 years, of the fifth trumpet, and the "hour-day-month-and-year" (the 391 or 396 years) of the sixth trumpet.

From the 8th century onward the Saracens came to be widely regarded as the power indicated by the fifth trumpet. John Foxe seems to have been the first (1587) to allocate the 150-year time period, placing it from 606 to 756. From the time of John Napier, Scottish mathematician, and George Downham, Anglican bishop, we find various attempts to time the 391 (or 396) years (of Rev. 9:15). From Heinrich Bullinger (d. 1575) onward, practically all expositors declared the Turk to be the power of the sixth trumpet.

In 1627 Joseph Mede identified the depredations of the northern barbarians on Western Rome (under Alaric, Gaiseric, Odovacar, and Attila) as the first four trumpets. A further development came under Thomas Beverley, in 1684, who first interpreted the "hour" of Rev. 9:15 as "15 days," to be added to the 391 years. In time, this came to be viewed by many as a valid interpretation.

Thousand Years of Progressive Exposition.--In the 3d century Victorinus projected the interpretation that the seven trumpets cover the Christian Era, paralleling the churches and seals. Venerable Bede, in the 8th century, believed the first five trumpets to be in the past, with the last two still future. But the Glossa of 9th-century Walafrid Strabo had the last three still future.

Twelfth-century Joachim of Floris, the first to apply the important year-day principle to the "five months," equating it with 150 years, did not attempt to locate them. He believed, however, that the trumpets covered the Christian dispensation, and that the fifth was being fulfilled in his own day. Two centuries later Walter Brute again affirmed that the "five months" equal 150 years.

Luther, like other early Reformers, was so engrossed with weightier matters that he was content to regard Mohammed and the Saracens as involved in the sixth trumpet. Heinrich Bullinger defined the sixth trumpet (or second woe) as involving the Turks. From John Napier, in 1593, the fifth and sixth trumpets were often applied to the Saracens and the Ottoman Turks. Napier also dated the 150 years as beginning about 1051, and the period of the sixth trumpet as beginning about 1300.

Cambridge-trained Thomas Brightman expounded the early trumpets of the periods following the 7th seal (from Constantine), holding the barbarian Vandals to constitute the fourth. He saw in the fifth the Saracen ravages from 630 to 780, and in the sixth the Ottoman Turks from 1300 to 1696. With this Bishop Downham agreed. From then on there was general agreement in application to the Saracens and the Turks, though variation as to the dating of the periods.

Thomas Goodwin, president of Magdalen College, Oxford, seems to have been the first (in 1654) to begin the sixth trumpet in 1453, at the fall of Constantinople, thus dating the Turkish woe from 1453 to 1849, on the basis of 396 years.

American Positions Virtually Identical.--As might be expected, Colonial American expositors taught essentially the same as the Old World interpreters. Writers between John Cotton, in 1639, and Joshua Spalding, in 1796, dealt in varying fullness with the period of the barbarian invasions as fulfilling the first four trumpets, and the Saracens and Turks as the subjects of the symbolism of the fifth and sixth (woe) trumpets. Ephraim Huit (1644) dated the 6th from 1300 to 1695, and Increase Mather, president of Harvard, and his illustrious son Cotton Mather, dated it from about 1300 to 1696. Jonathan Edwards, Congregationalist revivalist, placed it slightly earlier, from 1296 to 1453. Samuel Osgood began the Turkish period with 1299, and dated the 150 years of the Saracens from 622-772. Joshua Spalding, pastor at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1796 published his conviction that the end of the sixth trumpet was nearing.

Little Change in Post-Reformation Exposition.--Among Old World post-Reformation interpreters, scores of writers between George Downham in 1603 and Joseph Galloway in 1798 deal with the trumpets. These included illustrious names like Joseph Mede, Thomas Goodwin, Sir Isaac Newton, William Whiston, Jonathan Edwards, and Bishop Thomas Newton. Nearly all applied these trumpets to the barbarian invasions, the Saracens, and the Turks--some reckoning the five months as 150 years, some beginning either the 391 (or 396) years from about 1300, and others ending them in connection with the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Majority Accept 391-Year Formula.--In the early decades of the 19th century a solid phalanx of New World expositors, matching the Old World exegetes, held quite uniformly that the barbarians, Saracens, and Turks were the powers involved. The most frequent date for the 150 years of the Saracenic woe was from 612 to 762, with many of the investigators approximating these dates, as from 622 to 772, or 632 to 782. These older expositors separated the lesser period from the 391 years. But William Miller dated the 150 years from 1298 to 1448, and the 391 years from 1448 to 1839. He was followed by Josiah Litch, who in 1838 dated the 150 years from 1299 to 1449, with the 391 years following immediately, from 1449 to 1840.

By then a few were still clinging to the "396" years (based on the 365 + 30 + 1 formula), while the majority took the 391-year position (360 + 30 + 1). Anglican cleric E. W. Whitaker, in 1795, appears to have been the first to project 1453-1844 as the dating for the 391 years of the sixth trumpet. A number followed his lead in subsequent decades, the majority being British expositors. Thus fifteen centuries of exposition, representing various faiths and many nationalities, and embracing men of high caliber, lie behind the teaching of the Millerites in the fourth and fifth decades of the 19th century, especially behind the calculation of Josiah Litch, first published in 1838.

Uniformity Among the Millerites.--Among the Millerites there was practically no deviation from the Litch position of the consecutive dating of the 150 years and the 391 years. The 150 years were reckoned from July 27, 1299, to 1449, followed by the 391 years from 1449 to 1840. The leading Millerite expositors prior to 1844 gave this dating.

V. Two Witnesses-Living Personages, Then Two Testaments

Enoch and Elijah the Earliest View.--The earliest concept of the two witnesses of Rev. 11 was that of two living persons--probably Enoch and Elijah--coming back to earth to testify. Tertullian (c. 160-c. 240) is understood to have made such an application, as did Hippolytus (died c. 236), likewise of the 3d century, and Ambrose of the 4th. Then most exegetes between Primasius of the 6th century and Ubertino of Casale in the 14th followed suit--still with Enoch and Elijah preaching repentance. A few variations appeared. The Benedictine Berengaud suggested "Christian ministers" as the witnesses. Joachim of Floris (12th century) conceived them to be two spiritual orders that would arise.

"3 1/2 Days" Reckoned as 3 1/2 Years.--At least a half dozen expositors, between Tichonius (c. 380) and Pierre Jean d'Olivi (d. 1298), used the year-day principle beyond the initial 70 "weeks-of-years" application of Theodoret to the 3 1/2 "days" of the witnesses.

Concept of Two Testaments Advanced.--On the other hand, 12th-century Bruno of Segni introduced a new concept--that the two witnesses, in addition to Enoch and Elijah, are spiritually the doctors of the church strengthened by the two testaments of Holy Scripture, which are the witnesses for the Lord.

Ubertino of Casale, a leader of the Spirituals, in 1305 charged Pope Boniface VIII with being the "mystic Antichrist." Though he still saw the two witnesses as Enoch and Elijah, to be slain by the future "open Antichrist," he saw them also spiritually as Francis and Dominic, represented by their orders, persecuted by "mystic Antichrist." By this time the two concepts parallel each other.

Reformation Teaching on the Witnesses.--During the next two centuries, until the time of the Protestant Reformation, we find the figurative application of Enoch and Elijah (the Lollard treatise The Lantern of Light, c. 1400) or of the coming of Elijah (Matthias of Janow, c. 1380) to last-day preachers.

On the other hand Heinrich Bullinger looked upon the witnesses simply as the martyrs cruelly slain by the papal Antichrist. Then a commentary on Revelation (1558) attributed to Johann Funck, came out boldly with the contention that the two witnesses are the Old and New Testaments. Matthias Flacius (1520-1575), first Protestant church historian, affirmed the same, as did John Napier (1550-1617), early Scottish expositor of the Apocalypse. Napier pointed out that the term "testament" comes from Latin testamentum, derived from testis, meaning "a witness." By now the two-testament exposition had an established place.

Counter Reformers Hold to Two Witnesses as Individuals.--In the Catholic Counter Reformation, Jesuit Bellarmine, a futurist, who built on the work of Ribera, maintained that Enoch and Elias are the two witnesses, and that the 42 months are simply a literal 3 1/2 years yet to come. On the contrary, Alcazar, the preterist, restricted the term to the early Christian witnesses of the past. The Protestant scholar Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), who followed Alcazar's preterism, connected the 42 months of Rev. 11 with the building of the pagan temple of Jupiter in Jerusalem and the Bar Cocheba rebellion. So the conflicting views continued.

42 Months, 1260 Days.--Several time features were seen to be interrelated--the 1260 days of the prophesying of the two witnesses, the 42 months of the treading down of the Holy City, the slaying and resurrection of the witnesses in 3 1/2 days, followed by the "earthquake," and the fall of the "tenth part" of the "city."

Thomas Brightman (1600) interpreted the 1260 days of the witnesses as 1260 years from Constantine to about 1558--with the warring against the true church and the Scriptures beginning afresh at the Council of Trent.

In 1603 George Downham understood the 42-month period to be 1260 years, dated from Justinian or possibly Phocas. Joseph Mede equated the 1260 days of the witnesses in sackcloth with the 42 months of the treading down, the 3 1/2 times, or 1260 days, of the woman in the wilderness, and the 42 months of the beast's domination--all denoting the 1260 years of the papacy.

These 1260 years were dated variously by numerous writers on both sides of the Atlantic: John Tillinghast (1604-1655) ends them possibly in 1656; in America John Cotton, Puritan divine (1655), in 1655; Roger Williams, apostle of liberty (1652), about that time; William Sherwin (1607-1687), about 1666; Thomas Beverley (1684), in 1697; Jacques Philipot and Pierre Jurieu, French Protestants (1685), in 1705 and 1710 or 1714.

In 1698 Drue Cressener, prebendary of the cathedral church of Ely, significantly dated the "1260 years of the Reign of the Beast" from Justinian to "a little before the year 1800." This was a remarkable forecast. In 1681 Thomas Beverley observed that the "tenth part of the city" had not yet fallen. Drue Cressener (1698) declared the "tenth part" of the "city" to be one of the ten kingdoms "that were given to the Beast." He understood that the killing and resurrection of the witnesses would be the "suppression and revival of the true religion," about 1800. And in Switzerland, Theodore Crinsoz de Bionens (1729) likewise saw the tenth part of the city as one of the ten kingdoms that severs connection with the papacy.

The Tenth Part of the City as France.--Thomas Goodwin, celebrated non-conformist, in 1639 held France to be the "tenth part" of papal Christendom, or one of the ten kingdoms, which would fall in connection with the slaying of the witnesses during the 3 1/2 years. He considered the earthquake in connection with the resurrection of the two witnesses to be an internal upheaval, commotion, or revolution. Goodwin was followed by other writers who saw the tenth part of the city as one of the ten kingdoms of the papal empire, and by a growing number of writers in identifying the "tenth part" of the city as France--by John Cotton (1655) and Increase Mather (1708) in America; in France by the Huguenots, Jacques Philipot and Pierre Jurieu (1637-1713), following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 (the latter declaring that the witnesses were even then lying dead in her "street").

The Witnesses, the Earthquake, and the French Revolution.--Some time before the French Revolution several remarkable expositions of prophecy pointed to that event. In 1701 Robert Fleming, Jr., English Presbyterian pastor, predicted that the French monarchy would fall about 1794--his ending date for the 1260 years reckoned from Justinian. In 1755 David Imrie, Scottish minister, expected France to be involved in bringing judgments on the papacy about 1794. About 1755 also one of John Wesley's associates, John Fletcher (Jean Guillaume de la Fléchère) said that thousands of Protestants in France were expecting a great revolution that would bring them relief.

When the French Revolution broke out, a number of expositors announced the fulfillment of the "earthquake" and the falling of the "tenth part" of the "city." These included, in 1793 and 1794, William Linn, president of Queen's College (Rutgers); Elhanan Winchester, American Universalist; Joseph Priestley, clergyman and scientist; and James Bicheno, Dissenting minister; in succeeding years other writers, like the American ministers Joshua Spalding, Joseph Lathrop, David Austin (1798), and Timothy Dwight, president of Yale (1812). Joseph Galloway, Loyalist in the American Revolution, devoted a long chapter in his 1802 commentary to the two witnesses--the Old and New Testaments, or two "sacred records"--as slain in France from 1792 to 1796, dated from the expulsion of the clergy and the establishment of atheism. Thus, almost a century prior to the French Revolution, and again in the midst of that upheaval, France's key place as the "tenth part" of the great papal "city," Babylon, to fall away from the support of papal Rome and end her dominance, was increasingly stressed. During the last years of the 18th century men recognized and proclaimed the fulfillment of the predicted slaying of the witnesses, the end of the 1260 days, and the beginning of the "time of the end."

Advent Awakening Swells the Exposition.--In the early 19th-century Old World advent awakening there was identification of France as the "tenth part" of the "city" by at least a dozen of the leading writers. To James H. Frere, for example, the two witnesses were clearly the Old and New Testaments, their death and resurrection having been fulfilled in the French Revolution from 1793 to 1797, with their exaltation following thereafter. One writer in The Morning Watch (1829), after identifying the two witnesses as the two Testaments, placed the 3 1/2 years from 1793 to 1797 in France. Charles D. Maitland (1813), William Cuninghame (1813), Edward Cooper (1825), and others declared that the Holy City had been trodden underfoot from 533 to 1792. (Others had 533 to 1793).

George Croly (1780-1860), Irish expositor, declared that the slaying of the two witnesses referred to actions against the Old and New Testaments in connection with the "abjuration of religion" by the French government and people. And this all came as predicted, he said, at the close of the 1260 years, the "earthquake" occurring in 1793, France being the "tenth part" of the "city" and the Revolution the "political earthquake." John Hooper, Anglican rector, similarly, in 1830, placed the slaying of the witnesses (the Old and New Testaments) under the "infidel ascendancy," believing that the events of 1792 marked the termination of this period--the 1260 years.

Pre-Millerite Expositors Concur.--In America a number of pre-Millerite expositors declared, between approximately 1800 and 1840, that the French Revolution indicated the "earthquake," or France as the "tenth part" of the "city." Amzi Armstrong, Presbyterian minister and educator, wrote in 1814-15 that the 3 1/2 days, or years, were from 1792 to 1796; A. L. Crandall, a clergyman of West Troy, New York, writing in 1841, placed them from 1793 to 1797.

Unity of View Among Millerites.--Among the Millerites there was a striking degree of unity on the view that the 42 months of the beast were from 538 to 1798, that the two witnesses were the Old and New Testaments, France the "tenth part" of the papal "city," and the "earthquake" of Rev. 11 as the French Revolution. Those who dated the 3 1/2 years of the slaying of the Bible witnesses placed them from 1792 or 1793 to 1796. When we come to the Seventh-day Adventist pioneers, between 1844 and 1860, there was practically no change in interpretation--simply a reaffirmation of what had been held in the Millerite movement, and what was already current in the antecedent Old World advent awakening on the witnesses, the slaying, the "tenth part" of the "city," the "earthquake," and the ending of the 1260 years.

VI. Interpretation of Revelation 12 Established Early

Pattern Set in 3d Century.--The series of related symbols in Rev. 12--the "woman," "child," "dragon," "wilderness," and "a time, and times, and half a time"--began to be expounded as early as the 3d century. Hippolytus and Victorinus taught that the "woman" of Rev. 12 symbolizes the church; the "man child" is Christ. The church flees from Rome's persecution. Methodius (c. 260-c. 311) of Tyre believed the "child" represented the saints.

The pattern is found repeatedly between late 4th-century Tichonius and 13th-century Olivi. In the 8th century Bede called the "woman" of Rev. 12 the church and the "dragon" the devil, as did Berengaud (probably late 9th century), and 12th-century Richard of St. Victor, also Bruno of Segni, except that he regarded the child as the "sons of the church." The noted abbot Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153) varied the interpretation by declaring the "woman" to be the virgin Mary, as did Albertus Magnus, 13th-century scholastic, who likewise saw in these symbols a graphic portrayal of the church in her struggle against Satan.

Joachim Introduces 1260 Years for Days.--The celebrated 12th-century abbot Joachim of Floris reaffirmed the standard exposition of the "woman" of Rev. 12 as the whole church, but in particular the hermits and the virgins. He agreed that the "man child" is Christ, with the "dragon" as the devil. But at this point Joachim introduced a fundamentally new advance in the interpretation of this chapter--that the 1260 "days" as the period of the woman's flight symbolize 1260 years, "a day without doubt being accepted for a year and a thousand two hundred and sixty days for the same number of years." This led him to anticipate the new Age of the Spirit soon after his own time. The year-day principle had already been applied to the 3 1/2 days of ch. 11 by Tichonius and others, and to the 1290, 1335, and 2300 days of Daniel by several medieval Jewish interpreters.

Joachimite Pierre Jean d'Olivi agreed with Joachim on the 1260 days as years, which he expected to end shortly after his day, though he also applied the period as literal days to the persecution by antichrist. So, at the close of the medieval period the "woman" was commonly accepted as the pure church, and the "child" most often as Christ. But none saw the 3 1/2 times as prophetic years until Joachim, about 1190, applied the 1260 days to 1260 years--a marked advance.

Woman Persecuted by Papal Antichrist.--Two centuries after Joachim, the Reformation expositor John Purvey, Wyclif's collaborator, declared the "woman" to be Christ's church and the 1260 year-days the time of the papal Antichrist's persecution. This was a standard position of the Lollards. Another Lollard scholar, Walter Brute, in 1393 advanced the thought that in the early centuries the "woman" (church) of Rev. 12 had taken refuge during the 1260 years in Britain, where the true faith had been maintained.

In Reformation times, from Martin Luther on, those who commented on the "woman" usually designated her as the true, or pure, church, instead of simply the church universal, and the "dragon" as Satan. The 1260 prophetic days were recognized as years, and there was growing concern over their timing. For example, Georg Nigrinus (1530-1602) suggested 441-1701; Johann Funck (1518-1566) 261-1521; and Michael Servetus (1509-1553), 325-1585.

Jesuit Counterinterpretations Injected.--In the counterinterpretations of the Catholic Counter Reformation, Francisco Ribera, champion of futurism, saw the "woman" as the church fleeing from persecution to the last 3 1/2 years of literal time (during the reign of an individual antichrist), and the "dragon" as Satan. Luis de Alcazar, in his preterist view, projected the theory that the "woman" of Rev. 12 is none other than the apostolic church bringing forth the Roman Church.

Timing of 1260 Years Determined.--Little change of interpretation appears in post-Reformation times. More than a score of expositors, between George Downham in 1603 and Christian G. Thube of Germany in 1796, held the now standard Protestant view of the "woman" church, the Roman "dragon," and the Christ "child." Virtually all Protestants considered the 1260 prophetic days, or 3 1/2 times, as 1260 literal years.

In timing, men varied in the placement of the 1260 years. John Tillinghast (1654) reckoned the period from 396 to 1656; David Pareus (1618) favored 606-1866; John Napier (1593) suggested 316-1576; Thomas Beverley (1688), 437-1697; Drue Cressener (1689), from Justinian to about the year 1800. When the French Revolution broke forth, many connected it with the end of the 1260 days. James Bicheno (1793) held the approximate date of 529-1789. But as soon as Pope Pius VI had been taken captive by French arms in 1798, the dating of 538-1798 was advanced as the true timing by many, such as Britain's Edward King and Richard Valpy.

The French Huguenots, persecuted like the Waldenses before them, also called themselves, after Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, the "church in the wilderness." To them, the period in the wilderness was the church in obscurity.

America Included in "Wilderness."--A number of expositors in the Colonial and early national periods in America commented on Rev. 12. From John Cotton to Timothy Dwight there was little variation on the symbols. Cotton said the woman in the wilderness was the Waldenses. Roger Williams referred to "the sustentation of the woman, Rev. 12" in "Popish times and places."

To Samuel Langdon the woman in the wilderness was the church in its "purest state," the two "women" (of Rev. 12; 17) clearly symbolizing the two contrasting churches. Samuel Sherwood, Princeton teacher (1776), and Samuel Gatchel, Congregationalist deacon (1781), held that the woman fled from the papal Antichrist to the American wilderness.

Harmony Among Old World Heralds.--A score of able expositors in the Old World advent awakening of the early 19th century, with whom the second advent was the primary emphasis, explained the "woman" as the true church, or true believers, in contrast with the dominant apostate organization. The 1260 years were now generally regarded as having ended, the majority beginning them from Justinian, who gave legal sanction to the pope's unprecedented powers, ending them in 1792 or 1793 (Edward B. Elliott favored 538-1798). Some, however, preferred 606-1866.

Andrew Fuller, secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society, believed that the "wilderness" into which the true church fled from Antichrist's corruption and persecution included America. George Croly interpreted the "flood" as persecution under the Crusades and the Inquisition. To Louis Gaussen the true church of Rev. 12 included the Vaudois of Piedmont, the Paulicians, the Lollards, the Moravians, the Huguenots, and even the Jansenists.

Nineteenth-Century Americans Adhere to Pattern.--As the 19th century dawns in North America many non-Millerite writers from various denominations comment on Rev. 12 without any essential deviation from the standard pattern on the woman, child, and dragon.

There was marked uniformity of exposition among the Millerites on the "true church" woman, the Christ "child," and the Roman "dragon"; and the 1260 years were, practically without exception, given as 538-1798. The pattern had become quite standard with expositors. From these, Seventh-day Adventists have varied little.

VII. Second "Beast" Has Deferred Identification

Eighteen Centuries of Exposition.--From the time of Irenaeus of Gaul the two symbolic "beasts" of Rev. 13 begin, and continue over the centuries, to receive an amazing amount of expositional attention. In the early church we find the views that the two beasts symbolized, according to Irenaeus, the Antichrist and his "false prophet" or, according to Victorinus, a Roman and the Antichrist. The ten horns were the coming divisions of the Roman Empire. The 42 months were as yet understood as literal time, and the name connected with the number 666 (of v. 18) might be Lateinos or Teitan, or Diclux. Rome was believed to be involved.

Tichonius and Augustine in the 5th century introduced a mystical concept of the corpus diaboli of the "ungodly city" (or community) of the world, with the false prophet as Antichrist. But the earlier position, with Antichrist and his faalse prphet for the two beasts, was held by Greek Archbishop Andreas of Caesarea, about 632, and 9th-century Berengaud and others of the period. The Venerable Bede taught that the second beast was variously defined as apostles or preachers of Antichrist, or false brethren. One or two wondered whether the beast might be an infidel, a heathen, or a Saracen. The Waldenses, however, plainly declared the beast to be the Roman Church. And Joachim of Floris looked upon the first beast of Rev. 13 as a combination of the four beasts of Daniel--Jews, pagans, heretics, and Saracens. The second beast he believed to be the sect of the false prophets, involving the Antichrist. The name for the number 666 was, he thought, not yet revealed.

Innocent III, seeking to divert the growing charges involving the papacy, contended that Mohammed was the man of sin, with the number 666 standing for the years of the duration of his kingdom, which period, he asserted, would soon expire.

Beast Identified as Papal Antichrist.--We find new interpretations among the Joachimites, such as Pierre Jean d'Olivi, with the two beasts as the secular rulers and the false prelates, and the image of the beast as a pseudo pope; Ubertino of Casale, with Boniface VIII and Benedict XI as the beasts, and 666 meaning "Benedict." Then pre-Reformation writers Matthias of Janow (d. 1394), Wyclif of Bohemia, John Purvey, the Lollard leader, and John Hus of Bohemia (1369-1415) held that the first beast was clearly the papal Antichrist. The number 666 was attached by some to the pope.

Rome Indicated, With Two Concepts.--In the 16th-century Reformation more than a score of expositors discoursed on one or both of the beasts, the majority designating papal Rome as the first beast (Andreas Osiander, Alphonsus Conradus, George Joye, John Bale, and others). A minority had pagan or imperial Rome, with the second beast as papal Rome (Martin Luther, Johann Funck, John Foxe, and others). With both groups the two-horned beast was generally another aspect of the papal Antichrist, or Antichrist's preachers--the papal hierarchy or clergy.

The 42 prophetic months were regarded as 1260 years. The 666 was variously interpreted; Luther, Bullinger, and some others regarded the number as indicating years, but Melanchthon, Flacius, Foxe, Napier, and Pareus, and others held that the 666 stood for a name, such as the Hebrew Romith (Romiith), or the Greek Lateinos (in Latin Latinus, equivalent to Romanus). The "mark," some thought, represented subservience, worship, or allegiance to the beast. But these positions were somewhat tentative.

Majority Hold Papacy as First Beast.--Old World exegetes of the 17th and 18th centuries reveal the same division in interpretation, a majority taking the papacy to be the first beast. But in both groups we find the second beast as papal Rome--or simply a second aspect of Rome, though some like Sir Isaac Newton, thought it might be the Greek Church; John Wesley (1703-1971) thought it would appear from Asia; Johann Bengel (1687-1752) believed it might represent Jesuitism.

Attempts were now increasingly made to place the dating of the 42 months--such as 396-1656, 437-1697, or perhaps 454-1714, 538-1798, or even 606-1866. Of numerous Latin, Greek and Hebrew names for "666," most of which have been applied to the papacy, Lateinos is the most frequently selected; Vicarius Filii Dei is introduced once, by the German professor Andreas Helwig.

Protestantism as Second Beast.--Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680) was probably the first to suggest that as the first beast symbolized the papacy, so the image evidently typified the Protestant image of the papacy in the Reformed churches. This interpretation was later to grow in favor. In Colonial and early national periods more than thirty writers in America, from every walk of life, published expositions on Rev. 13, from John Cotton in 1639 to Timothy Dwight about 1800, presenting the papacy, or the Catholic Church, as the first beast. The second beast appears as another phase of the papacy, with the two horns as possibly civil and religious tyranny. But the second beast is applied to Protestantism, by Isaac Backus, Baptist historian, with the two horns standing for church censure and temporal punishments. John Bacon, Congregational clergyman, held a somewhat similar view.

Emphasis Persists in 19th Century.--In the early 19th century there were numerous interpreters of Rev. 13 in the Old World and the New. Still there was division--some clinging to the civil or pagan Roman first beast. Nearly all had the papacy, the hierarchy, the priesthood, the Jesuits, or the Inquisition as the second beast, though a few brought in infidel France (as Joseph Galloway and Samuel Toovey); a few, Protestantism or Protestant sectarianism (as Samuel M. McCorkle and Elias Smith in America), and isolated voices suggested the Greek church or France, but there was little on the "two horns" or the "mark." A favorite dating for the 1260 years was from 533 to 1792/3; other datings were 529-1789, 534-1794, 537-1797, 587-1847, or 606-1866, to name the most important ones.

In North America, among non-Millerite students of prophecy from 1800 to 1844, some considered civil, or secular, Rome the first beast; the great majority had it the papacy. Some saw the seven heads as seven forms of Roman government, or the ten horns as the ten divisions of the empire.

666--Years or a Name?--In the Old World little was said on the 666, though three expositors saw the 666 as years (133 B.C.-a.d. 533; 533-1198; another ended them in 1843). In America only two computed the 666 as years. Those who took this feature to stand for a name usually chose Lateinos. Two ministers, Presbyterian Amzi Armstrong and Episcopalian Richard Shimeall, added Vicarius Filii Dei as an alternative possibility.

Millerites Unified on 538-1798.--William Miller held the position that the first beast was civil, or pagan, Rome, but his associates came to believe it to be the papacy. The Millerites were agreed on the seven heads as forms of Roman government, on the ten horns as the ten kingdoms or divisions of Rome's empire, and on 538-1798 as the 1260 years. Aside from Miller, scarcely anyone discussed the second beast--three wondered whether it was France. The few references to the "666" followed Miller in making them years, from 158 B.C. to a.d. 508.

VIII. Angelic Messengers Have Last-Day Application

Early Exposition Sketchy and Scattered.--The three symbolic angels of Rev. 14:6-12 and their messages had relatively little place in early exposition.

In the 3d century Victorinus thought that the first and second angels might be the latter-day Elias and Jeremiah preceding the second advent. Berengaud about the 9th century saw them as groups of preachers, the third constituting those who protest against antichrist. In the 12th century Joachim of Floris regarded them as possibly future, preachers at the end of the second age. The Joachimite Olivi refers to the second angel as announcing the fall of Babylon, the "carnal church." Wyclif's successor, John Purvey, declared that the first angel represented a preacher of the evangelical doctrine proclaimed in Purvey's own time; that the second angel identifies "Babylon" as Rome, spiritual and temporal; that the third angel's message is directed against the Antichrist-beast.

Wyclif, Hus, and Luther Suggested.--Some Reformers saw the three angelic messengers as preachers against the papal Antichrist during the Reformation. Thomas Brightman identified them as (1) Wyclif and his Lollard preachers, (2) Hus and Jerome, with their associates, and (3) Luther. A Calvinist professor at Heidelberg, David Pareus (d. 1622), held (1) Wyclif, Hus, Jerome, etc., (2) Luther, (3) all evangelical preachers since Luther. Johannes Gerhard, professor at Jena (d. 1637), saw Luther as the first angel. But Heinrich Horch, noted as court chaplain and professor at Herborn, considered the three angels still future. Drue Cressener, proctor at Cambridge, in 1689 connected the messages with the Reformation, at the beginning of the final ruin of the Roman Church. The Massachusetts justice Paul Dudley (d. 1751) said the angelic messages had not resulted in bringing all God's children out of (papal) Babylon. Johann Bengel of Denkendorf (d. 1752) thought the first and second angels might be the pietists Arndt and Spener, with the third yet to come.

Early 19th Century.--At the threshold of the 19th century these three angelic messages received increased attention and emphasis. In 1812 Congregationalist Joseph Lathrop connected the first angel with the missionary and Bible Society movement just getting under way, as also did Amzi Armstrong of New Jersey (1815). Among Bible commentators, Thomas Scott (d. 1821) and a few others suggested that the angelic messengers might symbolize the Waldenses, Hussites, and Reformers. But later commentators and annotators like Adam Clarke and Joseph Priestly, also the American Columbian Family Bible and the English Cottage Bible, suggested that the first angel stood for Bible and missionary societies, and many connected the second or third with warnings against the papacy.

In the Old World advent awakening of the early decades of the 19th century a number of men between 1813 and 1844 declared the first angel, with the "everlasting gospel" and the announcement of the judgment, to be already flying in their day. These included William Cuninghame, James H. Frere, Joshua Brooks, John Bayford, Lewis Way, Henry Drummond, John Fry, Edward Cooper, George Croly, John Hooper, William Thorp, and Joseph Baylee. Edward N. Hoare, editor of The Christian Herald, reiterated the same--the cry, he said, should resound "from hill to hill, throughout the nations of Europe." There was a general opinion that certain missionary, Bible, and prophetic societies were already proclaiming the message of the angels, and that the second angel and the third angel were soon to follow, forewarning the world of Babylon's impending doom and heralding the approaching advent.

First Two Angels Seen in Millerite Movement.--In America, at the same time, similar convictions were expressed by such non-Millerite writers as Congregational-Presbyterian Ethan Smith (1833) and Seventh Day Baptist Elias Burdick (1843). In the Millerite movement those who dealt with the three angels followed the lead of William Miller, who believed that the first angel was a symbol of the Advent Movement and its message. The picture of the flying angel, with the text, was published widely as an epitome and authorization of their message to men. When the churches responded to the Millerites' second-advent proclamations with expulsion of Adventist members and ministers, Charles Fitch began, in the summer of 1843, to add to the judgment-hour message the call of the second angel, "Babylon is fallen," and, from a similar passage (Rev. 18:4), "Come out of her, my people." This message reached its climax during the "seventh month" movement of the summer and autumn of 1844.

But, strangely enough, the third angel was scarcely mentioned by the thousands who were giving what they believed was Heaven's "judgment hour" message to earth for that time. Not until after 1844 did the role of the third angel dawn upon the consciousness of the group of Sabbatarian Adventists. Thus the threefold message of the heavenly trio received its climatic place, during the decades that followed, in the Seventh-day Adventist movement.

IX. "Mark of Beast" Connected With Papal Power and Authority

Wyclifites Connect "Mark" With Papal Antichrist.--Christian scholars have periodically pondered the meaning of the coming "mark of the beast." Apparently the first to do so was Cyprian (c. 200-258), bishop of Carthage. He connected it with the coming Antichrist. It was discussed with increasing frequency from the time of Wyclif's followers, such as Walter Brute, who definitely connected it with the papal Antichrist sitting in the "temple of God," and John Purvey, who interpreted the mark in the hand as works conformed to the Antichrist.

Reformers Expound "Mark" as Subservience to Papacy.--We find, among Luther's contemporaries, the papal beast's "mark" equated with subservience to the papacy (Andreas Osiander) or enforced papal worship and ceremonials, effected through its canons, decretals, and ceremonies (Nicolaus von Amsdorf).

Other Reformers interpreted the mark as the papacy's excommunicating power (taught by Zwingli's successor, Heinrich Bullinger), allegiance to the beast and practicing the "works of the beast" (the British bishop, Nicholas Ridley, martyred, 1555), and the "invisible profession" of obedience to papal power (John Napier of Scotland, the great mathematician).

"Mark" and "Seal" Considered Opposites.--In post-Reformation times the German pietist Johann Andreas Lucius (1625-1686), of Dresden, interpreted the mark of the beast as the confession of the Roman religion. The distinguished English scientist Sir Isaac Newton interestingly placed the seal of God and the "mark" of the beast as contrasting opposites. He did not define them, but connected them, in timing, with the final day of judgment. Other 18th-century writers saw the "mark" as the profession of faith of the corrupt Roman Church (the Dutch theologian Campegius Vitringa) and as the papacy's use of oppressive force to impose its "mark" of dominance (de la Fléchère, Wesley's associate).

Colonial Americans Have Similar Concepts.--The same general exegesis prevailed in Colonial America. The "mark of the beast" was seen to involve: receiving orders from the Church of Rome (John Cotton); yielding to the "Popes Lawes" by subscribing to his supremacy or by "some open token of communion with him" (Congregationalist layman, Edward Holyoke, 1658); or subservience to and union with the papacy (Paul Dudley, Massachusetts jurist, 1731).

Early 19th Century Britain.--Andrew Fuller observed that the mark of the papal beast was "opposed" to "the seal of God." James Haldane Stewart, participant in the Albury Park Prophetic Conference of 1826, wrote of the tremendous judgments destined to fall in Catholic countries upon those who have the mark of the beast. In the United States, Robert Reid (d. 1844), Reformed Presbyterian minister of Erie, Pennsylvania, looked upon the mark of the beast as papal Rome's church-state, the token of authority. He thought that this would apply to any church showing the same characteristics.

Such was the preparatory background for the fuller understanding to come under the heralding of the third angel's message. While it was not previously applied by anyone to the Sabbath issue, it was associated consistently with submission to papal authority and practices, some recognizing it as bearing on the law of the papacy in contrast with the law of God.

X. Last of Seven Vials Associated With Last Days

In Category of Last Things.--Tertullian and Victorious (3d century) placed the vials in the "last times." The illustrated commentary of Beatus (8th century) and the Bamberg commentary on the Apocalypse (c. 1000) pictured the angels pouring out the vials of the seven last plagues. The Venerable Bede of Britain (c. 716) touched them lightly.

Historical Application.--Joachim of Floris (12th century) saw the vials as covering the Christian Era, parallel with the seals and the trumpets, the fifth vial being poured out on the false ones among the clergy and conventuals, as God's seat becomes the seat of the beast and Antichrist reigns. The sixth plague falls upon the Roman State, or Empire, or New Babylon, and the seventh cleanses the spiritual church. Olivi likewise puts the sixth vial along with the sixth seal and the sixth trumpet. In the pre-Reformation period John Purvey made the angels the preachers against Antichrist, with the vials containing damnation for the followers of Antichrist. Then Luther's foreword to the Apocalypse assigns the seven vials to the Reformation. Many others in the 17th and 18th centuries similarly defined the seven vials as judgments already falling on the papacy or the Catholic Church, centering in the Reformation, but culminating in Armageddon in the last times. These included Thomas Brightman, David Pareus, Joseph Mede (to whom the drying up of the Euphratean flood was the coming exhaustion of the Turkish Empire), William Sherwin, and Robert Fleming, Jr.

Daniel Cramer, of Stettin, believed the plagues to be punishments upon papal Christianity, but spread over many centuries, as did Pierre Jurieu and Charles Daubuz, who began them respectively in the 10th and the 7th centuries, and Johann Petri (1774), who thought the seventh vial would be poured out about 1847, followed by the millennium. Some, like Edward King (1798), saw the vials in process of fulfillment during the French Revolution.

Variant Views Among American Exegetes.--In early Colonial America many believed the plagues to be already in progress in their day, with the fifth and sixth falling upon papal Rome. These included John Cotton, Samuel Sewall (1697), Samuel Hopkins (1793), Congregationalist theologian, Joshua Spalding (1796), and Joseph Lathrop. Most of these held the fifth was poured out during the Reformation and that they were now under the sixth or seventh. But Yale's president, Timothy Dwight, taught that the fifth vial was involved in the French Revolution, with the sixth then due. There was considerable variation of opinion as to whether the sixth referred to the papacy or to Turkey. On the other hand, Elhanan Winchester, writing in 1794, believed that all seven vials were still future.

Last Vials Thought Still Future.--Johann Bengel (1740) considered the outpouring of the vials still future in his day. So did Baptist scholar John Gill (d. 1771). This was now a trend seen in several commentaries, such as those of Matthew Henry and Thomas Newton, also the D'Oyly and Mant annotated Bible and Brown's Self-Interpreting Bible.

Plagues Believed in Progress--In the early 19th-century Old World advent awakening a number of writers between 1800 and 1844 dealt with the vials, and thought the plagues were falling in their time. Many, like Faber, Cuninghame, Gauntlett, and Frere, thought the vials had begun to be poured out during the French Revolution. For most, the sixth involved the Turks. Some held that the fifth was in progress, others the sixth.

Among non-Millerite American prophetic expositors between 1798 and 1844, many deal with the vials, holding the plagues to be in progress. Some begin them at the Reformation, others with, or during, the French Revolution. As in England, the fifth involves the papacy, and the sixth most often the Turks.

Millerites Sustain Prevalent View.--In the Millerite movement there was no particular or general emphasis on the seven vials. Miller believed that they began to be poured out in Reformation times, with the sixth vial, the drying up of the Turks, impending, and the seventh at the end. Henry Dana Ward, Episcopalian clergyman of New York City, understood the last of the vials to come in connection with the seventh trump, at the second advent. Philemon R. Russell had the last vial poured out on the papal beast, with the sixth vial on the Euphratean Turk. One of the earlier Millerite charts likewise began them with the Reformation, with the fifth falling on the seat of the beast through the French Revolution, the sixth against the Turk, and the seventh against the world.

Among the Sabbatarian Adventists who formulated their doctrines between 1847 and 1855, the position was held that the seven last plagues are all future and begin upon probation's close, with the fifth plague upon the papacy, the sixth seeing the nations gathered to Armageddon, and the seventh involving the final events of earth's history.

XI. "Babylon" of Revelation 17 Uniformly Applied to Rome

Rome, Pagan and Papal.--The several symbols of Rev. 17--picturing the gaudy woman, Babylon riding the seven-headed, ten-horned beast, or seated on the seven hills--were expounded in the early church. Irenaeus of Gaul (died c. 202) equated the beast with the beast of Rev. 13, and the horns were considered the same as those of Daniel's fourth beast, that is, the predicted ten divisions of Rome. Tertullian, Victorinus, and other expressed the general view that Babylon meant pagan Rome.

In contrast with Augustine, the Donatist Tichonius applied "Babylon" to the secularized Roman Church and its worldly bishops. Seventh-century Greek Andreas, archbishop of Caesarea, saw Rome riding Antichrist as the beast. The Venerable Bede, in the 8th century wrote of the harlot, the multitude of the lost, sitting on the beast, whose heads are the kings of the world, and whose eighth head is Antichrist reigning at the end of the age. Berengaud (probably late 9th century) identifies the harlot as all evildoers, but especially pagan Rome; he makes Antichrist the beast's seventh head.

Joachim of Floris identifies the Babylon as Rome, that is, all all the reprobate of the Christian empire. The seven heads of the scarlet beast he declared to be successive persecuting kingdoms, from the Jewish persecutors down to the Saracens. He warned that it was to the sons of Babylon within the Roman Church and the Roman Empire that the doom of Roman Christendom would belong. Peirre Jean d'Olivi incurred official censure for declaring the Babylon set forth in the book of Revelation to represent the carnal, corrupted Church of Rome.

Medieval Application to Papacy.--The Albigenses, and also the Waldenses, designated the Church of Rome as the harlot of the Apocalypse.

During the Renaissance, several Catholics applied Rev. 17 to the Roman Church. In his Divine Comedy Dante (d. 1321) portrayed the corrupt Roman Church as the shameless woman; so did Michael of Cesena, general of the Grey friars, and Johannes de Rupescissa, a Minorite friar under Clement VI, whereas Francesco Petrarch, crowned poet laureate (Rome, 1341), identified the harlot as the papacy at Avignon.

Pre-Reformation leaders like Walter Brute and John Purvey, Lollard scholars, reiterated the position that Babylon on the waters parallels, in time, the woman in the wilderness. And Savonarola, afterward burned at the stake for his prophetic faith, in denouncing the spiritual unfaithfulness of the Roman Church boldly called her the great harlot of the Apocalypse.

Keynote of Reformation Exposition.--In Reformation times Martin Luther in 1520 and a number of his followers identified the papacy or the Roman Church with the harlot, Babylon. She is repeatedly pictured by contemporary artists as wearing the identifying triple crown upon her head. Writers identifying the woman Babylon with the Roman Church included Matthias Flacius, and Heinrich Bullinger (1557), also the British expositors William Tyndale, Nicholas Ridley, Thomas Cranmer, John Bale (1545), John Jewel (d. 1571), and John Napier. Bale and Napier saw the pope as the seventh head, or form, of the Roman government on the beast.

Counter Reformers Restrict Application to Pagan Rome.--In the Roman Catholic Counter Reformation this universal testimony was decried and denied by Luis de Alcazar, who insisted that Babylon is restricted to the pagan Rome of the past, and by Francisco Ribera, who saw it as both pagan Rome and also Christian Rome of the time of the future Antichrist, after it will have fallen away from the popes. Viegas and Lapide agreed with Ribera.

Uniformly Sustained in Post-Reformation Times.--After the Reformation numerous well-known expositors maintained the historic Protestant position on Rev. 17, including Gerhard, Cramer, Spener, and Bengel in Germany; Pacard, Jurieu, and Philipot in France; and in Britain, King James I, Mede, Sherwin, Cressener, Isaac Newton, Whiston, Thomas Newton, Wesley, and others.

There is a paralleling list of expositors in Colonial and early national America holding essentially the same positions--from John Cotton and Roger Williams down to Timothy Dwight, president of Yale.

Concurrence in 19th Century.--Equally striking is the uniformity of opinion among interpreters in the early 19th-century Old World advent awakening on the Roman Babylon. Most often the seventh head of the beast is papal. Even the Jesuit Lacunza insisted that the apocalyptic harlot is papal Rome, and not, as Catholic commentators generally maintained, Rome of the distant past or future.

In America between 1798 and 1844 among both non-Millerite and Millerite expositors the positions of centuries of Protestant exposition continued to be stressed. But a new concept--that Babylon now includes apostasy in the Protestant daughters--came into prominence. The Sabbatarian Adventists generally agreed with the Millerites, though generally holding the eighth head of the beast as papal Rome. But the newer points had been anticipated by earlier writers. The harmony of the centuries is impressive.

Protestants Retain Spirit of Babylon.--Not until post-Reformation times did expositors begin to suggest that the papal "Babylon" of Rev. 17, being a "mother," had daughters bearing the same family name. Expressing the belief that certain Protestant bodies, or state-church union in general, had retained some of the characteristics and errors of the papacy, they began occasionally to allude to them in terms of Antichrist or "Babylon." Among these were well-known nonconformists like Robert Browne, Henry Barrowe, John Milton, and in Colonial North America the freedom-loving Roger Williams and Baptist historian Isaac Backus.

And Samuel Hopkins, Congregationalist theologian, declared that few Protestant churches or individuals had come entirely out of Rome, "the mother of all the false doctrines, superstition, infidelity, and abominable practices in the Protestant world."

Nineteenth-Century Witness.--In the 19th century various Anglican and nonconformist leaders spoke of the Catholic "mother" having Protestant "daughters" that bore some of the maternal characteristics. Hugh M'Neile said that Babylon embraces "the whole of the anti-Christian systems of the western empire." David Simpson, an Angelican, held that Protestant churches of "whatever denomination" which partake of the same spirit as Rome or "have instituted doctrines and ceremonies inimical to the pure and unadulterated Gospel of Christ," must share her fate; and expressed fear that the Church of England must be considered the "eldest daughter." In North America in the early 19th century many wrote strongly on the Protestant "daughters." These included Elias Smith of the Christian Connection, Lorenzo Dow of the Methodists, John Thomas of the Christadelphians, Samuel M. McCorkle of the Disciples, and Isaac T. Hinton of the Baptists.

Millerites Sound Call to "Come Out."--As the Millerites encountered increasing ecclesiastical opposition to their doctrine on the second advent, many, both clergy and laymen, were deprived of their church membership. By mid-1843 Fitch began to sound the call, "Come out of Babylon." Miller was reluctant, but by September, 1844, Joshua V. Himes, who stood next to Miller, sounded the call to separate. The Millerites felt increasingly that they must "come out" of Protestant daughter churches, which were tinctured with the tainted doctrines of Babylon and were definitely rejecting God's great judgment-hour message that they believed Millerism was proclaiming.

This was the background of the belief, held by those Millerites who became the first Seventh-day Adventists, that the Millerite movement had sounded the second angel's message of Rev. 14.

XII. The Second Advent, the Millennium, and the Eternal State

Early-Church Premillennialism.--The earliest Ante-Nicene writers who expounded the 1000 years of Rev. 20 were premillennialists, that is, they held that the second coming of Christ would be accompanied by the resurrection of the righteous, and followed by the millennium, with the second, or general, resurrection at its close. The early chiliasts, as they were called, believed that the resurrected righteous would reign with Christ on this earth during the millennium, and that the final transformation of all the righteous to the "angelic," or eternal, state would not take place until the end of the millennium. This earthly kingdom had its capital, some said (Justin Martyr, Irenaeus), in Jerusalem rebuilt, or in a divinely built Holy City, with the descent of the New Jerusalem at the close of the millennium. Tertullian, however, had the New Jerusalem "let down from heaven" during the millennium, with the eternity of heaven after the conflagration of the earth.

The chiliasts applied the kingdom prophecies of the Old Testament literally to the millennium; they envisioned incredible fertility and plenty, victory and dominion over the nations, and prosperity. But they were not like the modern "literalists" of the futurist school of interpretation. The early premillennialists held that the saints who were persecuted by Antichrist before the second advent and the saints who were to reign in the millennial kingdom after the advent were not the literal Jews, but the Christians--the church, the true Israel, the heirs of the kingdom promises. Neither were they what we today call futurists, for they saw prophecy fulfilling in history, and the future developments, such as the Antichrist, as unfolding already in their time and continuing to the end.

Augustinianism Supplants Premillennialism.--But simple belief in the millennium as following the second advent, widely held in the early church, became more and more colored by the pagan and Jewish concepts attached to it--the fantastic and materialistic elements. Eventually this brought millennialism into disrepute in the face of the rising tendency to allegorism (influenced by Origen, Dionysius of Alexandria, and others), and the popularization, enrichment, and exaltation of the church by Constantine. The premillennial postulate, which involved divine intervention and a catastrophic end of the age, was set aside as the expanding Catholic Church came to be looked upon as the prophesied kingdom of God, the New Jerusalem.

Augustine (5th century) standardized for more than a thousand years the view that the millennium had begun at the first advent, with the first resurrection spiritual, Satan already bound, and the kingdom of the saints embodying the church spreading out over the earth. This was the medieval understanding, and indeed the basis for the concept of the religio-political dominion of the papacy.

In the 12th century Joachim, who shifted the accent again to the historical interpretation of the Apocalypse, did not deny the Augustinian millennium, yet he advanced the view that Satan's binding, in the complete sense, was still future, at the beginning of the expected "Age of the Spirit." This was the beginning of a growing rift.

Early Reformers Cling to Augustinian Millennium.--Luther opposed Rome's claim to be the New Jerusalem by declaring that it was Babylon. But most of the early Reformers in all lands still held to a modified form of the Augustinian view of the thousand years. A few writers, such as Francois Lambert, Michael Servetus, Sebastian Castellio of Basel, put the thousand years in the future, but there was as yet no general shift to this view.

Mede--Restorer of Premillennialism.--The reinstatement of premillennialism in Protestantism was largely accomplished and popularized by Joseph Mede, of Cambridge, who maintained that the second advent will destroy Antichrist and inaugurate the millennium bounded by the two resurrections. Mede spoke of the New Jerusalem as on the earth during the millennium, but he believed that the saints would be in heaven after the end of it. The Fifth Monarchy men generally stood on the platform of a future millennium on earth, though some of them, in their efforts to inaugurate it, tended to a postmillennialist rather than a premillennialist view.

Other writers, such as Thomas Goodwin, William Sherwin, Thomas Burnet, Johann Piscator, and Robert Fleming, Jr., all championed the premillennial view.

Revolutionary Postmillennial View Projected.--Daniel Whitby, Anglican rector of Salisbury, England, introduced in 1703 the revolutionary thesis of postmillennialism, in which the national establishment of the Jews and the overthrow of the pope and the Turk, the conversion of the world, which he denominated the "first resurrection," would introduce a universal reign of righteousness, peace, and victory for a thousand years before the second advent.

In this theory Whitby was followed by the Dutch professor Campegius Vitringa, and others, though Bishop Thomas Newton, John Gill, Georg Hermann Giblehr, Joseph Galloway, and many others in the 18th century stood in direct opposition. But postmillennialism swept over Protestantism--particularly the growing rationalistic wing--and appeared in standard commentaries like those of Matthew Henry, Thomas Scott, and Adam Clarke.

Colonial America Predominantly Premillennial.--In Colonial North America at least one early writer, Thomas Parker, held to a modified form of the Augustinian theory of the millennium. Otherwise the revived premillennialist view, with its literal resurrection and advent, was standard. Jonathan Edwards, in 1774, accepted Whitby's postmillennial postulate, and was followed by Joseph Bellamy (1758) and Samuel Hopkins (1793). By the early 19th century postmillennialism was the predominant view in the churches, and then came the growing protest of a revived and militant premillennialism.

Early 19th-Century Premillennialism.--In Europe, at the dawn of the 19th century, many expositors began to re-examine the doctrine of the premillennial second advent. Among the first were two Catholics--Pere Bernard Lambert of France and the exiled Chilean Jesuit Manuel de Lacunza of Spain and Italy. These two writers, though retaining their Catholic futurism, abandoned the Augustinian millennium, holding that the millennial kingdom would be a personal reign of Christ on earth, and was not to come until the second advent and the destruction of the churchly Antichrist (which one interpreted as the last-day popes, the other as the spirit of apostasy in the church).

The wide circulation of Irving's English translation of Lacunza strongly influenced some writers in the British advent awakening. In this movement various individuals, societies, conferences, and periodicals were united on the personal advent of Christ as inaugurating the millennium, as against the utopian expectation of the postmillennialists, and most of them were "historicists," and held the standard Protestant view of the papal Antichrist. Interpretation varied, however, on the prophetic dates and the events leading to the end. Many looked to 1843, 1844, or 1847 as the end of the 2300 days, which some considered to be the beginning of the millennium; many expected the millennium to begin about 1866. There was variation as to whether the earth was to be renewed at the beginning of the millennium or at its end; whether the heavenly Jerusalem was to descend as the millennial capital or only in the eternal state; whether the saints would reign on earth or in heaven, with an earthly kingdom existing at the same time. Most of them believed that the Jews were to be converted and restored to their land either before or during the millennium.

In the attack on the postmillennialist "spiritualizing" they laid great stress on "literalism," and in the 1830's an increasing number began to hold futurist views. This began in the Albury conferences (1826-1830), in which attention was directed to the futurism of Lacunza and Maitland (the expositor whose future-antichrist views were put to good use by Newman in the Oxford movement). It was developed further in the Irvingite revelations, and in Darby's teachings at the Powerscourt conferences (1830 and onward), though adopted by few at first. This new futurism was a return to the early church chiliasm of a type that was tinctured with Jewish and pagan ideas of a literal, earthly kingdom; but it became a new view in which zeal for literalism carried futurism to an extreme and in a direction unheard of in the early church. It was not, however, until decades later that interdenominational premillennialism came to be largely identified with the elaborated Darbyite system of futurism, which divides the second advent into the rapture and the coming in glory; detaches the 70th week and other prophecies from their context by the space of the whole Christian age; separates the believing Jew from the church and the church from the covenant, the promises, and the prophecies; sets law at variance with grace; and deflects large sections of the New Testament away from the church.

But in the 1840's most premillennialists were historicists, and the "Judaizing" aspect of the literalistic chiliasm did not prevent the American Millerites from regarding the literalists as allies in the contest with postmillennialism. Yet the basic difference between the "Millerites" (including some united with them who did not agree with Miller on the expected date of the second advent) and the literalists is evident in two main Millerite principles: (1) Millerites denied the literalism that required the millennial kingdom to fulfill all the Old Testament prophecies to the Jews, holding that Jew and Gentile, without distinction, are heirs to the prophecies only as Christians. (2) They denied the "temporal" nature of the millennial kingdom; that is, they believed that the second advent was to bring the fiery renovation of the earth and the transformation of the saints to immortality, so that the only millennial reign would be that of the saints, the first stage of the eternal state, which would be merely interrupted after a thousand years by the resurrection of the unsaved to receive their final retribution. This was, in general, the view held by the various Adventist bodies that developed out of the Millerite movement of 1844.

The Seventh-day Adventist pioneers retained much of the Millerite view, but they put the renewal of the earth at the end of the millennium and placed the saints in heaven during that period, assisting in the work of judgment, after which the Holy City would descend to the earth to remain for eternity.

Such is the record of millennialism and its heritage across the centuries. And such is the legacy inherited from the worldwide second advent awakening of the early 19th century.

In Conclusion.--Obviously, this discussion of the history of prophetic interpretation is brief--all too brief to do full justice to the subject. It has not been possible to turn aside to consider those basic principles of interpretation that must serve as the criterion of the worth of the variant views of the Apocalypse that have been held by different expositors through the centuries. Nevertheless, the simple recital of those views, which reveals an ever-enlarging understanding of the meaning of the apocalyptic symbols of the Revelation, can prove of help in the interpretation of this last book of the Bible.

Bibliography

Collections

Advent Source Collection. See entry, Vol. IV, p. 76.

Adventual Collection. See entry, Vol. IV, p. 77.

Single Works

Concerning the libraries in which certain of the works here listed may be found, see Vol. IV, p. 77.

Backus, Isaac. The Infinite Importance of the Obedience of Faith, and of Separation From the World. 2d ed. Boston: Samuel Hall, 1791. Identifies second beast as Protestant; the mother, Babylon, has daughter churches.

Bacon, John. Conjectures on the Prophecies; Written in the Fore Part of the Year 1799. Boston: David Carlisle, 1805. Suggests second beast of Rev. 13 as corrupt clergy in Protestantism; two horns identified as civil and religious liberty.

Bale, John. Select Works of John Bale, D.D., Bishop of Ossory. Containing the Examinations of Lord Cobham, William Thorpe, and Anne Askewe, and The Image of Both Churches. Edited for the Parker Society by the Rev. Henry Christmas. Cambridge: The University Press, 1849. Covers churches, seals, trumpets, beasts.

Bede, The Venerable. The Explanation of the Apocalypse by Venerable Beda. Translated by Edw. Marshall. Oxford and London: James Parker and Co., 1878. Britain's earliest interpretation of Revelation.

Bengel, Johann Albrecht. Erkla¬rte Offenbarung Johannis oder vielmehr Jesu Christi. Stuttgart: Fr. Brodhag, 1834. Presents a historicist interpretation and a future double millennium.

Brightman, Thomas. The Workers of That Famous, Reverend, and Learned Divine, Mr. Tho. Brightman. London: Printed by John Field for Samuel Cartwright, 1644. Stresses trumpets, beasts, and periods; confutes futurism.

[Brooks, Joshua W.]. Elements of Prophetical Interpretation. London: R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside, 1836. Pictures 19th-century Advent awakening.

Brute, Walter, and others. Writings and Examinations of Brute, Thorpe, Cobham, Hilton, Pecock, Bilney, and Others; with The Lantern of Light, Written About a.d. 1400. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1842. Includes early British views on Revelation.

Bullinger, Heinrich. A Hundred Sermons Upon the Apocalips of Jesu Christe. English ed. London: Iohn Day, 1561. Summarizes earlier interpretations of prophecy and makes the papacy the second beast of Rev. 13.

Cotton, John. An Exposition Upon the Thirteenth Chapter of the Revelation. ... Taken From His Mouth in Short-writing. London: Printed for Livewel Chapman, 1655. Sermons delivered 1639-40; beast of Rev. 13 is papacy.

Cressener, Drue. A Demonstration of the First Principles of the Protestant Applications of the Apocalypse. London: Printed for Thomas Cockerill [1690]. Dates 1260 years from Justinian to c. 1800.

Croly, George. The Apocalypse of St. John. See entry, Vol. IV, p. 77. Stresses application to the Church of Rome; two witnesses are two testaments.

Cuninghame, William. A Dissertation on the Seals and Trumpets of the Apocalypse; and the Prophetical Period of Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years. London: J. Hatchard, 1813. First angel of Rev. 14 already flying; last crisis impends.

Dwight, Timothy. A Discourse in Two Parts. New Haven: Howe and Deforest, 1812. A discussion of Rev. 12 to 16.

Elliott, E[dward] B[ishop]. Horae Apocalypticae; or, A Commentary on the Apocalypse. See entry, Vol. IV, p. 77. Contains extensive and reliable discussion of writers on Revelation throughout Christian Era.

Fitch, Charles. "Come Out of Her, My People," reprinted in Midnight Cry, Sept. 21, 1843. The First Millerite announcement of the second angel's message, a sermon by designer of "1843 prophetic chart."

Fleming, Robert. Apocalyptical Key. An Extraordinary Discourse on the Rise and Fall of Papacy; or the Pouring Out of the Vials. Printed from the original, published, [in his Discourses on Several Subjects] in the year 1701. London: G. Terry [1793]. Forecasts French Revolution as prelude to papal wound.

Froom, LeRoy E. The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers. Washington: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1946-1954. 4 vols. Comprehensive history of prophetic interpretation based on original sources. Gives complete bibliography, key extracts.

Fry, John. Observations on the Unfulfilled Prophecies of Scripture, Which Are Yet to Have Their Accomplishment, Before the Coming of the Lord in Glory, or at the Establishment of His Everlasting Kingdom. London: James Duncan, 1835. Ends 391 years of sixth trumpet in 1844.

F[unck], J[ohann], supposed author. Anleitung zum verstandt im Buch, das Man nennet Apocalypsis. With foreword by Melanchthon. Wittenberg: Zacharias Engelhaubt, 1559. Systematic Reformation coverage of Apocalypse.

Goodwin, Thomas. The Expositions of That Famous Divine Thomas Goodwin, D.D., on Part of the Epistle to the Ephesians, and on the Book of Revelation. London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1842. Turkish and papal time periods allocated, and millennium future.

Joachim of Floris. Expositio Magni Prophete Abbatis Joachim in Apocalipsim. Venetijs: In Edibus Francisci Bindoni ac Maphei Pasini Socii, 1527. [Complete photostat in Advent Source Collection.] In this commentary (written about 1190) and the companion work, Concordia, the historical view of the Apocalypse is restored and the year-day principle applied to the 1260 days.

Jurieu, Pierre. The Accomplishment of the Scripture Prophecies, or the Approaching Deliverance of the Church. Translated from the new French edition. London: [n.n.], 1687. France designated as "tenth part" of papal city.

Keyworth, Thomas. A Practical Exposition of the Revelation of Saint John. London: The Author, 1828. Contains tabulation of Revelation with the corresponding portions of Daniel.

King, Edward. Remarks on the Signs of the Times. Reprinted from the London 1799 ed. Philadelphia: Jas. Humphreys, 1800. Announces the fulfillment of 1260 years in 1798.

La Fléchere, Jean Guillaume de. Posthumous Pieces of the late Rev. John William de la Flétchère. 3d ed. London: (Methodist) Conference Office, 1800. Predicts impending French Revolution; effect on papacy.

Litch, Josiah. The Probability of the Second Coming of Christ About a.d. 1843.

Mede, Joseph. The Key of the Revelation, ... With a Comment Thereupon. London: Printed by F. L. for Phil. Stephens, 1650. (Bound with his Works, 1648 ed.) Synchronizes equivalent 1260-year periods; re-establishes premillennialism.

Miller, William. Evidence From Scirpture [sic] and History of the Second Coming of Christ, About the Year 1843. Troy [N.Y.]: Kemble & Hooper, 1836. Lays foundation for Millerite expositions on Revelation.

Napier, John. A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of Saint Iohn: Set Downe in Two Treatises. Edinburgh: R. Walde-grave, 1593. First Scottish exposition of Revelation; makes wide application of year-day principle.

Newton, Sir Isaac. Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John. London: J. Darby and T. Browne, 1733. Dates of 150-and 391-year periods; connects "seal" of God with Day of Atonement and the judgment.

Newton, Thomas. Dissertations on the Prophecies. Northampton, Mass.: William Butler, 1796. Allocates time periods of fifth and sixth trumpets; millennium future.

Olivi, Pierre Jean d'. [Postilla in Apocalypsim.] Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. Latin 713. [Complete microfilm in Advent Source Collection.] Presents views of medieval Spirituals identifying Babylon with the Roman Church.

Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1957. 704 pp. Contains discussion Contain of views and schools of thought on the millennium.

Spalding, Joshua. Sentiments, Concerning the Coming and Kingdom of Christ, ... in Nine Lectures; With an Appendix. Salem [Mass.]: Thomas C. Cushing, 1796. Stresses returning premillennial hope, and attendant events.

Tyndale, William. [Works.] Vol. 1: Doctrinal Treatises, [etc.]; vol. 2: Expositions and Notes, [etc.]; vol. 3: An Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue, [etc.] Edited for the Parker Society by Henry Walter. Cambridge: The University Press, 1848-50. Emphasizes papacy as Babylon and Antichrist.

Victorinus. Works, translated by Robert Ernest Wallis, in ANF, vol. 7, pp. 339-360. Earliest systematic commentary on Apocalypse; based on principles of paralleling repetition.

Ward, Henry Dana. Glad Tidings. "For the Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand." New York: Daniel Appleton, 1838. Presents independent views remarkably similar to those of William Miller.

_______. "History and Doctrine of the Millennium," in The First Report of the General Conference of Christians Expecting the Advent. Boston: Joshua V. Himes, 1841. Survey of the history of true and false millennialism presented.

Whiston, William. An Essay on the Revelation of Saint John, So Far as Concerns the Past and Present Times. Cambridge: University Press, 1706. Emphasizes year-day principle for prophetic time periods.

Whitby, Daniel. A Paraphrase and Commentary on the New Testament. London: Printed by J. Barber for Awnsham and John Churchill, 1706. 2 vols. Projects thesis of post-millennialism; spiritualizes first resurrection and the millennial reign.

Events Leading to the Writing of Paul's Letter to the Philippians, Written From Rome During Paul's First Imprisonment, c. A.D. 63

INTRODUCTION

1. Title. This letter draws its title from the fact that it is addressed to the Christians of Philippi, a city of Macedonia. For a history of the city see on Acts 16:12. The earliest manuscripts, going back to the 3d century, bear the simple title Pros Philippeµsious ("To [the] Philippians").

2. Authorship. Within the letter itself the apostle Paul is designated as the author (ch. 1:1). He represents Timothy as one of his associates (chs. 1:1; 2:19), and refers to his own imprisonment (ch. 1:7) and to his former preaching in Macedonia (ch. 4:15), in a manner that is entirely natural and in harmony with what is known of Paul's life. The early church unanimously recognized this letter as being from Paul. The first non-Biblical testimony to its Pauline authorship comes from the Christian leader and martyr Polycarp, about the middle of the 2d century (see Vol. V, p. 125). Evidence for Pauline authorship is so strong that there is little room for doubt. Concerning the date of writing see Vol. VI, pp. 105, 106.

3. Historical Setting. The epistle to the Philippians was written from Rome during Paul's first imprisonment there (see Vol. VI, pp. 105, 106). More than ten years had passed since Paul had first preached the gospel at Philippi. Luke describes the circumstances of the apostle's first visit there (Acts 16). While at Troas, on the northwest coast of Asia Minor about a.d. 50, the apostle had received a vision in which he beheld "a man of Macedonia" pleading with him, "Come over into Macedonia, and help us" (Acts 16:8, 9). Paul and his companions, Silas, Timothy, and Luke, responded immediately, and went by way of Neapolis to Philippi, the first place in Europe where the gospel was preached (see on Acts 16:11, 12). There the missionaries joined a little group of worshipers by the river outside the city (see on Acts 16:13). Outstanding among those present was Lydia, "a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira." Lydia and her household readily received the apostles' message, were converted and baptized. Afterward, as Paul and Silas went about their work of teaching, they met a slave girl possessed of a spirit of divination; she repeatedly proclaimed them as "servants of the most high God." When Paul cast out the spirit, her former masters stirred up a mob against the apostles, with the result that Paul and Silas were beaten and cast into prison. Then came an earthquake at midnight, followed by the conversion of the jailer and his family. Thus the Philippian church was formed, with its charter members the purple-seller from Thyatira and her household, the jailer, who was probably a Roman (see on Acts 16:23), and his household, and others.

Several years later, on his way back to Jerusalem, as he completed his Third Missionary Tour, Paul stopped again at Philippi. It was the time of the Passover, and the apostle kept the feast with the believers. He must have enjoyed the period of peaceful and happy communion thus afforded him with those who were among the most loving and truehearted of all his converts (Acts 20:6; cf. AA 390, 391).

Soon after his return to Jerusalem, Paul was arrested and imprisoned at Caesarea for at least two years (Acts 24:27). Then came the trip to Rome, where he spent "two whole years in his own hired house" (Acts 28:30). Doubtless it was during this period of imprisonment that Paul wrote his epistle to the Philippian church, as well as the letters to the Colossians, the Ephesians, and to Philemon. Rome is not mentioned in the Epistle to the Philippians, but Paul's reference to Caesar's household (ch. 4:22) and his expectation of a speedy release (ch. 2:24) suggest Rome as the place of writing.

From the letter one gains considerable insight into the situation at Philippi, the condition of Paul, and the relation between the apostle and the Philippian believers. The church at Philippi was led by bishops and deacons (ch. 1:1). Its members were suffering persecution (v. 29). Apparently there had been some tendency to discord, especially between two of the women members (ch. 4:2), but there is no hint of moral corruption or erroneous doctrine. There is little to disturb the joy and thankfulness with which the apostle contemplates the Philippians' growth in grace. Their love for him is unchanged. They had sent Epaphroditus, one of their leaders, to convey their gifts and to minister to Paul in his affliction (ch. 2:25). Paul thought that he might be released soon, and expressed a hope of shortly seeing them again (chs. 1:26; 2:24). Later, he was freed and for a time worked among the churches he had helped to establish, possibly including the church at Philippi (see AA 487).

The immediate occasion for the writing of the letter was that Epaphroditus, who had been seriously ill during part of his stay with Paul in Rome, was now well enough to return home to Philippi (ch. 2:25-30). The church was eager to have Epaphroditus come to them, and Paul wished to take advantage of the opportunity to send a message thanking his friends for sending him gifts, telling them of his condition, and reminding them of his prayerful interest in them.

4. Theme. The Epistle to the Philippians is a letter from a friend to friends, a letter of spiritual counsel, written in acknowledgement of loving help. Paul tells the Philippian believers of his bonds, of the progress of the gospel at Rome, of the endeavors of certain adversaries to distress him by factious opposition, preaching Christ, as they did, out of envy and party spirit (ch. 1:12-17). He tells them of the inward peace and joy that bore him up in all his afflictions. He feels sure of their sympathy; he writes in the fullest confidence of Christian friendship. His joy is their joy. He tells them of the uncertainty of his future; he does not know how his trial will end, in death or in life. He is prepared for either event--a holy life is blessed, a holy death also blessed (vs. 19-24). He tells them of his thankful acceptance of their gifts. He had been unwilling to receive aid from other churches, but with them he was on terms of the very closest intimacy, and that affectionate and trusting friendship made him ready to accept their help (ch. 4:14-17). He valued it, not so much as an alleviation of his own hardships, but rather as an additional evidence of their love to him and of their growth in that charity which is the first of Christian graces. For himself, he was content. He had learned to be self-sufficient in the Christian sense: none felt his own weakness more than he, but he could do all things through the strength of Christ (vs. 10-13).

Thus the theme of the epistle is joy in Christ. Though it was written in prison, with Paul unaware of what lay ahead, the words "joy" and "rejoice" are used again and again. The phrase "in Christ" is used repeatedly, and when joined with the thought of joy, well expresses the theme of the epistle.

5. Outline.

I. Introduction, 1:1-11.

A. Salutation to the Philippians, 1:1, 2.

B. Thanksgiving for his converts, 1:3-8.

C. Prayer for their continued growth, 1:9-11.

II. Review of Paul's Circumstances and Feelings, 1:12-26.

A. His imprisonment and its effect on the progress of the gospel, 1:12-17.

1. Added publicity, 1:12, 13.

2. Increased witness by church members, 1:14.

3. Contentious preaching, 1:15-17.

B. His attitude toward his imprisonment, 1:18-26.

1. Rejoicing that Christ is more widely preached, 1:18.

2. Conviction concerning its spiritual benefit, 1:19.

3. Determination to exalt Christ in life or in death, 1:20-26.

III. Exhortation to Unity and Self-denial, 1:27 to 2:16.

A. Need for steadfast fearlessness, 1:27, 1:28.

B. Endurance of suffering, 1:29, 30.

C. Appeal for Christian unity and humility, 2:1-4.

D. Christ, the supreme pattern of humility, 2:5-11.

E. Practical application of the pattern, 2:12-16.

IV. Explanation of Paul's Plans for the Future, 2:17-30.

A. His plan to send Timothy to them, 2:17-23.

B. His hope of being soon released, 2:24.

C. His immediate plan to send Epaphroditus to them, 2:25-30.

1. The illness and recovery of Epaphroditus, 2:25-27.

2. A recommendation for Epaphroditus, 2:28-30.

V. Further Exhortation, With Doctrinal Parenthesis, 3:1 to 4:9.

A. Rejoicing in the Lord, 3:1.

B. Warning against two errors, 3:2-21.

1. Judaism--works versus grace, 3:2-16.

a. The true circumcision, 3:2, 3.

b. Paul's distrust of his Hebrew background, 3:4-7.

c. Paul's distrust of his present experience, 3:8-11.

d. Necessity of continual, unified progress, 3:12-16.

2. Materialism--the sensual versus the spiritual mind, 3:17-21.

a. Exhortation to imitate Paul, 3:17.

b. Warning against sensualists, 3:18, 19.

c. The blessed hope, 3:20, 21.

C. Renewed appeal for steadfastness and unity, 4:1-3.

D. Exhortation to joyfulness, freedom from anxiety, the pursuit of all good aims, 4:4-9.

VI. Conclusion, 4:10-23.

A. Acknowledgment of their gift, 4:10-19.

B. Salutations from all to all, benediction, 4:20-23.

Philippians Chapter 1

3 He testifieth his thankfulness to God, and his love toward them, for the fruits of their faith, and fellowship in his sufferings, 9 daily praying to him for their increase in grace: 12 he sheweth what good the faith of Christ had received by his troubles at Rome, 21 and how ready he is to glorify Christ either by his life or death, 27 exhorting them to unity, 28 and to fortitude in persecution.

1. Paul. Note the simple identification. When writing to some other churches, the apostle felt it necessary to state his authority (cf. 1 Cor. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1; Gal. 1:1; Eph. 1:1), but here there is no need, for the Philippian church accepted his credentials. This is a letter of love, of gratitude, and of commendation, and while it contains words of warning and exhortation, it is not intended to solve such problems as arose in the churches of some other cities.

Timotheus. See on Acts 16:1. The young evangelist had been with Paul at Philippi (Acts 16:11, 12), so would be personally known to the early converts. A later visit (Acts 20:1-5) made him acquainted with members who had subsequently joined the church. Apart from this salutation there is no indication that Timothy was coauthor of the epistle. The fact that Paul speaks in the first person, from Phil. 1:3 and on, suggests that he is sole author.

Servants. Gr. douloi (see on Rom. 1:1). Some suggest that in applying this term to himself Paul may have had in mind the frequent Greek practice of freeing a slave by having him purchased by one of the gods. A fictitious business transaction was arranged whereby the slave was to pay into the temple treasury his purchase price, money which he had saved. The owner and the slave then went to the temple: the owner received the purchase price, and the slave was supposedly sold to the god. Thus the slave became the property of the particular god, but, for practical purposes, he was now free. Paul considered himself the purchase of Jesus Christ, "bought with a price" (1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23), "made free" (Rom. 6:18), but despite this freedom he knew that he was not his own (1 Cor. 6:20), but was the purchased possession of Christ, who loved him and gave Himself for him (Gal. 2:20). This purchase was no delusive fiction but a living reality: the body and mind of the apostle had been redeemed from slavery to sin and Satan, from subjection to pride and prejudice, from bondage to the works of the law and the flesh, and brought under the full control of the Master of men (see on Rom. 7:14-25).

Saints. Gr. hagioi (see on Rom. 1:7). Note that the letter is addressed to all the church members at Philippi. Paul does not want any to feel unremembered.

In Christ Jesus. See on Rom. 8:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; Eph. 1:1.

Bishops. Gr. episkopoi (see on Acts 20:28).

Deacons. Gr. diakonoi (see on Mark 9:35), a word that signifies servants, not as to standing in society, but as to activity. This word is at times used specifically for a minister of the gospel (1 Cor. 3:5; 2 Cor. 3:6; Eph. 3:7). Paul's special recognition of these local church workers would no doubt add to their prestige in the eyes of the congregation. There is no indication here that one bishop exercised authority over several congregations as was true in the later history of the church. On the contrary there were several within the local group at Philippi. See Vol. VI, pp. 25, 26.

2. Grace. For comment on the greeting here employed see on Rom. 1:7. In the pastoral epistles (1 and 2 Tim., Titus) "mercy" is added.

God our Father. See on Matt. 6:9.

3. I thank my God. See on Rom. 1:8.

Every remembrance. That is, every time Paul remembered the Philippian believers, the renewed realization of their excellent qualities led him to thank God for the existence of such exemplary Christians. This remembrance was continuous and resulted in constant thanksgiving.

4. Always. Paul's joy over his converts' excellences was continuous.

Prayer. Gr. deeµsis, "a seeking," "an entreaty," "a supplication," from deomai, "to ask," "to beg." The same word (deeµsis) is translated "request" later in this verse.

Joy. What a tribute to the Christian character of the Philippians that a knowledge of their experience brought joy, not agony of soul, to the apostle! This was not always the case with other churches (see 1 Cor. 3:1-3; Gal. 4:19).

5. Fellowship. Gr. koinoµnia (see on Acts 2:42; Rom. 15:26). Though koinoµnia is used in the larger sense of sympathetic cooperation, it also carries the meaning of "almsgiving," and so possibly here in view of the Philippians' generous contributions to Paul's welfare (see Phil. 4:10, 15, 16). By now this is a well-tried fellowship of mutual love existing from the first day of his preaching the gospel among them, until the time of his writing. The thought of this holy friendship is a wellspring of unending joy to the apostle, particularly since he is in prison.

In the gospel. The gospel of Christ was responsible for the personal fellowship, but, more than that, their fellowship was in the furtherance of the gospel. Nothing else binds hearts so firmly together as does the common belief in the gospel and the sharing of the joys and sorrows of Christian life. This fellowship should result in united efforts to include others within its circle. Such efforts draw believers still more closely to one another.

6. Being confident. See on Heb. 3:6.

He which hath begun. That is, God. The apostle wants his converts to remember that God is the author of their salvation (cf. Phil. 2:13; Heb. 12:2; 13:20, 21).

A good work. That is, the work of salvation.

Perform. Gr. epiteleoµ, "to bring to an end," "to perfect." The Lord is a perfect workman. He completes every work to which He sets His hand, if only the human material permits Him to do so. Furthermore, the product of such workmanship will be perfect. And He does not weary in well-doing. He has brought the Philippians into the fellowship of the gospel, but that is a work which is not finished with a single act. It is completed gradually, but none the less surely. Confidence in God's constant interest and guidance is a keynote of Paul's writings. He wishes to impart that same certainty to the Philippians.

Day of Jesus Christ. Synonymous with the expression "day of the Lord" (see on Acts 2:20; cf. Phil. 1:10; 2:16). The work of perfecting will continue until Christ comes to receive His own. Nothing short of a continuous, spiritual growth can prepare one to welcome Christ when He comes the second time.

7. It is meet. Rather, "it is right," that is, morally right, on the basis of God's procedures (v. 6) and the Philippians' own qualities.

To think. Rather, "to be minded," "to feel" (RSV), suggesting the state of Paul's mind rather than an actual thought.

This. That is, the assurance of the Philippians' complete salvation.

Of you all. Rather, "on behalf of you all." Paul rarely thought detachedly: he was so vitally interested in his converts' welfare that he thought in terms of their actual situations.

In my heart. Paul cites his love, his holding the believers in his heart, as justification of his high hopes on their behalf. He held these beloved converts in his heart because he could not be personally with them. He who enshrines his benefactors and his co-workers in his heart safeguards against selfishness. He who carries his brethren elsewhere than in his heart will soon wish to cast them out of his thinking.

In my bonds. A reference to his imprisonment in Rome (see p. 138).

Defence. Gr. apologia, "verbal defense," "speech in defense."

Confirmation. Gr. bebaioµsis, "an establishing," "a confirmation," from bebaiooµ, "to make firm," "to establish," "to confirm."

Partakers of my grace. Literally, "partakers [or, "sharers"] with me of the grace." If this phrase is introduced earlier in the verse and the phrase "inasmuch as" is omitted, Paul's meaning becomes clearer. The Philippians were sharers with the apostle in the grace of God. This grace had made them partakers, as it were, of his imprisonment by their sympathizing assistance and by their enduring persecution similar to what he endured. All this was for the sake of the gospel, for its defense against opponents, and for its confirmation among believers.

8. God is my record. Rather, "God is my witness." Paul appeals to God in confirmation of his deep love for, and desire to see, the Philippians. Since his longing is hidden in his heart, only God can know and testify to its reality.

Bowels. See on Jer. 4:19. In olden times the bowels were regarded as the seat of affection, sympathy, and compassion, as is the heart with us.

Of Jesus Christ. The allusion here is to the sympathy, tenderness, and love of the Redeemer. Paul regarded the Philippian believers with affection akin to that which the Lord Jesus had for them. This was the tenderest and strongest expression that he could find to denote the ardor of his attachment. Here is a hint of the inner unity that is to exist in the church: the members cherish one another in their hearts; they love one another with the strong affection and tender sympathy of Christ Himself; they are conscious of an all-inclusive fellowship; they have a common duty; they pray and give thanks for one another; they find in their own mutual love a witness and pledge of God's love and purpose.

9. This I pray. Verses 9-11 contain the substance of Paul's prayers for the continued spiritual growth of his Philippian friends.

Love. Gr. agapeµ (see on Matt. 5:43, 44; 1 Cor. 13:1).

May abound yet more. Their love was already of a high quality, yet Paul wished them to attain even loftier heights. He desired that their love both to God and to man might, as a stream rising from its springing fountain, flow out ever further, and more abundantly communicate itself in all channels of Christian service (cf. 1 Thess. 3:12).

Knowledge. Gr. epignoµsis, "full knowledge" (see on Rom. 3:20). Paul here refers to experimental knowledge, a personal understanding of the saving truths of Christianity, exhibited in a godly life (see on John 17:3; Eph. 1:17; 4:13).

Judgment. Gr. aistheµsis, "perception," "discernment," "experience." The word properly applies to the senses, and here, with moral overtones, signifies the insight that recognizes a truth as the eye recognizes an object (cf. Heb. 5:14). Aistheµsis here differs from epignoµsis in dealing, not with general, impersonal principles, but with the choice of right principles.

10. Approve. Gr. dokimazoµ (see on Rom. 2:18). The word implies approval after examination and trial. Paul here reveals the purpose that he hopes will be achieved by their increase in love (Phil. 1:9)--that they may test and retain excellent things.

Things that are excellent. Gr. ta diapheronta, "the things that differ," that is, things that are superior. In all the choices of life Paul desires that the Philippian Christians shall choose only the best.

Sincere. Gr. eilikrineµs, possibly derived from heileµ or heleµ, "sun," and krinoµ, "to judge," hence, that which, being viewed in the sun's light, is found clear and pure, hence, "pure," "unsullied," "sincere."

Without offence. Gr. aproskopoi, literally, "not striking against," hence, "undamaged," "blameless." Inward purity results in outward blamelessness and prepares one for the day of the coming of Christ. All of Paul's counsel was intended to guide his friends in preparation for the day when all character will be revealed. To remind them of that purpose he repeats the expression used in v. 6, omitting the word "Jesus" (cf. on 1 Thess. 5:23).

11. Fruits of righteousness. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the reading "fruit of righteousness." Jesus' standard for testing the character is, "By their fruits ye shall know them" (see on Matt. 7:15-20). God expects more than mere blamelessness; He looks for positive fruitfulness. Righteousness is not simply the absence of sin, but the presence of the righteous character of Christ in the life of the believer (see on Matt. 5:6, 20). All the preceding steps in their experience, for which Paul was praying, would lead the Philippian believers to a demonstration of the actions of the true Christian. They were to be filled with these fruits. Not a branch here and there, but all our branches are to be loaded with good fruit.

By Jesus Christ. Paul hastens to remind the Philippians that any righteousness they might possess and any good works they might do, could be theirs only through Jesus Christ (cf. on John 15:1-5; Rom. 4:5). Christian fruit bearing depends on the believer's connection with Christ. The fruit of the life that abides in Jesus is the same as the fruit of Christ's own life.

Unto the glory. God's honor is best promoted by the holy lives of His children (see on John 15:8; cf. 1 Cor. 10:31; Eph. 1:12; 1 Peter 2:12).

12. Ye should understand. The clause, common in Greek letters, may be literally translated, "I wish you to know." Paul here introduces a different topic--his own imprisonment and its relation to the preaching of the gospel.

Which happened unto me. Rather, "pertaining to me." Paul is referring to his affairs. His statement suggests that the Philippians had expressed anxiety regarding the outcome of a change in Paul's circumstances, both as to his person and as to the progress of the gospel.

Have fallen out. Paul hastens to assure the Philippians that good rather than harm has resulted from his confinement. He wanted them to understand that in the providence of God his trials were being used to advance the preaching of the gospel. As so often happens, the wrath of men brought glory to God (see on Ps. 76:10).

Rather. This word implies that the Philippians had feared the worst.

13. My bonds in Christ. Rather, "my bonds have become known [to be] in connection with Christ," that is, it is now apparent that he has been imprisoned, not because of nay misdeeds, but because of his witness concerning Christ.

In all the palace. Gr. en holoµ toµ praitoµrioµ, literally, "in the whole praetorium." There is a wide variety of opinion concerning the meaning of this phrase. Four interpretations have been advanced: (1) that "praetorium" refers to the barracks in which the Praetorian soldiers were housed; (2) that "praetorium" refers to the ruler's residence (see on Matt. 27:27); (3) that en holoµ toµ praitoµrioµ should be translated "among all the praetorii," and that "praetorii" refers to the judicial authorities responsible for Paul's trial; (4) that en holoµ toµ praitoµrioµ should be translated "among all the Praetorian [Guard]," referring to the soldiers who were guarding Paul (see on Acts 28:16). The last appears the most reasonable view, and accords well with the context. The Praetorian soldiers, in the course of their duties of guarding Paul, would come to see the true state of affairs, and realize that he was imprisoned only because of his faith and evangelistic zeal. Since these soldiers were frequently changed, it might be said that the whole guard had come to know the truth concerning Paul.

In all other places. Rather, "among all the rest," that is, not only among the Praetorian Guard but among the other people who came into contact with the captive apostle. Thus, although Paul was confined, the witness of his ardent Christian life spread far beyond the place where he was imprisoned.

14. Many of the brethren. Literally, "the greater part of the brethren," that is, the majority of the Christians in Rome.

In the Lord. These words may be connected with "brethren," as in the KJV, or with "waxing confident."

Waxing confident. Or, "having confidence." Here is an additional fact that was favorable to the gospel. A greater part of the brethren were much more bold as a result of Paul's confinement. That so distinguished a champion of the truth had been imprisoned may have stirred them to do all they could in the same cause for which he suffered. Or perhaps they were aroused as some current of popular feeling toward Christianity arose after the cause of Paul's imprisonment had become generally understood. Others may have been encouraged by their intercourse with Paul to exert great efforts in the Christian cause. Thus, by one way or another, Paul's imprisonment had led to a more fearless proclamation of the Word by other believers. See on Acts 25:12.

15. Some. This introduces another line of thought: the "some" are not to be included among the "many" of v. 14.

Preach Christ. Paul here refers to two classes who proclaim the name of the Saviour: (1) those who do so because of their jealousy of Paul; (2) those who do so from right motives. In both cases Christ is preached. It is therefore unlikely that the first class were Judaizers, who are never so described by Paul (see Vol. VI, pp. 33, 52-54).

Envy and strife. Or, "envy and rivalry." The apostle does not mention the cause of this rivalry. It would seem, however, that even in Rome there was a party that was jealous of the influence of Paul, and supposed that this was a good opportunity to diminish his influence and to strengthen their own standing. He was imprisoned, and they had access to the mass of the people.

It was easy, under plausible pretenses, to insinuate that Paul had ambitious aims and exerted an improper influence, or to take strong ground against him in favor of their own views. They may even have agreed with him in doctrine, but have sought to damage him from personal enmity.

Since these men professed to preach Christ, it is difficult to analyze their motives. If there were a company of Jews who held the essential doctrines of the gospel, but were combative on matters of little importance, and at the same time were bitter against Paul because of his Gentile interests, then such a party might try to preach Christ and yet cherish toward Paul those evil feelings he ascribes to them.

Good will. Some increased their evangelistic activity out of good will for the apostle. These brethren had a special regard for Paul because of his important place in the evangelization of the world. They probably increased their activity because Paul's had decreased. Such good will is the spirit that should be common to the brotherhood of the Christian ministry. When one laborer is laid aside, others should step forward to take his place and carry forward his work.

16. The one. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the transposition of vs. 16, 17 so that Paul continues the thought of the second half of v. 15 by speaking of those who preach Christ "of good will."

Contention. Rather, "factiousness," or "partisanship," "disputes."

Not sincerely. Or, "not purely," not with pure motives or intentions. They did indeed preach Christ, but for the purpose of harming Paul.

Supposing to add affliction. Rather, "thinking [or, "purposing"] to bring affliction to bear." Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the reading "thinking [or, "purposing"] to raise up affliction." They hoped their contentious preaching would increase the trials arising from Paul's imprisonment.

17. The other. In accord with the preferable order whereby v. 17 precedes v. 16 (see on v. 16), and maintaining the close connection with v. 15, "the other" may be read "the latter," referring to those "of good will."

I am set. Or, "I am destined," "I am appointed."

Defence. Gr. apologia (see on v. 7). Paul saw himself as an advocate, appointed to defend the gospel of Christ from the virulent attacks of its enemies. When his activities were restricted, loyal assistants endeavored to continue his work so that the gospel was not left undefended.

18. What then? Paul faces the situation raised by the two types of preaching, and boldly asks: "What does it all mean?"

Notwithstanding. Or, "only that" (RSV). The apostle proceeds to state the sole significant result of the two ways of proclaiming Christ.

Pretence. Gr. prophasis, "falsely alleged motive," "pretext," from prophainoµ, "to show forth," or from propheµmi, "to speak forth," both derivations giving the sense of an external rectitude that cancels an ulterior motive, in this case a zealous preaching of Christ performed with the intention of hurting Paul.

Christ is preached. Paul was an optimist. He looked for the good in any set of circumstances. He would have preferred to have men who loved Christ, preach Christ. However, rather than that Christ should not be preached, he was willing that those who did not truly love Him should proclaim His name. Even an imperfectly preached Christianity was a great improvement over gross heathenism. And what is the result of this preaching? Christ is announced, the story of Christ is told. Though the motives of the preachers may be questionable, the result may be a victory for Christ.

I therein do rejoice. In this the second reference to joy in this epistle (cf. v. 4) Paul's joy shows a large and forgiving nature. He would not allow himself to be upset by the bitterness of his opponents. He could rejoice in the good that God was bringing out of evil, even though the good was produced by his adversaries. To him the preaching of Christ was the most important thing in the world.

And will rejoice. Paul's rejoicing was not for the moment only. He would continue to rejoice in the success of the preachers who were opposed to him as well as in that of those who were preaching of good will.

19. This. That is, Paul's present circumstances and the attitudes of the believers.

To my salvation. Opinion is divided as to whether this refers to Paul's hoped-for deliverance from prison or to his final redemption. The apostle may have had both experiences in mind, but v. 20 suggests that his deepest concern is with spiritual salvation rather than with release from prison. He realized that all God's dealings with His people are intended as a discipline to ripen holy character in preparation for eternal life (AA 524). The opposition of his enemies would stir Paul to greater activity and earnestness, and so foster his spiritual well-being.

Affliction, in itself, has no sanctifying power. It may embitter, harden, deaden the soul. On the other hand, it may become an instrument to chasten, deepen, and purify the Christian's spiritual experience (see Heb. 12:7-11). Our salvation will be affected by the way in which we avail ourselves of the potential benefits of affliction. If we resist and fight against the method of education and the teacher, the affliction will need to be prolonged or another sent to take its place. We should earnestly pray to learn spiritual lessons quickly, that we may move on from one phase of spiritual development to the next.

Your prayer. The first of two agencies which, cooperating with Paul's immediate circumstances, aid his salvation. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the second agency. The apostle attached great value to the intercessory prayers of his friends (see Rom. 15:30, 31; 2 Cor. 1:11; Philemon 22). Here he is not asking that the Philippians pray for him: he assumes that they are already praying for him, even as he prayed for them (Phil. 1:4). Would that all pastors could assume as much! There are certain responsibilities of which we may sometimes be relieved, but not so with prayers of intercession. The leaders of God's people, Christian workers throughout the world, and individual church members need the prayers of one another, especially in the difficult times that lie ahead.

Supply. Gr. epichoreµgia, "support," "help." Paul thought of the Spirit of Jesus, together with the prayers of friends, as working with local conditions for his ultimate salvation.

Spirit of Jesus Christ. This particular expression does not occur elsewhere in the NT, although the form "Spirit of Christ" is found in Rom. 8:9; 1 Peter 1:11, and "Spirit of his Son" in Gal. 4:6. The words may be interpreted as referring to the disposition that actuated Jesus, which, operating in Paul, would contribute to his salvation. The more generally accepted interpretation sees a direct reference to the Holy Spirit (cf. on Rom. 8:9). Neither Paul's trials nor the prayers of his fellow believers could serve any useful purpose except as the Spirit of Christ filled his life to overflowing.

20. Earnest expectation. Gr. apokaradokia (see on Rom. 8:19). Paul's great desire was that no happening should cause him to fail to magnify Christ.

Hope. An inward attitude, supplementing the "earnest expectation," which may be considered as more externally revealed.

I shall be ashamed. Or, "shall I be put to shame," that is, by failures in his own life or by his being rejected by Christ (cf. Luke 9:26). He is not anticipating such disasters, but is rather, in confidence of success, expressing the wish that they may not occur.

Boldness. Gr. parreµsia, "boldness of speech," "courage," "confidence," "fearlessness." Prison was no deterrent to the zeal of the apostle. He planned to continue boldly to represent Christ and His salvation. He had never been hesitant to proclaim his message (cf. Acts 4:20), and he wanted no fear or discouragement now to interfere with his testimony.

As always. Paul's conscience was clear. He could look back on a consistent career of fearless witness and look forward to maintaining the same in the future.

Magnified. To magnify is to make great, or to celebrate already existing greatness. The Christian cannot make Christ great when all greatness is already His, but he can make the Lord great in the eyes of others (see on Luke 1:46).

In my body. The usual form would be "in me," but since Paul is in danger of death, he sees his body as the instrument through which Christ will be glorified.

Life, or by death. If he should live, Christ would be glorified by his witness and activity. If he should die, the magnification would come through his joyful death for the Master. In life Christians magnify Christ through their conversion, their sanctification, their devoted labors in His cause, their cheerful endurance of trials, and the abiding results that their services secure. In death the true child of God magnifies the Son by rising above the dread with which most men face death, by trusting in the Lord to care for his future, and by continuing to witness through the influence that his godly life and fearless death exert on those who survive.

21. To me. Paul emphasizes his own outlook, which differs from that of most men, who selfishly cling to life and dread death.

To live. The Greek verb is a present infinitive and refers to the continuous, daily act of living.

Christ. That is, Paul's existence was comprehended in, and bounded by, Jesus. His thinking was completely wrapped up in his Saviour. His plans, his hopes, his every aspiration, centered in Christ. Every thought was brought into subjection to Him (2 Cor. 10:5). Therefore, his thoughts were not selfish, or earthly; they were under the control of his Master (see on Rom. 6:11; 14:7, 8; 2 Cor. 5:15; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:7-11; Col. 3:3).

To die. The Greek tenses used in this verse contrast the continuous act of living with the instantaneous termination of life that comes at the moment of death.

Gain. This assertion is not reconcilable with mere human feeling. Death always involves loss of some sort. To the saint it involves the loss of many pure enjoyments of life, of happy domestic ties, of means and opportunities of working for Christ. But Paul's assertion is not that of a pessimist who says, "Life is not worth living." It is not that of one who is worn out, who has outlived the very sensation of enjoyment. Nor is it that of a holy man wearied with exhausting labors and anxious to be finished with trials and persecutions. Paul was not sour, morose, or cynical. He possessed hearty human sympathies and entered with spirit into the balanced activities of a true Christian life. But his present declaration deals with a higher topic than his own prospects. He is concerned with magnifying Christ. If his Lord saw best for him to bear testimony through living and ministering, he would rightly represent Him. But the death of a righteous man can also be a powerful affirmation of the efficacy of the gospel of grace. The contrast between his death and the death of one who dies without hope would be so marked that its influence would bring gain for the kingdom of Christ. Hearts are touched and softened by the calm assurance and confidence of the one whose trust is completely in his God, even in the hour of death.

A further interpretation is also worthy of consideration. The Christian has nothing worth while to lose by death, but he has much to gain. He loses temptation, trial, toil, sorrow. He gains, at the resurrection, glorious immortality.

22. If I live. The construction of this verse has perplexed commentators. Three possible interpretations, depending on varying shades of translation, merit consideration: (1) The second section of the verse is an explanation of the first, whereas the third serves as a conclusion, as if Paul said: "But if to live in the flesh--if this be fruitful to me through hard toil--then I cannot say which state I shall choose, life or death." (2) The second section is part of the conclusion: "But if to live in the flesh be my present destiny, then my toil will be fruitful, and so what I shall choose I cannot say." (3) The "if" is interrogative, and poses a question: "But what if my continuing to live in the flesh shall prove fruitful? then what I shall choose I cannot say."

The verse must be considered in its context, and this concerns Christ's being magnified. Paul is puzzled, for he cannot decide whether he will better glorify Christ by life or by death. As he ponders the problem he sees that a continuation of life has every prospect of being fruitful, and this makes a strong appeal to him. But death also has its compensations. But whether the future held for him life or death troubled him not so long as he could be of help to the Philippians.

In the flesh. Literally, "in flesh." Paul is referring to his continued physical existence.

Fruit of my labour. That is, fruit resulting from my life of hardship.

What I shall choose. Are not Christians often in this state, that if it were left to themselves they would not know which to choose, life or death? But God, who knows the end from the beginning, leads as we would choose to be led if we could see as He sees.

I wot not. That is, I know not. The Greek may also be translated, "I declare not," in the sense of being unable to say.

23. For. Rather, "but." Paul now explains the dilemma in which he finds himself.

I am in a strait. Gr. sunechoµ (see on 2 Cor. 5:14), literally, "I am held together," or "I am hemmed in." Paul's condition may be compared to that of a traveler who can turn neither to the right nor left because of restraining walls.

Betwixt two. Paul's dilemma arises from the two possibilities that comfort him--continuing to live or laying down his life.

Having a desire. Literally, "having the desire," that is, my desire is.

To depart. Gr. analuoµ, "to unloose," "to undo," used of unmooring a ship, breaking up a camp, hence, "to depart." We may think of Paul's cutting the ropes that bind him to this world, or his striking the camp of this life prior to departing for the life to come. He employs similar language in 2 Tim. 4:6, where the word for "departure" is analusis, "a loosing," "an undoing."

To be with Christ. Paul is not here giving a doctrinal exposition of what happens at death. He is explaining his "desire," which is to leave his present troubled existence and to be with Christ without reference to a lapse of time that may occur between these two events. With the whole strength of his ardent nature he longed to live with the One whom he had so faithfully served. His hope centered on personal companionship with Jesus throughout the future life. Earnest Christians of all ages have had this same longing, without necessarily expecting to be immediately ushered into the Saviour's presence when their eyes have closed in death. Paul's words here have to be considered in conjunction with his other related statements where he clearly refers to death as a sleep (see on 1 Cor. 15:51; 1 Thess 4:13-15; see also on Mark 5:39; John 11:11). Since there is no consciousness in death, and hence no awareness of the lapse of time, the resurrection morning will appear to the departed one as occurring the moment after his death.

Which is far better. Literally, "for it is very far better." In Greek there is a multiplication of comparative terms, quite in accord with Paul's mode of expression (cf. Rom. 8:37; 2 Cor. 7:13; Eph. 3:20). If death should overtake him, he expected to rest in the grave until the second coming of his Lord, and then be resurrected to receive immortality that he might be ever with Christ (1 Cor. 15:51-55; 1 Thess. 4:13-18).

24. In the flesh. That is, tied to earthly, fleshly life.

More needful for you. The antithesis of "far better" (v. 23). Paul allows the Philippians' need to outweigh his own desire. The church needed his personal guidance and the inspiration of his dedicated life. This need was the decisive factor in the apostle's thinking.

25. Having this confidence. That is, being convinced of the need for his continued presence.

I know. In the light of the context this should not be interpreted in any prophetic sense, as if Paul were foreseeing an extension of his own life, but simply as an expression of his own conviction.

I shall abide. Convinced of their need of him, Paul expresses his confidence that the Lord will permit him to live and continue to do his appointed work. This expectation was fulfilled. When he appeared before Nero he was declared guiltless and was released (see Vol. VI, p. 101; AA 486, 487). He again labored among the churches for a brief period, possibly visiting Philippi, only to be once more imprisoned and later executed.

Furtherance. That is, progress. This word may be linked with the faith that is later mentioned, so that the phrase reads, "progress of your faith."

Joy of faith. Progressive faith brings joy into life.

26. Rejoicing. Gr. kaucheµma, "a boast," "object of boasting." The word denotes that of which one glories, the ground for glorying, not the act of glorying.

In Jesus Christ. This clause defines the reason for the increase in their joy--it derives from their connection with Christ, and not merely their association with Paul.

For me. Rather, "in me," that is, in connection with Paul, who, as the leading representative of the church, was the ground, or cause, of their rejoicing.

Coming. Gr. parousia (see on Matt. 24:3). The apostle confidently anticipated that his release and subsequent visit to the Philippians would bring genuine joy to his friends.

27. Only. Here begins a subsection of the epistle. Paul has looked forward to being reunited with the Philippians, at which time he will be able to exhort them by word of mouth. In the meantime he gives them written counsel.

Let ... conversation be. Gr. politeuoµ, "to be a citizen," or "to behave as a citizen," from politeµs, "a citizen" (cf. on ch. 3:20). The same word (politeuo) occurs in Acts 23:1. A free translation of the whole phrase would be: "Conduct yourselves as citizens of the gospel kingdom of Christ." Such language was very appropriate. Paul was himself a Roman citizen. He wrote from Rome. His presence there was the result of his having exercised his rights of citizenship in appealing to Caesar (Acts 25:11, 12). He was writing to a place largely inhabited by Roman citizens, for the metropolis of Philippi was a Roman colony (see on Acts 16:12). It was a place in which he had declared himself to be a Roman (Acts 16:37). Thus the figure of speech was natural. As citizens of the heavenly country, the Philippians were to deport themselves worthily.

The Christian's practice is to accord with his profession. Under the influence of the gospel of Christ he must be true and faithful, peaceful and loving, gracious and humble. His way of life must be consistent, whether his human guide is present or absent.

Whether. The apostle is not dogmatic in his plans. Although he has expressed his desires and intentions in vs. 22, 26, he still leaves the way open for his presence in or absence from Philippi, as God may direct.

I may hear. Wherever Paul found himself, he endeavored to receive news of the many churches he had established. His love for his converts was no passing emotion.

Stand fast. Gr. steµkoµ, "to stand," "to stand firm," "to be steadfast." Compare the use of steµkoµ in 1 Cor. 16:13; Gal. 5:1; Phil. 4:1; 1 Thess. 3:8; 2 Thess. 2:15. The metaphor was probably military, and may be regarded as following naturally from the thought of citizenship, for Philippi was a military colony. As an army, the church is to present an unwavering front against the assaults of all enemies. It must be prepared for any kind of attack, from any side. It must beware of deceptive movements or false instructions. There must be no division or dissension within the ranks of the defenders, or their position will be weakened (see Eph. 6:13; AA 11).

In one spirit. That is, with one disposition (cf. on Matt. 26:41; Luke 1:80; 2:40), consequently with unity of purpose. It is presupposed that this harmony, which is to be so earnestly sought, is a gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. on Eph. 4:3, 4), but the Holy Spirit is not directly referred to here. Nevertheless, nothing so clearly indicates the presence of the Spirit among God's people as a oneness of spirit, a oneness of thinking, and of action. Especially in these last days there must be a drawing together for the strength that comes from unity.

Mind. Gr. psucheµ (see on Matt. 10:28), here referring to the human intellect. The phrase "with one mind" should be connected with "striving," and not with "stand fast."

Striving together. Gr. sunatheleoµ, from sun, "with," and athleoµ, "to contend [in public games]," whence our word "athlete." Here Paul is urging the believers to contend or strive together for the advance of the faith that is produced by the preaching of the gospel. Such united service would promote still deeper unity in the Christian community. Paul's admonitions suggest that the Philippian church was in danger of being divided, though no serious divisions had yet occurred.

28. Terrified. Gr. pturoµ, "to startle," "to affright," "to intimidate." The Christian, knowing that his times are in God's hands, and that all things work together for good to them that love God (see on Rom. 8:28), should not be intimidated.

Adversaries. The enemies of the good are the enemies of God. The good man, with God on his side, need not fear either their numbers or their ferocity.

Which. That is, the Christian's unflinching boldness.

To them. That is, to the adversaries.

Evident token. Gr. endeixes, "manifestation," "proof."

Perdition. Gr. apoµleia, "destruction," here contrasted with "salvation" in the next clause. Even though their adversaries do not perceive or acknowledge it, the fact that the church is unterrified is an evidence of the future destruction of their enemies. It shows that the Christians are supported by supernatural power, and implies that opponents will eventually be called into judgment on account of their persecuting activities. Punishment for the wicked and consolation for the righteous are both prefigured in the relation of the Christian to his adversaries.

Salvation. The calm strength and assurance of the true Christian in the face of the severest opposition or persecution is one of God's ways of revealing Himself to us. It serves as a pledge of the full salvation that He has provided.

That of God. That is, the "evident token," or proof, of the destruction of the adversaries and the salvation of the faithful comes from God.

29. Given. Gr. charizomai, "to give graciously," "to grant a privilege" (see on Luke 7:21). The Christian religion has sanctified suffering that is endured for righteousness' sake (see on Matt. 5:10-12). Here, the undergoing of suffering for Christ is presented as a gracious gift, which gift the Christian may be proud to receive (cf. on Phil. 3:10; 2 Tim. 2:11, 12; DA 225). The suffering that so frequently seems the lot of the Christian is used by God to perfect character and to prepare its recipient for future glory (see on Rom. 8:17).

In the behalf of Christ. This phrase should be linked directly with "to suffer." The Christian does not suffer on his own account, but as a representative of his Master. The opprobrium formerly cast on Jesus now falls on him; but, just as surely, the glory that is Christ's will one day be shared by him (Rom. 8:17).

Believe. Or, "have faith." For the importance of faith to Christian experience see on Rom. 4:3; cf. John 3:16.

Suffer. Faithful Christians, from apostolic times onward, have been glad to suffer for the Master's sake (Acts 5:41; 1 Peter 3:14; 4:12-14). Those who face the trials of the last days must possess that same true sense of values. Severe as were the tests of Peter and his associates, they were little compared with those of the last great times of trouble. Only one thoroughly persuaded that it is the highest of honors and the greatest of blessings to be permitted to suffer for Christ's sake will persevere through times when the unrestrained fury of Satan is unleashed.

30. Having. This should be connected with "unto you it is given ... to suffer" (v. 29). The Philippians are already sharing in the gift of suffering.

Conflict. Gr. agoµn, "a contest," often used of athletic or gladiatorial contests (see 1 Tim. 6:12; 2 Tim. 4:7; Heb. 12:1), here of conflicts with the enemy. The Philippians were enduring persecutions similar to those that had come upon Paul.

At the time of his first visit to Philippi the apostle had been beaten and imprisoned (see Acts 16:22, 23). So deeply was the incident impressed on his mind that he even mentioned it when he wrote to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 2:2). His Philippian friends would doubtless also have vivid memories of the ways in which Paul had suffered in their city. And in addition, they knew much of Paul's present suffering in Rome, and Epaphroditus would soon be telling them more. The apostle shows them that their struggle was very similar to the one he had borne, and borne successfully. What he had endured, they, in Christ's strength, could also endure.

Ellen G. White Comments

1 MH 167

2-14AA 480

3-5AA 219

3-7MH 167

6 EW 26; SC 64

9-115T 104; 8T 43

10, 11 5T 264

11 ML 153

12 AA 463; GC 219

13, 14 AA 464

5, 16 MB 34

18 MB 34, 35

20, 21DA 549

21 AA 128

27-29EW 26; 8T 43; 9T 274

29 DA 225; MH 478

29, 30 AA 219

Philippians Chapter 2

1 He exhorteth them to unity, and to all humbleness of mind, by the example of Christ's humility and exaltation: 12 to a careful proceeding in the way of salvation, that they be as lights to the wicked world, 16 and comforts to him their apostle, who is now ready to be offered up to God. 19 He hopeth to send Timothy to them, whom he greatly commendeth, 25 as Epaphroditus also, whom he presently sendeth to them.

1. If there be. There is no chapter division in Paul's thought. He is continuing the theme begun in ch. 1, particularly in v. 27, where he appeals to his converts' sense of Christian citizenship. He now enlarges on that topic, and concentrates on the development of Christian unity and humility. In so doing, the apostle bares his own soul, revealing the passionate intensity of his concern for the Philippians, the height and depth of his understanding of Christ's nature and sacrifice, the lofty standards he cherishes for his own spiritual children, his generous opinions of faithful fellow laborers, and his own complete submersion in the interests of the gospel. This chapter deserves careful study as a unit, with the above analysis as a guide.

Although the Philippian church brought such joy to the apostle's heart (see on ch. 1:3, 4), it seems that their unity was in danger, that dissension had crept into their ranks, and that Paul was enough concerned about their peril to spend a great part of his letter in exhorting them to strive for complete unity (cf. chs. 1:15-18, 27; 2:2-4, 14; 3:2; 4:2). The measure of their spiritual caliber may be gauged from the fact that he does not base his appeal on personal loyalty to himself as their spiritual father, but on their love for Christ as their Redeemer.

The fourfold use of the word "if" in this verse does not imply doubt as to the truth of Paul's propositions. The Greek construction shows that he assumes his suppositions to be true.

Consolation. Gr. parakleµsis, "exhortation," "encouragement," "comfort" (see on Acts 9:31; Rom. 12:8; 15:4). The translation "encouragement" seems to suit the context best.

In Christ. The ground of the apostle's appeal was the Philippians' experience in Christ, the stimulus that comes from a study and emulation of His model life (cf. 1 Cor. 12:12, 27; Eph. 4:15, 16).

Comfort. Gr. paramuthion, a synonym of paraklesis (see above under "consolation").

Of love. Paul perhaps means, if your love for Christ possesses any encouraging power over your minds.

Fellowship. Gr. koinoµnia (see on ch. 1:5), here, "partnership."

Of the Spirit. This phrase is parallel to "consolation in Christ," and appeals to the Philippians' customary submission to the Holy Spirit's control.

Bowels. Gr. splagchna (see on ch. 1:8).

Mercies. Gr. oiktirmoi, "compassions." By using the plural Paul may be calling attention to the individual acts of compassion that prove the presence of genuine affection.

2. Fulfil ye my joy. That is, make full or complete my joy. The apostle already has joy (ch. 1:4), and it remains only that this should be full and complete (cf. John 3:29; 15:11; 17:13). The Philippians are to make it so by allowing his appeal to prevail with them and by maintaining and exhibiting the virtues to which he exhorts them.

Be likeminded. Or, "be of the same mind" (cf. on ch. 1:7). The kind of concord he is enjoining is defined in the two following clauses.

Same love. Mutual love produces mutual processes of thought and results in united action (cf. John 13:35; Col. 1:4; 1 Thess. 3:12; 2 Thess. 1:3).

Of one accord. Gr. sumpsuchoi, "harmonious," "peaceable," "united," derived from sun, "with," "together with," and psucheµ, "soul."

Of one mind. Literally, "thinking the one thing." Paul recognizes the necessity for the children of God to demonstrate that those who are in harmony with God can live in full harmony with one another. Few things belie the Christian profession more than inability to live and work harmoniously with other Christians. When we accept Christ we become members of His body. To accomplish the greatest amount of good, the body must function as a unit (cf. on 1 Cor. 12:12-27). The work of God will prosper if the people of God draw together and work in unity (see TM 489; 1T 113, 114; 8T 183, 239-243).

3. Strife. Gr. eritheia, "selfishness," "selfish ambition," "partisanship," "factiousness."

Vainglory. Gr. kenodoxia, "empty pride," "groundless self-esteem," "conceit," from kenos, "empty," and doxa, "opinion." Nothing of permanent good will be accomplished through work done in such a spirit as Paul here describes. We are to form no plan and aim at no goal that is prompted by selfish ambition or a desire to outdo others. Nothing, not even for an end that is good in itself, is pleasing to God if prompted by these motives.

Lowliness of mind. Gr. tapeinophrosuneµ, "humility," "modesty," from tapeinos, "humble," "lowly," and phroneoµ, "to think," hence, to have a humble opinion of oneself. Tapeinophrosuneµ is used in a derogatory sense by secular writers, and Paul, in Col. 2:18, 23, employs it for humility wrongly directed. But in Acts 20:19; Eph. 4:2; Col. 3:12, the word bears its special Christian meaning of "humility of mind." Christianity has raised lowliness to a new position, as one of the most attractive features of the character. The one who is truly humble is not aware of his humility. He simply estimates himself rightly in his relation to God and the plan of salvation.

Esteem. Gr. heµgeomai, "to consider," "to deem," implying a weighing of the facts.

Other. Rather, "others."

Better. Literally, "being above," "excelling." Compare on Rom. 12:10. Humility fixes its eye upon another's excellences and judges him from this point of view. The truly humble man is sensible of his own defects, but realizes that he does not have the same clear view of the defects of others. It is natural for those who have any just sense of the defects of their own souls to hope that it is not so with others and to believe that they have purer hearts. This leads them to feel that others are deserving of greater respect than themselves. A truly pious man will always be a humble man and will wish that others should be preferred in office and honor. This will not make him blind to other's defects when they are manifested, but he will personally be modest and unobtrusive. This Christian standard rebukes inordinate love of office and helps to produce contentment wherever the providence of God may have cast our lot (cf. on Phil. 4:11, 12).

4. Look. Gr. skopeoµ, "to look attentively" (see on Rom. 16:17).

His own things. Paul is urging Christians not to be selfish, not to let their attention be wholly absorbed by their own concerns of their own families. He bids them show a tender care for the happiness of the whole group and a self-forgetful solicitude for the welfare of others. No one is at liberty to try to live solely for himself or to disregard the needs of others.

Also. Paul's inclusion of this word shows that he expects Christians to pay proper attention to their own affairs, and also to the needs of others.

Things of others. This does not commend improper interference in others' affairs in the manner of busybodies (see 2 Thess. 3:11; 1 Tim. 5:13; 1 Peter 4:15), but the welfare of others should not be ignored. Paul's counsel is designed to remove the narrow spirit of selfishness and to produce a benevolent regard for the happiness of our fellows.

Christians have a particular responsibility for the spiritual welfare of others. If a man is spiritually blind and will not come to the Master, it is no more meddling to attempt to lead him to the Saviour than it is to warn a man on a dark night of a dangerous precipice ahead or to arouse one from sleep to tell him his house is on fire. If he is unaware of the approaching return of the Saviour, it is no improper interference to tell him of that soon-coming event. It is no more being a busybody to tell him of a glorious heaven that may be his than it is to tell him of a gold mine on his farm. It is for the man's own interest, and it is the office of a friend to teach him or to remind him of these things. The world is dependent on the church for information about the life to come, and everyone who loves Christ will love his neighbors enough to seek to enlighten them, to lead them to the Saviour, and to aid their preparation for His soon return.

5. Let this mind be. Literally, "let this be thought," but meaning, "have this mind." In vs. 1-4 the apostle has presented the need for unity and unselfish humility; he now points to the complete provision for that need.

In you. Or, "among yourselves."

Christ Jesus. For the significance of this title see on Matt. 1:1. The more usual order of the names is "Jesus Christ," but Paul often uses the order as here, especially in this epistle (chs. 3:3, 8, 12, 14; 4:7, 19, 21). In so doing he is possibly emphasizing the divine element (Christ) before the human element (Jesus) in the Saviour's divine-human nature. For Paul, all spiritual life centers in Christ, and when he wishes to inculcate lessons of unity and humility, he can find no better method than to present, in outline form, the story of his Master's career, as the supreme exemplification of the virtues he desires the Philippians to possess. In the sublime account that follows (ch. 2:6-8) he is not consciously dealing with theology in its academic sense; he is using his inspired and intimate understanding of Christ's redemptive work to illustrate his own teaching and to stimulate his converts to emulate the Saviour. Christ left a state of inexpressible glory, took upon Himself the most humble form of humanity, and performed the most lowly of offices, that men might be saved. Christians are to frame their lives according to this great example.

6. Being. Gr. huparchoµ, which often bears the simple meaning of "to be" (Luke 9:48; 16:14; Rom. 4:19; 1 Cor. 7:26; etc.). Originally, huparchoµ meant "to begin," "to make a beginning," but later took on the special significance of "to be in existence" without necessarily implying a beginning (cf. Acts 16:20; 17:28; Gal. 2:14). See Vol. V, pp. 896, 897, 917.

Form. Gr. morpheµ, here denoting all the essential characteristics and attributes of God. In this sense morpheµ represents the manner in which God's eternal qualities and characteristics have manifested themselves. Whatever form that manifestation has taken, it was possessed by Christ, who thereby existed as one with God. This places Christ on an equality with the Father, and sets Him far above every other power. Paul stresses this in order to portray more vividly the depths of Christ's voluntary humiliation.

Thought. Gr. heµgeomai (see on v. 3). The apostle has dealt with Christ's state--equality with God--now he turns to Christ's thoughts, in order to give an insight into His mind, and thus enable the Philippians to strive to emulate that mind. Paul's reasoning is close knit. In a sentence He shows that Christ's mind, while conscious of His equality with God, decided to forgo the glory associated with that exalted state in order to accomplish His compassionate purpose of saving lost mankind.

Robbery. Gr. harpagmos, "a seizing," "robbery," "a thing seized," "something to be grasped," "a prize." Harpagmos comes from harpazoµ, "to seize," "to claim for oneself eagerly," "to snatch away." The context favors the reading "something to be grasped."

To be equal. That is, to continue to exist on an equality with God. The phrase definitely establishes Christ's position in relation to God. The Son is placed side by side with the Father, on an equal footing, in no way inferior (see Vol. V, pp. 896-898, 917; see on Col. 2:9). But Paul states this position only to show Christ's willingness to relinquish it in the interests of man's salvation.

7. Made himself of no reputation. Literally, "emptied Himself." This emptying was voluntary (see on John 10:17, 18). It was not possible for Christ to retain all the tokens of divinity and still accomplish the incarnation. The outworking of this emptying is detailed in the remainder of Phil. 2:7 and in v. 8. See Vol. V, p. 918.

Took upon him. Literally, "taking," or "having taken." The Greek construction shows that the succeeding phrases are a definition of "emptied Himself."

Form of a servant. Paul is contrasting "the form of God" with "the form of a servant" and emphasizing the vast difference between the two estates. The same word (morpheµ) is used for "form" here as in "form of God" (v. 6). The word for "servant" (doulos) is that commonly used for "slave" (see on Rom. 1:1); so the apostle is saying that Christ emptied Himself and took on the essential attributes of a slave. As a slave's outstanding characteristic is that of rendering unquestioning obedience, so as a man the Son undertook to render obedience to the Father (cf. on Heb. 5:8). He grasped not at divine sovereignty, but at service, which became the ruling passion of His life (Matt. 20:28). His whole life was subordinated to the will of the Father, as our lives should be. The life of Christ thus became the simple outworking of the will of God (MB 14, 15; DA 208). How all this could be accomplished is beyond human comprehension; it is a part of the great "mystery of godliness" (see 1 Tim. 3:16). But we may clearly see how small is any sacrifice on our part by way of comparison with the sacrifice of Him whom we profess to follow. Shall we who are so far inferior to Christ stand so much on our frail reputations that we find it difficult or impossible to yield our wills to the will of God? When we share in the true spirit of Christ, when He dwells within us and we live the life of the Son of God, the objective of Paul's admonition in the early verses of this chapter will have been fulfilled in us. We will then be like Christ.

And was made. Rather, "having become," in contrast with "being," or existing, in the form of God (v. 6).

Likeness. That is, resemblance. "In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren" (Heb. 2:17). He was a complete man, yet He was also divine. When men looked upon the incarnate Son, they saw One like unto themselves (see Vol. V, pp. 901, 902, 917, 918).

Our belief in the deity of Christ must not weaken in any way our belief in His complete manhood. If Christ was not absolutely a man, if His divinity in the least degree qualified His humanity, then He practically ceases to be an example, and, indeed, a substitute.

Men. The plural form is used, perhaps to emphasize that Jesus was to represent the whole human race, and not just an individual man.

8. Being found. That is, men discovered Him in human fashion.

Fashion. Gr. scheµma, which emphasizes the outward mode or form. To all outward appearances Christ was a man, and was so accounted by those with whom He lived on earth (cf. Isa. 53:2, 3; Matt. 13:55).

As a man. Another careful phrase to indicate that Jesus of Nazareth was more than what He appeared to be. He resembled a man, He had man's outward form, but He was more than that: He was God as well as man.

Humbled. Gr. tapeinooµ, "to abase," "to humble," related to tapeinophrosuneµ (see on v. 3). This is not the same as "emptied Himself" (v. 7), but is part of that emptying, and shows one of the ways in which the self-emptying manifested itself. The ultimate form of this voluntary humiliation is disclosed in the remainder of the verse.

And became. Rather, "having become," showing that the supreme act of self-humiliation consisted in Christ's voluntary submission to death.

Obedient. That is, to God. See on Rom. 5:18, 19; Heb. 5:8.

Unto death. Jesus' obedience was rendered to the extent of laying down His life. It was humiliation indeed for God to become man; and then, being man, to die a shameful; death on the cross. As Isaac had been willingly subject to his father when told that he was the victim to be placed on the altar, so Christ, who might have turned back from the cross, submitted, willingly, to die for sinful men.

Christ's obedience was of the same nature as ours must be. It was "in the flesh" (Rom. 8:3) that Christ rendered this obedience. He was man, subject to the same desires to preserve His life as we are. He was tempted by Satan, but overcame the devil by the power of the Holy Spirit, even as we may do. He exercised no power in His own behalf that we may not employ. See on Heb. 4:15; see DA 119, 729, 734.

Death of the cross. The emphasis is not only on the fact that Christ died but on the kind of death. It was a death that involved intense shame as well as intense suffering. Crucifixion was reserved for slaves, non-Romans, and the lowest criminals. It was a death upon which the law of Moses had pronounced a curse (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13), and even the Gentiles considered it the most foul and cruel of all punishments. The message of a crucified Christ was a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks (1 Cor. 1:23).

Paul's mind may have been drawn to the contrast of his own position with that of Jesus. The apostle was in prison, but he could not legally suffer the degradation of dying on a cross, because a Roman citizen was not to be tortured (see Cicero Against Verres i. 5. 13); neither could the Philippians, as citizens of a Roman colony. The cross, the lowest point in Christ's self-humiliation, would thus produce a profound effect upon Paul's readers, and impress them with the force of the example their Saviour had left them. Paul well knew that if those to whom he wrote could come to grasp the astounding sacrifice made for them, there would be no place for selfishness in their lives (cf. AA 332, 333).

9. Wherefore. Or, "on which account," "in consequence of." Not that Christ received a reward because of His humiliation, but that, in the divine economy, exaltation naturally follows humiliation (Matt. 23:12; Luke 14:11; 18:14). Christ's experience demonstrates the truth of His words.

God also. To provoke his readers to humility, Paul has concentrated on Christ's role in redemption. The apostle now introduces the Father into the picture.

Highly exalted. Gr. huperupsooµ "to exalt to the highest rank and power," "to raise to supreme majesty," from huper, "over," "above," or "beyond," and hupsooµ, "to lift up on high," "to exalt." Because of Christ's self-emptying (v. 7) God has been able to raise Him to an even more glorious position than He enjoyed before His incarnation. The Son was all-glorious before, but His voluntary humiliation has added to the glory which He had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5). As God-man He lived a perfect earthly life, overcame the adversary, and won salvation for mankind. Such triumphs surely added an inestimable weight of eternal glory to God's Son! Paul uses a past tense of the verb to indicate that this exaltation has already taken place. In the fullest sense this occurred at the ascension when the Saviour returned to the heavenly courts and received the adoration that was His due (cf. DA 834). See Vol. V, p. 919.

Given. Gr. charizomai (see on ch. 1:29). The Father, as the Supreme Ruler, has the right to bestow honor on the Son who so faithfully fulfilled their united plans.

A name. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the reading "the name." Opinion is divided as to the identity of this "name." Some hold that it refers to "dignity" or "glory" rather than to a specific title, supporting their opinion from OT references to praising the name of God (Ps. 29:2; 34:3; 54:6; etc.). Others believe that Paul uses "the name" in its Hebrew sense as referring to the ineffable name that reverent Jews would not pronounce, Yahweh (see Vol. I, pp. 170-173), known in the LXX and NT as Kurios, "Lord," and introduced by Paul in Phil. 2:11. Others take the name to be "Jesus" on the basis of v. 10, believing that this beloved human name (see on Matt. 1:1) gained an honor and significance unthought of before the ascension. Still another interpretation sees in "the name" a reference to a human-divine combination conveyed by "Jesus Christ" and used by the apostle in Phil. 2:11 (see on Matt. 1:1). Dogmatic certainty as to the identity of the name is impossible.

Above every name. See on Acts 4:12; Eph. 1:21; Heb. 1:3, 4. Christ can be given no higher title, no higher position. He is acknowledged as Lord of all (cf. Rev. 17:14; 19:16).

10. At the name. Or, "in the name" (cf. on Acts 3:16).

Of Jesus. Perhaps referring to the name introduced in v. 9.

Every knee. Paul is here using thoughts from Isa. 45:23 and applying them to the ultimate universal adoration of the Saviour (cf. on Rom. 14:11). These words have not yet been fulfilled, but they are an assurance that the time will come when every creature will acknowledge Christ's overlordship (cf. Rev. 5:11-14). This can only be when the great controversy is ended, when all, including Satan and his followers, will bow down at the feet of Jesus and own that the ways of God have been just and righteous (GC 666-670).

Of things in heaven. Or, "of heavenly persons" (see below).

Things in earth. Or, "earthly persons." This phrase and the preceding "things in heaven" may refer either to all created things or to all intelligent beings in the spheres mentioned. In favor of the first view Paul's treatment of the creation in Rom. 8:19-22 has been set forth. Also OT passages in which all nature is represented as praising God (Ps. 65:13; 148) are referred to. In favor of the second view is Paul's use of the words "knee" and "tongue" (Phil. 2:10, (11), which, unless taken figuratively, refer to animate beings. Compare on Rev. 5:13.

Under the earth. The series, "in heaven," "in earth", and "under the earth," is based on a Hebrew idiom denoting the entire creation (see on Ex. 20:4). "Under the earth" may refer to the figurative realm of the dead (see on Isa. 14:9, 10, 15, 16).

11. Confess. Gr. exomologeoµ, "to profess openly" (Rev. 3:5), "confess from the heart" (Matt. 3:6), or "to thank" (Matt. 11:25). The first meaning seems most applicable here, but the others are also involved in the final confession of Christ's sovereignty.

Jesus Christ is Lord. The apostle again uses the twofold name that covers the human and divine natures of the Redeemer and declares that He who left heaven to take upon Him the form of a servant will finally be declared Lord. For other NT declarations concerning Jesus Christ as Lord see on Acts 2:36; Rom. 10:9; 1 Cor. 8:6; 12:3. A clear understanding of Christ's lordship can bring increased confidence into the Christian's life.

To the glory of God. Grammatically speaking, this clause is connected with "every tongue should confess" (v. 11), that is, the universal confession that Jesus Christ is Lord brings glory to God. But we may see in the words a reference to the consuming passion of the Saviour's whole life. He lived for the glory of God, that all creation might give the Father the honor due unto His name (see on John 12:28; 13:31; 17:1; 1 Cor. 15:24, 28). His followers should live for the same end. This verse brings us to the climax of Paul's brief presentation of the principles concerning humility and exaltation. First (vs. 1-4), he admonishes that there must be no self-exaltation or strife among the Philippians. Then (vs. 5-8), he sets forth Christ as the pattern of humility. Last (vs. 9-11), he shows that the Humble One has been exalted to greater glory than He had laid aside for the incarnation. The apostle intends that his readers shall learn that God can exalt only those who have humbly served Him here below. Since the servant is not greater than his Lord (John 13:16), our service must be undertaken in a spirit similar to Christ's.

12. Wherefore. Or, "so that," "so then." Verses 12-16 are closely connected with vs. 5-11. The apostle draws other lessons, besides that of humility, from Christ's example.

My beloved. The use of this affectionate address is no affectation on Paul's part. His genuine love for his converts shines through all his epistles (cf. Rom. 12:19; 1 Cor. 4:14; etc.).

Obeyed. This provides the point of connection with vs. 5-11. One of the manifestations of Christ's humility was His obedience (v. 8). The Philippians have been obedient in the past, but Paul wishes them to imbibe even more of the spirit of their Master, and he trusts that Christ's example will encourage them to more faithful obedience.

Not as in my presence. According to the Greek this clause refers not to "obeyed" but to "work out." The apostle wants the believers to be spiritually diligent not only when his personal presence inspires them but when he is absent, and then with an even greater diligence.

Work out. Gr. katergazomai (see on Rom. 5:3), used here in the sense of "to carry out to completion." This does not endorse the idea of salvation by works. We are saved by grace, through faith (see on Rom. 3:20-22, 24, 28; Eph. 2:8). But this grace leads us to good works (see on Rom. 6:11-16). Thus, such works are the outworking of the grace that has effected our salvation (Rom. 6:18; cf. 2 Cor. 6:1). Many are attracted to the Christian way, but are unwilling to meet the conditions by which the reward of the Christian may be theirs. If they could gain salvation without effort on their part, they would be more than happy to receive all that the Lord might give them. But the Scriptures teach that each individual must cooperate with the will and power of God. One must "strive to enter in" (Luke 13:24), "put off the old man" (Col. 3:9), "lay aside every weight," "run with patience" (Heb. 12:1), "resist the devil" (James 4:7), and "endure unto the end" (Matt. 24:13). Salvation is not of works, but it must be worked out. It springs from the mediation of Christ alone, but it is lived out by personal cooperation. While we cannot be too deeply conscious of our entire dependence on the merits, the work, and the power of Christ, we must also be aware of our personal obligation to live daily, by God's grace, a life consistent with the principles of Heaven (see AA 482). See on Rom. 3:31.

Your own salvation. Paul was not present to help the Philippian believers personally; they had to care for their own spiritual needs. Salvation is an individual matter. No human friend, no pastor, not even an apostle, can work it out for another. "Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it [the land], ... they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness" (Eze. 14:20).

Fear and trembling. Compare 1 Cor. 2:3; 2 Cor. 7:15; Eph. 6:5. Paul is not advocating a slavish terror, but a wholesome self-distrust. The Christian should fear lest his will not be continually surrendered to Christ, or lest the carnal traits of character should control the life. He must fear to trust his own strength, to withdraw his hand from the hand of Christ, or to attempt to walk the Christian pathway alone (COL 161). Such fear leads to vigilance against temptation (1 Peter 1:17; 5:8), to humility of mind (Rom. 11:20), to taking heed lest we fall (1 Cor. 10:12).

13. For. The apostle now protects himself against being misunderstood, by explaining that God is paramount in the salvation of man.

God which. The entire phrase literally reads, "God it is who is working," or "energizing," with the emphasis clearly placed on "God."

Worketh. Gr. energeoµ, "to put forth power," usually implying that the operation is effective. It is not the same word as that used for "work out" (katergazomai) in v. 12 (see comment there). Our English word "energize" comes from energeoµ. The word is frequently applied to the working of God in the Christian's life (1 Cor. 12:6, 11; Gal. 2:8; Eph. 1:11, 20). Here the apostle is stressing the fact that power for salvation comes from God, and that this power operates in us to achieve its benevolent purpose.

Both to will and to do. The use of the word "both" shows that God provides the stimulus for our initial determination to accept salvation and our power to make that decision effective. This does not mean that we are completely passive entities, subject only to God's disposal, but that God provides the stimulus that awakens our desire to be saved, that He enables us to make the decision to attain salvation, and that He supplies us with the energy to make the decision effective so that salvation is accomplished in our lives. Redemption is thus figured as a cooperative work between God and man, with God furnishing all the needful powers for man's use.

Good pleasure. Gr. eudokia (see on Rom. 10:1). God wills man's salvation, He has done all that divine power can do to make it possible, it is His "good pleasure" that men should be saved. No one desires our redemption more ardently than the Father.

14. All things. Paul now applies his teaching to the practical aspects of life. In view of God's desire for their salvation the Philippians can afford to approach the working out of their salvation in a cheerful, confident spirit, knowing that God will provide the needed strength.

Murmurings. Gr. goggusmoi, an imitative word suggesting the rumblings that a grumbler produces (see on Acts 6:1). It is used in the LXX of Israel's complaints in the wilderness. The apostle seems to have had the Israelites in mind, for in Phil. 2:15 he quotes from Moses (see on Deut. 32:5). The verb gogguzoµ, "to murmur," is frequently used in the NT (Matt. 20:11; Luke 5:30; John 6:41, 43, 61).

Disputings. Gr. dialogismoi (see on Rom. 1:21). Grumbling leads to disputing. The Philippians are urged not to complain at the way God leads them, nor to question His methods, since He purposes to redeem them. Obedience must be cheerful and willing or it is of little use. The patient, uncomplaining spirit of the Christian under persecution or in response to a superior's command, indicates his willingness to submit to the higher chastening that comes from the Lord.

15. That ye may be. Or, "that ye may become," that is, in the process of working out their own salvation without murmurings and disputings, they will become blameless.

Blameless. That is, free from censure, certainly by God, and possibly by men.

Harmless. Gr. akeraioi (see on Rom. 16:19). The word describes the inward condition of the Christian's heart, supplementing "blameless," which refers to others' judgment of the Christian.

Sons. Gr. tekna, "children," in contrast with huioi, the usual word for "sons" (see on Rom. 8:14). There is an allusion here to Deut. 32:5, where Moses refers to the children of Israel as being "a perverse and crooked generation."

Without rebuke. Gr. amemtoi, "blameless." Paul wishes his converts to possess an unblemished reputation, knowing that the reputation of God in the world depends partly on that of His children.

Crooked and perverse. See on Matt. 17:17; Acts 2:40.

Nation. Gr. genea, "generation," in the sense of the sum total of men living at the same time (cf. on Matt. 23:36).

Lights. Gr. phoµsteµres, "luminaries," used in the LXX for the heavenly bodies (Gen. 1:14, 16). Even though the Christian growth of the Philippians was not complete, their lives were to illumine the dark world in which they lived (see on Matt. 5:14). Paul's words are appropriate for the last generation, who will live at a time when darkness will be greater than ever before (COL 414). With special brilliance God's children are then to "arise, shine" (see on Isa. 60:1, 2).

16. Holding forth. Two interpretations of this verb are possible. The first takes "holding forth" as an extension of the previous verse and sees the figure of the church holding out the word of life as one holds a torch to illumine darkness. As Christians demonstrate what the word has accomplished in their own lives and speak the word clearly and simply, they exhibit it to others as the way of life and light.

Life is light. Christ is the life (see John 1:4; 6:48; 14:6) and the light (see John 8:12; 9:5; 12:46), and is the source of both. His followers also are light, but it is derived light (see on Matt. 5:14). The essence of the gospel is light (Eph. 5:8). As thought is expressed in word, so the light of truth is expressed in the life.

The Christian can hold out the word of life to the non-Christian, but he cannot make him accept it. Each must willingly accept for himself. One cannot partake of the word for another any more than he can eat food and have the strength of another sustained. Through the aid of the Holy Spirit the word can be understood and received into the life. No matter who presents the word of life, it is the power of God, ministered through the word that brings about the transformation.

But the Greek word translated "holding forth" may also bear the sense of "holding fast," which meaning seems preferable here. The church will shine only as it holds fast to the life-giving word.

Word of life. This phrase does not occur elsewhere in Paul's writings, but see on John 6:68; Acts 5:20; cf. 1 John 1:1. The word of life is the gospel message. To know the Father and the Son is life eternal (John 17:3). We first come to know them through the speaking of the word (Rom. 10:13-17; John 6:63), and thus have access to the life that comes only from them. Spiritual life is brought into being and is sustained by the power of the word. Men are to live "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4; DA 390, 391).

That I may rejoice. Gr. eis kaucheµma emoi, literally, "for a cause of glorying to me." For kaucheµma see on ch. 1:26. Paul wanted to have grounds for rejoicing in the consistent lives of his Philippian friends (cf. on 1 Thess. 2:19, 20).

Day of Christ. The phrase is peculiar to this epistle. The usual expression is "day of the Lord" (see on ch. 1:6). Paul was continually aware that the great objective of life would be reached at the day of the return of Christ to this world. He knew that any rejoicing or glorying that might be done now could, through human frailty, fail of being true rejoicing in that day. If he could glory in the results of his labors in the day of Christ, he knew that his glorying would be permanent. Paul recognized that day as the day when every man's work would be tested (see 1 Cor. 3:12, 13; 4:3-5; 2 Cor. 1:14).

Run in vain. The expression recalls the stadium contests and illustrates the strenuous efforts Paul expended in his evangelistic activities (cf. 1 Cor. 9:24; Heb. 12:1). "In vain" means "to no purpose," "without result" (cf. 2 Cor. 6:1; Gal. 2:2; 1 Thess. 3:5). The apostle's sense of responsibility for his converts was strong. His great longing was that they should remain faithful (AA 206, 207). He was not content with having worked, but wanted to see eternal fruitage for his sacrificial labor.

Laboured. Gr. kopiaoµ, "to labor with wearisome effort," from the noun kopos, "exhausting toil." Paul accurately describes his arduous evangelistic toil (cf. 1 Cor. 15:10; Col. 1:29; 1 Thess. 2:19).

17. Offered. Gr. spendoµ, "to make a libation," "to pour out a drink offering" (see on Num. 15:4-9; 2 Tim. 4:6; see Num. 28:7). Paul sees the Philippians as offering their faith to God, and his own life as the libation, or drink offering, poured upon the sacrifice. He was willing to give his blood to accompany the faithful Philippian witness, if it would contribute to the furtherance of the gospel. The apostle to the Gentiles possessed the love than which there is no greater (John 15:13), but he did not believe there was any particular virtue in the giving of his life except as it should encourage the Philippians to further self-sacrifice, or as it might cause some to investigate the faith to which he held so tenaciously.

Sacrifice. Gr. thusia, the "sacrifice" itself, not the act of sacrificing. In this instance the reference is to the Christian faith of the Philippians that they, as Christian priests (see 1 Peter. 2:9), present to the Lord.

Service. Gr. leitourgia, in the NT a "public religious service" (see on Luke 1:23).

I joy, and rejoice. Paul would join them in their joy even if his labor for others should cause him to lose his life. Compare on Rom. 8:18.

18. For the same cause. That is, in the same way, or likewise, the Philippians should be glad and rejoice with Paul. Instead of being grieved at the prospect of his giving his life, the apostle would have his friends share his joy in being permitted to yield his life with benefit to them and the gospel. The epistle lays great stress on joy, not only as a privilege, but as a duty, following from Christian faith and demonstrating its reality.

19. But. A new line of thought begins (vs. 19-24). Paul announces his intention of sending Timothy to the Philippians as his representative and as their example.

I trust. Rather, "I hope."

In the Lord Jesus. The Christian's mind is controlled by the Lord: his love, hope, work, all center in the Lord (cf. on Rom. 9:1; Phil. 1:8; 2:24, 29; 3:1).

Timotheus. See on Acts 16:1-3; Phil. 2:20. Paul has urged the Philippian believers, "Work out your own salvation" (v. 12) instead of depending too much on human teachers. On the other hand, he intends to give them all the help he can--he hopes to send Timothy.

Of good comfort. Or, "of good heart," "of good courage." Paul has already expressed some concern over the condition of the Philippians (ch. 1:27-30), but he has no real doubt as to their standing. He seems confident of the good report that Timothy will bring on his return. Compare his loving anxiety for the Corinthian and the Thessalonian Christians (2 Cor. 2:13; 7:6, 7; 1 Thess. 3:1-9).

When I know. Or, "when I discover." The apostle cannot feel completely satisfied until he has received Timothy's personal report. Until Timothy's departure and return he will be somewhat anxious about the Philippian church.

Your state. Literally, "the things concerning you."

20. Likeminded. Literally, "of equal soul" (cf. Deut. 13:6). Paul means either that he has no one like himself or that he has no one the equal of Timothy. Timothy was a second Paul. Since Paul could not investigate the condition of the church personally, the best substitute would be a report of conditions at Philippi given by Timothy.

Timothy was Paul's son in the faith (1 Tim. 1:2). Timothy recognized his spiritual relationship and conducted himself accordingly (1 Cor. 16:10; Phil. 2:22). From his spiritual father the younger man inherited his interests and affections. Thus no one could have been better qualified for the task at hand than the young man who would naturally take a genuine interest in the welfare of those who were Paul's spiritual children and therefore Timothy's brothers and sisters in the faith. There is a scarcity of men like-minded with the apostle--men of earnest, spontaneous, self-denying zeal--but it is such men whom the Lord Jesus needs. Timothy was like-minded with Paul because each had the mind of Christ. Only possession of the mind of Jesus will enable men successfully to guide the church of God in the last days. The church is the supreme object of God's love and care, and those who are like-minded with the Lord, whether they be laymen or leaders, will have the same attitude and will assume the same jealous watchcare over all its members and activities. They cannot do otherwise.

Naturally. Rather, "genuinely," "sincerely."

Care for. Gr. merimnaoµ, "to be anxious" (see on Matt. 6:25). It is no casual care that Paul has in mind.

21. All. Literally, "the all," that is, the group of Christians around Paul.

Seek their own. In view of his high praise of the Philippians (ch. 1:3-5), of Timothy (ch. 2:19-22), and Epaphroditus (vs. 25-30), it is surprising to read such an indictment from Paul's pen. Those who were with him he calls brethren (ch. 4:21), but it seems that they did not share his self-sacrificing spirit. It has been suggested that they shrank from the dangerous journey to Philippi, and that Paul had to call on Timothy, whom he could ill afford to lose. Epaphroditus (ch. 2:25-30) and Luke were possibly absent, for neither of them appears to have been other than faithfully unselfish.

Jesus Christ's. By "the things which are Jesus Christ's" Paul refers to matters that concern Christ's kingdom, His glory, and our salvation. Paul draws a contrast between those who were devoted to the interests of the church and those who cared primarily for their own interests. Paul and Timothy were dedicated to a common cause--the salvation of God's erring children; but Paul regretfully records the fact that all his company were not so minded.

22. Ye know. There seems to have been frequent intercourse between the Philippian church and the young evangelist, Timothy. He had been with Paul at the founding of the church (see on Acts 16:1, 13; 17:14). It seems possible that he had visited Philippi at least twice during the Third Missionary Journey (see Acts 19:22; 20:3-6). Now Paul had chosen him for another visit.

Proof. That is, the Philippians knew how Timothy's character had been tried and approved, and were aware of his attachment to Paul and his faithfulness in gospel service.

As a son with the father. Rather, "as a son to a father." It appears that Paul was about to speak of Timothy's faithful ministration to him, personally. But in characteristic humility he speaks of Timothy and himself as fellow workers in gospel service. If we may judge Timothy's character from the directions given him by Paul in 1 and 2 Timothy (see on 1 Tim. 4:12), it would seem that Timothy was gentle and warmhearted rather than commanding. Paul may have sensed the need for this emphatic commendation of his friend (cf. on 1 Cor. 16:10).

23. Therefore. Paul returns to his earlier thought, that of sending Timothy as his messenger to the Philippians (v. 19).

Presently. Gr. exauteµs, "instantly," "forthwith."

How it will go. Since Paul planned to delay Timothy's departure until he should see how things would turn, it seems likely that some crisis was at hand so far as his imprisonment was concerned. Since the next verse expresses his hope shortly to visit Philippi, there may have been some thought of release, in which case Timothy would take the glad tidings to the Macedonian believers.

24. Trust. Gr. peithoµ, "to be confident," "to have confidence," "to trust," a different word from that translated "trust" in v. 19. There Paul hoped, here he has confidence, though both states of mind are centered "in the Lord" (see on v. 19). Apparently the apostle considered it distinctly possible that the Lord would soon overrule for his release from prison.

25. Yet. Verses 25-30 deal with Epaphroditus, another friend of Paul's and one well known to the Philippian congregation. Epaphroditus had brought a gift from the church to Paul, and had served Paul well during his stay with the apostle. His return had been delayed by illness.

Supposed. Rather, "deemed," "counted," in view of possible delay in sending Timothy. From the use of the past tense it would at first appear that Paul had already sent Epaphroditus on his way to Philippi, and that this letter followed his departure. But the verbs "supposed" (v. 25) and "sent" (v. 28) doubtless represent the Greek epistolary aorist, which is used when the writer places himself in the readers' position and times his statements from their point of view. When the letter reached its destination the action represented by the verbs would be past. Hence Paul is using the past tense, although the event is actually future to him at the time of writing. From this it may be taken that Epaphroditus had not yet left for Philippi, and that he was the bearer of this epistle to the believers (see AA 479).

Epaphroditus. A common Greek and Latin name meaning "lovely," "fascinating," "charming," from the name of the Greek goddess Aphroditeµ. The name appears only in this epistle in the NT. Some have identified the man here mentioned with the Epaphras of Col. 1:7; 4:12; Philemon 23. But although Epaphras is only a contracted form of the longer name, it appears unlikely that it refers to the same person. Epaphroditus came from Philippi in Macedonia, whereas Epaphras was a minister in Colassae in Asia Minor, and probably a native of that region.

My brother. The adjective "my" belongs to all three nouns, "brother," "companion," and "fellowsoldier." The first designates him as the partner of Paul's faith, the second as his partner in office or labor, the third as sharer of his conflicts and dangers--a climax proceeding from a general to a more definite relationship. From Paul's glowing description it is clear that Epaphroditus had joined in missionary work such as the apostle had been doing. Since he was free, he would be active in ways that were not possible to Paul. He may have thus incurred danger, and so have merited the description of "soldier" (cf. 1 Tim. 1:18; 2 Tim. 2:3, 4).

Your. This adjective stands in contrast with the previous "my," and stresses the twofold relationship of Epaphroditus--to Paul and to the Philippians.

Messenger. Gr. apostolos (see on Rom. 1:1). Here the word simply means "messenger," or "delegate." Epaphroditus had originally been sent from Philippi with a special commission--that of carrying gifts to Paul (see on Phil. 4:18).

He that ministered. Gr. leitourgos (see on Rom. 13:6).

26. For. This verse gives the reason for Paul's decision to send Epaphroditus to Philippi--the faithful brother was longing to return home so as to dispel anxiety concerning his health.

He longed. Rather, "he was longing." Paul skillfully commends his messenger to the Philippians by stressing the affection of Epaphroditus for them all.

Full of heaviness. Gr. adeµmoneoµ. Two derivations of the word have been suggested: (1) a, "away from," and deµmos, "people," or "home," hence, "away from home," whence a free translation of the verb would be "to be homesick"; (2) from adeµmoµn, "sore troubled," hence, "to be distressed." In the second sense adeµmoneoµ is used in Matt. 26:37 and Mark 14:33 to describe the Saviour's state of mind in Gethsemane, and is translated "to be very heavy." In the case of Epaphroditus the anxiety was not about himself, but about the grief of his friends at Philippi. He knew that they had heard of his illness, and possibly believed that he had already died.

27. For indeed. The last phrase of v. 26 has understated the case, and Paul now tells his readers how serious his friend's illness had been.

Nigh unto death. There is no indication of the cause or the nature of the sickness.

God had mercy. There is no suggestion of instantaneous, miraculous healing even though Paul had performed many healings in past years (see on Acts 19:11, 12; 28:8, 9). The gift of divine healing was not exercised in every instance, even on those on whom the healer would most naturally have desired to use the gift. The gift, which came from God, was under the control and direction of God (cf. on 1 Cor. 12:9).

Sorrow upon sorrow. Perhaps Paul thinks of his imprisonment as one sorrow. If Epaphroditus, who had come to minister to him in his bonds, should die, Paul's "sorrow" would be infinitely increased.

28. I sent. See on v. 25.

The more carefully. Rather, "with the greater haste."

Again. The Greek construction favors connecting the adverb with "rejoice," later in the sentence, rather than with "see."

Ye may rejoice. The Philippian's customary joy had been dimmed by news of their representative's dangerous illness, but they could now regain their happiness. Their joy would lessen Paul's sorrow, for while he still remained a captive, he would be relieved of anxiety over Epaphroditus and the Philippian church.

Less sorrowful. In the joy of the Philippian believers in seeing Epaphroditus again, Paul himself would find solace and joy.

29. Receive him therefore. Paul was sending Epaphroditus that the believers might again be glad (v. 28), so he admonishes them to ensure the fulfillment of his purpose.

In the Lord. Compare on Phil. 2:19; cf. Rom. 16:2. Paul bids the Philippians look upon Epaphroditus as a gift from God, as the servant of the Lord, and now as restored to them through the mercy of God.

Reputation. Rather, "honor." This high commendation of Epaphroditus enjoins an important duty regarding the proper treatment of those who posses noble characters. It is a Christian duty to respect the virtuous and pious, and especially to honor those who have been faithful in the work of the Lord. Some have seen in v. 29 a hint of previous disharmony between the Philippians and Epaphroditus. If such had been the case, Paul now wishes all misunderstandings to be removed.

30. Work of Christ. The reception and honor required for Epaphroditus are based upon his work, for this was what brought on him his severe illness. This work consisted of his personal ministry to Paul's needs rather than of direct evangelism. In God's eyes the spirit in which the service is performed means more than the kind of service (6T 439).

Not regarding. Or, "having no concern." Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the reading "having risked." The expression gives an idea of the dangers to which Epaphroditus had exposed himself by helping the apostle.

To supply your lack. The phrase implies no criticism of the Philippians, but rather praise. Paul recognizes that distance prevented the believers from rendering all the help their kindness would suggest, and he accepts the ministry of Epaphroditus as their own. There may be a suggestion that Epaphroditus' illness was the consequence of overexertion rather than of persecution. Perhaps he suffered illness as a result of his long and hazardous journey.

Service. Gr. leitourgia (see on v. 17). Again it is implied that the gift of the Philippians, through Epaphroditus, had a religious significance, since what they gave to Paul was accepted as if it were offered to Christ (cf. Matt. 25:35-40).

Ellen G. White Comments

1-5COL 248; 3T 360; 4T 20; 6T 399

1-139T 274

1-30TM 221

2 1T 324

3 CSW 155; EW 119; FE 121; LS 303; 2T 162, 301, 419; 3T 445, 528; 4T 126, 522, 608; 5T 108, 291, 418, 488; 9T 188

3, 4 5T 174

3-9TM 221

4 PP 133; 8T 137

4, 5 2T 622

4-8MH 501; 4T 457

5 CSW 113; MYP 141; TM 189, 225, 377; 3T 538; 5T 17, 343; 7T 240

5-7FE 444; 2T 426

5-8MH 501

5-116T 59

6, 7 DA 22; Ev 132; MB 14; 4T 121

6-8AA 481; MH 424; 2T 200; 8T 287

6-11CT 263

7 CT 277; DA 387; FE 142; GW 190; PK 701; 2T 151; 3T 54, 229, 566; WM 24

7, 8 DA 436

8 AA 333; CM 76; CS 302; DA 25; Ed 132; FE 417; ML 244; MM 189; MYP 16; 2T 467; 5T 17; 9T 54

12 CD 35; CT 399, 419; Ev 287, 596; FE 525; MH 492; ML 176; MYP 72; PP 208; SC 80; TM 454; 2T 167, 317, 397, 506; 4T 610; 5T 512, 569, 607; 8T 84, 124; 9T 155

12, 13 AA 482; AH 207; ChS 247; COL 161; CW 81; Ev 290; FE 134, 217, 297; GC 469; MB 142; MH 452; MM 51; MYP 147; PK 486; TM 386; 5T 635; 8T 64, 312; 9T 152

12-15SL 87; 1T 339

12-16AA 481; TM 221

13 AA 158; DA 672; GW 285; MH 176; ML 7, 318; SC 47, 62, 75; Te 113; TM 240; 5T 514, 635; 6T 371, 399; WM 316

13-15EW 26

14, 15 5T 174

14-179T 273

15 AH 279; PK 189; 1T 159; 2T 122, 657, 673; 4T 124; 5T 366; 6T 166; 9T 22, 81

15, 16 AA 207; 6T 310

16 AA 206; 1T 99; 7T 252

21 CS 54; 2T 623; 5T 205

25-30AA 479

Philippians Chapter 3

1 He warneth them to beware of the false teachers of the circumcision, 4 shewing that himself hath greater cause than they to trust in the righteousness of the law: 7 which notwithstanding he counteth as dung and loss, to gain Christ and his righteousness, 12 therein acknowledging his own imperfection. 15 He exhorteth them to be thus minded, 17 and to imitate him, 18 and to decline the ways of carnal Christians.

1. Finally. Gr. to loipon, literally, "what remains." The expression may mean either "finally" or "furthermore" (see 2 Cor. 13:11; Eph. 6:10; 1 Thess. 4:1; 2 Thess. 3:1, where the same or a similar phrase occurs). Some suggest that Paul was about to close his letter when his mind was directed into another channel and he introduced the thoughts beginning with Phil. 3:2. Others think the apostle is closing one topic and opening another, and that the real end of the epistle comes naturally in ch. 4:20-23.

Rejoice in the Lord. Joy in the Lord is the overtone of the whole epistle (see pp. 138, 139). The Philippians are bidden to rejoice with that joy which has its source in the Lord and which is had only in fellowship with Him (cf. ch. 4:4).

The same things. Some commentators see in these words a reference to previous letters written by Paul to Philippi. Others prefer to limit the reference to topics already raised in this epistle, such as the incipient dissensions hinted at in ch. 1:27-30, and to which he now refers more specifically (ch. 3:2, 18, 19).

Grievous. Gr. okneµros, "irksome," "sluggish," "slothful," used here in the sense of not causing reluctance. Nothing that was for the good of his friends was a burden to Paul. It might seem that the multitude of his cares and trials in Rome would hold his attention, but his personal problems could not divert his mind from the needs of others.

Safe. Paul's admonitions were intended for their safety. They were exposed to dangers that made the warnings necessary.

2. Beware of dogs. Literally, "look out for the dogs." The definite article points to a definite group of people. The repetition of "beware" is for emphasis. It appears that Paul refers to the same people in each case. His threefold description covers different aspects of the same opponents' activities. In the East dogs were mostly without masters, and wandered in the streets and fields. They were accounted unclean in Levitical law (cf. on Lev. 11:2-7), and to call one a dog was a strong expression of contempt (1 Sam. 17:43; 2 Kings 8:13). To the Jew the heathen were as dogs (see on Matt. 7:6; 15:26), and Gentiles were not slow in returning the epithet. The term succinctly describes those who are shameless, impudent, malignant, snarling, dissatisfied, and contentious. Paul is probably referring to a well-known party of professed Christians, the Judaizers (see Vol. VI, pp. 30-33; cf. on Phil. 1:16), whose worrying tactics cause them to merit the description, "dogs." Although he does not describe the troublemakers in great detail, many of their characteristics may be inferred from ch. 3:3-11, where he depicts the opposite positive qualities.

Evil workers. That is, the Judaizers, the "deceitful workers" of 2 Cor. 11:13.

Concision. Gr. katatomeµ, "mutilation." A derogatory term for the Judaizers, who sought to require Gentiles to be circumcised and become Jews in order to be Christians. This Jewish circumcision would be either harmful, as committing them to the whole obsolete system of Judaism (Gal. 5:3), or meaningless, hence a mutilation. The warning is addressed to Gentiles, since Jews would not need such counsel.

3. We. Emphatic in the Greek. The apostle contrasts himself and the Philippians with the Judaizers.

Circumcision. That is, circumcised ones. The sentence may be summarized as follows: "We are the circumcised ones who are Christians." Is Paul saying, "We [not other Jews] are the Christian circumcised ones"? No; he is addressing Gentiles (see on v. 2). Then he must mean: "Beware of those who would circumcise you. For we are [constitute] the circumcised ones--we who are Christians, who worship God in the Spirit, and have no confidence in the flesh." This agrees with Paul's other statements that true circumcision is spiritual, not of the flesh but of the heart, by the putting off of sin, and is available to Gentiles in Christ (Rom. 2:25-29; Col. 2:11, 13). The Gentiles saved by grace, though called uncircumcised, are no longer "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel," but citizens (Eph. 2:8-13, 19). For the relation of Gentile Christians to the Israel of the covenants, promises, and prophecies see Vol. IV, pp. 35, 36.

Worship. Gr. latreuoµ, "to serve," used especially of service rendered to God (see Matt. 4:10; see on Rom. 1:25).

God. Important textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the following reading of the clause, "who worship by the Spirit of God."

In the spirit. See in John 4:23, 24. Those of the true circumcision offer spiritual worship to God and are not satisfied with the ordinances and traditions of men. We Christians, Paul says, have not only the true circumcision but also the only true worship.

Rejoice. Gr. kauchaomai, "to boast," "to glory" (see on Rom. 5:2).

Have no confidence. That is, have not trusted.

In the flesh. The Judaizers, against whom Paul warns, had great confidence in their lineage and in the things they did in an effort to gain salvation. For Paul's interpretation of the phrase "in the flesh" see Phil. 3:4-6; see on 2 Cor. 11:18; Gal. 6:13, 14. To his mind the flesh was in conflict with all that was spiritual.

4. I might also have. Rather, "I have also," that is, in addition to his trust in Christ, he possessed advantages desired by Judaizers. He now saw that his fleshly advantages were of no value in respect to salvation. When God chose His special witness against trusting inherited privileges for salvation, He chose one who not only possessed all that an Israelite could possibly boast in, but one who had been exceedingly conscious and proud of his heritage. It is in this setting that Paul's testimony takes on its true force. He confessed that no advantage of birth or education could bring peace or secure the favor of God.

5. Circumcised the eighth day. Paul was not a proselyte, circumcised as an adult, but was a Jew by birth, and underwent the covenant rite at the prescribed age (see on Gen. 17:11, 12; Lev. 12:3; Luke 2:21).

Of the stock of Israel. Literally, "out of the race of Israel," a descendant of Jacob.

Tribe of Benjamin. Paul came from the tribe that gave Israel its first king (1 Sam. 9:1, 2), that alone had been faithful to Judah at the division of the kingdom (1 Kings 12:21), and that had held the post of honor in the army (Judges 5:14; Hosea 5:8). Paul's name, Saul, was probably from King Saul, a Benjamite.

Hebrew of the Hebrews. That is, a Hebrew spring from Hebrews. Perhaps he means to imply that there was no foreign mixture in his ancestors, perhaps that he was a Hebrew-speaking Jew. For the term "Hebrew" see on Acts 6:1, and for Paul's ancestry see Vol. VI, pp. 208-210.

As touching. This phrase and the words "concerning" and "touching" (v. 6) are variant translations of the same Greek word kata, "as concerning," "in reference to."

The law. There is no article in the Greek, but Paul doubtless has the Mosaic law in mind (see on Rom. 2:12). Strict adherence to the entire code was a distinguishing mark of the faithful Pharisee (Vol. V, pp. 51, 52).

Pharisee. Paul had no control over the fact that he was born of the tribe of Benjamin, that his parents were Hebrews, and that he had been given a Hebrew education. But he now enumerates his personal decisions. He chose to be a Pharisee (see on Acts 22:3; 23:6). Surely none of the Judaizers could be more ardent in their legalism than the apostle had been before Christ met him on the road to Damascus (see on 2 Cor. 11:22; Gal. 1:14).

6. Zeal. Gr. zeµlos (see on John 2:17; Rom. 10:2). Not only had Paul been a Pharisee, he was an energetic, enthusiastic Pharisee. He vigorously carried out the principles of his sect, thinking that he did God service by persecuting those whom he counted as heretics (see on Acts 8:1, 3; 9:1; 22:4; 26:10, 11).

Righteousness. See on Matt. 5:6, 20; Luke 1:6; cf. on Phil. 3:9.

In the law. This phrase defines the "righteousness" to which Paul is referring (see on Rom. 10:3, 4). In Phil. 3:9 the apostle calls the "righteousness, which is of the law" one's "own righteousness," and contrasts it with "the righteousness which is of God by faith." See on Gal. 2:21; 3:21.

Blameless. That is, in the eyes of his coreligionists, as a result of rigid observance of the law. Paul neglected no duty that he believed the law enjoined. He led a strictly upright life, and no one had occasion to accuse him of being a violator of the law. It appears that before his conversion Paul was a young man of exemplary deportment, free from the vicious indulgences into which young men often fall. True, he mentions himself as "chief" of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), and as being unworthy "to be called an apostle" (1 Cor. 15:9), but he never gives the least intimation that his early life was stained with gross sins. Then he met Christ, and learned the futility of his own efforts to earn salvation.

7. But. Paul wishes to emphasize the contrast between his previous standing and the position he accepted on becoming a Christian.

What things were gain. That is, such things (the natural and acquired advantages listed in vs. 5, 6) as were gain. Paul never minimized the value of his past, but rather gloried in it, and counted it as gain, or profit, from a merely human point of view. The Greek for "gain" (kerdeµ) is plural, and may be translated "gains."

Counted. Gr. heµgeomai (see on ch. 2:3), here used in the sense of "to reckon." There is a parallel between Christ's renunciation (ch. 2:7) and Paul's.

Loss. Gr. zeµmia, "damage," "loss," that which is reckoned on the "debit side of the ledger" (Robertson). The word for "loss" is in the singular, whereas the word for "gain" is in the plural. The various gains are all counted as one loss on account of Christ.

For Christ. Rather, "on account of Christ." So far as Christ and His religion were concerned Paul reckoned all his natural "gains" as worthless. In some degree all Christians are called upon to make similar renunciations. Happy are they who can do so as cheerfully and wholeheartedly as did Paul!

8. Yea doubtless. Literally, "Nay, indeed, therefore." Paul can hardly find words sufficiently emphatic to express the intensity of his convictions. Verse 8 is an expansion of v. 7.

Count. From the same Greek word used in v. 7, but in the present tense to show that Paul is continuing to reckon his previous "gains" as "loss."

All things. In v. 7 Paul says that he counted the things previously mentioned as loss. In this verse he goes further and declares that all things are counted loss. He is ready to renounce not only the things he had specified but everything that could be imagined. If all the wealth and honor conceivable were his, he would cheerfully repudiate them that he might know Christ.

For. Rather, "for the sake of," "by reason of," "because of," that is, all else appeared insignificant because of the surpassing value of personally knowing Christ.

Excellency. Literally, "surpassingness." Paul realized that a personal knowledge of Christ surpassed in value all other attainments (see on John 17:3).

My Lord. There is a warmth of affection in the expression "Christ Jesus my Lord." It shows something of the close personal communion between the apostle and the Saviour. Other titles given to Jesus in this epistle occur with the following frequency: Christ (18 times); Jesus Christ (9); Christ Jesus (8); Lord Jesus Christ (3); Lord Jesus (1); Jesus (1); Saviour (1); besides a number of references to "Lord."

Suffered the loss. Gr. zeµmiooµ, "to do damage to," "to fine," here used in the sense of "to forfeit," "to give up." The Greek tense points to the past, which would be to the time of Paul's conversion, when, by following Christ, he lost all his inherited advantages.

Do count. That is, I am continuing to count, although the loss occurred in the past.

Dung. Gr. skubala, "refuse." The word is used both of the waste products of the bodies of human beings and animals, and of the food thrown away from the table. The latter sense is especially appropriate here. The Judaizers thought of themselves as banqueters seated at the Father's table. They pictured the Gentile Christians as dogs greedily snatching up the waste food which fell from the table. But here Paul has reversed the image. The true Christians are enjoying the banquet, and Judaizers are the dogs (v. 2), swallowing the privileges of Hebrew birth and upbringing, which Paul has voluntarily relinquished.

Win. Gr. kerdainoµ, "to gain," related to the noun kerdos, "gain," which occurs in the plural form in v. 7. Paul ardently longed to possess Christ for himself, that Christ in turn might completely possess him. The intensity of his desire is reflected in his threefold repetition of the word "loss" in vs. 7, 8. His winning of Christ represents the greatest "gain."

9. Be found. Or, "be discovered to be." Some see in the phrase a reference to the last day, but the context (v. 10) favors the present life.

In him. That is, in union with Christ (see on John 15:4-9; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 2:20).

Mine own righteousness. See on v. 6. Strictly speaking, there is no personal righteousness (see on Rom. 3:12; 10:3), but Paul uses the phrase to describe his morality.

Which is of the law. That is, which stems from the law, which is based on a fulfillment of the law. Paul sets forth the uselessness of such a "righteousness." No observance of law can cleanse one's heart of the defilement of sin or give power to withstand sin. True observance of the law can result only from the transformation of the mind by divine grace (see on Rom. 3:31).

Through the faith of Christ. See on Rom. 3:22. For the dependence of righteousness upon faith in Jesus Christ see on Rom. 3:21-26.

Of God. Literally, "out of God," "from God." This explains the source of righteousness, which is shown to come from God. Compare on Rom. 1:17.

By faith. Literally, "upon the faith," that is, resting upon the faith. Man can receive the righteousness that comes from God only by exercising faith in Jesus, through whom God has displayed His righteousness.

10. Know. Rather, "come to know." This clause is closely connected with v. 8, where the highest gain is shown to be a personal knowledge of Christ Jesus. To possess this knowledge Paul abandoned all things. He knew that the only way to gain this intimate knowledge of the Son of God was through union with Him (v. 9).

Power of his resurrection. Paul was not merely wanting to get acquainted with the power that effected Christ's resurrection; he longed for that power to operate in him also. For this wish to be fulfilled Paul would have to live a life like Christ's. Hence he is virtually expressing the desire to have the same sin-conquering power in his life that Christ had in His. The decisive display of that power will be in Paul's own resurrection from the dead. See on Rom. 4:25; 6:4-11. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is needed to resurrect a sinner dead in his sins, and to re-create him in the divine image.

Fellowship. Gr. koinoµnia (see on Acts 2:42; Rom. 15:26; Phil. 1:5), here used in the sense of "partnership."

Sufferings. He who is united with Christ (v. 9), and personally experiences the operation of the power of His resurrection, will inevitably come to share in Christ's sufferings (see on Matt. 10:17-24; 20:22, 23; 2 Cor. 1:5; Col. 1:24; 1 Peter 4:13). This sharing is not in a merely theoretical or ethical sense, although this is doubtless involved; it is actual (cf. 2 Tim. 3:12). He who lives Christ's life will encounter some of the opprobrium Christ met (John 15:18-21; 17:14). Paul was fully aware of this (see on Acts 9:16), and did not shrink from the prospect. Rather he welcomed it as bringing him into still more intimate union with his Saviour. A partial record of the apostle's sufferings (2 Cor. 11:23-27) reveals the impressive extent to which he did share in his Master's pains and sorrows.

Being made conformable. Or, "being conformed." The apostle desired to be like his Master in everything, even to being like Him in His death. This conformation was fulfilled in two ways: (1) By Paul's daily life. He shared in Christ's meekness and submissiveness, His unselfish love and devotion, and His anguish over human sin. In conforming to Christ's spirit Paul could truly say: "I die daily" (1 Cor. 15:31); "I am crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20). Paul's self-abnegation and his self-sacrificing life served as a powerful witness to the effectiveness of the Saviour's death (see on 2 Cor. 4:10). (2) By Paul's willingness to die if death should be necessary, and ultimately by his death. Martyrdom was no remote possibility for Paul. For many years he had faced death, and did not now shrink from it (see Acts 20:22-24).

11. If by any means. These words hold an element of doubt to the degree that Paul had always recognized the possibility of a Christian's defection from the faith (1 Cor. 10:12; Gal. 3:3; 5:4). He now, in humility, acknowledges that he is exposed to the same danger (cf. on 1 Cor. 9:27).

Attain. Gr. katantaoµ, "to come to," "to arrive at" (Acts 16:1; 27:12), but metaphorically, "to attain" (Eph. 4:13).

Resurrection of the dead. Paul anticipates sharing in the resurrection of the just (see 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 Cor. 15:51-57; see on Rev. 20:5, 6), but does not minimize the effort required, on the Lord's part and on his own, to make such attainment possible.

12. Not as though. Literally, "not that," that is, by this I do not mean to say that (cf. ch. 4:11, 17).

Attained. Gr. lambanoµ, "to receive," "to obtain" (cf. 1 Cor. 9:24, where lambanoµ is used of gaining a prize). Paul is referring to all of his Christian experience, up to that moment of time, and acknowledging that he had not yet completely fulfilled the holy desires expressed in Phil. 3:9, 10. He may thus hope to correct the spiritual pride which seems to have disturbed the unity of the Philippians (ch. 2:2-4).

Were already perfect. Or, "have already been perfected." By his use of "attained" Paul has covered his past experience; he now refers to his present condition and disclaims having reached that stage of perfection that God designed him to attain and which he himself desires. He is still in the process of working out his own salvation (see on ch. 2:12).

Follow after. Or, "am pursuing," "am pressing on." Perhaps Paul refers to the race that is clearly introduced in v. 14.

If that I may. This phrase expresses purpose or aim rather than doubt.

Apprehend. Gr. katalambanoµ, "to lay hold of," "to obtain" (see on John 1:5; Rom. 9:30). In the Greek katalambanoµ is preceded by kai, "also," which implies that Paul intended not only to pursue but also to obtain.

That for which. A reference to the purpose Christ had in mind when He accomplished Paul's conversion (Acts 9:15, 16; 26:16-18).

Am apprehended. Or, "was laid hold of," that is, at the time of his conversion. Paul knew that Christ had laid hold on him for a purpose, and the apostle was determined to fulfill that design by grasping that for which Christ had laid hold on him. It is the Christian's duty to press on always in the Christian race, because that is the purpose for which Christ called him. God laid hold, for example, on Saul the son of Kish, and on the rich young ruler, but they did not press on to achieve the objective for which they had been called.

13. Brethren. Paul uses this form of address to arrest his readers' attention. He reviews the ground already covered in the preceding verses.

Count. Gr. logizomai, "to think," "to reckon" (see on Rom. 3:28), generally used in connection with reasoning. Paul is emphasizing his estimate of his own spiritual state in relationship to the divine standard held before him.

To have apprehended. See on v. 12.

This one thing I do. Literally, "one thing," which is defined in the following clauses. Paul's one purpose was to fulfill the Lord's purpose in calling him. He suffered from no divided aim. He did not seek both for wealth and honor here and for salvation and a crown hereafter. From his singleness of purpose there came his deep spirituality and success in his ministry.

Forgetting. That is, disregarding or intentionally putting out of mind, rather than being forgetful.

Those things. Rather, "the things," Paul knows that past victories, no matter how glorious, are not enough to ensure present or future safety.

Reaching forth. Gr. epekteinoµ, "to stretch out toward," a figure drawn from the races in which the runner strains toward the goal with body bent forward and hand and foot outstretched. The figure vividly portrays Paul's single-mined dedication to the course laid out for him by Christ. Such dedication leaves no time for curious, regretful backward looks.

Things which are before. Paul does not enumerate the things he has in mind, but they are implied in his reasoning, and are covered by v. 14. To the runner in a race the only object worthy of attention is the winning post, and so it was with Paul in his spiritual course. He fixed his eyes on the goal of eternal life and an inheritance in the world beyond. A clear vision of this goal will stimulate the Christian faithfully and cheerfully to run the race that is set before him (Heb. 12:1, 2).

14. Press. Gr. dioµkoµ, "pursue," translated "follow after" in v. 12, which sense is also appropriate here, since Paul, keeping his eyes fixed on the goal, sees little else but his objective. He knows that he who would win must keep the goal and the prize clearly in mind. The contestant must not be turned aside by applause or insult, he must not relax, he must not stumble, he must not stop; he must continually press forward until the goal is gained.

Mark. Gr. skopos, "a mark [on which the eye fixes]," "a goal"; related to the verb skopeoµ, "to spy," "to peer," "to look into the distance" (see on ch. 2:4). Skopos is used only here in the NT. In the LXX it is used of an archer's mark (Job 16:12; Lam. 3:12).

Prize. Gr. brabeion, "a reward to victors in public games," hence, "a prize." In earthly races there could be only one winner (1 Cor. 9:24), but in the Christian race each has the opportunity to be a victor and receive the prize.

High calling. Literally, "upward calling," that is, a calling to heaven which comes from heaven. This call not only came to Paul at his conversion but was constantly sounding in his ears. God never ceases to call the Christian heavenward.

In Christ Jesus. The call is made by God in the life and person of His Son. The example of Jesus constitutes a continual stimulus to the believer (Heb. 12:1, 2).

15. Let us. The apostle now turns from an exclusive consideration of his own Christian career to apply the lessons to the lives of his Philippian friends, and tactfully includes himself in the exhortation.

Perfect. Gr. teleioi, "mature," "full grown" (see on Matt. 5:48), in contrast with neµpioi, "children" (see 1 Cor. 13:11; Eph. 4:13, 14; Heb. 5:13, 14), referring to maturity in Christian thinking. The concept here expressed does not conflict with the statement of Phil. 3:12, where Paul denies that he has reached the ultimate in perfection. Here he is employing "perfect" in a relative sense. See on Matt. 5:48.

Be thus minded. Literally, "think this," or "have this mind." The apostle calls on all mature Christians to take the same attitude toward Christian growth as he does. He admonishes them to continue to put themselves to the stretch for the purpose of gaining the prize.

Otherwise minded. That is, if their point of view, especially concerning the matter of perfection, did not coincide with Paul's. The apostle was not demanding complete conformity to his particular mode of thought; he allowed for differing views, believing that the Lord would instruct sincere believers.

Reveal. Gr. apokaluptoµ, "to uncover," "to lay open what has been veiled." If any mature Christian did not see the necessity for disregarding the past and hastening on unto perfection, Paul was sure that God would reveal the need to him. When we earnestly press onward in the Christian race, God will point out to us errors of doctrine or practice (John 16:13; cf. Eph. 1:17).

16. Attained. Paul is saying in effect: Discover what has contributed to Christian development in the past and follow the same plan in the future. The method of Christian attainment does not change. Unfortunately there are many who, with rapid strides, begin the Christian way, then grow weary, and do not continue with the same grace that started them on their way. They become dependent on past experience instead of enjoying new victories and making fresh progress. Satisfaction with past attainments leads to carelessness. Yesterday's conquests will not suffice for today. The Christian must continually advance.

By the same rule. Important textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of the words "rule, let us mind the same thing." The shorter reading may be translated as: "let us walk the same path," that is, let us continue in the upward way. This is part of the loving warning and admonition, which, if accepted, would prevent the entrance of errors that would otherwise disrupt the Philippian church.

17. Be followers. The clause may be literally translated, "be ye unitedly imitators of me." Paul has been counselling his converts about their mental counseling his converts about their mental attitudes, and now presents his own life as an example that they may well emulate. He knew that he had followed God's will in turning away from the past and reaching out for the things that were yet before him. He knew that it was right to continue to press on with zeal and not abandon the means of growth that had contributed so much to his Christian life. Therefore, he felt perfectly free to encourage his Philippian friends to follow his example. He was in no wise trying to take their attention from Christ and turn it to himself, but rather to lead them to Christ through his own Christ-like life (cf. 1 Cor. 4:16; 1 Thess. 1:6).

Mark. Gr. skopeoµ (see on ch. 2:4).

Them which walk so. While it is true that Christ is the only One whose example can be followed in all things, the experiences of others can serve as an encouragement or as a deterrent to us. There were those in the church who were endeavoring to live in the way Paul had described, renouncing all confidence in the flesh and aiming to win the prize. The exhortation here is to observe with a view to imitating those who so lived. Such imitation brings inspiration and involves no adoration (cf. John 8:39). The examples of godly men and women can inspire us to a closer walk with God (cf. 1 Cor. 4:16; Ed 146).

Us. That is, Paul, Timothy, Epaphroditus, and other Christian workers known to the Philippians.

Ensample. Gr. tupos (see on Rom. 5:14), from which we get our word "type."

18. Many walk. "Walk" is used here and in v. 17 in a figurative sense, referring to conduct. The "many" whose conduct is described here and in v. 19 have been variously identified as (1) the Judaizers (see on v. 2); (2) professing, but backslidden, Christians (cf. Rom. 16:17, 18); (3) apostates, to whose influence the believers were dangerously exposed.

Told you often. During the time of Paul's first visit to Philippi (Acts 16:12), or possible later visits, or by letters he had written.

Weeping. This expression of deep emotion implies that Paul's concern was over apostate Christians rather than heathen reprobates. His love for such backsliders moved him to tears (cf. Luke 19:41).

Enemies of the cross. If these persons had been open and avowed enemies of the cross, or had they denied that Christ had died to make an atonement for sin, they would not be so dangerous to the church. But it appears that they professed to be followers of the Saviour, while their lives showed that they were strangers to the power of the gospel. Their minds were on earthly things (v. 19), and "the friendship of the world is enmity with God" (James 4:4). An immoral life cannot be other than enmity to the cross, for Christ died to make us holy.

19. Whose end. That is, the whole trend of such "enemies of the cross" was toward their own final destruction.

Destruction. Gr. apoµleia (see on John 17:12), often used for loss of eternal life.

Whose God is their belly. That is, their sensual appetites dominate their lives. Such people boast of their liberty and pervert it into license (cf. Rom. 16:18; 2 Peter 2:12, 13, 19). They live, not to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31), but for self-indulgence and sensual gratification.

Shame. Their boasted liberty turns out to be the source of disgraceful shame.

Who mind earthly things. They take thought of, or consider, earthly things rather than spiritual things. This is one of the characteristics of enmity to the cross. Pleasure, gain, honor, have captured the attention of many, preventing spiritual growth and causing them to be enemies of the cross of Christ.

20. For. Paul now contrasts the true Christian's mind with that of the worldlings mentioned in vs. 18, 19.

Conversation. Gr. politeuma, "commonwealth," or "citizenship" (cf. on ch. 1:27). The KJV translation is based on the old meaning of the word "conversation"--one's course of conduct, or behavior.

Is. Paul stresses the fact that the Christian's citizenship is already in heaven, even though he must presently live on earth (cf. Eph. 2:19; Col. 3:3; 1 John 3:2).

Heaven. The Christian needs a constant awareness of the fact that he is a citizen of heaven. Attachment to one's country leads him to be loyal to it. Wherever he may be living he will conduct himself in a way that will honor the good name of his country. Keeping in mind the kind of life we expect to live in heaven, serves to guide us in our life on earth. The purity, humility, gentleness, and love we anticipate experiencing in the life to come may be demonstrated here below. Our actions should disclose that we are citizens of heaven. Our association with others should make heaven attractive to them.

From whence. That is, from heaven.

Look for. Gr. apekdechomai (see on Rom. 8:19), which expresses eager expectation on the part of those who wait. Apekdechomai is often used in connection with the blessed hope of Christ's return (cf. Rom. 8:19, 23, 25; Gal. 5:5; Heb. 9:28). Those who eagerly await His coming will desire to prepare for that event (cf. on 1 John 1:3). They will feel that earthly affairs are of little importance, since the scenes of this earth will soon close. They will live above the world, constantly desiring the Lord's appearing.

The Saviour. Literally, "a savior."

Lord Jesus Christ. See on ch. 2:5.

21. Change. Gr. metascheµmatizoµ, "to change the form of," "to transform" (see on 1 Cor. 4:6; cf. 2 Cor. 11:13-15), from meta, "after," and scheµma, "form" (see on Phil. 2:8). Metascheµmatizoµ implies that there will be a radical change in the bodies of those who are redeemed, though the original identity will be preserved (see on 1 Cor. 15:35-50).

Our vile body. Literally, "the body of our humiliation," thus described in contrast with the glorious body the saints will possess in the world to come.

May be fashioned. Or, "may come to have the same form as another," "become conformed to." In v. 10 Paul shows that the life of the Christian must be made conformable to that of Christ. He now indicates that the body also is ultimately to be conformed to that of Christ.

His glorious body. Literally, "the body of His glory," that is, the body in which Christ dwells, now that He is glorified, which may be compared with the "spiritual body" of resurrected saints (see on Luke 24:39; 1 Cor. 15:42-49; see John 20:17, 25, 27; DA 829). The redeemed are not only to possess Christ's character but also to be clothed in an immortal body similar to that possessed by Jesus since His resurrection (see on 1 Cor. 15:51-53). This transformation completes the redemptive work on which Paul's heart is set. The Christian is completely conformed to the likeness of his Master.

Working. Gr. energeia, "energy," here, supernatural power (cf. on ch. 2:13).

He is able. The guarantee of Christ's ability to transform our lowly bodies into the likeness of His glorified body resides in His power over all creation.

Subdue. Gr. hupotassoµ (see on 1 Cor. 15:27).

All things. See on 1 Cor. 15:27, 28. The transformation of human bodies and characters is only one manifestation of the sovereign power of Christ. His total work embraces the subjection of all phases of creation to the divine rulership.

Ellen G. White Comments

1-21 CH 592; TM 221

4-6 SR 311

5, 6 AA 112

6 AA 190; SC 29

7, 8 COL 121, 395; Ed 68; SL 86

8 DA 273; MB 91; 1T 496; 2T 49; 3T 413; 5T 307; 9T 44

8-10 AA 128; Ed 192

8-14 SR 311

9 AA 314; TM 160

10 DA 209; 3T 27

10-14 SL 86

12 AA 562; GW 143; 1T 340; 5T 223

12-14 LS 303; 8T 18

13 SR 311

13, 14 AA 483; GC 470; GW 58; MB 91; MH 516; ML 369; 8T 64

14 FE 235; GW 463; ML 313; 2T 235, 483; 5T 486, 488, 548; 9T 287

19 CH 39

20 EW 30, 108; FE 478, 481; ML 277; MYP 84; PP 87; 2T 145, 317, 338; 5T 111, 367

20, 21 EW 111

21 DA 23; EW 31; GC 399; 1T 36; 2T 411

Philippians Chapter 4

1 From particular admonitions 4 he proceedeth to general exhortations, 10 shewing how he rejoiced at their liberality towards him lying in prison, not so much for the supply of his own wants, as for the grace of God in them. 19 And so he concludeth with prayer and salutations.

1. Therefore. Chapter divisions did not appear in Paul's original writing, and there is no separation between ch. 3:21 and this verse. The apostle draws an exhortatory conclusion from ch. 3:20, 21, and admonishes firmness in the faith.

Brethren dearly beloved. The apostle seems scarcely able to find words adequate to express his love for the Philippians. He heaps together terms of affection, dwelling especially on the word "beloved." He tells them of his longing to see them, repeating the sentiments of ch. 1:8.

Joy. The Philippian believers were the objects or the causes of the apostle's joy. Paul uses the same words in speaking of the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 2:19).

Crown. Gr. stephanos, "a victor's chaplet," not a royal diadem (see on Matt. 27:29; Rev. 12:13). The Philippians were Paul's crown of victory, showing that the apostle had not run in vain (Phil. 2:16).

Stand fast. Gr. steµkoµ (see on ch. 1:27). In view of the glorious prospect painted in ch. 3:20, 21, Paul encourages the Philippians to be steadfast. He bids them to be worthy of their heavenly citizenship.

In the Lord. A favorite expression of Paul, who uses it approximately 40 times (Rom. 16:2, 8, 11-13, 22; etc.). See on Rom. 8:1 for the equivalent phrase "in Christ Jesus."

2. Beseech. Gr. parakaleoµ, "to exhort" (see on Matt. 5:4). The word is repeated to show that Paul exhorts each of the two church members separately, and may imply that both were at fault. But he makes no distinction as to who is right or who is wrong in this case. Today, in cases where church members are at variance, each should seek reconciliation with the other, without waiting for the other to take the initiative (see on Matt. 18:15).

Euodias. Rather, "Euodia," meaning "prosperous journey." Both Euodia and Syntyche are feminine Greek names. For the prominence of women in the Macedonian church see on Acts 16:13; 17:4, 12.

Syntyche. Gr. Suntucheµ, from suntungchanoµ, "to meet with," hence meaning, perhaps, "pleasant acquaintance."

Of the same mind. It appears that there was a difference of opinion between Euodia and Syntyche, but we are not informed as to the cause of the contention. It may not have been an important matter so far as the church as a whole was concerned, but even a small problem in a peaceful and orderly community becomes disturbing to the group. So Paul applies the admonition given earlier in the letter (see on ch. 2:2). Again the idea of "in the Lord" is introduced. If each were like-minded with Christ, each would be in harmony with the other. Spiritual union with Christ is the remedy for the church's ills.

3. And. Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) the reading "yea."

I intreat. Gr. eroµtaoµ, "to ask," "to enquire of," but often used in the NT with the meaning "to beseech" (cf. Matt. 15:23; Mark 7:26; Luke 7:3; etc.).

True yokefellow. Gr. gneµsios suzugos, literally, "genuine yoked-together [one]." Some commentators take this to be an anonymous reference to one of Paul's helpers, and have attempted various identifications of this helper. Others see suzugos as a proper masculine name, which they transliterate Syzygus. They believe that Paul is making a play on the meaning of the name, and is saying, "Syzygus, rightly named [gneµsios] yokefellow." This interpretation receives support from Scripture and classical literature, where play upon proper names is fairly common (cf. Onesiphorus, 2 Tim. 1:16; Onesimus, Philemon 10).

Help. Literally, "take hold together with," that is, assist. Paul desired him to help the women to be reconciled.

Laboured. Gr. sunathleoµ (see on ch. 1:27). The word paints a graphic picture of the vigorous help given to Paul by these faithful women who were now disagreeing. Few things do so much harm to the Christian cause as bickerings among its members.

Clement. Gr. Kleµmeµs, said to mean "mild." There is no reasonable support for identifying this person with the famous Clement, bishop of Rome (c. a.d. 90-99). He appears rather to have been an active though humble member of the Philippian church. The Greek construction favors connecting him with "those women" who helped Paul, rather than making him a partner with the "yokefellow" in the work of peacemaking.

Fellowlabourers. Or, "companions in labor" (cf. ch. 2:25). The Philippians were good missionary workers, and provided Paul with many colleagues in his evangelistic work.

Book of life. Anciently, free cities had a roll book containing the names of all those having the right of citizenship (cf. on Isa. 4:3; Eze. 13:9). Here the apostle is referring to a heavenly register in which are written the names of those whose citizenship is in heaven (see on Ex. 32:32; Dan. 7:10; 12:1; Luke 10:20; Rev. 3:5). In this book will be found the names of Paul's other fellow laborers who are not individually mentioned in the epistle.

4. Rejoice. See on ch. 3:1. Paul never tires of repeating that holy joy is one of the chief duties and privileges of the Christian.

Alway. The Lord is always the same (see on Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8; James 1:17). His love, His consideration, His power, are the same in times of affliction as in times of prosperity. Christ's ability to give peace to the heart does not depend on external circumstances; so the heart that is centered on Him may constantly rejoice.

Again I say. Rather, "Again I will say." The apostle repeats his exhortation, as if to forestall all objections about the impracticability of rejoicing amid unfavorable circumstances.

5. Moderation. Gr. epieikeµs, "yielding," "gentle," "kind," here used as a noun meaning "the spirit of yielding," "gentleness," "kindness," hence, "forbearance," the opposite of a spirit of contention and self-seeking. The related word, epieikeia, is translated "gentleness" in 2 Cor. 10:1.

Unto all men. The Christian's forbearance is to be shown not only to fellow members but also to nonbelievers.

The Lord is at hand. Or, "The Lord is near." The expression may be compared with Maran-atha (see on 1 Cor. 16:22). The thought of the Lord's nearness seems to have been a Christian watchword, and probably included the realization of His constant presence in daily life as well as the prospect of the second advent. See Additional Note on Rom. 13.

6. Be careful. Gr. merimnaoµ, "to be anxious" (see on Matt. 6:25). "Careful" formerly meant "full of care." Paul's admonition prohibits the painful anxiety that is inevitable in those who are dependent on themselves in the midst of life's difficulties. It is possible to sink below this anxiety in mere levity and thoughtlessness or to rise above it by "casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you" (1 Peter 5:7). The thought of the nearness of the coming of the Lord should help us to keep free from worldly anxieties, and to be forbearing in our relations with others. See on Matt. 6:33, 34; 1 Peter 5:7.

Nothing. This removes all excuse for unbelieving anxiety. There is nothing that in any way concerns the peace of the Christian that is too small for God to notice, just as there is nothing too great for Him to care for. He knows what we need. He wants us to have everything that is for our good. Then why should we be burdened with cares which may be laid on Him?

But. The apostle now shows why the Christian need not be worried over the affairs of this life: through prayer, he may discuss all his needs with God.

Every thing. This is in positive contrast to the "nothing" in the previous phrase.

Prayer and supplication. The two words "prayer" and "supplication" also occur together in Eph. 6:18; 1 Tim. 2:1; 5:5. It appears that "prayer" is used as a general word, covering the idea of prayer in its widest meaning. "Supplication" seems to refer to prayer for some particular object or need (see on Phil. 1:4).

Thanksgiving. "Thanksgiving" is a necessary accompaniment of prayer, and ought never to be absent from our devotions. It helps to remind us of past mercies and prepares us to receive further blessings. Paul himself sets an example of constant thankfulness (see on ch. 1:3).

Requests. We do not bring our requests to God simply to inform Him concerning our needs. He knows our necessities before we ask (see on Matt. 6:8; see GC 525).

7. Peace of God. Doubtless meaning the peace that comes from God, or the peace that God bestows. This is not the same as having peace with God (Rom. 5:1), but results from enjoying that experience. Paul makes clear that such peace will be given him who lives a prayer-filled life (Phil. 4:6). It may not be possible for the Christian always to be at peace with all men (Heb. 12:14; see on Rom. 12:18), but failure to achieve that condition need not interfere with his receiving the peace of God in his heart. Such peace is grounded on faith in God and a personal knowledge of His power and care. It flows from a sense of His abiding presence, and produces childlike confidence and trustful love. See on John 14:27; Rom. 1:7; 5:1; Col. 3:15; 2 Thess. 3:16.

Passeth. Gr. huperechoµ, "to excel," "to be superior," "to surpass."

Understanding. Gr. nous, capable of several shades of meaning: (1) "comprehensive faculty," "understanding," "mind"; (2) "reason"; (3) "power of judgment"; (4) "mode of thinking," hence, "thoughts," "feelings." In the NT nous occurs 24 times, and is translated "mind" 17 times, and "understanding" 7 times. Here, Paul's meaning may be either (1) the peace of God surpasses every human reason in its ability to overcome anxiety; or (2) God's peace surpasses our highest possible imaginations. The second meaning seems the more likely, since it accords with Paul's habit of being caught up with the glory of his topic and of using superlatives in an attempt to express what is beyond human expression (cf. Eph. 3:20). None but those who know this peace by experience can have satisfactory insight into its meaning.

Shall keep. Rather, "shall guard." God's peace, like a sentinel, patrols before the heart and mind to guard the affections and thoughts from anxiety.

Hearts. The NT uses the word "heart" to describe the center of thought, desire, feeling, and passion (see on Matt. 5:8, 28; 12:34; Rom. 1:21).

Minds. Gr. noeµmata, "thoughts," "purposes," such as proceed from the heart.

Through Christ Jesus. Rather, "in Christ Jesus," meaning either, the peace of God keeps the believer in union with Christ; or, those who are "in Christ Jesus" will be guarded by the peace of God. For Paul's usage of the expression "in Christ" compare Phil. 1:1; 2:1; see on Rom. 8:1.

8. Finally. See on ch. 3:1. Here Paul sums up, as it were, his counsel to the Philippian church.

True. This should not be limited to mere veracity. The scriptural concept of truth is derived from an understanding of the nature of God and Christ, who are the authors of all that is true. In this light, "whatsoever things are true" refers to all that is morally and spiritually sound, all that is compatible with allegiance to Him who is "the truth" (John 14:6).

Honest. Gr. semna, "reverend," "venerable," that is, worthy of veneration or respect.

Just. Gr. dikaia, singular dikaios (see on Matt. 1:19), often translated "righteous," in which sense it would refer to things that are chaste, modest, innocent, blameless, above reproach.

Pure. Although sexual purity is included under this term, the reference should not be limited to that sphere, for other forms of purity should also be found in the Christian's mind. For example, he should cherish purity of ambition, desire, and motive (see on Matt. 5:8).

Lovely. That is, friendly, pleasing, lovable.

Of good report. Gr. eupheµma, literally, "well sounding," that is, reputable, commendable, those things that harmonize with Christian ideals.

If there be any. Compare on ch. 2:1. Paul now covers all possible desirable qualities, so that no virtue is omitted.

Virtue. Gr. areteµ, used with a wide variety of meanings, but here referring partly to "moral excellence."

Praise. Gr. epainos, "approbation," "praise."

Think on. Gr. logizomai (see on ch. 3:13), that is, take account of all these virtues, let them play an active part in your lives. If we will live right, we must think right. The development of Christian character requires right thinking. Therefore Paul outlines a constructive program of mental activity. Instead of thinking about differences with others, or being anxious about daily needs, we should exercise our minds on positive virtues.

9. Those things. Paul turns from contemplation to practice, and refers the Philippians to his own life, where the virtues of v. 8 were exemplified while he lived among them.

Learned. This, with "received," may refer to what the believers gained from Paul's formal instruction.

Heard, and seen. Just as important as formal teaching is the life of the teacher. Paul realized this, and, by God's grace, was able so to live that he could confidently refer his readers to his own example.

Do. Gr. prassoµ, "to practice," "to exercise." The apostle wanted to stimulate his converts into actual exercise of the virtues he himself had demonstrated to them.

God of peace. That is, the God who is the author and bestower of peace. God dwells with those who think holy thoughts and live holy lives, and with Him comes the peace which is His (see on Phil. 4:7; Rom. 15:33).

10. I rejoiced. Or, "I rejoice," if Paul is here using the epistolary aorist (see on ch. 2:25). Paul practices the precepts he urges on the church (ch. 4:4); he rejoices, as he commands them to do.

Your care of me. Paul visualized the thoughtful planning by which the Philippians had sought to lighten his trials, first when he was at Corinth (v. 15) and more recently at Rome (chs. 2:25; 4:18).

Flourished. Gr. anathalloµ, "to shoot up," "grow green again," used of a tree putting forth fresh shoots after its winter sleep. The idea is that of renewed activity after inactivity. Paul is in no way accusing his friends of neglect, for he recognizes that it had not been possible for them to help him earlier.

Careful. Or, "were being thoughtful." Paul realizes that although circumstances had prevented the church from rendering practical help, its members had continually desired to ameliorate his condition.

Lacked opportunity. The hindrances are not specified, but it appears to have been temporarily impossible for the Philippians to send their gifts to the apostle.

11. Want. Gr. hustereµsis (see on Mark 12:44). The first clause of this verse throws an interesting light on Paul's mentality. Even though he was suffering imprisonment, he would not employ his privations to arouse sympathy for his situation.

I have learned. Or, "I learned." Paul had accepted the lesson at some time in the past and had continuously been putting it into practice since that time. The instruction may have come with his conversion, for his subsequent reactions under varied circumstances indicate that he believed that all that came to him was by the permission of God (see on Rom. 8:28; 1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Cor. 12:7-9).

In whatsoever state. Or, "in what things [circumstances]." Paul places no limit to the conditions under which he can be content. There is no contradiction between this thought and that of pressing on to higher spiritual experience (ch. 3:12-14). If we could see into the future as God does, we would see the necessity of our being led in certain ways (DA 224, 225).

Content. Gr. autarkeµs, "sufficient for oneself," "independent of external circumstances." Paul is self-sufficient through the power of the new life given him by Christ, for it is not Paul who deals with circumstances, but Christ who lives in him (see on Gal. 2:20; Phil. 4:13; 2 Tim. 1:12).

12. Abased. Or, "brought low," "humbled." Paul is speaking of physical needs, not spiritual deficiencies.

How to abound. Paul's disposition was so stabilized that he was unaffected by the ebb and flow of circumstances.

Every where. Literally, "in everything," that is, under all possible circumstances.

Instructed. Gr. mueoµ, "to initiate into the mysteries," that is, to instruct a person in the secret rites of the so-called mystery religions (see Vol. VI, p. 91). The word may be translated "to learn the secret of" (RSV).

To be full. Gr. chortazoµ, "to feed," used of fattening animals, but also used of satisfying man's hunger.

Hungry. See on 2 Cor. 11:27.

To suffer need. Gr. hustereoµ, "to lack" (see on Rom. 3:23).

13. I can do. Gr. ischuoµ, "to have power," "to be able."

Through Christ. Rather, "in Christ." Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the omission of the name "Christ," but "Christ" is implied in Paul's language (see following comment).

Which strengtheneth. Paul recognized Christ as the source of all his own power, hence there is no element of boasting here. All that needed to be done could be done by Christ-given strength. When the divine commands are faithfully followed, the Lord makes Himself responsible for the success of the work undertaken by the Christian (COL 333, 363; 8T 16). In Christ there is strength to fulfill duty, power to resist temptation, vigor to endure affliction, patience to suffer without complaint. In Him there is grace for daily growth, courage for multiplied battles, energy for devoted service.

14. Ye have well done. Even though Paul would in no case complain of his lot, and though he could have done without the gifts of the Philippians, he commends them for their generous interest in him. The apostle is not ungrateful. He recognizes that their contributions are a blessing both to him and to them.

Communicate. Gr. sugkoinoµneoµ, "to share with," "to have fellowship with," from sun, "with," koinoµneoµ, "to become a sharer" (see on Rom. 12:13). Paul valued the sympathy, the fellow feeling, of his friends at Philippi even more than the gifts they had sent. To him the gifts were precious as proof of their love.

15. In the beginning. This is doubtless a reference to the time when Paul first ministered in Philippi (Acts 16:12-40).

When I departed. That is, when Paul was hurriedly sent away from Berea (see on Acts 17:13, 14).

No church communicated. For comment on "communicated" see on v. 14. Paul normally eschewed charity, preferring to earn his own livelihood (see on Acts 18:3; 20:34; 1 Cor. 4:12). But at Corinth he consented to receive gifts from Macedonian brethren (2 Cor. 11:9). His language to the Thessalonian church (1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:8) precludes any idea that part of this contribution might have been from Thessalonica. In this epistle we learn that the gifts came from no other church than Philippi. It seems certain, therefore, that the apostle held his Philippian friends in special esteem.

Giving and receiving. The Philippians did the giving, and Paul, the receiving.

16. Even in Thessalonica. Paul now recalls that the Philippians had helped him even before he was forced to flee from Macedonia. Their help began to flow shortly after he left Philippi, while he was still in the next city of Thessalonica.

Once and again. Literally, "both once and twice." Their generosity was not fleeting, for they continued to send help to their beloved apostle.

Unto my necessity. Or, "with reference to my need."

17. I desire. Literally, "I am seeking for." Paul was not soliciting further gifts, neither was he scorning the previous kindness of the Philippians. He was concerned with higher, spiritual issues.

Fruit. Literally, "the fruit." Paul eagerly desired to see the Philippians growing in Christian grace and bearing still more fruits of the Spirit.

May abound. Rather, "increaseth," or "aboundeth."

Account. Paul sees the Christians' good deeds as mounting up to enrich their lives in this present life, and to stand out brightly in the record when the judgment reveals the caliber of the lives they have led.

18. I have. The Greek verb may be rendered, "I have to the full" (see on Matt. 6:2).

Abound. See on v. 12.

I am full. Rather, "I am filled," with Paul's thought turned toward those whose kindness made this statement true.

Epaphroditus. See on ch. 2:25.

Odour of a sweet smell. Similar expressions in the OT were used to describe the acceptable sacrifices that were offered to the Lord (see Gen. 8:21; Lev. 1:9, 13, 17). Here Paul is applying the metaphor to the gifts received from Philippi. Compare on Eph. 5:2.

Sacrifice. See on ch. 2:17. Here "sacrifice" further describes the gifts given through Epaphroditus. These presents were a free-will offering, in grateful love to God and man (cf. Heb. 13:16). To do good to others out of a heart of love is to bring to God an acceptable sacrifice.

Wellpleasing. Gr. euarestos, the word translated "acceptable" in Rom. 12:1.

19. My God. Paul had accepted the offering as made, not to himself, but to the God whose minister he was. Now he says in effect, "God will accept your offerings as made to Him. You have supplied my need; He will supply every need of yours." Whether the need be spiritual or temporal, God will withhold no good thing from the righteous (see Ps. 84:11). For Noah and his family a way of escape from the Flood was provided (Gen. 7:1). Israel was preserved during forty years of desert wandering (Deut. 29:5).

Supply. Literally, "fulfill," that is, God will supply to the full any needs the Christian might have. Elijah in exile was sustained by ravens (1 Kings 17:6). The lives of the three young men were preserved in the fiery furnace (Dan. 3:27). God's angels serve as ministering spirits to supply the needs of those who shall be heirs of salvation (Heb. 1:14). In the last days, immediately prior to the coming of Christ, when conditions are severe, the bread and water of God's people will be sure (see on Isa. 33:16). None who serve the Lord need fear that He will leave them uncared for. Those who seek first the kingdom of God will have all things needful added to them (see on Matt. 6:33).

His riches. These riches are limitless (Ps. 24:1; 50:10-12; Haggai 2:8), and out of this abundance God is well able bountifully to compensate the Philippians for what they have given to Paul.

In glory. Some refer this phrase to the "riches," as riches that are stored "in glory," that is, in heaven. Others connect "shall supply" and "in glory," and imply that the reward will be given in the hereafter. This second view tends to restrict God's working, whereas the Lord is well able to supply the Christian's need in this life as well as in that which is to come.

By Christ Jesus. Rather, "in Christ Jesus," or "in personal connection with Christ Jesus." All God's kindnesses are given to men through Christ, and can be enjoyed by those who are connected with the Saviour. See on 2 Cor. 1:20; Eph. 2:4-7.

20. God and our Father. Or, "God even our Father." In v. 19 Paul spoke of "my God," but he now includes the Philippians in the great family, and encourages them to share in the doxology.

Glory. For the significance of "glory" see on Rom. 3:23. For comment on the doxology see on Rom. 3:23; Gal. 1:5.

For ever and ever. Literally, "unto the ages of the ages" (see on Rev. 14:11).

21. Salute. Gr. aspazomai (see on Rom. 16:3; 1 Thess. 5:26).

Every saint. That is, each saint individually, for Paul wished to greet all of the Philippian Christians. For comment on "saint" see on Rom. 1:6.

In Christ Jesus. This phrase may be understood to modify "salute" (cf. Rom. 16:22; 1 Cor. 16:19), or "saint," as in Phil. 1:1.

Brethren ... greet you. Paul calls those who were with him "brethren," although he had none like-minded with him, except Timothy (ch. 2:20, 21). The names of some of those who were with him at one time or another during his imprisonment may be gathered from the letters to the Colossians (ch. 4:10-15) and Philemon (vs. 23, 1:24). How many of them were with him at this particular time we cannot tell.

22. All the saints. This is a reference to the general membership of the church in Rome, as distinct from "the brethren" (v. 21).

Chiefly. Rather, "especially."

Caesar's household. The word "household" (oikia) here signifies the domestic staff of the emperor's retinue (cf. on ch. 1:13). In the time of Nero, during whose rule Paul was imprisoned (see Vol. VI, pp. 83, 84), the number of household servants was doubtless very great. This verse proves that some of the servants, slaves or freedmen, were Christians (AA 463), and were particularly anxious to send greetings to the Philippians. That some of Nero's servants had become Christians shows that fruitage may be reaped by the gospel workers even in the most unlikely places and under the most discouraging circumstances (AA 465, 466).

23. The grace of our Lord Jesus. See on Gal. 6:18.

With you all. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the reading "with your spirit" (cf. Gal. 6:18).

Amen. Gr. ameµn (see on Matt. 5:18). Textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of this word.

The postscript following v. 23 was not a part of the original manuscript.

Ellen G. White Comments

1 MH 167; ML 177

3 GC 481

4 AA 484; CT 233; GC 477; MB 35; ML 251, 334; MM 213; 2T 593; 8T 130; WM 91

5 CD 206; ML 146

6 SC 97

6, 7 MH 199

6-8 AA 484; CH 630

7 FE 208; MB 15; MYP 73; 1T 32, 159; 2T 263; 3T 371; 6T 320; 7T 44; 8T 34

8 CH 630; Ed 235; ML 5; MM 127; PP 460; TM 503, 505; 1T 574, 711; 2T 311, 317, 437; 4T 135; 5T 55

13 COL 82; Ed 69, 256; Ev 98; GW 128; MH 516; 3T 45, 84; 4T 259, 320; 5T 484; 7T 39, 298; 9T 152

15-18 AA 479

16 AA 348

19 AA 484; CH 17; COL 149; MB 24; MH 48, 200; ML 14; SR 50; 2T 72; 6T 257

22 AA 463, 464; MB 34; 5T 182

23 AA 484

Events Leading to the Writing of Paul's Letter to the Colossians Written From Rome During Paul's First Imprisonment, c. A.D. 62

INTRODUCTION

1. Title. Like Paul's other epistles, this one probably bore no title originally, for it is a letter. The earliest extant manuscript has the simple title Pros Kolossaeis ("To [the] Colossians"), which doubtless was added by an early scribe when Paul's letters were collected and published as a unit. From ch. 1:2 it is obvious that such a title is correct.

2. Authorship. This epistle bears the names of Paul and Timothy as authors (ch. 1:1). However, repeated references in the letter show that it is really Paul writing (see chs. 2:1; 4:3, 4, 7, 8, 13, 18), in both his own name and that of his younger associate. The early church was unanimous in attributing the letter to Paul. Although the more extreme criticism of the 19th and early 20th centuries held that this book was not written by Paul, today scholars generally assign it to him. Concerning the date of writing see Vol. VI, pp. 105, 106.

3. Historical Setting. How or when or by whom the Colossian church was founded cannot be definitely known. Paul made Ephesus the headquarters of his missionary enterprises for about three years (Acts 20:31). His vigorous prosecution of evangelism during this time led Luke to declare, "All they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks" (Acts 19:10). Even Demetrius affirmed that "almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people" (Acts 19:26) from paganism. Writing to the Corinthians toward the end of his sojourn in Ephesus and its environs, the apostle sent greetings from "the churches of Asia" (1 Cor. 16:19). This indicates that Roman Asia was his mission field at this time (cf. 2 Cor. 1:8; Rom. 16:5, where the correct reading is "Asia"). To the great seaport of Ephesus would flock visitors from all Asia, and Paul's messages must have been scattered far and wide by the returning travelers (Acts 19:10). Perhaps in this way the two citizens of Colossae, Epaphras (Col. 4:12) and Philemon (Philemon 1; cf. Philemon 10, 11; Col. 4:9), heard the glad tidings of salvation. They, with others, may have taken the gospel back to their townspeople (see ch. 1:7).

Thus, although Paul himself may not have founded the Colossian church (see on ch. 2:1), he probably was, in a very real sense, its father. From this epistle it is clear that he held himself responsible for the spiritual condition of the Colossian Christians, and that he knew well their needs and the dangers in which they stood. This information was brought to him in Rome, apparently by Epaphras (see Col. 1:8; cf. Philemon 23), and afforded the immediate reason for his writing the epistle to them. The danger confronting the Colossian believers arose from false teachings that were spreading among them. The precise details of these teachings at Colossae cannot be ascertained. Some scholars have identified them as being of two different types, Judaizing and Gnostic. Unquestionably they contained Judaizing tendencies, and some of the false doctrines alluded to in this epistle are similar to those held by certain Gnostics in the 2d and 3d centuries.

However, in view of the very great uncertainty of the whole picture, it is probably safer to understand the false teaching at Colossae as a mixture of Judaism and some type of Oriental paganism (perhaps an early form of Gnosticism) rather than as two separate systems of teaching. Both Jewish apocalyptic literature and the Dead Sea scrolls show that such mixtures were not uncommon among the Jews of the time. The concept of the angels as organized into orders (see on Col. 1:16) is a familiar one in Jewish apocryphal literature. And as portrayed in Colossians it seems to be verging on the idea of emanations as found in later Gnostic writings (see Vol. VI, p. 56). The terms "mystery" (ch. 1:26, 27) and "knowledge" (ch. 2:3)--which Paul seems here to be taking out of the mouths of the false teachers and using in a Christian sense--appear in the Dead Sea scrolls almost as technical religious terms. These words certainly enjoyed such status in the pagan mysteries and in Gnosticism. The word "fulness" (Gr. pleµroµma; ch. 1:19), which, Paul declares, dwells in Christ, at least later was a standard Gnostic term for the emanations, the subsidiary intermediate beings who were thought to issue from God and mediate between Him and the world. How far these concepts had developed at Colossae it is impossible to say.

However, this much seems clear. The false teachers at Colossae were teaching the existence of angelic beings arranged in different orders, intermediate between God and the world, who acted as mediators for men, brought them salvation, and merited their worship. At the same time these teachers insisted on an extremely legalistic ceremonialism, following the Jewish pattern, and emphasizing circumcision, taboos in matters of food and drink, and observance of festivals. Against such teachings Paul wrote the Colossian epistle.

The place of writing of this epistle was doubtless Rome and the time of writing about a.d. 62, during the time of Paul's first imprisonment (see Vol. VI, pp. 105, 106).

4. Theme. In the Epistle to the Colossians, Paul expresses himself strongly against the heresy prevalent in that church.

In Galatians and elsewhere he rebuts Judaism solely, but here his target is hybrid. Not only is Paul concerned to refute Judaizing legalism, he also must contend with certain pagan elements that sought to degrade or eclipse the office of Christ. Therefore he attacks the idea of angelic intermediaries as agents of creation and mediation. He declares that Christ is Creator and Mediator exclusively (ch. 1:16, 20). Christ is the "head" of both material and spiritual things (chs. 1:18; 2:19). There exists in Him no dualism. The same Jesus is over all (ch. 1:18). He sustains all things (v. 17). He is God (v. 15). In Him the "fulness" dwells (v. 19). He needs no subsidiaries, or emanations. Paul asserts that in Christ are "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (ch. 2:3). The consummate, saving mystery is not some esoteric knowledge concerning the various orders of angels (see on ch. 1:16), but "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (v. 27). Therefore he condemns the worship of angels, which the false teachers advocated, as a denial of Christ's perfection as sustainer and mediator (ch. 2:18, 19).

The apostle also deals with the moral results of these heresies. Too rigid asceticism and unbridled license are alike prohibited (chs. 2:16, 20, 21; 3:5, 8, 9). Both heresies claim sovereignty for the human will. This "will worship" is a false, or inverted, humility, and therefore reprehensible. All carnal indulgences (and the apostle's list is well-nigh exhaustive) are stringently condemned. Paul presents Christ as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the Head and Mediator and Emancipator of the church. In Christ, principle is substituted for ceremonial. Clearly, logically, vigorously, the apostle writes to his friends at Colossae, persuading them to turn from vain and vapid speculations to the reality of the gospel of Christ.

5. Outline.

I. Introduction, 1:1-13.

A. Opening salutation, 1:1, 2.

B. Paul's thankfulness for the progress of the Colossians, 1:3-8.

C. Prayer for future advancement in knowledge and good works, 1:9-11.

D. Thanksgiving for the blessings of God, 1:12, 13.

II. Doctrinal Section, 1:14 to 2:3.

A. The pre-eminence of Christ, 1:14-19.

B. The work of Christ, 1:20-22.

C. The ministry of Christ's undershepherd, Paul, 1:23 to 2:3.

III. Didactic Section, 2:4-23.

A. Warning against error, 2:4-8.

B. Christ the solution of doctrinal problems, 2:9-23.

1. Christ the fullness of God, 2:9.

2. Christ the head of all principality and power, 2:10.

3. Christ the medium and motive power of conversion, 2:11-13.

4. Christ the end of the outmoded legalistic systems, 2:14-17.

5. Warnings against false philosophies and speculation, 2:18-23.

IV. Hortatory Section, 3:1 to 4:6.

A. Dead to the world, the Christian lives for Christ alone, 3:1-4.

B. The passions of the flesh put away by the power of Christ, 3:5-11.

C. True Christlikeness developed by the Christian believer, 3:12-17.

D. Duties of social relationships, 3:18 to 4:1.

1. Of wives and husbands, 3:18, 19.

2. Of children and parents, 3:20, 21.

3. Of slaves and masters, 3:22 to 4:1.

E. General instruction, 4:2-6.

V. Conclusion, 4:7-18.

A. Personal explanations, 4:7-9.

B. Salutations and greetings, 4:10-18.

Colossians Chapter 1

1 After salutation he thanketh God for their faith, 7 confirmeth the doctrine of Epaphras, 9 prayeth further for their increase in grace, 14 describeth the true Christ, 21 encourageth them to receive Jesus Christ, and commendeth his own ministry.

1. Paul, an apostle. For the form of the introduction and for the meaning of the terms see on Rom. 1:1; cf. on Acts 1:2. Paul calls himself an apostle because he wishes to emphasize that he is the Lord's ambassador.

Will of God. See on Eph. 1:1.

Timotheus. Concerning Timothy see on Acts 16:1. Paul includes Timothy in his apostolic greeting in other of his epistles (2 Cor. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; 1 Thess. 1:1; 2 Thess. 1:1; Philemon 1).

2. Saints. Gr. hagioi (see on Rom. 1:7).

Faithful brethren. This phrase is in apposition with "saints." Paul commends the members of the Colossian church for their faithfulness, trustworthiness, and unswerving fidelity.

In Christ. See on Eph. 1:1.

Colosse. More commonly spelled Colossae, a town in Phrygia about 110 mi. east of the seaport Ephesus. In Paul's time Phrygia was attached to the Roman province of Asia. Colossae was situated on the banks of the river Lycus about 13 mi. (c. 21 km.) from Hierapolis and about 10 mi. (16 km.) from Laodicea. In previous centuries Colossae had occupied a position of considerable importance. Through it the army of Xerxes, the Persian, passed on its way to attack Greece. Xenophon calls it "an inhabited city, prosperous and large" (Anabasis i. 2. 6; Loeb ed., vol. 2, p. 253). But by NT times the population had shrunk to small proportions. For the origin of the church see p. 183.

Grace ... and peace. See on Rom. 1:7; 3:24.

God our Father. See on Rom. 1:7.

Lord Jesus Christ. Important textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of these words. They were apparently added from the parallel passage in Eph. 1:2.

3. We give thanks. Compare on Eph. 1:16. The cause for this thankfulness is stated in Col. 1:4, 5.

God and the Father. Or, "God, even the Father." Important textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of the word "and."

Lord Jesus Christ. See on Eph. 1:17.

4. We heard. News of conditions in the church at Colossae was brought by Epaphras (vs. 7, 8).

Faith. Faith in Christ is not simply confidence and trust in Him as a person; it is complete subordination to the will of God and unquestioning reliance in His program. It is man's acceptance of God's way.

In Christ Jesus. Paul pictures Christ as the sphere in which the Christian lives, in the same way as the air is the medium in which his body exists. The one who is "in Christ" is bounded and circumscribed by his Saviour's principles and laws; he lives by them and in them. Jesus is the source and the protector of his life. Within this circle that embraces everything for which Jesus stands as the Christ of God, true faith operates (see Eph. 1:15; 1 Tim. 3:13; 2 Tim. 1:13; 3:15).

Love. Gr. agapeµ (see on 1 Cor. 13:1). Actuated by the principle of love to God and love for the brethren, all Christians will blend together. This attitude results in affection for all saints. Genuine faith toward God can produce nothing less. Paul is overjoyed at the developing Christian experience of the Colossian believers.

5. Hope. See on Rom. 8:24; 12:12. Paul now comes to the third in his triad of Christian virtues. Faith and love not only have their impelling power in hope, but this hope is their goal. The Colossians had listened to the story of redemption, and hope had been born in their hearts. This hope was the driving force in all their Christian experiences and philosophy of life. Thus hope precedes faith. It was because God had already devised the plan of salvation that hope was possible for fallen man.

In heaven. The Christian hopes for an "inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven" for him (1 Peter 1:4; cf. Phil. 3:21). Hope in the ultimate realization of God's purpose for a sinless, harmonious universe was the fruitful soil from which sprang the faith and love that the Colossian believers had manifested.

Whereof ye heard before. Paul is reminding the believers of their joy and enthusiasm at the time the gospel message first reached them. He wishes the Colossians to contrast the faith they then had, and the joy that flooded their souls, with the doubts and unsettling tendencies resulting from the messages presented by the false teachers (cf. v. 23; ch. 2:6-8, 16-23).

Word of the truth. That is, the message that contains the truth, the good news of all the revealed will of God (see on John 8:32). Truth is a revelation of the mind of God and deals with ultimate and eternal realities.

Of the gospel. See on Mark 1:1. This phrase may be understood as in apposition with "of the truth." It is closely connected with the clause that follows.

6. Which is come unto you. In the Greek it is clear that "which" can refer only to "gospel." Compare v. 23.

In all the world. See on v. 23.

Bringeth forth fruit. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the addition of the words "and increaseth." A tree produces fruit because it lives and is flourishing. So the Christian continually produces the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22, 23) because the life of Christ is a vital principle within him (see Mark 4:20, 28; Rom. 7:4, 5; Phil. 4:17). The force of Paul's expression is that wherever the gospel is preached, it constantly brings forth fruit.

Also in you. Paul turns from the general truth that the gospel invariably produces fruit wherever it is proclaimed, to the particular fact that it has done this very thing in Colossae. This church is, therefore, linked with the universal purpose of God for the redemption of men.

The day. For the manner in which the gospel came to Colossae see p. 183.

Knew. Gr. epiginoµskoµ, "to recognize," "to know fully," "to know by experience." The verb form should be translated "came to know fully." This full knowledge comes only by experience, hence only to those who accept the grace of Christ. The true knowledge of God is inseparable from the grace of God.

Grace. See on Rom. 3:24.

In truth. That is, truly. Paul is constantly making subtle contrasts with the false teachings he is about to mention.

7. Epaphras. Perhaps the messenger who had brought the message of salvation to Colossae (see p. 183). Paul here calls him "our dear fellowservant." Writing to Philemon, he speaks of him as a "fellowprisoner" (Philemon 23). Epaphras was evidently a native of Colossae (Col. 4:12). It is conjectured that he may have heard the gospel in Ephesus, and that having consecrated himself to the service of God, he became a missionary to his own people.

For you. Textual evidence is divided (cf. p. 10) between this and the reading "for us." The pronouns translated "us" and "you" are similar in the Greek (humoµn and heµmoµn) and are easily confused. Either reading is possible in the context.

Faithful. Paul here endorses the messages and labors of Epaphras.

Minister. Gr. diakonos (see on Eph. 6:21).

8. Who also declared. Epaphras had brought Paul news of the condition of the church at Colossae.

In the Spirit. Literally, "in spirit [or, "Spirit"]." It is not certain whether Paul means the Holy Spirit, or whether he has reference to the human spirit. All true love is the product of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life, but Paul may here be emphasizing the loving, dispositional response to the conditions in life, which each Christian should manifest.

9. For this cause. That is, in view of what has been said in vs. 4-8, Paul has recalled the faith of the Colossian believers in Christ, the genuineness of their love for the brethren, and their sustained hope in the heavenly reward. All of these things have gladdened his heart. The immediate cause of his rejoicing is the good word that Epaphras has brought from Colossae. His glowing report has warmed the heart of the aged Paul.

The day we heard. The arrival of Epaphras was a memorable day for Paul. From it he dates his intensified devotion and gratitude.

Do not cease to pray. Paul has already called attention to his prayers for the Colossian believers (see v. 3). The story from Colossae that Epaphras has brought him enables him now to pray with added meaning and joy. The phrase "do not cease to pray" means that Paul habitually prayed for the Colossian Christians. At no time could it be said that he had ceased to pray for them.

To desire. Paul was thankful, but at the same time solicitous. Not satisfied with the progress the Colossian believers had already gained, he yearned that further advancement might be made.

Knowledge. Gr. epignoµsis, "full, precise knowledge" (see on Rom. 3:20; Eph. 1:17; cf. on Col. 1:6).

His will. Specifically a knowledge of God's will concerning their conduct (see v. 10), more generally an understanding of the sum total of God's all-embracing purpose. To the one who possesses such knowledge, each detail of life, with its problems and inexplicable mysteries, takes on new meaning. The Christian realizes that God has a plan for his life, and his aim is to fulfill the divine purpose.

Wisdom. Gr. sophia. See on Luke 2:52. Wisdom is the ability to apply the facts of knowledge to the situations of life. Unfortunately, it does not always follow that the one who has knowledge also possesses wisdom. For this reason Paul prays that the believers at Colossae might be endued with Heaven's wisdom.

Spiritual. The adjective applies to the preceding noun, "wisdom," as well as to "understanding."

Understanding. The understanding given by the Spirit is that discernment which enables a Christian to judge between right and wrong. The temptations and snares of the adversary are recognized by the one enlightened by the Holy Spirit. And, if the entire will is surrendered to God and absorbed in the things of eternal value, the Christian chooses to do only those things that God would have him do.

10. Walk. Gr. peripateoµ, "to walk around," metaphorically, "to live" (see on Eph. 2:2). The purpose of experimental knowledge of heavenly truths and of wisdom and spiritual understanding of right and wrong in relationship to God's overruling purpose is to produce, as the result, a walk, or manner of life, that is becoming to a child of God.

Unto all pleasing. The standard of Christian conduct is the will of God; the purpose is that we might please Him all our days. We are created for His pleasure. We are redeemed that His original design may be completed. What displeases Him is sin. Speaking of His relationship to His heavenly Father, Jesus said, "I do always those things that please him" (John 8:29).

Being fruitful. The fruitfulness of a tree is the result of life within. Fruit proves the existence of life. Fruit bearing does not enable the tree to live; the tree bears fruit because it lives. So the apostle illustrates the result of the living presence of Christ within the heart. A Christian walk resulting from this union of the divine and the human cannot but produce fruit (see Gal. 5:22, 23; cf. 2 Peter 1:8).

In every good work. The rounded completeness of Christian character is here emphasized. Christ does not wish halfhearted or unbalanced followers. Harmonious development of the whole of man is the ideal He sets before us. Compare Eph. 4:13; 1 Thess. 5:23.

Increasing. Side by side with advancement in witnessing by word and act, there must be a gradual deepening of spiritual discernment and knowledge. The apprehension of truth is progressive. The follower of Christ should be able to look back and see that he has made marked progress, and forward to see that there are new heights to achieve.

Knowledge. Gr. epignoµsis (see on v. 9).

11. Strengthened with all might. Compare Eph. 1:19. Divine power enables man to meet every problem in his daily life, whether it arises out of his dealings with his fellows or from direct conflict with satanic agencies. Paul desires that the Colossian believers should receive this inner strengthening through the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, which would show itself in mighty deeds for their Lord. As the need increased, they could draw adequate strength to meet it.

According to his glorious power. Literally, "according to the power of His glory." The standard, or norm, by which this gift of heavenly might is granted to humanity is God's power and resourcefulness and not man's need. For the meaning of "glory" see on Rom. 3:23.

Patience. Gr. hupomoneµ. See on Rom. 2:7.

Longsuffering. Gr. makrothumia (see on Col. 3:12; cf. on 1 Cor. 13:4; 2 Cor. 6:6). When God's power works in the soul, forbearance and tolerance control the passions. The child of God watches his Lord and Master patiently working out His designs, and he learns patience too. And so there grows in his heart endurance, steadfastness in meeting obstacles, and peace in facing even death. Patience is the opposite of despondency or cowardice, whereas long-suffering is the opposite of wrath or revenge. Patience is closely allied to hope (see 1 Thess. 1:3), and long-suffering is often connected with mercy (see Ex. 34:6).

Joyfulness. Or, "joy" (cf. on Rom. 14:17).

12. Giving thanks. A thankful heart is the mark of one whose positive emphasis day by day is in the direction of grateful conformity with the will of the great Giver (cf. Eph. 5:4; Phil. 4:6; Col. 2:7; 3:17; 4:2; see on Eph. 5:20). A lack of grateful appreciation stands at the root of rebellion and anarchy (Rom. 1:21). Heartfelt and grateful thanksgiving is a daily prerequisite to growth in the Christian life. This giving of thanks not only consists of the acknowledgment that God sends daily recurring bounties; it is also a worshipful ascription to Him of the honor due to His holy name and mighty power.

Unto the Father. Verses 12, 13 represent the Father as the One who inaugurated the plan of salvation. He is the One who gave His only Son.

Made us meet. Literally, "made us sufficient," that is, qualified us. Textual evidence is divided (cf. p. 10) between the reading "us" and "you." "Us" is attested in v. 13. This qualification, or fitness, is not earned by man. It is granted to those who by faith accept the Lord Jesus Christ (see on Eph. 2:8).

To be partakers of the inheritance. Literally, "for a portion of the lot." See on Rom. 8:17.

Saints. See on Rom. 1:7.

Light. The word here stands in contrast with "darkness" (v. 13). "In light" is therefore equivalent to "the kingdom of his dear Son" (v. 13). See on John 1:5; 1 John 1:5.

13. Delivered. Gr. rhuomai, "to draw off," "to rescue." This is the word used by Paul in Rom. 7:24 in his anguished cry, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" The "Deliverer" to come out of Zion (Rom. 11:26) is ho rhuomenos, "the rescuer." In the present passage the Father is presented as the One who rescues men from the thralldom of Satan.

Power. Gr. exousia, "authority." From the evil realm where the prince of darkness presides as merciless tyrant, the Divine Conqueror has rescued His saints. No longer are they subject to usurped authority.

Darkness. Note the contrast with "inheritance ... in light" (v. 12). From the authority of the prince of darkness the child of God is transferred into the realm of light.

Hath translated. Gr. methisteµmi, "to transport," "to remove." Compare the use of the word in Luke 16:4; Acts 13:22; 19:26, and of a related form in 1 Cor. 13:2. Josephus uses the word in speaking of the transplanting of the Israelites into the kingdom of Assyria at the time of the invasion of Tiglath-pileser III (Antiquities ix. 11. 1 [235]).

Kingdom. That is, the kingdom of grace (see on Matt. 4:17; 5:3).

Of his dear Son. Literally, "the Son of His love," meaning, perhaps, the Son who is the object of God's love (cf. on Matt. 3:17; Eph. 1:6).

14. We have redemption. This verse largely parallels Eph. 1:7 (see comment there). Christ is the One through whose atoning death men obtain redemption (see on Rom. 3:24).

Through his blood. Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) the omission of this phrase. However, the phrase is well attested in the parallel passage, Eph. 1:7 (see comment there). See Problems in Bible Translation, p. 223.

Forgiveness. Gr. aphesis, "release," "pardon." See on Luke 3:3. Thus Paul ends the introduction to this epistle (vs. 1-14). He has thanked God for what he has heard of the progress of the Colossian Christians. He has solicited help from Heaven for them to grow in true knowledge of the divine will. These petitions have been constantly arising from the apostle's heart, especially since he received a direct report concerning the Colossian believers. Then he reminds them of their privileges in having been translated into the kingdom of light, and of what joy should be theirs since having been emancipated from the power of darkness.

15. Who is. Having completed his prologue (vs. 1-14), the apostle now enters his major theme, a discussion of the person and position of Christ.

Image. Gr. eikoµn, "similitude," "likeness." Compare ch. 3:10, where Paul declares that the Christian is renewed "after the image [eikoµn] of him that created him." The image of the Roman emperor on ancient coins was called an eikoµn (Matt. 22:20).

The invisible God. "No man hath seen God at any time," but Jesus, "the image of the invisible God," came to reveal Him to men (see on John 1:18).

Firstborn. Gr. proµtotokos (see on Rom. 8:29). In Matt. 1:25; Luke 2:7, proµtotokos is used of Christ as the first-born of Mary. In Heb. 11:28 the word is used of the first-born of Egypt who perished in the plagues. In Heb. 12:23 the word describes the members of the "church of the first-born." In the remaining references (Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:15, 18; Heb. 1:6; Rev. 1:5) proµtotokos is applied to Christ (see comments on these scriptures).

There has been much discussion throughout the centuries as to the meaning of proµtotokos in Col. 1:15. The early Church Fathers applied the expression to Christ as the eternal Son of God. The Arians used this verse to show that Christ Himself was a created being. Such an interpretation, though possible as far as the grammar of the passage is concerned, is elsewhere contradicted in Scripture (see on Additional Note in John 1). The passage may be understood in a way that brings it wholly in harmony with the general teaching of Scripture. This accords with sound principles of scriptural exegesis.

In Heb. 1:6 proµtotokos clearly refers to the incarnation, and some have tried to make the same application in Col. 1:15. Others believe that in Colossians Paul is referring to the resurrection (see on Acts 13:33). However, neither interpretation fits the context, for Christ is here presented as the Creator (cf. Col. 1:16), and as preceding creation (cf. on John 1:1-3, 14).

It seems best, therefore, to regard proµtotokos as a figurative expression describing Jesus Christ as first in rank, the figure being drawn from the dignity and office held by the first-born in a human family, or, more precisely, the first-born in a royal family. Christ's position is unique, authoritative, and absolute. He has been entrusted with all prerogatives and authority in heaven and earth. Paul emphasizes the position of Christ because he is seeking to meet the arguments of the false teachers, who declared that Christ was created, and who denied His supremacy.

Creature. Gr. ktisis, "the act of creating," "a created thing," "a creature." For "every creature" certain English version (see RV; RSV) read "all creation." The Greek may be translated either way. The context seems to favor the reading "every creature." Christ is shown to be above every created thing. See on Rev. 3:14.

16. For by him. Gr. hoti en autoµ, literally, "for in Him," here probably not denoting agency, since this is expressed later in the verse by di' autou, "by him." En autoµ probably stresses that Christ is the center, the source, the sphere, in which creation originated.

Were all things created. Literally, "all the things were created." For a discussion of Christ as Creator see on John 1:3. The exercise of creative power was proof of the divinity of Christ.

Heaven ... earth. This expression seems here to include the entire universe. All things, material or immaterial, are designated by this term.

Invisible. Doubtless a reference to spirit beings and powers (see below on "thrones ... powers").

Thrones ... powers. See on Rom. 8:38; Eph. 1:21. These terms were doubtless those used by the false teachers at Colossae to describe their classification of angelic orders. These heretical teachers probably classed Christ on a level with these orders. If so, Paul met the doctrine head-on by declaring that whether there were such orders or not, Christ created them all, and consequently was far above them in rank.

Were created. The form of the verb thus translated is different from that translated "created" earlier in the verse. Here the words means "stands created," with emphasis upon the effects of creation, whereas the earlier word refers to creation simply as a specific act that occurred at some point in history.

By him. Gr. di' autuo (see above on "for by him"). The phrase expresses agency. See on John 1:3.

For him. Literally, "unto Him." Christ is the goal toward which all creation moves for its justification and very existence. He is "the beginning and the end, the first and the last" (Rev. 22:13).

17. He. Emphatic in the Greek, meaning, "He Himself." Christ is contrasted with created beings.

Is. Gr. esti, a form of the verb eimi, "to be," expressing, like eµn in John 1:1, continuity of existence (see comment there). "He is" may be compared with the expression "I am" (see on John. 6:20; 8:58).

Before. Both in time and rank. As the mind wings backward into eternity, there is no point before which Christ is not (see on John 1:1; see Additional Note on John 1).

By him. Rather, as in v. 16, "in Him." Christ is the sphere within which everything consists.

Consist. Gr. sunisteµmi, literally, "to stand together," "to hold together" or "to cohere." The form of the verb in Greek stresses an original organization and a continued maintenance of the organization. The power that holds the far-flung orbs of the universe on their appointed courses with mathematical accuracy, the power that holds the particles of the atom in their predetermined orbits, is the same. By the power of Christ all things cohere. Not only did He bring them into being, He maintains them each moment.

18. He is. Gr. autos estin, "he himself is," the same phrase that opens v. 17 (see comment there).

Head of the body. As the head supplies the planning, ruling, deciding power to the body, and all the activities of the body are completely and continuously dependent upon the functioning of the head, so Christ functions for the body spiritual. This figure is frequent in the writings of Paul (see on 1 Cor. 12:12-27; Eph. 1:22).

Church. Gr. ekkleµsia. See on Matt. 18:17.

Beginning. This expression may be understood either passively, showing Christ's priority as to both time and rank, or actively, in the sense that Christ is the originator (cf. on Rev. 1:8). Some understand the expression as applying especially to what follows, declaring Christ to be the "beginning" of those who will be raised from the dead. Paul calls Him also the "firstfruits of them that slept" (see on 1 Cor. 15:20, 23). True, Moses and Lazarus were resurrected in point of time before Christ rose from the tomb, but it was only by virtue of His resurrection that these men came back to life.

Jesus is here set before the believers as possessing not only primacy and priority in time but also precedence in power and prestige. Since He is before all things, He therefore cannot be an emanation, or a lower, subsidiary order of creation. Paul's declaration meets the arguments of the false teachers at Colossae.

Firstborn. Gr. proµtotokos (see on v. 15).

From the dead. As having been one of them, as the Greek implies (cf. on Rev. 1:18).

In all things. Since in the immediate context Christ's priority has to do with the church, His position regarding "all things" also has to do with the church (see Col. 3:11; cf. Eph. 1:23). However, the statement is also true with respect to His position of sovereignty and priority relative to the entire universe.

He might have the preeminence. Literally, "He might come to hold first rank." Christ was "declared to be the Son of God with power, ... by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:4; cf. Phil. 2:9).

19. It pleased the Father. The words "the Father" are supplied. Commentators are divided as to whether they are correctly supplied or whether "all fulness" should be made the subject of the sentence, which is grammatically possible. According to the latter construction the verse would read, "For all the fulness was pleased to dwell in him" (cf. RSV). The Father seems to be the subject of v. 20, so that it is not unnatural to have it the implied subject in v. 19 also. The passage also makes good sense when "all fulness" is made the subject. Either reading suits the context.

The Church at the Close of Paul's Ministry.

Fulness. Gr. pleµroµma, "plenitude," "fullness," "that which has been completed," "complement." Pleµroµma was used in secular Greek to designate the full complement of a ship's crew or of reserves of troops, to describe a population reaching the saturation point, to indicate the total amount necessary to complete a financial transaction, and to designate the materials necessary to complete a building. In the NT it generally has this meaning of completeness (see Mark 2:21; 6:43; Rom. 13:10; 1 Cor. 10:26; Gal. 4:4; Eph. 1:10, 23). It appears that the false teachers at Colossae, like the later Gnostics, maintained that some of the functions of the Deity, such as mediation and certain powers of creation, resided in angels or lesser orders of created beings. Paul is telling the perverters of truth that the sum totality of every function of Deity resides in Christ. Thus He is Lord of all created things. This fullness resided in Christ from the beginning.

Dwell. Gr. katoikeoµ, "to have a permanent and settled abode" (cf. ch. 2:9). The false teachers maintained that Divinity resided in Jesus only partially and temporarily. Paul is setting the Colossians right on this point. Not only does Jesus possess, as a permanent prerogative, the fullness of divine purpose and power, He also expresses in fullness the traits of the divine personality (Eph. 1:23; 3:19; 4:13; Col. 2:9). The Saviour was the expression of the Father's glory; He was the visible image of His person (ch. 1:15). In Christ is realized the perfect expression of the Godhead completely and eternally. This expression of Divinity reached its complete manifestation only when the sacrifice of the Saviour took place, because the sacrificial aspect of His divine perfection was not seen prior to His death.

20. Having made peace. Peace is necessary because the entrance of sin into the universe had brought with it alienation.

The KJV of v. 20 does not correctly reflect the order of clauses in the Greek, and consequently somewhat obscures the sense. The following literal translation reflects the order in the Greek: "And through him to reconcile all things unto him, having made peace through the blood of his cross, through him, whether the things upon the earth, or the things in the heavens." The phrase "through him to reconcile" should therefore be connected with v. 19. If the reading of the KJV of v. 19 is accepted (see on v. 19), the thought is, "It pleased God through him to reconcile all things." The false teachers apparently contended that peace was being brought about through the mediation of the angels.

Blood of his cross. For the significance of the blood of Christ in the plan of salvation see on Rom. 3:25. The cross of Christ is the high point in the plan of salvation. It was the subject in which Paul gloried (Gal. 6:14). It will be the science and the song of the redeemed through eternal ages (GC 651).

By him. This phrase appears twice in this verse, in the first instance in the emphatic position in the Greek. Jesus is the agent through which the reconciliation is brought about.

Reconcile. Gr. apokatalassoµ, an intensified form of Paul's usual word for reconciliation, katalasso (see on Rom. 5:10).

All things. There has been much discussion as to whether this expression includes non reasoning and inanimate creation. In what sense would these require reconciliation? The apostle may be discussing the far-reaching effects of the entrance of sin into the universe, and thus include the effects of sin and redemption not only upon intelligent beings but upon unreasoning and inanimate creation as well (cf. on Rom. 8:19).

In earth. Adam's transgression had its repercussions in every part of this earth. From man, the crowning masterpiece of the Creator, to plant, insect, and marine life, and even to the inanimate earth, degeneracy resulted. The redemptive act of Christ will ultimately restore perfection and harmony.

In heaven. Some commentators hold that although only one third of the angels rebelled against God's government and were expelled from heaven, the rest of the angelic hosts did not fully understand the sinfulness of sin or its dire results until Christ died on the cross. After this event, celestial beings realized as never before that God's ways are true and righteous, and that Satan's program leads to death. Thus, all things, material as well as spiritual, heavenly as well as earthly, will be brought to a state of perfect harmony through the cross and all for which it stands. Time and the unfolding purposes of God through Christ will expose Satan and those who sympathize with him so that the justice of God will be seen in their annihilation. The plan of redemption will accomplish its broader and deeper purpose--namely, the vindication of God's character before the universe (see PP 68).

21. And you. Paul now makes personal applications to his Colossian brethren of the doctrines he has been discussing. He has argued that the entire world is dependent upon the blood of Christ for reconciliation (see on v. 19). Now he tells the Colossians that they can enter into this glorious state of harmony and joy only by this same road. His statement implies a warning not to accept the views of the false teachers, who may suggest other means of reconciliation, such as the ministry of angels and other spirits (cf. ch. 2:8, 18, 19). There is only one means of salvation (Acts. 4:12).

Sometime alienated. Or, "formerly alienated." This unfortunate condition would still be in existence for the Colossian believers were it not for the ministry of Christ on their behalf. On the cross of Calvary an atonement had been provided for the sin that had caused the alienation. The sinner's attitude of hostility had been changed and God had accepted the sinner.

Enemies. Not only were the Colossians before conversion estranged from God, ignorant of His purposes for mankind, and indifferent to His law; they were also openly and positively hostile to Him.

In your mind. The mind is the central, directive faculty of a rational being (see Eph. 4:18). Paul is here reminding the Colossians that their entire thinking had been in a state of estrangement and hostility toward God. Every creative, deciding attitude of their minds was against God or indifferent to Him. They were in a hopeless and lost condition, dependent on some heavenly influence to bring them to a state where they might be saved.

By wicked works. Or, "in [the sphere of] the wicked works." As a man thinks, so will he act (cf. Prov. 23:7). It is impossible for a wicked mind to do other than produce wicked works. So with the Colossians, the actions of their lives evidenced the state of their minds. Before their conversion, the record of their lives gave irrefutable proof of their alienation from God and their enmity toward Him.

Yet now. Notwithstanding the Colossians' condition of alienation, God acted. His reconciling ministry becomes effective the moment men accept it.

Hath he reconciled. See on Rom. 5:10; Col. 1:20. Christ has, as it were, taken the Colossian believers by the hand and presented them to the Father, not as servants or enemies, but as friends (John 15:14-16). The cross of Calvary has banished their hostility, changed the current of their minds, and transformed them into the likeness of Christ.

22. Body of his flesh. Some believe that Paul is here combating a heresy that early crept into the Christian church; namely, that Christ did not have a human body. According to this heresy the human body is essentially sinful, and therefore could have been no part of the Son of God. An important step in the reconciliation of man with God was the incarnation. Divinity was clothed with humanity. Jesus took hold of fallen humanity that it might once more be joined with the throne of God. He partook of flesh and blood, that therein He might deliver man from the thralldom of sin. Christ in His body of flesh achieved the victory of reconciliation (see 1 Peter 2:24). See Vols. V, pp. 917-919; VI, p. 58.

Through death. Or, "by means of death." The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). All have sinned (Rom. 3:23). Therefore none may escape death. Christ, in assuming the lot of humanity, purposed to pay the penalty for humanity's sin. His death was for every man. This fact had been prefigured by every true sacrifice since the day that Adam offered up the first victim at the behest of God. Sacrificial, vicarious death pointed forward to atonement through the blood of Christ. All these ceremonies of sacrifice and mediation looked forward to final reconciliation with God. Death was the basis of it all.

To present you. When reconciliation has been achieved, those who were alienated from God and hostile to Him will be presented before the universe as trophies of the cross (see 2 Cor. 4:14; Eph. 5:27; Col. 1:28).

Holy and unblameable. Gr. hagioi kai amoµmoi (see on Eph. 1:4).

Unreproveable. Gr. anegkleµtoi, "blameless," "irreproachable." Compare the use of the word in 1 Cor. 1:8. Anegkleµtoi takes the picture of perfection one step further. It emphasizes that there must be no possibility of bringing a charge against him whom God purposes to present perfect before the universe. The accuser of the brethren will be silenced as the Lord rebukes him and points out that the saints are clothed with the righteousness of Christ (Zech. 3:1-5; Rev. 12:10, 11).

In his sight. All men will pass before the scrutinizing eye of God. The Judge of all the earth will see everything. In this life men may deride, Satan may still find fault, but the matter of greatest import is, What does God see and think? (see 2 Cor. 5:10; Eph. 1:4). The divine estimate is all that counts.

23. If ye continue. The Colossians had heard the word of life. They had accepted the faith and had been reconciled by the blood of Christ. They were "saints and faithful brethren" (v. 2). But all their efforts would prove futile if they should fail to "continue." The apostle stresses their need of abiding and remaining in their confidence in the gospel.

In the faith. Compare v. 4. What had been begun by faith in the experience of the Colossian believers must be continued by means of faith also.

Grounded. Gr. themeliooµ, "to lay a foundation," "to found." The spiritual house should have its foundation fixed upon the solid Rock, which is Christ, not upon the sand, as was the house of the foolish man in Christ's parable (see Luke 6:49; 1 Cor. 10:4).

Settled. Gr. hedraioi, "firm," "steadfast." The Christian believer must be firmly fixed on his foundation. Paul warns the Colossians against moving away from the position taken by them when they first heard the gospel.

Not moved away. This is the negative view of what he has already said. "Do not allow yourself," Paul says in effect, "to be shifted from your position by the philosophical arts of false teachers or the seductive allurements of sin." The tense of the verb he uses suggests the thought, "Be not continually shifting" from one position to another (cf. 1 Cor. 15:58).

Hope of the gospel. That is, the hope that the gospel provides. This hope, he has already intimated (see on v. 5), is the driving force of the plan of salvation. It is brought to light by the message of the gospel; it belongs to the gospel. When hope is ultimately achieved in the kingdom of God, the purposes of the plan of salvation will have been fulfilled.

Ye have heard. See on v. 5.

Preached to every creature. The principal stress of the passage is upon the fact that the gospel the Colossians had heard is the same as that preached in all parts where the gospel has penetrated. Paul does not mean that the gospel has gone everywhere in the absolute sense. This is clear from his statements elsewhere regarding the progress of the gospel. Writing to the Romans only a few years before, Paul, summing up the advance of the gospel, said, "From Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ" (Rom. 15:19). He was hoping at this time to visit Rome and from there carry the gospel to Spain (Rom. 15:24). His arrest and imprisonment intervened so that his plans were not carried out. Instead of coming to Rome as a free herald of the gospel, he came bound. Being a prisoner, he could not visit Spain. It is doubtful that any work of significance had been begun there. There is, further, no evidence that at this early date the gospel had penetrated into the barbarian regions to the north of the then-civilized world. The same is doubtless true of other far-flung regions. It is clear, then, that the statement that the gospel had been preached to every creature under heaven was not meant in an absolute sense. Like the statement "as it is in all the world" (Col. 1:6), the stress is upon the fact that the gospel preached in Colossae is the same as that proclaimed in all the world. Compare Matt. 24:41; 1 Thess. 1:8; Rev. 5:13; 14:6, 7; DA 633.

Whereof I Paul. The apostle abruptly injects himself into his line of argument, in the same manner as he had introduced the Colossian believers into it in v. 21.

Am made. Or, "became." Compare Eph. 3:7. Paul here refers to the divine commission to preach the gospel. God was now using him for the accomplishment of eternal duties (see Eph. 3:8; 1 Tim. 1:11-16; cf. Gal. 1:11-17). A divine hand had drawn him into the over-all plan for man's salvation. When the Colossians compared Paul with the false teachers, they should think of God's eternal purposes and realize that the one who was writing to them was part of the great plan to bring about their salvation. Paul's message, therefore, came with divine authorization. The believers' faith should be strengthened and their steadfastness increased by this thought.

Minister. Gr. diakonos (see on Mark 9:35). Compare the use of the word in Matt. 20:26; Rom. 13:4; Eph. 6:21; 1 Tim. 4:6.

24. Who now rejoice. Literally, "now I am rejoicing." Paul breaks into joyous thanksgiving because the cause of God is advancing. Compare Acts 16:25; Rom. 5:3; 2 Cor. 11:16-33; Phil. 2:17.

Sufferings for you. Compare Eph. 3:1. Paul rejoices in bearing persecution for Christ's sake, if through this experience the faith of Christians can be increased.

Fill up. Gr. antanapleµrooµ, "to fill up in turn," "to fill up vicariously." The word occurs in the NT only here.

That which is behind. Literally, "the lacking things," that is, what is lacking. Tribulation and affliction are the lot of the Christian (see Acts 14:22; Phil. 1:29; cf. 2 Cor. 1:5; 4:10; 1 Thess. 3:3). Paul is thinking of the sufferings he will be called upon the endure. He is happy that he can bear afflictions for the cause of Christ.

Afflictions of Christ. That is, afflictions for Christ. The phrase must not be understood as describing the sufferings Christ endured, for then the passage would imply that there was something lacking in the sufferings of Christ. Furthermore, the word translated "afflictions" is nowhere used of the sufferings of Christ.

In my flesh. That is, Paul's personal sufferings.

For his body's sake. That is, for the sake of Christ's body--His church (cf. Eph. 1:22, 23).

25. Am made a minister. Or, "became a minister" (see on v. 23).

Dispensation. Gr. oikonomia, "arrangement," "stewardship" (see on Eph. 1:10; Eph. 3:2). The great rule that governs Paul is the over-all purpose and plan of God. Paul declares that, in this overruling providence of God, he has now been assigned a stewardship.

Fulfil the word of God. The purpose of Paul's stewardship is to preach the Word of God. It is the apostle's aim to carry this out to the full.

26. Mystery. Gr. musteµrion (see on Rom. 11:25).

Hid from ages. Compare Rom. 16:25; Eph. 3:3, 5, 9. The full blessings of the gospel era were only vaguely apprehended by the patriarchs and the successive generations of men.

Now is made manifest. See on 1 Cor. 2:9, 10; Eph. 3:5.

27. God would make known. Literally, "God willed to make known." It is God's plan that His people shall penetrate deeper mysteries of divine knowledge by the help of His Holy Spirit. In turn, through their receiving this revelation, God will so transform their dispositions that saintly characters will be the result.

Riches of the glory. Compare on Rom. 9:23; cf. Eph. 1:7, 18; 2:7; 3:8, 16.

Gentiles. That this glorious mystery should also embrace the Gentiles came as a shock to the Jews. But God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34); His mercy extends to all who accept Him. The apostle is stressing the universality of the scope of the plan of salvation.

Christ in you. The indwelling presence of Jesus in the human heart is the manifestation of the eternal mystery (see on Gal. 2:20; Eph. 1:1).

Hope of glory. Compare v. 5. By inaugurating the plan of salvation, God placed before fallen humanity the hope of restoration to the divine presence. The incarnation of Christ brought the realization of this hope one stage nearer. The indwelling of Christ in the individual heart gives evidence that the power of grace is working to transform the character. This makes real the hope of glorification. The Christian lives in the kingdom of grace today, which gives him assurance that he will one day dwell with Christ in the kingdom of glory. Compare Rom. 8:18; 1 Tim. 1:1.

28. Whom we preach. The "we" is emphatic in the Greek. Paul contrasts himself and his associates with the false teachers.

Warning. Gr. noutheteoµ, "to put in mind," "to admonish," "to warn" (cf. on Eph. 6:4).

Every man. The threefold repetition of these words in this verse underlines the universality of the gospel. There is no exclusiveness in Paul's teachings, as there was in those of the false teachers. Every class of society is to be reached with the gospel of salvation.

Teaching. Besides warning, Paul also instructs. So should it be with all preaching.

In all wisdom. Some commentators understand this as stating the manner of Paul's teaching (cf. Eph. 1:8; Col. 4:5); others, that the textbook of study for this teaching ministry is the whole field of wisdom. The former seems more in harmony with the Greek.

That we may present. Compare on v. 22. The apostle has identified himself with the work of saving souls, and now he states the goal of his ministry.

Perfect. Gr. teleios (see on Matt. 5:48). The perfection of which Paul speaks in his epistles, he clarifies in Phil. 3:12-15 (see comment there).

In Christ Jesus. This is the key phrase of the Epistle to the Ephesians (see on Eph. 1:1). It is frequent also in Paul's other epistles. Christ is the sphere of the saint's perfection.

29. Whereunto. That is, with the objection of presenting "every man" (v. 28) perfect in Christ.

Labour. Gr. kopiaoµ, "to work with effort," "to toil to the point of exhaustion." Compare the use of the word in 1 Cor. 15:10; Gal. 4:11; Phil. 2:16.

Striving. Gr. agonizoµ, "to contend earnestly" (see on Luke 13:24). The word suggests the utmost of effort put forth by the contestant in the athletic arena.

Working. Gr. energeia, "operative power," distinguished from dunamis, which denotes potential power. Our English word "energy" comes from energeia. Compare the use of energeia in Eph. 1:19; 3:7; 4:16; Phil. 3:21; etc.

Worketh. Gr. energeoµ, "to be at work," "to operate," "to be effective." Compare the noun form energeia (see above under "working"). Paul realized that the performance of duty required earnest effort, furthermore that the results would be effective for good only in so far as individual effort was combined with the mighty power of God energizing every faculty of the human agent.

Mightily. Literally, "in power." Paul could bear testimony to the power of the Saviour because it had worked mightily within his own life.

Ellen G. White Comments

1-29 TM 221

2 AA 471

4 SL 85

7-12 AA 471; 4T 316

9 AA 478; ML 110

9, 10 5T 746

9-11 GC 476; MH 426; SL 85

9-12 2T 521

11 ML 52

11-13 AA 478

12 CS 133; GC xii; MB 8

13 DA 320; SC 112

14 GW 147; 6T 60

14-17 6T 59

16 GC 493; PP 34

16, 17 AA 472; Ed 132

18 Ed 268

19 Ed 30; MB 21; 2T 200

20 AA 209

21, 22 AA 472; CT 152

23 AA 593; DA 633; Ed 96; 1T 355; 3T 225; 4T 409, 556; 5T 520;

8T 15, 19, 26

24 COL 191

25-28 TM 222

25-29 AA 368; GW 59; 2T 502, 552; 4T 269, 314

27 AA 328, 476, 507; AH 120; CH 362; CT 194, 554; Ed 172, 309; Ev 511; FE 263, 279, 466; GW 61, 282, 366; LS 431; MB 128; ML 26, 84, 301; MYP 142; SC 47; 1T 162, 566; 2T 73; 7T 116; WM 38

28 AA 206; Ev 587; GW 369; ML 285; TM 152; 4T 315, 317, 416; 5T 300, 372

28, 29 2T 609

29 MB 144; 4T 315

Colossians Chapter 2

1 He still exhorteth them to be constant in Christ, 8 to beware of philosophy, and vain traditions, 18 worshipping of angels, 20 and legal ceremonies, which are ended in Christ.

1. I would that ye knew. Or, "I wish you to know." Compare 1 Cor. 11:3. Compare the expression, "I would not have you to be ignorant" (1 Thess. 4:13; cf. Rom. 11:25; 1 Cor. 10:1).

Conflict. Gr. agoµn, "contest," "struggle," "trial," here a mental struggle, "solicitude," "anxiety." For the related verb agoµnizoµ see on ch. 1:29. Paul's anxiety, the tears he shed, the agonizing contest against the power of the adversary that he waged--all this, Paul desired the Colossians to know. Little did the believers of Colossae realize the hours Paul had earnestly spent interceding for them.

Laodicea. This town was situated about 10 mi. from the city of Colossae. The state of this church was evidently similar to that of the believers of Colossae. Therefore Paul included them in his devotions.

Not seen. From the language here employed many commentators have drawn the conclusion that Paul was not the founder of the Colossian church, further, that he never visited the church. They believe that the record of the movements of Paul in Acts leaves it very indefinite as to whether Paul ever visited any part of the Lycus Valley, in which Colossae was situated. They do not believe that references to Phrygia necessarily imply a visit to the Lycus Valley, for Phrygia covers a large and vaguely outlined region. The territory is thought to lie considerably to the north and east of the Lycus Valley. On his First Missionary Journey Paul probably came no nearer than 150 mi. (c. 240 km.) from Colossae. On his second and third missionary tours the apostle need not even have approached the region of Colossae. Leaving Galatia to the far north and east, he could have traveled to Ephesus by the Roman road through Sardis. This would have kept him well to the north of the Lycus Valley. Furthermore, on these trips he confined himself to revisiting the churches he had already established, and there is no hint whatever that Colossae was one of them at that early date. Thus the book of Acts leaves the matter of Paul's visit to Colossae most improbable.

Others contend that Col. 2:1 does not necessarily imply that Paul had never visited Colossae. They maintain that it is highly unlikely that in his two visits to Phrygia (see Acts 16:6; 18:23) Paul could have missed Colossae entirely. They also maintain that since in his epistle to the Colossians he holds such an intimate connection with many members of the church, he had most likely been there. They interpret Col. 2:1 thus: "I have much anxiety, not only for you, but even for those who have never seen me." By this interpretation the Colossians are placed in one group, in contrast with another group whom Paul has not seen face to face.

Further considerations throw light on this question. In his letter to the Colossians the apostle himself speaks as if he had never visited their city. He describes himself as hearing of their faith in Christ and their love for the saints (ch. 1:4). He recalls the time when he had been encouraged by the recital of their Christian profession and zeal for the principles of the gospel (v. 9; cf. v. 6). Many times during the epistle, Paul had ample opportunity to make reference to his personal contacts with the Colossian believers, but he never does so. He records that they had been taught the principles of the gospel by another, and he also refers to his own preaching. But not once does he couple the two ideas, although the two statements are side by side (cf. chs. 1:5-8, 21-23, 25, 28, 29; 2:5, 6). Had Paul visited Colossae and worked in that city, one would expect a reference in the epistle to some incident connected with the visit. But Colossians contains not a single such allusion. Although the argument of silence cannot be regarded as conclusive, most commentators agree that it is very unlikely that Paul was the founder of the church at Colossae. Though, perhaps, less certainty exists concerning the possibility of a visit there, this too appears unlikely.

2. Hearts. Here meaning the seat of the emotions and of the intellect. Paul wished the whole personality to be satisfied with abiding peace and assurance (cf. on Eph. 6:22).

Comforted. Gr. parakaleoµ, "to comfort," "to exhort," "to cheer," "to encourage."

Knit together. Gr. sumbibazoµ, "to bring together," "to unite." Paul desired them to maintain their unity and stability in affectionate regard one for the other, and for God. Compare Eph. 4:16; Col. 2:19.

Riches of the full assurance. Or, "wealth of the firm persuasion." Compare 1 Thess. 1:5; Heb. 6:11; 10:22. As believers learn the deeper truths of God's teaching, their assurance becomes firmer. When Christians truly know the Lord's ways, they cannot but trust. And this trust is based on understanding.

Acknowledgement. Gr. epignoµsis, "precise knowledge," "full knowledge." Compare Eph. 1:17.

Mystery. Gr. musteµrion (see on Rom. 11:25).

And of the Father. Textual evidence is divided (cf. p. 10) among a number of variant readings for the remainder of this verse, but favors the view that "Christ" is in apposition with "the mystery of God" (cf. ch. 1:26, 27), thus reading "mystery of God, even Christ." This mystery concerning Christ embraces His incarnation and personal ministry (1 Tim. 3:16). It also includes the further purpose of the incarnation in making it possible for all who believe, including Gentiles, to become members of the mystic body of Christ, His church (Rom. 11:25; Eph. 3:4-6). The proclamation of this good news to the world--that all have an opportunity of salvation through the exercise of personal faith in a Saviour who died for all--is a necessary part of making known this mystery (Eph. 6:19).

3. Are hid. Or, "are stored away." In Christ, in His office and function, in His person and ministry, in the fact that He is both Son of God and Son of man, are embedded the details of the mystery of God. He is the source as He is the treasure house of the blessings of God. Paul desired to lift the minds of the Colossian Christians above and beyond mere human ideas to God's Son and the eternal virtues and verities revealed in Him. In Christ may be discovered all that God purposes to reveal in blessing for humanity. Why, then, should the Colossians give ear to human speculations (see on v. 4)?

All the treasures. Jesus is the mine from which all true riches come. To those who receive Him, He gives truth in its fullness. Other teachers have given partial and obscure glimmerings of knowledge, but in Christ, the living Word, resides the essential knowledge. See COL 104-114.

Wisdom and knowledge. Christ is the treasure house of divine wisdom and knowledge (see 1 Cor. 1:22, 24; Eph. 3:9-11). Those who receive Jesus have come to the source of all they need for this life and for the hereafter.

4. This I say. Paul now gives the reason for what he has been saying in vs. 1-3. There must be no mistake about the vital nature of his theme, and about the grave responsibility in neglecting to obtain a full knowledge of the mystery of God, which is Christ (see on v. 2; ch. 1:27).

Should beguile you. Paul now comes to grips with the practical application of his message. The possibility of being deluded is ever present. The Christian must beware of the craft that seeks to lure him away from the straight line of truth.

Enticing words. Literally, "persuasive speech" (cf. Rom. 16:18; 1 Cor. 2:4). This may find lodgment in the minds of the unwary. The smooth arguments and subtly woven ideas may take the Christian off his guard. But within such reasoning lies error. Paul warns the believers to test the arguments and claims of false teachers (cf. Col. 2:8).

5. Absent in the flesh. The apostle would have the believers sense his personal regard for them, even though he is not actually present in person.

With you in the spirit. Paul's body may be in confinement in faraway Rome, but his heart encompasses the converts he loves. His mind seeks solutions for their problems. His soul is lifted up to their common Father in heaven in thanksgiving and intercession. Thus the apostle draws a contrast between those who would seduce them through sophistries, and their spiritual father, who would, if need be, give his life for them. Those false teachers have ulterior motives; Paul is completely selfless.

Joying and beholding. Epaphras had brought Paul word of the continued faithfulness of the Colossian believers (ch. 1:7, 8). In his mind's eye in Rome he watched the members in distant Colossae as they went about their tasks of living and witnessing for Jesus.

Order. Gr. taxis, "arrangement." This is a common military term. It suggests organization, firmness, and well-ordered battle array (cf. its use in 1 Cor. 14:40; Heb. 5:6). Paul had doubtless watched many an army parade, and had seen many a centurion at the head of his well-drilled and perfectly disciplined company. Thus the Colossian church must act against sin.

Stedfastness. Epaphras had done a good work. The Colossian church was a compact spiritual community, moving forward with confidence to meet the common enemy. The battle was joined within the sphere of their faith, their confidence in the things of Christ. Paul is hinting that they should continue in this happy and blessed state.

6. As ye have therefore received. "As" refers to the manner in which they had received the message of salvation preached by Epaphras (ch. 1:7). While the apostle rejoices with them in the measure of faithfulness they already have (ch. 2:5), he kindly, but firmly, admonishes them to hold on to it.

Christ Jesus the Lord. These three titles of the Messiah gather within themselves the fullness of His position and functions. His mission as Saviour is embodied in the name "Jesus" (Matt. 1:21). "Christ" suggests His Messianic office, and "Lord" (see on 1 Cor. 12:3) His identification with, in some instances at least, the Yahweh of the OT.

Walk. Gr. peripateoµ, "to conduct oneself" (see on Eph. 2:2). Paul urges the believers to keep on continuously conducting themselves and their affairs within the sphere marked out by their trust in Jesus, doing only what He would do, and interesting themselves exclusively in the things that would please Him.

7. Rooted. The form of the Greek word suggests fixity with continued stability.

Built up. In the experience of the Colossian believers the foundation of their spiritual building was Jesus Himself (cf. on 1 Cor. 3:11).

In him. Paul has here gathered three different metaphors into close proximity. The believers are to walk, take root, and be built up as a mighty temple for the Lord. All of these activities are to take place "in him." Jesus Christ is the pattern according to which they must walk; He is the root from whom they must draw sap and nourishment; He is the living Rock, the sure Foundation, upon whom Jews and Gentiles are alike to build. He is "broad enough for all, and strong enough to sustain the weight and burden of the whole world" (AA 175).

Stablished. Gr. bebaiooµ, "to confirm," "to establish." The form of the verb in Greek shows that Paul is here emphasizing a continuous process of strengthening. Daily the Colossians were to become more firmly established.

As ye have been taught. The efficiency of Epaphras as a "minister of Christ" (ch. 1:7) is here again emphasized. He had instructed them correctly. They had learned in whom to believe and how to live with Him so as to obtain righteousness and eternal life.

Abounding. Or, "being continually abounding." The word suggests a state of "overflowing." It is possible for us continually to abound, for Heaven's resources are greater, much greater than our greatest need. Since the supply is limitless, Christians are to appropriate all that they need. The all-sufficient Christ will give to us "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Eph. 3:20).

Therein. Textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of this word, also for the reading "in him," referring to Christ.

With thanksgiving. Or, "in thanksgiving." Progress in the Christian's experience is possible only as the believer approaches God with a grateful heart. How can one be anything but thankful when surrounded by the boundless resources of Omnipotence? Since Christ is all and in all and with all, what has man to fear? The secret of true happiness is habitual reliance upon Christ. Thanksgiving is the fruit of this reliance.

8. Beware. There was a grave danger confronting the Colossian believers. Paul here calls their attention to it, and in solemn warning recommends that they face it. The crafty adversary was seeking to take from them the benefits they had gained. He was attempting to rob them of their spiritual advantages and to carry them off as a prey, leading them to destruction as deluded captives of error.

Spoil. Gr. sulagoµgeoµ, "to carry off as plunder," "to rob." The spoiling may mean two things: the removal of blessings and privileges that the believers enjoy, or the enslavement of the believers themselves by Satan.

Philosophy and vain deceit. That is, philosophy even vain deceit, or philosophy which is vain deceit. The apostle is not condemning philosophy as such, nor is he denouncing philosophers. What he is warning against is philosophy such as the false teachers at Colossae were parading, which was in reality emptiness and vanity, and was promoted by deceit. The context suggests that this philosophy had to do with ceremonial observances, human beliefs, traditions, and materialistic habits and viewpoints, all of which tend away from the gospel of God. It was doubtless also made up of profitless speculation on puerile questions, an empty show of specious arguments devoid of facts. This kind of philosophy fills in the details of difficult questions with plausible theories, which have a tendency to deceive its devotees and to negate the preaching of the gospel of God. The center of this philosophy is the exaltation of man, while God is completely excluded or ignored (see 1T 297). The Christian should be forewarned and forearmed against those who teach it. Its end is eternal death.

Tradition. Gr. paradosis (see on Mark 7:3). Traditions are the habitual patterns of human beliefs and behavior, transmitted from one generation to the next. Traditions may be good or bad. Paul warns against those that are heretical, having a human instead of a divine source. Compare Gal. 1:14. Paul uses the word in a good sense in 2 Thess. 2:15; 3:6.

Rudiments. Gr. stoicheia, "elements" (see on Gal. 4:3). In the language of philosophy stoicheia assumed the technical meaning of elemental matter. Mythologically, the elements were represented by various spirits, so that stoicheia also came to be applied to the spirits themselves. In non-Biblical writings stoicheia is also applied to evil spirits, to stars, and to stellar deities. There seems to have been a well-developed stoicheia cult in Colossae, which through its propaganda was making inroads into the Christian community there. The exact extent of its infiltration is not known. In sounding his warning, Paul uses the terminology of the cult.

After Christ. Literally, "according to Christ." The norm must always be what Christ would have. Christ is placed in opposition to all deceitful philosophy. The wares of false teachers should be compared with the doctrines of the Master Teacher. Christ, the Creator and Sustainer, is the measuring rod of all true knowledge.

9. In him dwelleth. See on ch. 1:19. Within Christ dwells the sum total of the nature and attributes of God. All the offices and powers of Deity reside continually in Him. All the fullness of God is revealed in Christ.

Fulness. Gr. pleµroµma (see on Eph. 1:23; Col. 1:19). The encompassing stretch of this term is without limit in time and space and power. Everything that God is, every quality of Deity--dignity, authority, excellency, power in creating and fitting the world, energy in upholding and guiding the universe, love in redeeming mankind, forethought in supplying everything needful for each of His creatures--rests in Christ.

Godhead. Gr. theoteµs, "Deity," "the nature of God." Compare theioteµs, "the nature of God" (see on Rom. 1:20).

Bodily. Doubtless a reference to the glorified body of Christ (Phil. 3:21), in which He ascended to heaven (cf. DA 832). The fullness of Deity resides in Him corporeally. This affirmation was doubtless to counter the false philosophies gaining acceptance in Colossae (see p. 184).

10. Are complete in him. Literally, "have been made full in him" (cf. Eph. 3:19; 5:18). In the sphere of the Christ, man not only may see his goal of perfection, but may also receive power to achieve it. As we accept His wisdom we become wise. Through daily communion with Him the likeness of the Divine becomes a reality within the human soul. There is nothing for this life or for eternity that man cannot receive through spiritual union with Christ. We may become complete in Him.

Principality and power. Compare on Rom. 8:38; Eph. 1:21; Col. 1:16. Paul is here again emphasizing that Christ is the head of all power and authority. His sovereign strength is the fountain of life. The apostle's implication is that through Christ's dwelling in us, the same victorious authority and creative power will enable us to triumph.

11. Are circumcised. Rather, "were circumcised." The implication may be that some of the false teachers were claiming that before Christ is approached, circumcision and the details of the ceremonial law must be carried out (cf. Gal. 6:15). At least some of them may have claimed superiority because of their own state of circumcision.

Made without hands. Although the rite of circumcision was performed by hand, its significance and value lay in the fact of its inner meaning. It was designed to be an outward sign of an inward state of faith and grace. Through it Abraham indicated his belief that it was not he, but God, who had life and could give life to others. This peculiar sign was to distinguish all men of ancient Israel. It pointed to Israel's complete devotion to Jehovah and obedience to all His requirements. An illustration of its true meaning is found in Israel's history. At the time of the rebellion of Israel at Kadesh the people rejected God. God in turn, for a time, rejected them. Since they had proved unfaithful to His covenant, they were forbidden to receive the sign of that covenant. For 38 years circumcision was prohibited (see PP 406). When at last, believing and obedient, Israel crossed the Jordan, they were willing again to enter fully into covenant relationship with God; then this rite was once more carried out at God's command (see Joshua 5:2-9). True circumcision is therefore a matter of the heart (see Deut. 10:16). The circumcision that the Colossian Christians had received was not external in the flesh. It was an inward change in heart and life typified by their baptism (see on Col. 2:12).

Putting off the body. See on Rom. 6:6; cf. Eph. 4:22.

Of the sins. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the omission of this phrase.

Of the flesh. That is, the carnal nature (see Rom. 7:14-25; 8:1-13).

Circumcision of Christ. That is, the circumcision that Christ performs, not that performed on Him. True spiritual circumcision, the removal and burying of the evil tendencies of the heart, is brought about through the agency of Jesus Christ Himself. His power alone can remove the old life and create a new man. From the ceremony of circumcision Paul draws a spiritual lesson for the Christian.

12. Buried with him. Death precedes burial. Christ laid down His life before He was buried in Joseph's new tomb. Before the Christian can be buried with Christ, he must have surrendered his life. All the ambitions of his heart and the stirrings and longings of his fleshly passions must be yielded up to his Master. As far as he is concerned, his old nature must die. Baptism is the sign of this self-renunciation, of the death of the old man and of his burial in the watery grave. Compare on Rom. 6:3, 4.

Ye are risen. Baptism not only signifies the separation through death of the sinful nature and the burial of that nature, it also signifies the birth of a new creature in Christ Jesus (see on Rom. 6:4).

Faith of the operation of God. That is, faith in the operation of God.

Raised him from the dead. Compare Eph. 1:19, 20. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead works a transformation in the believer.

13. Dead in your sins. Textual evidence is divided (cf. p. 10) between retaining and omitting the preposition "in." If it is omitted, the phrase may still be translated, "in your sins," but may also be rendered, "to your sins." The expression may thus be understood in two ways: (1) Paul is here describing the former spiritual condition of the Colossian believers. Their hearts and minds and bodies were dead, or insensitive, to all spiritual things (cf. on Eph. 2:1, 5). (2) Believers are now dead to the appeals and influence of their sinful propensities (cf. on Rom. 6:2). This thought is an extension of what Paul has said in the previous verse. The Colossians, having put off their sinful ways by accepting Christ into their hearts, and having witnessed to this change by being baptized, may now be considered as being dead to their sins. They have by faith paid the penalty of death through Christ.

Uncircumcision of your flesh. This expression shows that those to whom Paul writes, and of whom he speaks as having true circumcision (v. 11), are Gentiles. It also describes the normal state of all mankind. Everyone is born into the world outside the covenant of grace (Eph. 2:12). The two ideas "dead in your sins" and "uncircumcision of your flesh" embrace both what man has personally deserved through the exercise of wrong choice or deliberate rebellion against God, and the natural state of condemnation into which all are born. Through Jesus Christ, cultivated and hereditary tendencies to sin are overcome.

Quickened together with him. Compare on Eph. 2:5. As the Father raised up Jesus Christ, even so may all believers be raised up as new creatures. This statement is descriptive of the mystery of the new birth. Divine power brought Jesus out of the tomb into eternal life. Within the realm of man's heart and mind, the same divine power, working through the perfectly surrendered human will, raises man into the wonders of the new life of victory.

Having forgiven you. Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) the reading "having forgiven us." The forgiveness of God precedes the quickening.

Trespasses. Gr. paraptoµmata, literally, "fallings aside" (see on Matt. 6:14). The word may be used to describe an arrow dropping to one side of the target, or a soldier dropping out from the ranks of his marching company. Men have fallen from their ideals. The forgiveness of sins includes a restoration, for fallen man, of the privileges and position that he has forfeited.

14. Blotting out. Gr. exaleiphoµ, "to wipe off," "to wipe out." The word is used in classical Greek for wiping out a writing. The form of the word appearing in the present verse should be translated "having blotted out."

Handwriting. Gr. cheirographon, "a document written by hand." The word occurs only here in the NT. Elsewhere the word is frequently used of handwritten documents often of a legal character, such as a bond signed by a debtor. Compare Philemon 19. The "blotting out" of such a certificate of indebtedness was carried out only after the debt had been paid and the conditions of the note had been completely met. It was often done by placing an "X" over it, as shown by papyri examples. Also, the water-soluble ink on papyrus could be washed off or rubbed away, and new writing placed upon the material. Some commentators hold that the apostle is telling the Colossian church that their regeneration through the resurrection power of God, the restoration within them of His image, was carried out by God's blotting out, or canceling, the indebtedness of the bond they were due to fulfill. Others see a more general reference to the Mosaic law, especially as interpreted by the Jews. The latter view seems to be more in harmony with the succeeding context. The similarity with the language of Eph. 2:15 and the parallel nature of these two epistles suggest strongly that the "handwriting of ordinances" is the same as the "law of commandments contained in ordinances" (see on Eph. 2:15).

Ordinances. Gr. dogmata, "decrees," "statutes." This refers to the various laws and decrees of the Jewish legal system such as terminated at the cross (see on Eph. 2:15).

Against us. As shown grammatically by the Greek, what is "against us" and "contrary to us" is the "handwriting." Some have understood this as referring to the note of indebtedness that is against all, both Jew and Gentile; others, as referring to the Jewish legal system. For the manner in which the latter was contrary to both Jew and Gentile see on Acts 15:10; Eph. 2:15.

Took it out of the way. That is, the "handwriting." "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness" (see on Rom. 10:4). Now that Christ has come, men are no longer under a schoolmaster (see on Gal. 3:25; Eph. 2:15).

Nailing it to his cross. The cross marks the transition from one economy (the Jewish) to the other (the Christian). This same idea is expressed in Eph. 2:16, where reconciliation is represented as taking place on the cross.

15. Having spoiled. Gr. apekduomai, literally, "to strip off one's clothes." Here, perhaps, "to strip off armor," "to despoil." There has been much discussion as to the subject of the action. Some hold that it is the Father, inasmuch as He is the subject of "quickened" (v. 13). Others believe that the passage is more suitably applied to Christ. Grammatically there is no way of determining, and the matter must be settled on the basis of the meaning of the passage (see below).

Principalities and powers. These terms may refer to earthly rulers (Luke 12:11; Titus 3:1) or to supernatural beings (see on Eph. 6:12). In the light of false teaching at Colossae, there may be a reference here to the supposed angelic powers and elemental deities (see p. 184; see on Col. 2:8). In reality Christ did triumph in a special sense over Satan and his angels. His death on the cross resulted in a further casting out of Satan from the sympathies of the heavenly world (see on Rev. 12:9). Throughout the ministry of Jesus, Satan was at hand to tempt and annoy Him. The life of Christ was a continual series of conflicts, but in every encounter Jesus proved victorious. Every effort on the part of Satan to destroy Him only further exposed the workings of the deceiver. Christ's life of victory, culminating in Calvary, spelled the doom of the devil. Satan's disguise was torn away. His methods of operation were laid open before the angels and the entire heavenly universe. He had exposed his true colors. See DA 123, 761. By His cross Jesus Christ stripped from the principalities and powers of darkness both their robe of office and authority as princes of this world, and their armor of strength in their warfare against right. Thus it seems preferable to regard Jesus as the subject of the action expressed by "having spoiled" (see above).

Made a shew ... openly. Or, "made a public example" (RSV). Christ's cruel death on Calvary caused Satan and his legions to be exposed to the view of the universe for what they are, murderers and fiends.

Triumphing. Gr. thriambeuoµ (see on 2 Cor. 2:14).

In it. Or, "in him." The Greek may be understood either way. The "it" could refer to the "handwriting" or to the "cross" (v. 14). The "him" could refer to Christ if the Father is regarded as the subject of the action expressed in the verse (see above on "having spoiled").

16. Therefore. That is, in view of the fact that the Jewish legal system was at an end, and with it the ceremonial system (see on Eph. 2:15).

Judge. This doubtless points to false teachers who among other things insisted on the binding claims of the Jewish ceremonial system (see p. 184).

In meat, or in drink. Or, "in eating or in drinking." These words doubtless refer to the meal and drink offerings presented by the Israelites in compliance with the sacrificial system, which was codified in the ceremonial law. Some have erroneously concluded that Paul's statement implies the abolition of the prohibition against the eating of foods declared as unclean (see Lev. 11). That this cannot be the apostle's meaning is clear from the following observations:

(1) The meat and drink are declared to be a shadow of Christ (Col. 2:17); that is, they point forward to Christ's sacrifice and ministry. The ceremonial meal and drink offerings clearly belong in this category, but the prohibition against unclean foods does not.

(2) The prohibition not to eat certain meats antedates the ceremonial law (see on Gen. 7:2). Hence, certain animals are to be viewed as unclean for reasons other than ceremonial. The indulgence of the appetite by eating impure foods frustrates the perfect designs of the Creator (see PP 308; 2T 70). The apostle is not giving permission to the Colossian Christians to eat and drink what they want, disregarding all criticism. What he is saying is that Christians are no longer obliged to carry out the requirements of the ceremonial law. These meal and drink offerings have met their fulfillment in Christ.

Holyday. The ceremonial ordinances contain commandments for the observance of various holy days--the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles (see Lev. 23).

New moon. The first day of each month, or new moon day (see Num. 10:10; 28:11; cf. 1 Sam. 20:5; Isa. 66:23).

Sabbath days. Gr. sabbata. This may represent either a genuine plural of the Gr. sabbaton or a transliteration of the Aramaic shabbata', a singular form. Hence sabbata, though grammatically plural in form, may and often does represent a singular (Matt. 28:1; etc.). Either form may be adopted here, for the interpretation of the passage does not depend upon whether the reading is "sabbath days," or "a sabbath." The type of sabbath under consideration is shown by the phrase "which are a shadow of things to come" (Col. 2:17). The weekly Sabbath is a memorial of an event at the beginning of earth's history (Gen. 2:2, 3; Ex. 20:8-11; PP 48). Hence, the "sabbath days" Paul declares to be shadows pointing to Christ cannot refer to the weekly Sabbath designated by the fourth commandment, but must indicate the ceremonial rest days that reach their realization in Christ and His kingdom (see Lev. 23:6-8, 15, 16, 21, 24, 25, 27, 28, 37, 38).

17. Which are a shadow. This phrase is the key to the understanding of v. 16. All the items the apostle lists in v. 16 are "shadows," or types, symbolizing the reality that is Christ. A shadow has no substance; it is cast by something substantial. Compare the use of the word "shadow" in Heb. 8:5 and 10:1. The Jewish ceremonies were shadows cast by heavenly realities. Christ's life, ministry, and kingdom are the reality. The portrayal of this in the ceremonial law was only the shadow.

On this passage Albert Barnes, Presbyterian commentator, well observes:

"There is no evidence from this passage that he [Paul] would teach that there was no obligation to observe any holy time, for there is not the slightest reason to believe that he meant to teach that one of the ten commandments had ceased to be binding on mankind. ... He had his eye on the great number of days which were observed by the Hebrews as festivals, as a part of their ceremonial and typical law, and not to the moral law, or the ten commandments. No part of the moral law--no one of the ten commandments could be spoken of as `a shadow of good things to come.' These commandments are, from the nature of moral law, of perpetual and universal application."

Body is of Christ. In contrast with the shadow, Jesus is the fullness of reality. It is to Him that every type points, and in Him that every symbol reaches its fullness. In finding Him, Christians turn their backs upon the typical, shadowy outlines, walking now in the fullness of the divine Presence.

In these verses Paul has completely removed the ground from beneath the feet of the Judaizing false teachers. They advocated a return to Judaic ceremonial requirements. The apostle meets their arguments by asserting that the shadows have served their function now that Christ, the reality, has come. In all this argument Paul is in no way minimizing the claims of the Decalogue or of the seventh-day Sabbath. The moral law is eternal and perfect (see on Rom. 14:1; Eph. 2:15).

18. Beguile ... of ... reward. Gr. katabrabeuoµ, "to render adverse judgments against," "to decide against," "to condemn." There is a possible reference to the figure of an umpire disqualifying a contestant, since brabeus means "umpire." The apostle now moves to another source of danger faced by the Colossian believers. He proceeds to handle the peculiar problems resulting from the false teachings advocated among them (see p. 184).

Voluntary humility. The artificial humility practiced to increase merit, self-imposed abasement resulting in unnecessary and unworthy asceticism--these are the results of pride. They are performed to win merit by personal, human effort. In practice they deny the righteousness of Christ, leaving no room for its operation in the human heart through faith. Compare 1T 297.

Worshipping of angels. These false teachers apparently accepted the guidance of angels, whom they considered to be lower emanations of God. They dwelt upon the weakness of man and his inferiority to and distance from the great and eternal God. This viewpoint was probably an extension of the voluntary humility they advocated. If man's body was utterly worthless, then he could not approach God; he needed intermediaries. So these they worshiped as being superior to man and, in a sense, extensions of the Deity. Paul warns the Colossians against accepting this philosophy. It runs contrary to the teaching of Christ. Jesus, citing Deut. 6:13, declared, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Matt. 4:10). Heavenly angels prohibit adoration of themselves (see Rev. 22:9).

Intruding. Gr. embateuoµ, literally, "to step upon," "to stand upon"; also "to enter upon," as to invade a country; figuratively, "to investigate," "to pry into." Embateuoµ was used as a technical term in the terminology of the mystery religions, as shown in several inscriptions from Asia Minor dated about the 2d century after Christ. The term was thus probably common on the lips of the false teachers, and may have been used for initiation into the mysteries of the cult, in which case its meaning would be "to initiate."

Things ... not seen. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the omission of the negative, thus reading "things ... seen," meaning, probably, "visions." Compare the RSV translation of this phrase, "taking his stand on visions." If the translation "to initiate" is adopted for embateuoµ (see above on "intruding"), the passage may be translated, "which they have seen while being initiated."

Vainly puffed up. This indicates a state of self-glorification and self-satisfaction.

Fleshly mind. That is, a mind controlled by the flesh in contrast with a mind controlled by the Spirit (cf. Rom. 8:1-13).

19. Head. That is, Christ (cf. on Eph. 4:15, 16). The ultimate of the philosophy such as the false teachers at Colossae taught was a denial of Christ.

Joints and bands. As the members of the physical body are held together by means of joints and sinews, all of which are part of the body, so the members of the Christian church, the mystic body of Christ, should be held together. The mystic body receives its strength and is held together by a personal union with the Lord Jesus Himself. Nothing, not even angels, should come between us and our Saviour.

Nourishment ministered. Gr. epichoreµgeoµ, "to supply," "to provide," "to support." The phrase may be translated, "the whole body, supported and knit together through joints and ligaments."

Knit together. Compare Eph. 4:16; Col. 2:2. The Greek verb form indicates a continuing, developing process.

Increase of God. The mysterious force that brings about growth is the power of God Himself. Without this mighty principle of life, growth would be impossible. The really harmonious character can develop only as divine power unites with human effort. This is the practical outworking of righteousness by faith.

20. If ye be dead with Christ. Literally, "if you died with Christ" (see on Rom. 6:5-8).

Rudiments of the world. Here Paul is using the expression with special reference to the philosophy of the false teachers at Colossae (see on v. 8). In a more general way the "rudiments of the world" may be understood as the elementary things upon which the world depends for its life, the ABC of its structure. "World" is placed in contrast with heaven, and means the age in which we live, with its drives and interests. A man who is alive to the world, who is living according to the ways of the world and its philosophy, is dead to the things of God. The opposite is equally true: He who is "dead with Christ" and now lives by the principles of the kingdom of heaven, has turned his back forever upon the basic rudiments of this world, and is alive unto God.

Why, as though living. In substance Paul asks the Colossians: "Why, having relinquished false philosophy and the ambitions and fundamentals of this world through having died with Christ, are you living as though still bound by these things?"

Are ye subject to ordinances? Literally, "are you continuing to submit yourselves to decrees?" such as the obsolete ordinances of Judaism (see on v. 16). There may be a reference also to ascetic restrictions and decrees derived from cult sources. The false philosophy at Colossae contained both Judaic and pagan elements (see p. 184). "Now," Paul says, "why, since you are not obliged to keep these ordinances, are you still concerned with them?"

21. Touch not. Or, "handle not." The Mosaic ritual was full of prohibitions against touching leprosy, unclean issues, dead bodies, and other unhallowed things (Lev. 12-15; Num. 19:11-22). The lesson taught by these prohibitions was that the true follower of God would keep himself clean and pure from every contamination, moral and physical, that he might glorify his God. The false teachers probably added other taboos.

Taste not. The reference is doubtless to various dietary restrictions largely man made (see v. 8), such as those mentioned in 1 Tim. 4:3-5. See on Col. 2:16 for evidence that Paul is not removing restriction from the use of foods hygienically unclean. The false teachers at Colossae probably urged many taboos in the matter of diet.

Handle not. Or, "touch not." The Greek verb is practically synonymous with that translated "touch" in this verse. Some commentators suggest the first should be translated "handle" and the last "touch." The reference is to the various taboos the false teachers urged upon the Colossian Christians, some Judaic in origin and others drawn from Eastern philosophies.

22. All are to perish. That is, the things prohibited all perish. They are thus temporary in nature and of no lasting spiritual or moral value.

Of men. The decrees and taboos of the false teachers, even though to some extent similar to the requirements of the Jewish ceremonial system, were all only human requirements. God did not impose these upon men. The death of Christ had put an end to the ceremonial law, and what was beyond this God had never required.

23. Shew of wisdom. Or, "appearance of wisdom" (RSV). Paul is warning against being deceived and misled by appearances.

Will worship. Or, "self-made religion." The basis of all man-made diligence in ceremonies is "will worship." Man relies upon himself; he reveres the personal efforts he puts forth to gain favor with God. In the vigilance he imposes upon himself, in the spiritual tortures self-inflicted, in rituals self-designed in the form of worship contrived by man, his own will and prowess are the factors exalted. In contrast, the Christian philosophy puts human will in an entirely different place. Man's will should be used only, and constantly, in making the choice for Christ. Christ is then paramount in the human soul, and man no longer exercises his will independently (see on Gal. 2:20). His daily prayer of consecration is the same as was the prayer of his Saviour, "Not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42).

Humility. Or, "lowliness." Paul is here referring to mock humility such as that displayed by the Pharisees and ascetics who were actually guilty of the pride of exhibitionism. Such persons were inordinately proud of their humility, thus proving they possessed none of the genuine quality. Thus it was with the heretical teachers at Colossae.

Neglecting. Literally, "not sparing." The religious extremists of Colossae apparently looked upon the body as being of itself sinful. Their severity with the body evidently was extreme, and out of harmony with the Christian teaching that the body is the "temple of the Holy Ghost" (1 Cor. 6:19), and contrary to the instruction to present the body a living sacrifice (see on Rom. 12:1).

Honour. Gr. timeµ, "price," "value," "honor." The translation "value" is adopted in the interpretation given below.

To. Gr. pros, which in some contexts means "against," as probably here (cf. Eph. 6:11, 12). For the meaning of the passage when pros is thus translated see below under "satisfying of the flesh."

Satisfying of the flesh. Literally, "over-indulgence of the flesh." The last part of this verse has been declared to be the most difficult in the entire epistle. One can only conjecture as to its meaning. A common interpretation is that the carrying out of all these human laws and speculations is of no value against overindulgence of the flesh. The only thing that will achieve this is complete surrender of the heart to Christ and the death of the will to the appeals of the world.

Ellen G. White Comments

1-4AA 473

2-4GW 305; 8T 295

3 COL 22, 115; DA 465; Ed 13; FE 177, 181; MB 34; ML 360; SC 17, 109; 2T 510; 5T 703

4 AA 474

6 SC 52, 69

6, 7 FE 303

6-8CH 584; EW 25

6-10AA 473; GW 305; 8T 295

7 AA 175; FE 231, 304

8 GW 16; 1T 297

8-107T 204

9 COL 115; Ev 231, 614; MB 34, 78; PK 597

9, 10 DA 181; FE 306; GW 57; MYP 55; 8T 334

10 CH 369, 593; CT 18, 491; Ed 257; FE 303, 376, 429, 446; GW 113; MB 21; ML 15, 276, 340; MM 41, 219; 6T 167; 7T 248

14 AA 194; EW 33; PP 365

15, 17 DA 165

17-196T 235

18 FE 304; 1T 297, 299

19 1T 300

21 Te 289; 3T 561; 5T 360

23 2T 612

Colossians Chapter 3

1 He sheweth where we should seek Christ. 5 He exhorteth to mortification, 10 to put off the old man, and to put on Christ, 12 exhorting to charity, humility, and other several duties.

1. If. There is no doubt implied in the Greek. The phrase thus introduced has an argumentative conditional force. The condition is assumed as being true.

Risen with Christ. Paul's words might be paraphrased, "Since then you have been raised with Christ." The "then" takes us back to ch. 2:20, and still further back to vs. 12, 13. Paul is stressing the glorious position and privileges that the believer has in his Saviour. The poor expedient of a legalistic, or mechanical, religion, full of routines and taboos, by contrast with vital Christianity, is needless and futile.

Seek. That is, make a habit of seeking, as the Greek implies (cf. Matt. 6:33).

Those things. The drive of the will, vitalized by the power of Jesus, should be directed to heavenly things. Man's objectives and efforts, turned away from the rudiments of the world, should be centered in heavenly realities.

Which are above. In contrast with the "rudiments of the world" (ch. 2:20).

Sitteth. This word suggests the assumption of a permanent office (cf. Mark 14:62). Christ's throne is settled in the heavens.

Right hand of God. This is a position of authority and honor (see on Acts 2:33; Rom. 8:34). It figuratively describes the union of Christ with the Father in the government of the universe (see on Phil. 2:5-8; cf. on Eph. 1:20).

2. Set your affection on. Literally, "continually think of," or "continually pay attention to."

Things above. That is, things in heaven (cf. on v. 1). Where a man's treasure is, there his heart will be (Matt. 6:21).

The earth. This expression is in contrast with "heaven," implied in "above." Whereas heavenly things pertain to Christ and eternal life, earthly things have to do with the program set up by Satan in rebellion against God, and from them the Christian turns, for they are not his goal.

3. For ye are dead. Literally, "For you died," that is, symbolically, in baptism (see on Rom. 6:2-4). Death precedes the new life. There is a clear distinction between the unregenerate and the regenerate nature. This spiritual death of which Paul speaks is the result of the complete surrender of the human will to God through faith in Christ.

Hid with Christ. The form of the Greek verb indicates that the act of hiding was complete and that its effect continues on to the present. The life is still hidden. The life here spoken of is that which the believer receives when he accepts Christ. Jesus said, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" (John 3:36). It is his now, and will be translated into glorious immortality at the second coming of Christ (see on John 8:51).

4. Christ ... our life. Compare on John 1:4. Not only is Jesus the author of the Christian life and the ultimate objective of human endeavors; He is also the daily source of strength and guidance to the sons and daughters of God, and the guarantee of future immortal life. The Christian's life is indivisible from Christ.

Shall appear. Gr. phanerooµ, "to make visible," "to make manifest." When used of the second advent of Christ, phanerooµ emphasizes the fact that Jesus, now hidden from mortal sight, will at His advent be revealed to men (cf. Rev. 1:7). Phanerooµ is used of the second advent also in 1 Peter 5:4; 1 John 3:2.

Appear ... in glory. Or, "manifested ... in glory." Phanerooµ is here used also of the saints (see above on "shall appear"), who will be manifested "in glory," with bodies "fashioned like unto his glorious body" (Phil. 3:21). "When he shall appear, we shall be like him" (1 John 3:2). The prayer of Christ, "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am" (John 17:24), will then be fulfilled. Those who have been members of Christ's kingdom of grace on earth will then be citizens of the kingdom of glory.

5. Mortify. Literally, "put to death" (see on Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:24).

Therefore. That is, in view of what the apostle has just said (vs. 2-4).

Your members. That is, the organs and faculties of the body, here probably to be understood as those pertaining to the old man, as indicated by the phrase "which are upon the earth." The old man, with his members employed as instruments of unrighteousness, must die.

Fornication. Gr. porneia, a general term for illicit sexual relationships of all kinds (cf. Eph. 5:3).

Uncleanness. Or, "impurity," "moral defilement."

Inordinate affection. Gr. pathos, "passion," "passionate desire," used in an evil sense in the NT. In Rom. 1:26 pathos is used with atimia, "dishonor," in the expression "vile affections."

Concupiscence. Gr. epithumia, "desire" (see on Rom. 7:7).

Covetousness. Gr. pleonexia, "the desire to have more." Compare the use of the word in Rom. 1:29; 2 Cor. 9:5; Eph. 4:19; 5:3; etc. Covetousness is an antisocial vice, a self-assertive longing for or grasping of what is the right or possession of another.

Which is idolatry. The substitution of anything in the heart in the place of God is idolatry (cf. on Gal. 5:20).

6. The wrath of God. See on Rom. 1:18.

Children of disobedience. Textual evidence is divided (cf. p. 10) between retaining and omitting the phrase "on the children of disobedience." For the expression "children of disobedience" see on Eph. 2:2.

7. Walked. Gr. peripateoµ, "to conduct oneself" (see on Eph. 2:2, 10).

Some time. Or, "formerly."

8. But now. In contrast with "some time" (v. 7).

Put off. Gr. apotitheµmi, "to put off from oneself" as a garment (Acts 7:58); metaphorically, "to put off," "to lay aside" (cf. on Rom. 13:12). The verb is an imperative in the Greek. Paul is commanding the Colossians once and for all by an act of will to put away from themselves all that he is about to name.

Anger. Gr. orgeµ, the word used in v. 6 for the "wrath of God." See on Rom. 2:8; cf. on Eph. 4:26, 31.

Wrath. Gr. thumos (see on Rom. 2:8).

Malice. Gr. kakia (see on Rom. 1:29).

Blasphemy. Gr. blaspheµmia, "slander," "railing speech," directed against either men or God (see Mark 2:7; 7:22; cf. on Rev. 13:1).

Filthy communication. Gr. aischrologia, "shameful speaking." This is the only use in the NT of this word. It suggests not only filthy talking but also foulmouthed abuse. Compare on Eph. 4:29.

Out of your mouth. One who speaks "filthy communications" is but laying bare the foulness of his soul (see Matt. 15:11-18). On the contrary, he who bridles his tongue and offends not in word, "the same is a perfect man" (James 3:2). The Christian must set a watch upon his lips (Ps. 141:3).

Lie not. See on Eph. 4:25.

Put off. Gr. apekduomai (see on ch. 2:15). The figure is that of laying aside clothing.

Old man. See on Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:22; cf. on John 3:3, 5.

His deeds. Such practices as the apostle has enumerated in vs. 5, 8, 9.

Put on. This expression indicates the reversal of the process of taking off garments.

New man. See on Eph. 4:24; cf. DA 176; 9T 20, 23.

Which is renewed. Rather, "which is being renewed," the form of the Greek word indicating a continuous process. The word translated "renewed" stresses newness in quality. The picture is one of a gradual development into the full knowledge of God. Growth is the product and the evidence of life, both in nature and in the spiritual life. The power of the Life-giver is the only agency by which growth can be maintained.

Knowledge. Gr. epignoµsis, "full, complete, and thorough knowledge." Compare chs. 1:9, 10; 2:2 ("acknowledgement"). This knowledge is the experimental realization and understanding of the principles of heaven, and it is the purpose toward which the "renewing" tends.

After the image. That is, according to the image. See on Rom. 8:29.

That created him. That is, that created the new man. As Christ is the express image of His Father (Heb. 1:3), so the Christian is to grow "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (see on Eph. 4:13).

11. Greek nor Jew. In the new order of Christian living all national distinctions are removed (see on Rom. 10:12; Gal. 3:28; cf. on Rom. 1:6). Throughout his epistles Paul repeats this truth.

Circumcision nor uncircumcision. See on Rom. 2:25-29; Gal. 5:6.

Barbarian. See on Acts 28:2; Rom. 1:14.

Scythian. A synonym for the wildest of barbarians.

Bond nor free. Or, "slave nor free." Here the apostle speaks of social distinctions. Paul is declaring that in the sphere of Christ, and in the process of permitting the creative energy of God to bring about a new creature, no national, religious, racial, or social barriers exist. "The life of Christ established a religion in which there is no caste, a religion by which Jew and Gentile, free and bond, are linked in a common brotherhood, equal before God" (9T 191).

Christ is all, and in all. Jesus Christ is here depicted as the goal for ultimate realization. He is "the fulness of him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1:23). Since His character is in all His people, how can there be any distinction among them? There can be no rivalry or enmity between members of the body of Christ. Jesus is the common heritage of His saints, their ideal, their goal in character building. He is also the means by which this brotherhood of victors is attained.

12. Put on therefore. Since this is so, Paul stresses the need for a voluntary act by which the Christian takes upon himself the likeness of Christ and His character. See on v. 10.

Elect of God. These are the subjects of the kingdom of heaven. All who have accepted Christ, irrespective of national, religious, racial, and social distinctions, are the elect of God. They are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. See TM 422; see on Rom. 8:33; cf. PP 207, 208.

Holy. Those who have been set aside, who are separate from the world, and who are devoted to the service of God (see on Rom. 1:7). Holiness is the manifestation of a life in perfect agreement with God. "As God is holy in His sphere, so fallen man, through faith in Christ, is to be holy in his sphere" (AA 559).

Beloved. That is, beloved by God.

Bowels. Gr. splagchna, "the inward parts," metaphorically, the seat of the emotions.

Mercies. Gr. oiktirmoi, "tenderest compassions" (see on Rom. 12:1). A heart of compassion is a distinguishing feature of true Christianity.

Kindness. Gr. chreµstoteµs, "goodness," "gentleness," "excellence" (see Rom. 3:12; Gal. 5:22; Eph. 2:7). This word expresses love in action (1 Cor. 13:4). It is descriptive of gentle, gracious, kindly consideration, both in disposition and action, toward the needs of one's neighbor.

Humbleness of mind. Gr. tapeinophrosuneµ (see on Acts 20:19; Eph. 4:2). Compare the use of the word in Phil. 2:3; 1 Peter 5:5. In Col. 2:18, 23 the word describes false humility. The child of God "should labor constantly for humbleness of mind and that meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price" (2 T the 288).

Meekness. Meekness is the absence of self-justification, the opposite of self-assertion. It is a mild and kindly equanimity. Our Saviour, during His hours of bitterest trial, was the perfect example of true meekness (see DA 734). This pattern the true Christian must strive to emulate in his daily life (see DA 354). See on Matt. 5:5; cf. Gal. 5:23.

Longsuffering. Gr. makrothumia, "patience," "patient endurance." Compare the use of the related verb, makrothumeoµ, in 1 Cor. 13:4; James 5:7. Makrothumia depicts utmost restraint, long-protracted refusal of the soul to yield to any passion, particularly anger. Compare on 2 Cor. 6:6; Col. 1:11.

13. Forbearing one another. Or, "tolerating each other."

Forgiving one another. In our relationships with fellow Christians, not only should there be habitual outward self-restraint or forbearance in overt words or acts, there should also be the habit of inwardly passing over the faults, wrongs, or weaknesses of others. This is true forgiveness (cf. Mark 11:25; Eph. 4:32).

Quarrel. Gr. mompheµ, "complaint," "cause for complaint," "blame." This word is not used elsewhere in the NT.

Christ. Textual evidence is divided (cf. p. 10) between this and the reading "the Lord." The great standard of man's forgiveness of man is God's forgiveness of the human family (cf. Eph. 4:32; MB 113, 114; 5T 170).

14. Charity. Gr. agapeµ. See on Matt. 5:43; 1 Cor. 13:1. That which should bind together all other qualities is love. No matter how high may be the profession of the nominal Christian, if his soul is not filled with love for God and for his fellow men, he is not a true disciple of Christ (see on 1 Cor. 13:1-3).

Bond. Gr. sundesmos, "that which binds together," "a bond." In ch. 2:19 sundesmos is used of the ligaments of the body. Love binds together into a perfect unity the qualities of the individual Christian and the various members of the mystic body of Christ.

Perfectness. Or, "maturity." Each in his own sphere is to attain to the highest development. "First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn" (Mark 4:28). As God is perfect in His sphere, so must the Christian be in his (see Matt. 5:48; COL 65; AA 531).

15. God. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the reading "Christ." The peace of Christ is here described, not as a static virtue, but as an active power. It enables man to live in tranquility, undisturbed and trusting, amid the hardest circumstances of life. Christ, the source of this peace, becomes captain of the soul and serenely pilots the ship of life into a safe harbor (see John 14:27; Eph. 2:14; Phil. 4:7).

Rule. Gr. brabeuoµ, literally, "to be the umpire," hence, "to award the prize" (the related noun, brabeion, "prize," occurs in 1 Cor. 9:24; Phil. 3:14), "to pronounce decisions," "to arbitrate." From the heart come decisions and policies that affect not only the individual but also the church and society. Paul here is telling the Colossian Christians to enthrone the peace that comes from Christ as the "umpire" of their lives.

Are called. Rather, "were called." This peace of Christ enjoyed by the true believers is an essential part of the purpose of God through the gospel. It is impossible to envisage a Christian at war with his God and with his brethren.

In one body. The mystic body of Christ is the organized group of believers who have as their goal the establishment of the divine purposes (see Eph. 1:22, 23; 2:16; 4:4). Since all true Christians are part of the body of Christ, there can be no disagreements without injury to every member, thus making the entire body sick. God desires that all should be cooperative, united in love and service.

Be ye thankful. It is a Christian duty to be thankful. Gratitude to God may be likened to the soil in which the tender plant of peace flourishes (see Phil. 4:6, 7). Thankfulness is acknowledgment that God is the giver of every good and perfect gift and the guide of the Christian in every step of life's journey. Since God works all things together for the good of those who love Him (see on Rom. 8:28), and since nothing is hidden from the eyes of Him with whom we have to do, what need is there to fear? The Christian who today lifts his voice in praise, will one day join the hallelujah chorus of redeemed men and unfallen angels.

16. The word of Christ. This may be understood as either the message that comes from Christ or the gospel that treats of Him. Compare the phrases "word of the Lord" (2 Thess. 3:1), "my word" (John 5:24).

Dwell in you. Or, "make its home in you."

Richly. This word emphasizes the overflowing abundance that brings enrichment to the soul. The gospel story on their lips, within their hearts, guiding their thoughts and actions, would enrich the Colossians in things of the kingdom of heaven.

In all wisdom. This may be connected either with the foregoing, as in the KJV, or with what follows--"in all wisdom teaching and admonishing. ..."

Teaching. This is the imparting of knowledge. Patiently and systematically, beginning with the simple and progressing into the profound, he who has the word of Christ dwelling in his heart must teach its principles to others, all the while exemplifying them in his own life. Compare on 1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:11.

Admonishing. Gr. noutheteoµ (see on ch. 1:28).

Psalms. Gr. psalmoi, one of the OT psalms, or a hymn of praise possibly sung to the accompaniment of stringed instruments. The related word, psalloµ, often means to play an instrument (see 1 Sam. 16:16, LXX), though it may mean simply "to sing praises."

Hymns. Gr. humnoi, from which our word "hymns" is derived. By these the apostle may have designated songs distinctively Christian in sentiment.

Spiritual songs. That is, sacred songs.

Grace. Gr. charis (see on Rom. 3:24). Many scholars think that the meaning "thankfulness" applies here. Others think that the reference is to divine grace. See on Eph. 5:20.

In your hearts. The melody of the lips should first fill the soul. Only then will it be effective in moving others. As the heart senses the significance of what is being sung, the voice will portray its inner qualities.

To the Lord. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the reading "to God." The apostle has gathered into this verse the fullness of the ministry of one whose heart is enriched by the abiding presence of the word of Christ. By word and song he teaches and admonishes his brother and praises and extols his God.

17. Word or deed. These are the two great outlets of human life and conduct. Nothing unworthy of Christ is to be done by His children; nothing unworthy is to be said.

In the name. That is, in the spirit and character of one who truly serves Christ, and with reference to Christ. The Christian should ever bear in mind that day by day he is building a character for eternity. He should constantly place himself under God's control. He must be guarded in all that he says and does. He must bear in mind that in his life "religion is not merely one influence among others; it is to be an influence dominating all others" (CT 489).

Giving thanks. As an accompaniment of all that the Christian thinks and does there should be praise (cf. Eph. 5:4, 20; 1 Thess. 5:18). Repeatedly the apostle has emphasized a need for expressing our gratitude and thanks to God (see Col. 1:12; 2:7; 3:15; 4:2).

And the Father. Rather, "even the Father." The Christian's object of praise is God, who is his Father. Jesus is the agent through whom we extend our gratitude to the Father.

18. Wives, submit yourselves. See on Eph. 5:22.

Own. Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) the omission of this word, which probably came in from the parallel text, Eph. 5:22.

Fit. Or, "proper," "suitable."

In the Lord. See on Eph. 1:4.

19. Love your wives. See on Eph. 5:25.

20. Children, obey your parents. See on Eph. 6:1.

In all things. This must not be construed as including any requirement contrary to God's will. A sinful command lays no obligation on the child. Paul is addressing Christian families, hence there is no need for the qualification.

Unto the Lord. Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) the reading "in the Lord," paralleling v. 18. The sphere of obedience is the Lord, and to please Him should be the child's supreme objective. While he is carrying out the rules of his parents he is pleasing God.

21. Provoke ... to anger. Gr. erethizoµ, "to stir up," either in a good sense, as in 2 Cor. 9:2, or in an evil sense, as here. By continual nagging and complaining, finding fault and censuring, the feelings of children can be roused in revulsion against all forms of discipline.

Discouraged. Gr. athumooµ, "to lose heart," "to become spiritless or despondent." The word occurs only here in the NT. Under continual provocation the young person may lose heart in his attempts to attain victory over his weaknesses, and give up the Christian life altogether. His father's objectives may have been right, but his unfortunate method of attempting to achieve perfection in his child produces a disastrous result. See Eph. 6:4.0

22. Servants, obey. See on Eph. 6:5.

Eyeservice, as menpleasers. The motive for service should not be merely to satisfy a human standard, to work while the overseer is looking on and to give the minimum in effort. Such servants may look upon themselves as merely pleasing their human masters, but this is unworthy as a motive for Christians. See on Eph. 6:6.

Singleness. Gr. haploteµs, "simplicity," "sincerity" (see on Rom. 12:8). This is the exact opposite of eyeservice. One who looks only to please his master, and that only while the master is watching, and who at other times does nothing, is a hypocrite. See on Eph. 6:5.

Fearing God. Or, "reverencing God." He is the great master. His standards are those that should impel Christians in whatever walk they may be to act as recognizing the Lord to be the One to whom they are finally accountable.

23. Heartily. Literally, "out of [your] soul" (see on Eph. 6:6; cf. Deut. 6:5; Mark 12:30).

To the Lord. See on Eph. 6:7.

24. Ye shall receive. See on Eph. 6:8.

Reward of the inheritance. That is, the reward which is the inheritance. Since there is no difference, as far as the kingdom of God is concerned, between the bond and the free (see on v. 11), Paul now extends that idea into declaring that the slave, too, may have the reward of the inheritance.

For. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the omission of this word.

Ye serve. With the omission of "for" (see above) this may be rendered as an imperative, "serve ye." Either translation can be fitted into the context. It is true that slaves must take orders from their earthly masters, but their standards for service and ultimate purpose should be to please Christ above.

25. He that doeth wrong. Some understand this to apply to the slave who does not render his full measure of service; others, to the master who mistreats his slave; still others regard the statement as general. Against the view that it is the slave who is admonished is the observation that the statement "there is no respect of persons" is generally if not always applied to one of higher rank. A comparison with Eph. 6:9 suggests that the second view is probably correct.

Shall receive. Gr. komizoµ, "to receive [wages]," "to receive [a recompense]." Compare the use of the word in 2 Cor. 5:10. Paul is doubtless referring to the final judgment when the oppressive master or the unfaithful slave will receive recompense for their unrighteous conduct.

No respect of persons. Literally, "no receiving of face" (see on Eph. 6:9; cf. on Rom. 2:11).

Ellen G. White Comments

1 MB 91; MYP 317; 1T 705; 6T 147

1, 2 CS 136; 5T 536

1-3AA 476; 2T 177; 6T 99

1-4CT 258; 1T 508

1-6MM 147

2 CT 234; ML 105, 359; MYP 104; 1T 279; 2T 184, 675, 690

2, 3 CS 158; 2T 690

3 AA 512, 594; CH 342; CT 152; DA 224, 527; Ev 447, 644; FE 289; GW 373; MB 16, 26; MH 136; ML 273, 277, 318; MM 144; PP 450; SL 13; SR 319; Te 113; TM 143; 2T 158, 425; 4T 614; 5T 514, 573; 6T 51, 121, 146; 7T 194; 9T 62, 106

3, 4 DA 787; MM 7; MYP 84; TM 512; 1T 550; 2T 145; 4T 357

5 AA 447; COL 261; CS 26, 84, 223; PP 439, 496; 3T 130, 201, 250, 387, 513; 4T 476; 5T 337

7, 8 AA 477

8 ML 334

10 MH 425

11 AA 246, 390; 4T 401

12 AH 114; 1T 165; 2T 332; 7T 46

12-15AA 477; 4T 243, 257; 5T 169

12-17SL 87; 6T 99

14-171T 508

15 MH 253; 5T 75; 8T 191; 9T 136

17 CT 489; MM 42; 5T 170

18, 19 AH 116

20 1T 497

21 CG 279

22-24MYP 230

23 MB 99; ML 219; SC 83; 4T 572; 5T 459, 726; 9T 221

23, 24 CG 294; Ed 226; 7T 180

24 COL 346

Colossians Chapter 4

1 He exhorteth them to be fervent in prayer, 5 to walk wisely toward them that are not yet come to the true knowledge of Christ. 10 He saluteth them, and wisheth them all prosperity.

1. Masters. See on Eph. 6:9.

Give. Gr. parechoµ, "to hold out to," "to offer," "to supply," here in a form that would imply "on your part."

Servants. Gr. douloi (see on Rom. 1:1; Eph. 6:9).

That which is just. The master must not act from mere caprice. As a human being the slave has inalienable rights. These rights should be respected and his basic needs supplied.

Equal. Gr. isoteµs, "equity," "fairness," "impartial treatment" (see Lev. 25:39-43; Deut. 15:12-14; see on Gal. 3:28; Eph. 6:9).

Ye also have a Master. The master is but the steward of Christ. The wealth he has and his ability to manage affairs were given to him by his Lord in heaven. This philosophy is but the extension of the golden rule into the relationship of the master and his slaves. Paul is saying in effect, "Treat your slaves as you would wish your Master in heaven to treat you." Compare Matt. 23:8; Eph. 6:9.

2. Continue. Gr. proskartereoµ (see on Rom. 12:12). Compare on Eph. 6:18; 1 Thess. 5:17.

Watch. The apostle's admonition stresses the need for continual alertness in the act of prayer. Constantly we are to be on guard lest the adversary distract us, and lest we lose our alertness and become weary.

With thanksgiving. Or, "in thanksgiving." Compare on Eph. 6:18. see on 1 Thess. 5:18. Prayer and watchfulness should always be in the setting of gratitude to God. Though we are in daily need of help and guidance, we nevertheless have much for which we should be ever thankful.

3. Praying ... for us. see on Eph. 6:19. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul includes his fellow laborers in his request for intercessory prayer.

Door of utterance. Literally, "door of the word," that is, a door for the word, a door for preaching. Compare the figure of a door in Acts 14:27; 1 Cor. 16:9; 2 Cor. 2:12. Opportunities to preach the gospel are looked upon as doors flung wide for the preacher to pass through with the good news. Paul desires that he might be liberated, for the preaching of the gospel is hindered by his captivity. He knows that only God can bring this about, and so he would have the Colossians believers importune Heaven that the Lord might so work. Such prayer would unite the Colossian believers in the great interests of the gospel and incite them to greater activity.

Mystery of Christ. see on Rom. 11:25; cf. Eph. 3:3-6. The mystery of Christ is the mystery that Christ has revealed. The far-reaching purposes of God are unknown to man apart from the revelation of Christ.

Bonds. It was because Paul preached the mystery of Christ that he was in bonds. His arrest in Jerusalem was a direct result of the hostility of the Jews toward the message he bore.

4. Make it manifest. Or, "reveal it," that is, the mystery. The great ambition of every preacher is to reveal this truth of the gospel clearly.

As I ought to speak. Or, "as it is necessary for me to speak." God had designed that Paul should preach the gospel without hindrance in lands far and near. His bonds prevented the carrying out of this commission (see 1 Thess. 2:18).

5. Walk. Gr. peripateoµ, "to conduct one-self" (see on Eph. 2:2). The complete manner of life of the Christian, including all his relationships toward God and man, is included in this word.

Wisdom. That is, practical Christian wisdom (cf. on Prov. 1:2, 3).

Them that are without. That is, non-Christians. Compare 1 Cor. 5:12; 1 Thess. 4:12. The ambition of the true disciple should be to make disciples of "them that are without." The most significant way to accomplish this is by the example of a virtuous Christian life. Against this there is no argument.

Redeeming the time. Literally, "buying up for yourselves the opportune time" (see on Eph. 5:16).

6. Speech. Hand in hand with the Christian's manner of life go the words he speaks. Especially is this true in his contacts with those who "are without" (v. 5). Not only the words he speaks, but the way he says them, and even the tone of his voice, make an impression for good or ill on those whom he meets. Hence his discourse and conversation should be well guarded.

Grace. Gr. charis (see on Rom. 3:24). Here the word may be defined as "graciousness," "sweetness." When Jesus spoke, those in His home-town synagogue were impressed by the "gracious words" (literally, "words of grace") that fell from His lips (Luke 4:22). The words of the Christian should carry with them the power and influence of Heaven.

Seasoned with salt. Salt renders food palatable. Here it is that which makes speech attractive, stimulating, and agreeable to listen to. The opposite would be stale, insipid, or idle speech (see on Matt. 12:36). When the Christian opens his mouth, pleasant, helpful, edifying words should flow forth.

Answer every man. It is the responsibility of each Christian to "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh ... a reason of the hope that is in" him (see on 1 Peter 3:15). Personal witnessing is an essential part of the Christian life. In order to witness effectively, it is essential that our words be of the nature here described.

7. All my state. Or, "all the matters pertaining to me" (cf. Phil. 1:12). Paul presumed that the Colossians would be interested in the details concerning his imprisonment.

Tychicus. See on Eph. 6:21.

Fellowservant. A title of honor, for it places Tychicus on a footing with Paul. This item concerning Tychicus is not mentioned in Eph. 6:21.

In the Lord. It was within the program and influence of Christ that his ministry was exercised. The Master's will was the surrounding and pervading element that bound all His servants together. Tychicus was doubtless happy to be bound to such a Master, to fellowship with His servants, and to hasten on His errands.

8. Whom I have sent. Compare Eph. 6:22. Tychicus was the bearer of Paul's letter to the Colossians and also the bearer of a personal message from Paul.

That he might know your estate. Textual evidence is divided (cf. p. 10) between this and "that ye might know our state," or, "that you may know how we are" (RSV). This agrees with what Paul says in v. 7 and with the parallel statement in Eph. 6:21. Tychicus was to explain to the members how Paul was doing, to encourage them to continue in the Christian way, and perhaps to obtain financial help to sustain Paul in prison.

Comfort your hearts. see on Eph. 6:22.

9. Onesimus. A runaway slave from Colossae who had been converted in Rome through the labors of Paul (see on Philemon 10).

Faithful and beloved. Formerly Onesimus had been anything but trustworthy and reliable. Now his life has been completely changed.

One of you. Onesimus was from Colossae. As a Christian he now belonged to the brotherhood of believers (see on Gal. 3:28; cf. Philemon 10-12).

They shall make known. Paul entrusts to him, together with Tychicus, the message that is to be delivered officially, showing that Paul had full confidence in his conversion and integrity.

10. Aristarchus. A companion of Paul from Thessalonica (Acts 27:2). He had shared with the apostle the experiences connected with the tumult at Ephesus (Acts 19:29). When the apostolic delegation journeyed from Corinth to Jerusalem, Aristarchus probably carried the offering from Thessalonica to the mother church in Palestine (Acts 20:4). He also accompanied Paul at least part way on the apostle's journey as a prisoner from Jerusalem to Rome (Acts 27:2). In Philemon 24he is included among Paul's "fellowlabourers."

Fellowprisoner. Some have conjectured that Aristarchus had voluntarily decided to share the discomforts of Paul's prison life, to minister to his needs, a practice which some allege the Romans allowed.

Sister's son. Gr. anepsios, "cousin." The translation "sister's son" may reflect the Latin Vulgate rendering, consobrinus, which means specifically "sister's son," but also a relative in any degree. Or, the translators may have concluded that anepsios meant the same as the English word "nephew," which is derived from anepsios through the Latin nepos.

Difference of opinion over John Mark once separated Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:36-40). After the split, Barnabas, Mark's cousin, took the lad under his care. "Under the blessing of God, and the wise training of Barnabas, he developed into a valuable worker" (AA 170). Paul happily acknowledged the great change and now accepted Mark as one of his "fellowlabourers" (Philemon 24; cf. 2 Tim. 4:11).

11. Jesus ... Justus. This is the only mention of this name in the Bible, although the name Justus appears in two other instances (Acts 1:23; 18:7).

Of the circumcision. That is, Jews. Here the term refers to Jewish Christians. The phrase should be connected with the following sentences--of the circumcision, only the three mentioned are his fellow laborers, and a comfort to him.

12. Epaphras ... one of you. Epaphras was a native of Colossae, who had labored there and possibly also at Laodicea and Hierapolis. He was Paul's informant regarding the situation in his home church (cf. ch. 1:7, 8). Evidently he was remaining at Rome longer than he had planned at first, in order to assist Paul in his ministry. He joined Paul in sending greetings.

Labouring fervently. Literally, "continually agonizing or striving" (cf. ch. 1:29). Remaining in Rome, Epaphras had not forgotten the believers back home. He wrestled on their behalf, that is, in intercessory prayer.

Perfect and complete. Or, "mature and completed." Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the reading "mature and fully established." The Christian who by grace has reached the goal of each stage of his advancing knowledge and experience, is regarded by Heaven as perfect (see on Matt. 5:48).

In all the will of God. see on ch. 1:9. This embraces the entire scheme of Christ for the salvation of His people.

13. I bear him record. Or, "I am witnessing in respect to him."

Zeal. Gr. zeµlos, "generous rivalry," "ardor in striving after something"; also "jealousy," "indignation." Important textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the reading ponos, "labor," "anguish."

Laodicea ... Hierapolis. These two cities, one on each side of the Lycus River a few miles apart, had churches founded probably at nearly the same time as the one at Colossae, and doubtless Epaphras served them as well as the church at Colossae. Concerning Laodicea see pp. 100-102; see on Rev. 3:14.

14. Luke. For a biography of Luke see Vol. V, pp. 663, 664; cf. on Acts 16:10. The personal companionship of Luke was a never-failing source of comfort and strength.

Demas. Mentioned only here, in 2 Tim. 4:10, and in Philemon 24. Demas now apparently stood loyally, but later a change came. During his second imprisonment Paul lamented, "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed" (2 Tim. 4:10).

15. Laodicea. See on v. 13. There was doubtless frequent fellowship among the believers of the three cities situated in close proximity in the Lycus Valley.

Nymphas. Nothing else is known about this person. Important textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for reading the name also as feminine, with "her." There is some textual evidence also for the reading "their house." The person in question was obviously full of zeal for the cause of God, generously providing his or her own commodious home as a meeting place for the believers of the little church at Laodicea.

16. Cause that it be read also. Such a custom must have been general by early Christians. History indicates that the NT writings were copied and recopied and that they had a wide circulation.

The epistle from Laodicea. This does not mean that the epistle was written "from Laodicea," but that having been written to Laodicea, it should be carried over to Colossae "from Laodicea." Thus it would be "from Laodicea" as far as the Colossian church was concerned. As to the identity of this epistle nothing definite is known. Many hold the theory that the letter to the Ephesians is the one to which allusion is here made. Paul wrote Ephesians at about the same time that he wrote Colossians, perhaps even on the same day. Both were entrusted to the same messenger, Tychicus (cf. Eph. 6:21; Col. 4:7). But this is only a conjecture. For a discussion of the problem of the authorship of Ephesians see Vol. VI, pp. 993, 994.

17. Archippus. He is mentioned only here and in Philemon 2. In Philemon his name appears in close proximity to the names of Philemon and Apphia. Apphia has been regarded by commentators as Philemon's wife. Possibly Archippus was their son. This would coincide with Paul's statement here (see next comment). In Philemon, Paul calls Archippus his "fellowsoldier" and mentions the church in Philemon's house, of which Archippus may have been an officer. Evidently, like Nymphas, Philemon had thrown his house open to the brethren as a meeting place, and Archippus was associated with him in ministry of some capacity.

Ministry. Gr. diakonia (see on Rom. 12:7). The word could refer to the office of deacon (see Rom. 12:7). It suggests service (Acts 12:25), and might include the functions of pastor, or elder. Archippus is warned to take heed continually, to put his utmost effort, his closest application, into his duties; to be wide awake in all his tasks.

Received in the Lord. Paul reminds Archippus that his service was entrusted to him by the Lord. As with the priests in the OT, so with the gospel minister, "no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God" (Heb. 5:4).

Fulfil it. That is, carry out its varied responsibilities.

18. Salutation by ... Paul. Apparently at this point Paul took the quill from the hand of his amanuensis and wrote his own farewell greeting (see on 1 Cor. 16:21; Gal. 6:11). The expression shows his affection, and adds a final touch of genuineness and personal authority to his letter.

Remember my bonds. Paul doubtless mentioned these to arouse the sympathetic love and understanding of the Colossians. They would realize that he, though in chains in prison, was yet mindful of them. They would sense anew his affection for them and his intercession on their behalf.

Grace be with you. Compare 1 Tim. 6:21; 2 Tim. 4:22. For the meaning of the greeting see on Rom. 1:7.

Amen. Important textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of this word.

The postscript following v. 18 occurs in no ancient manuscript. It was not part of the original inspired record.

Ellen G. White Comments

2 CS 274; ML 16; SC 97

5 CM 47; COL 342; 3T 482

5, 6 2T 317

6 AH 435; COL 336; CT 443; CW 19; GW 122; MB 68; ML 114; 1T 648; 2T 317, 338; 4T 135, 400, 521

7-14AA 455

10 AA 440

10, 11 AA 170

14 AA 454; CH 498; Ev 554; MH 140; 6T 233

Events Associated With the Writing of Paul's Letters to the Thessalonians, Written From Corinth During Paul's Second Missionary Tour, c. A.D. 51

INTRODUCTION

1. Title. In the earliest Greek manuscript the title of this epistle is simply, Pros Thessalonikeis A ("A To [the] Thessalonians I"). The considerably lengthened title in the KJV, "The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians," is the result of later elaboration.

2. Authorship. The epistle purports to be from Paul, Silvanus (Silas), and Timotheus (Timothy) (ch. 1:1). However, it is basically the work of Paul (see chs. 3:1, 2, 6, 7; 5:27). It is included among Paul's letters in the earliest list of NT books, the Muratorian Canon (a.d. 170). The early church writers, Irenaeus (c. a.d. 130-c. 202), Clement of Alexandria (died c. 220), and Tertullian (c. a.d. 160-c. 240), considered Paul to be its author. The personality and style of the apostle Paul pervade the epistles. His love for his converts and the burden he bears for their spiritual welfare are manifest throughout. The emphasis upon the great spiritual qualities of faith, love, and hope is distinctly Pauline (cf. 1 Cor. 13:13). Scholars today are in general agreement that Paul was the author of the epistle. Concerning the date of writing see Vol. VI, pp. 102, 103.

3. Historical Setting. Thessalonica was an important city, and the capital of the second division of Macedonia (see on Acts 17:1). It was situated at the head of the Thermaic Gulf, now known as the Gulf of Salonika. The Egnatian Road, which connected the East with Rome, passed through it. The favorable location and excellent harbor of Thessalonica combined to make it of great commercial importance. Possibly for this reason it possessed a large Jewish settlement and a synagogue (Acts 17:1). The city, now called Salonika, is one of the most important commercial centers of northern Greece. In addition, it is archeological interest, for the triumphal arch that crossed the former Via Egnatia still stands as a reminder of the glory and power of ancient Rome.

Paul's first contact with Thessalonica was on his Second Missionary Journey, immediately after his departure from Philippi (Acts 16:40; 17:1). Since it was his method of evangelism to preach in the important cities first, and thus to make them centers for the spread of the gospel to the surrounding towns and villages, he and his companions made their way from Philippi directly to Thessalonica, not stopping to preach in the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia (see on Acts 17:1). Knowing that he must reach the Jews at Thessalonica first, if at all, Paul went to the synagogue on three successive Sabbaths and presented the great truths of the gospel to his fellow countrymen. His recent disgraceful treatment at Philippi had not intimidated him, and in the power of the Holy Spirit he presented the Messianic prophecies of the OT, and showed their fulfillment in Jesus. Some of his Jewish hearers believed (Acts 17:4). Many more of the "devout Greeks" (see on Acts 17:4) accepted his message. Among the believers at Thessalonica there were also "of the chief women not a few" (Acts 17:4).

It seems probable that the missionaries continued their work for more than the three weeks here indicated, for Paul tells of having worked night and day to support himself while he preached the gospel to them (see 1 Thess. 2:9), and in his letter to the Philippians he refers to the gifts they sent while he was at Thessalonica (see on Phil. 4:16). His successful ministry soon aroused the fierce opposition of the Jews, which fomented strife and caused Paul to leave the city (Acts 17:5, 6). After the initial three Sabbaths spent in the synagogue, it seems that Paul continued his preaching in the house of Jason (Acts 17:7). He appears to have been particularly successful with the Greeks, for the church at Thessalonica seems to have been largely Gentile in composition (see on 1 Thess. 1:9; 4:5).

Mob violence, stirred up by the Jews, brought Paul's preaching to the attention of the Roman authorities, but the charge that the apostle was guilty of treason in presenting the doctrine of Christ's coming kingdom was not accepted by the magistrates. That Paul and his companions were not officially expelled from Thessalonica and debarred from returning, is evident from the fact that the apostle found it necessary to explain to the church why he had not returned (ch. 2:17, 18), and from the fact that Timothy did return (ch. 3:2). However, the Christians there seem to have thought it best for Paul and his associates to leave the city temporarily. The evangelists made their way to Berea, a city some distance to the southwest. Here again Paul preached in the synagogue, and among these Scripture-loving Jews he had much greater success. The news of his fresh activity soon reached the Jews of Thessalonica and spurred them to immediate action. They hastened to Berea and again stirred up the rabble against the missionaries (Acts 17:10-13). Paul was sent away to Athens by friends, but his companions remained in Macedonia. The apostle was most anxious for their help in Athens, and awaited them there (Acts 17:16). Timothy seems later to have joined him at Athens, and was then sent back by Paul to Thessalonica to encourage the new believers and bring back word of their condition (see 1 Thess. 3:1, 2, 6). It appears that Silas remained in Macedonia, for when Timothy returned to Greece, Silas accompanied him, and the both joined Paul at Corinth, a short stay in Athens (Acts 18:1, 5).

Upon receiving Timothy's report the apostle wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians. Manuscripts going back to the 5th century state at the end of this epistle that it was written from Athens. This supposition is probably drawn from ch. 3:1, 2. However, from ch. 3:6 it seems clear that 1 Thessalonians was not written until after Timothy's return from Macedonia, and according to Acts 18:1, 5, Paul was then at Corinth. Consequently it seems best to conclude that 1 Thessalonians was written there. This epistle is generally considered to be the first of Paul's letters that has been preserved (see Vol. VI, p. 102), and, with the possible exception of the epistle of James, it was probably the first book of the New Testament to be written. For a discussion of the date of 1 Thessalonians see Vol. VI, p. 103.

4. Theme. A radiant glow of ardent love permeates this epistle (cf. chs. 1:2-4; 2:7, 8; 3:6, 7). The apostle is most thankful for Timothy's report of the faithfulness of the Thessalonians and of their tender regard for him. He hastens to commend them for their noble qualities of faith, love, and hope. He is most anxious to visit them, for he had not had sufficient time while he was with them to instruct them fully in the truths of the gospel.

Certain problems, too, must have been reported by Timothy. Some at Thessalonica were grieving over loved ones who had died since receiving the gospel message, fearing that these loved ones could have no part in the glorious resurrection at the Lord's return. Some were fanatical in regard to the second advent, holding that they should not work, but await the Lord's coming in idle expectancy. Some were slipping back into the world, and were in danger of being lost in immorality. Others were inclined to independence, not willing to recognize the duly appointed leaders of the church. The "unruly," the "feebleminded," and the "weak" all needed help (ch. 5:14). Had it been possible, the apostle would have hastened to give personal instruction to these beloved believers. More than once he tried to return, but Satan hindered him (ch. 2:18), and on this account he had to content himself by writing the church a letter.

The theme of the resultant epistle is practical godliness in view of Christ's return. The glorious advent of the Lord is the most prominent doctrine presented (chs. 1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:13-18; 5:23). Other doctrines mentioned are the death and resurrection of Christ (ch. 4:14), the resurrection of the righteous dead (vs. 13-16), future rewards and punishments (chs. 4:17; 5:3), the personal existence and active working of Satan (ch. 2:18), the doctrine of redemption, including election and sanctification (chs. 1:4; 4:3-7).

5. Outline.

I. Salutation, 1:1.

II. Review of Ministry to, and Relations With, the Thessalonians, 1:2 to 3:13.

A. Thankfulness for the members' faithful witness, 1:2-10.

1. Gratitude for their record, 1:2-4.

2. Review of their fruitful acceptance of the gospel, 1:5-10.

B. Paul's review of his ministry in Thessalonica, 2:1-16.

C. Paul's endeavors to revisit his converts, 2:17-20.

D. Timothy sent in Paul's stead, 3:1-13.

1. Purpose of Timothy's visit, 3:1-5.

2. Timothy's report and its effect on Paul, 3:6-13.

a. The report, 3:6.

b. Paul's joy over the report, 3:7-9.

c. Paul's continued desire to visit the church, 3:10, 11.

d. Paul's prayer for his converts, 3:12, 13.

III. Instructions and Exhortations, 4:1 to 5:28.

A. Introduction, 4:1, 2.

B. True bodily sanctification, 4:3-8.

C. The Thessalonians' brotherly love, 4:9-10a.

D. Admonitions to quiet industry, 4:10b-12.

E. The Christian dead and the resurrection, 4:13-18.

1. The glorious hope of the resurrection, 4:13, 14.

2. The circumstances of the resurrection, 4:15, 16.

3. The righteous, living and resurrected, translated, 4:17.

4. Believers to comfort one another with these assurances, 4:18.

F. The uncertainty of the time of Christ's coming, 5:1-11.

1. The sudden coming of the day of the Lord, 5:1-3.

2. Believers to be ever prepared, 5:4-11.

G. Closing admonitions, 5:12-22.

1. Respect the Lord's servants, 5:12, 13.

2. Preserve peace in the church, 5:14, 15.

3. Encouragement to rejoice, pray, and give thanks, 5:16-18.

4. Desire spiritual gifts, 5:19-22.

H. Closing prayers and requests, 5:23-28.

1. Prayer for complete sanctification, 5:23, 24.

2. Requests and greeting, 5:25-27.

3. Benediction, 5:28.

1 Thessalonians Chapter 1

1 The Thessalonians are given to understand both how mindful of them Saint Paul was at all times in thanksgiving, and prayer: 5 and also how well he was persuaded of the truth and sincerity of their faith, and conversion to God.

1. Paul. The epistle opens in the customary way with formal greetings (see on Rom 1:1). The apostle has no need to give a long introduction, since he is well known to his readers and it is probable that only a short time has elapsed since he was with them (see p. 224).

Although Paul associates Silas and Timothy with him, it is evident that Paul himself is the sole author of the epistle (chs. 2:18; 3:5; 4:13; 5:1, 23, 27). But he keeps Silas and Timothy in mind as he writes, and frequently uses the plural pronoun "we" throughout the five chapters of the epistle (chs. 1:2; 2:2; 3:1; 4:1; 5:12). His two companions undoubtedly endorsed all the admonition the apostle wrote under their names.

Silvanus. Known in Acts by the shorter name Silas (see on Acts 15:22, 34, 40). He had been with Paul in Philippi (Acts 15:40, 41; 16:12, 19), had accompanied him to Thessalonica (Acts 17:1, 4), had been sent away with him to Berea (Acts 17:10), and had remained in that town after Paul departed for Athens (Acts 17:14). He later rejoined the apostle at Corinth (see on Acts 18:5; cf. 2 Cor. 1:19). He is named before Timothy perhaps as being the elder, and as having been associated with Paul for a longer time.

Timotheus. A transliteration of the Gr. Timotheos, frequently rendered "Timothy." See on Acts 16:1. He was from the district of Derbe and Lystra and had accompanied Paul on the Second Missionary Journey (Acts 16:1-3), and had shared in Paul's ministry at Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea (see on Acts 17:14). The young evangelist had been sent to the Thessalonian church, and his report of its condition formed the immediate background against which Paul wrote his epistle (1 Thess. 3:1, 6).

Church. Gr. ekkleµsia (see on Matt. 18:17). Paul addresses his letter to the whole body of believers in Thessalonica, such as he elsewhere calls "saints" (Rom. 1:7; etc.). He makes no mention of the chief officers of the church as he does in his epistle to the Philippians (ch. 1:1).

Thessalonians. Paul's usual custom (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1; Eph. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Col. 1:2) is to name the city in which a particular church is meeting; but here and in 2 Thess. 1:1 he refers to the "Thessalonians." It is difficult to see a meaningful distinction in the differing forms of address, though it has been suggested that Paul thereby intends to include not only those who reside in the city but also those who were drawn from a wider area. There is no way of knowing the size of the Thessalonian church, though Acts 17:4 suggests a large initial membership.

In God. This phrase should be closely connected with "the church," as is shown by the supplied words "which is" in the KJV. The church exists only as it is grounded "in God," only as all of its members are united in Him (cf. on Rom. 1:7; Eph. 1:1; Phil. 1:1).

Father. Compare on Rom. 1:7 and the greetings in other of Paul's epistle for the significance of the fatherhood of God in this setting.

Lord Jesus Christ. The word "in" needs to be supplied in front of this title, as in the KJV to indicate that the church exists not only by virtue of its union with God but also because of its union with the Son (see on Rom. 8:1; 1 Cor. 1:2). The triple title reflects Paul's Christology, his understanding of the nature of Christ. He knows his Master to be the Lord and the human-divine Saviour (see on Phil. 2:5).

Grace. Gr. charis (see on Rom. 1:7).

Peace. See on Rom. 1:7.

From God. Textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of the remainder of this verse, beginning with the words "from God," which may have been introduced from 2 Thess. 1:2 by a later editor.

We give thanks. Whether Paul is using the editorial "we" and speaking only for himself, or whether he is also writing on behalf of Silas and Timothy, his meaning is clear. As he and his companions study Timothy's report of conditions in Thessalonica, they are filled with thankfulness and make their gratitude known unto God (cf. on Rom. 1:8).

To God. The apostle recognizes the One to whom all thanks are due. The excellences of the Thessalonians resulted from the power of God that worked through them.

Always for you all. Paul's tact shines brightly through the pages of his epistles. He does not wish any to feel slighted; he endeavors to include all in his greetings, and carefully makes lists of names when he mentions individuals by name (see on Phil. 1:4; cf. Rom. 16:1-15; Col. 4:7-17).

In our prayers. Or, "in the time of our prayers." The phrase defines the word "always." Paul and his companions doubtless had stated times of prayer when they interceded for the Christians of Thessalonica, making individual mention of them, and discussing their welfare.

3. Remembering without ceasing. Paul remembers what he himself had seen in Thessalonica, and what Timothy has since reported to him (ch. 3:6). The continual remembrance of the members' Christian character and its fruits was the reason why mention of them in prayer always took the form of thanksgiving to God.

Your work of faith. Paul concentrates on three outstanding qualities possessed by the Thessalonians--faith, love, and hope. In Col. 1:4, 5; 1 Thess. 5:8, and especially in his celebrated treatise on love (1 Cor. 13), he sets forth these three virtues as the fundamental elements in Christian character. Here he is concerned with the outward evidences of these virtues, for he speaks of what he observed when with them, and what he now remembers. "Work of faith" refers to the activities, spiritual or temporal, that were inspired by faith. Such a phrase reveals the practical nature of true faith that demonstrates its existence by Christian works.

Labour. Gr. kopos, "trouble," "labor," denoting intense exertion united with toil and trouble. Here, "labour of love" means the labor to which love prompts, and which voluntarily assumes and endures trouble and pain for the salvation of others. Paul rejoices that when the church is exposed to manifold vexations its members come to one another's help with diligent effort and sacrifice. This loving solicitude for one another's welfare, no less than their ardent faith, was convincing proof that their conversion was genuine (AA 262).

Patience. Gr. hupomoneµ, "patience," "perseverance" (see on Rom. 2:7).

Hope. Paul is here speaking of patient endurance sustained by hope, derived from the Christian faith. This hope is not a vague optimism, but is "hope in our Lord Jesus Christ," that is, hope that is centered in Christ, the hope of salvation in Him (ch. 5:8, 9); the hope of His speedy coming to their deliverance (1 Thess. 4:13-18; cf. Titus 2:13). Their patience and steadfastness proceed from hope, because in view of future glory they can the more cheerfully bear their suffering. Hope is the anchor of their soul (Heb. 6:19).

In the sight of. Rather, "before," "in the presence of." These new believers, suffering as they were under persecution, lived in the very presence of God. Their faith, love, and hope were genuine not only in the sight of men but also in the sight of God, the Searcher of hearts. Paul may also have passed from the thought of salvation through Christ to that of the day of judgment, when the Thessalonians will appear before their Maker, with no cause for craven fear.

God and our Father. Or, "God even our Father," or "our God and Father."

4. Knowing. A reference to a fact that is generally conceded (cf. on Rom. 3:19).

Brethren. This term, used 19 times in its singular or plural form in this epistle, indicates Paul's intimate affection for the Christians in Thessalonica.

Election. Gr. eklogeµ, "the process of choice" (see on Rom. 9:11). God had chosen the Thessalonian believers to salvation through "sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2 Thess. 2:13). That the apostle did not here speak of any absolute election of the Thessalonian church as a whole is borne out by his later expression of fear that some of them might fall under temptation and his labor be in vain (1 Thess. 3:5). For a fuller discussion of election and predestination see on John 3:17-19; Rom. 8:29; 9:11; 11:5; Eph. 1:4-14; 3:11. Nowhere in the Scriptures is there any warrant for the doctrine that God has predestined some individuals to eternal life, with its revolting corollary that He has predestined the rest of mankind to eternal destruction. The true Bible doctrine of election involves both the will of God and the will of man.

Of God. As shown by the Greek, this phrase should qualify the word "beloved" instead of being attached to "your elections," so that the expression reads, "brethren beloved of God." This description conveys both the love of the apostle and the love of God for the Thessalonian believers (cf. Rom. 1:7; 2 Thess. 2:13).

5. Gospel. Gr. euaggelion (see on Mark 1:1). Paul is speaking of the gospel with which he and his companions had been entrusted (1 Thess. 2:4) and which they faithfully proclaimed. In the synagogue at Thessalonica Paul had opened the OT Scriptures and preached of a Messiah who would suffer and die for the sins of mankind and be raised again from the dead, and that Jesus was therefore the Christ (Acts 17:2, 3; AA 225-227). The power of this gospel was demonstrated by the many lives that were changed through its acceptance (Acts 17:4).

Word only. The apostle employed words to convey the gospel, but the manifestation of that gospel did not end with speech. The words were accompanied by manifestations of spiritual power.

But also. This expression, taken with the immediately preceding "only," emphasizes the contrast between words and Spirit-inspired deeds.

Power. Gr. dunamis (see on Luke 1:35). See on 1 Cor. 2:4; 4:20, where "word" and "power" are contrasted. The period of Paul's Thessalonian ministry (Acts 17:1-4), though brief, allows room for many miracles and demonstrations of the gospel's might, although few details are given in the sacred record.

Holy Ghost. That is, Holy Spirit (see on Matt. 1:18). The phrase "in the Holy Ghost" implies that the gospel came to the Thessalonians through the activity of the Spirit, in an atmosphere conditioned by the Spirit, so that it might be truly said that the Holy Spirit's influence permeated the whole operation. Thus Paul disclaimed personal credit for the success of the gospel message.

Assurance. That is, confidence, or conviction. The gospel was confidently and convincingly preached because Paul and his companions knew that they were empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Ye know. Paul appeals to the Thessalonians' personal knowledge of the missionaries' behavior among them. A man must have a clear conscience before making such an appeal to his own conduct, but Paul never feared to quote his own behavior among his converts. His several references to the life he lived in Thessalonica (ch. 2:1, 2, 5, 9-11) may imply that some were misrepresenting his behavior and endeavoring to weaken his influence. He met such misrepresentations by claiming that not only the sermons but the lives of the evangelists preached the gospel, and that this was done for the sake of the Thessalonians themselves.

6. Followers. Gr. mimeµtai, literally, "imitators" (cf. on 1 Cor. 4:16; Eph. 5:1). Paul gives this fact as a further reason for knowing that God had chosen them to salvation. As Paul had preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, so had the Thessalonians received the word with joy of the Holy Spirit. As a result, they were eager to do God's will.

Of the Lord. Paul had not left the Thessalonians with a human example only. He had helped them also to become imitators of their Lord. Such was the apostle's consistent policy (cf. 1 Cor. 11:1); consequently, when his personal presence was withdrawn from among his converts, they could keep their eyes fixed on Christ, the perfect example.

Received. Gr. dechomai, which implies willing reception, receiving with welcome.

Affliction. Gr. thlipsis (see on Rom. 5:3). The members at Thessalonica became Christians amid strong opposition (Acts 17:5-9; 1 Thess. 2:14). In the primitive church conversion generally called for personal courage and vigorous self-denial, for the new member was often cruelly persecuted (see on Matt. 24:21). Such persecution was in reality a blessing, for it tended to refine and purify the church and to bring its members into closer fellowship with Christ (see AA 261). Severe as the affliction was, it did not discourage the converts. On the contrary, their suffering was accompanied by joy that came from the Holy Spirit (cf. Gal. 5:22).

7. Ensamples. Gr. tupoi, singular tupos, "type," "example" (see on Rom. 5:14). These believers had patterned their lives after the apostles and the Lord, and now they in turn had become patterns, or examples, for other Christians to follow. They were examples with reference to the firmness with which they adhered to Christianity, and the zeal with which they spread its teachings. That the Thessalonians became examples to others so soon after their own conversion, speaks highly of the quality of their Christian witness.

Macedonia and Achaia. The two provinces into which all Greece was divided when it was brought under the Roman yoke in 146 B.C. (see The Journeys of Paul). Paul's testimony shows how widespread was the influence of the faithful Thessalonians among their fellow Christians.

8. Sounded out. Gr. exeµcheoµ, "to sound forth," "to resound," "to reverberate."

Word of the Lord. That is, the gospel, which the Thessalonians had so willingly received and were in turn passing on to others (AA 256).

In every place. Thessalonica was a great commercial city from which reports of these earnest Christians would be carried, not only to other parts of Greece, but also to distant lands. Since Paul was then living in Corinth, a busy seaport, he could readily receive reports of his converts' activities.

Faith to God-ward. Most of the believers had previously been heathen (v. 9). Now they showed that they had a true faith in God and in His gospel message, both by their consistent Christian lives and by their missionary zeal. Their witness was so unequivocal that it was not necessary for Paul and his associates to add anything to it. Higher commendation could scarcely be given to the Thessalonians.

9. They themselves. That is, those who reported to the apostle. These people, of their own accord, told Paul of the great change that had been wrought in Thessalonica by his ministry. Such testimony was even more valuable than any given by the Thessalonians themselves.

Turned to God. Compare the phrase "faith to God-ward" (v. 8). The Thessalonians had turned their back on idols and come face to face with God.

Idols. Paul had just recently come from Athens, where his spirit was greatly stirred because the city was "wholly given to idolatry" (see on Acts 17:16). He was therefore greatly impressed by the way in which the Thessalonians had abandoned their idols in favor of the true God.

To serve. Gr. douleuoµ, "to be a slave," "to yield obedience" (cf. on Rom. 1:1). The form of the Greek verb conveys the continuous sense, "to keep on serving."

True. Gr. aleµthinos, "genuine," "real." The living and real God is contrasted with lifeless and false idols. Both Paul and his converts were conscious of the inestimable superiority of the vital Christian religion over all other religions.

10. To wait. Or, "to keep on waiting."

His Son. The only mention in this epistle of Christ as God's Son, in contrast with frequent references in Romans and Galatians (Rom. 1:3, 4; Gal. 1:16; etc.).

From heaven. Compare on Phil. 3:20. The life aim of Paul's converts was two-fold--to serve God and to wait for Christ's return. In this epistle the apostle constantly emphasizes the great doctrine of the second advent of our Lord (1 Thess. 1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:13-18; 5:23). What a practical influence this "blessed hope" (Titus 2:13) had upon the lives of the Thessalonian believers! They lived in expectancy of their Lord's return. It was not idle waiting, however, for they combined service with expectation. So ardent were they in their hope of a speedy deliverance from their persecutors by their Lord's glorious intervention that they feared lest death deprive any of them of the great joy of personally meeting Him (cf. AA 258).

Whom he raised. In his epistle to the Romans the apostle sets forth the resurrection of Jesus as proof of Christ's sonship (see on Rom. 1:4). Here, in what is probably the first of his epistles, Paul does not hesitate to follow the same reasoning, recognizing Christ as God's resurrected Son.

Delivered. Rather, "is delivering." While the vital act of deliverance was performed on Calvary, the process of deliverance is continuous, and will be completed only at Christ's second coming, when those who have accepted the Saviour's ministrations will be forever saved from the clutches of sin (cf. on Matt. 1:21; Rom. 11:26).

The wrath to come. Literally, "the wrath which is coming." The use of the article before "wrath" points to a particular manifestation of divine displeasure (see on Matt. 3:7; Rom. 1:18).

For a discussion of the significance of "wrath" (orgeµ) see on Rom. 2:8; cf. on Rom. 1:18. The gospel brings deliverance from the wrath to come (Rom. 5:9). Those who believe its message and accept its provisions are granted eternal life, and the wrath of God no longer remains on them (see on John 3:36; 5:24; 1 John 3:14).

Ellen G. White Comments

2, 3 AA 256

5 MM 307

6-10AA 256

7, 8 ML 122; MM 307

9 Ev 19

1 Thessalonians Chapter 2

1 In what manner the gospel was brought and preached to the Thessalonians, and in what sort also they received it. 18 A reason is rendered both why Saint Paul was so long absent from them, and also why he was so desirous to see them.

1. For yourselves. Paul is here enlarging on the reasoning begun in ch. 1:5. Others had voluntarily testified to the phenomenal success of the work of Paul and his associates in Thessalonica (see on ch. 1:9), but the apostle now appeals at length to what the Thessalonians themselves recollected. Every minister of the gospel ought so to conduct himself that when slanderously attacked he is able to make a similar appeal to his people.

Entrance. That is, the evangelizing visit of Paul and his company (cf. Acts 17:1-4; 1 Thess. 1:9). The converts at Thessalonica knew better than any others what this missionary visit accomplished in their own lives.

In vain. Literally, "empty" (see on 1 Cor. 15:10). The Thessalonian believers were themselves proof of the truth of Paul's claim.

2. Had suffered before. In all probability it was only a few days after Paul and Silas had been scourged at Philippi that they began their work in Thessalonica (see on Acts 17:1).

Shamefully entreated. Many of the believers, no doubt, had seen with their own eyes the stripes inflicted by the Roman lash (cf. Gal. 6:17). The apostle keenly felt the injustice of the outrageous proceedings of publicly scourging Roman citizens without a trial (see on Acts 16:37).

We were bold. Gr. parreµsiazomai, "to speak plainly," "to have courage," "to venture." After such severe punishment as the evangelists had endured, impostors (see on v. 3) would not have had the courage immediately to continue their work in a nearby place.

In our God. Paul recognizes that their boldness did not stem from natural courage. Its source was in God. The apostles were preaching "the gospel of God," and God Himself had provided the necessary courag for its fearless proclamation.

Gospel of God. That is, the gospel that came from God.

With much contention. Literally, "in much conflict" (see on Phil. 1:30), that is, in the midst of much opposition. There may also be a reference to inward struggle, as in Col. 2:1.

3. Exhortation. Gr. parakleµsis, "comfort," "consolation" (see on Rom. 12:8; 15:4; Phil. 2:1). The reference here is to the evangelists' preaching. The gospel presented by the apostle in the most appealing manner brought consolation to the Gentiles who had lived in hopeless heathenism, and spoke to their hearts no less than to their minds.

Not of deceit. Or, "not out of error." Here Paul makes a sweeping denial of the slanderous charges put forth by his enemies that this movement was the work of deluded men, actuated by sinister motives and pursued by underhand methods. He and his companions were not misguided fanatics. Their preaching did not proceed from delusions or erroneous doctrines. On the contrary, it was based upon the unerring Word of God. They were guided in their interpretation of that Word by the Spirit of truth.

Uncleanness. Gr. akatharsia, "impurity," commonly used in reference to unchastity (see on Rom. 1:24). It is thought by many interpreters, however, that the word is used here in its figurative sense of impurity of mind, foulness of motives, that is, covetousness. Paul and his associates were not actuated by covetousness or greed.

Guile. Gr. dolos (see on Rom. 1:29). Here the manner of working is considered. The message was not given in a deceitful way, but in complete sincerity. The "Israelite indeed" has no guile in his mouth (see John 1:47; Rev. 14:5).

4. Allowed. Gr. dokimazoµ (see on Rom. 2:18; Phil. 1:10), here used in the sense of being judged worthy or approved. At the end of this verse the same word (dokimazoµ) is used in another form and is rendered, "trieth."

Put in trust. The apostles' hearts had been judged, or tried, by God, and they were approved, or deemed fit, to be entrusted with the responsibility of presenting the gospel message. Paul considered this stewardship a sacred trust, a "treasure in earthen vessels" (2 Cor. 4:7). He preached with the consciousness that he was dealing with the message of God to men, a message that he was especially chosen of God to bear (Acts 9:15; 2 Cor. 3:5, 6).

Not as pleasing men. The apostle was so intent on pleasing God that he discharged his trust with little regard for men's opinions about him (see 1 Cor. 4:3, 4; Gal. 1:10). It is not that he failed to consider men's feelings or prejudices, for he was careful not to offend needlessly (see 1 Cor. 9:19-23). But his objective was not to please men, and thus win them by guile, but rather to have the approbation of God, and to draw men to their Maker.

Trieth our hearts. See comment above on "allowed," and cf. on Rom. 8:27.

5. Flattering words. Literally, "speech of flattery." To prove that their aim had not been to please men, Paul reminds their converts that they know that the apostles, in preaching, had never descended to flattery in order to make the gospel acceptable. A radical work of reform was needed in the lives of the Thessalonians. To flatter would have encouraged their self-complacency and would have blinded them to their need. These apostles of Christ did not preach smooth things, as did false prophets (see Isa. 30:10; Eze. 13:10).

Cloke. Gr. prophasis, "pretext" (see on Phil. 1:18). The apostles did not use their office for enriching themselves. On the contrary, they were most careful to give no occasion for such a charge. Paul could testify that he had "coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel" (Acts 20:33; cf. 2 Cor. 12:14).

God is witness. A solemn, reverent oath (cf. on Phil. 1:8). Paul could appeal to the Thessalonians' personal recollection for confirmation of the fact that he and his associates had not flattered them, but as to their motives he could appeal only to God. Thus he forcefully denies all charges that he and his associates had labored for personal gain.

6. Sought we glory. Paul is not denying that he had ever received glory or honor from men, but only that he had never consciously sought it. His life consistently witnessed to the truthfulness of his statement (cf. Acts 20:19; 2 Cor. 4:5), and neither Gentile nor Christian could justly accuse him of self-seeking.

Burdensome. Literally, "in weight," that is, in a position to wield authority. As messengers and envoys of the heavenly King, the missionaries were worthy of respect and support, and might have made weighty demands upon their converts.

Apostles. This use of the title shows that Paul also regarded Silas and Timothy as members of the Christian apostolate (cf. on Rom. 16:7; 1 Cor. 4:9).

7. Gentle. Gr. eµpioi, "mild," "kind," "loving." Textual evidence is divided (cf. p. 10) between the readings eµpioi and neµpioi, "infants," "babes" (see on Matt. 11:25). "Gentle" fits the context well.

Nurse. The apostle compared himself, in his loving disinterestedness, to a nursing mother, who may or may not be the real mother, who is wholly bent on bestowing love on her child. Instead of making demands on the Thessalonians, acting as "lords over God's heritage" (1 Peter 5:3), the evangelists were most solicitous of their converts' welfare.

8. Affectionately desirous. Gr. homeiromai, "to yearn after," "to long for," "to desire." The figure of the nursing mother is continued. Gentleness has been stressed (v. 7); here love is emphasized. As the mother-nurse is intent on imparting affection, even to the giving of life for her infant, so the missionaries were willing to give their all. Here the apostle lays bare his heart, and reveals his intense devotion to these early converts in Macedonia.

We were willing. Rather, "we were well pleased."

To have imparted. Gr. metadidoµmi, "to impart," in the sense of sharing anything with another.

Gospel of God. See on v. 2.

Souls. Gr. psuchai (see on Matt. 10:28), here used in the sense of "lives." Paul's converts could not dispute his claim: they had witnessed the boldness of the missionaries and knew that they had not hesitated to imperil life itself.

Were dear. Rather, "had become beloved." As Paul and his companions had worked for these new believers, and had watched their determined stand for Christ in the face of strong opposition; as they had striven earnestly in prayer for them, first that they might accept the message, and then that they might be steadfast, the young Christians had become increasingly dear to them.

9. Ye remember. An appeal to the personal knowledge of the Thessalonians of his labors among them (cf. vs. 1, 2).

Labour. Gr. kopos (see on ch. 1:3).

Travail. Gr. mochthos, "hard and difficult labor," "hardship," "distress." The two words kopos and mochthos are also used together in 2 Cor. 11:27; 2 Thess. 3:8. In 2 Cor. 11:27 (RSV) the combination is rendered "toil and hardship."

Labouring. Gr. ergazomai, "to work," generally, for payment. Paul refers to his working at his trade of tentmaking (see on Acts 18:3).

Night and day. Paul purposed to earn his living, being determined that the gospel should be given freely. No one was to be given grounds for accusing the apostle of preaching for personal gain. He labored that he might not be a burden to his congregations (see on 1 Cor. 4:12; 2 Cor. 11:9; 1 Thess. 2:6).

10. Ye are witnesses. Now that the apostle had effectively met and disproved the three leading charges of his enemies: (1) that he and his companions were deluded fanatics, (2) that they were motivated by selfish, impure thoughts, and (3) that their kindness, their apparent solicitude, was only thinly veiled deceit (vs. 1-9), he again appeals to the Thessalonians' knowledge, reminding them that they were witnesses of their ministers' conduct. They knew much more about the missionaries than did the accusers. Therefore they should not be moved by slanderous reports.

And God also. Again Paul appeals to God (see on v. 5) regarding his motives, which could not be seen by man. This suggests that when occasion demands, we may appeal to God for the truthfulness of what we say, and that we should always live so that we can properly make such an appeal.

Holily. Gr. hosioµs, "devoutly," "in a manner pleasing to God." The holy life of a true Christian, his pious, reverent attitude toward his Maker, has a profound influence upon his attitude toward his fellow men, the children of God.

Justly. Gr. dikaioµs, "justly," "righteously," related to the adjective dikaios (see on Matt. 1:19).

Unblameably. Gr. amemptoµs, "blamelessly," related to the adjective amemptos (see on ch. 3:13).

Behaved. Literally, "became," used here in the sense of "acted," or, "behaved."

11. Ye know. Compare "ye remember" (see on v. 9).

Exhorted and comforted and charged. These words describe three major aspects of every Christian minister's work.

As a father. In v. 7 Paul had used the figure of a nursing mother to portray the gentle, loving attitude of the evangelists toward their converts. Now he employs the part a godly father plays in the upbringing of the child as an illustration of their indefatigable work in building up the Christian experience of the young believers. They exhorted all to be faithful, encouraged the fainthearted ones, and solemnly charged and admonished any who showed signs of waywardness. And all this was done in tenderness and love.

12. Walk. Gr. peripateoµ (see on Eph. 2:2; cf. Col. 1:10; 1 John 1:6). The purpose of the apostles' painstaking work was to enable these young Christians to live lives befitting children of the heavenly Father. To live otherwise is to bring dishonor upon God, even causing His name to be blasphemed by unbelievers (cf. on Rom. 2:24).

Who hath called. Rather, "who calls," or "who keeps on calling." For the significance of God's call see on Rom. 8:28, 30; 1 Cor. 1:9; Gal. 1:6.

His kingdom. For comment on the nature of this kingdom see on Matt. 4:17; 5:3; 6:10, 13; Mark 3:14; cf. on 1 Cor. 6:9. Here Paul is referring to God's present kingdom of grace. Christians are called into God's kingdom of grace upon conversion (see on Col. 1:13).

Glory. See on John 1:14; Rom. 3:23. The present kingdom of grace will culminate in God's eternal kingdom of glory, into which believers will enter with joy into actual citizenship when Jesus returns to gather them into it (cf. Matt. 24:31). Paul admonishes the Thessalonians to live according to the laws of this glorious realm (cf. on Phil. 3:20).

13. For this cause. Or, "because of this." Textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of "for."

Thank we God. Compare on ch. 1:2, 3. Paul was assured of the reality of his converts' initial faith, and he wanted to impress them with a sense of this reality lest they be tempted to doubt it and fall away from their faith.

Received. This word appears twice in this verse and is the rendering of two different Greek verbs. The first, paralambanoµ, means the external reception, the hearing of the message; the second, dechomai, refers to the internal reception, the acceptance of the message.

Word of God. Paul had no doubts concerning the origin of the message he preached: he knew it came from God. He had also taught the Thessalonians from the sacred Scriptures (Acts 17:2, 3). He rejoiced that they also recognized the divine authority of his message, and quotes their recognition as a major cause for his own rejoicing.

Effectually worketh. Gr. energeoµ (see on Phil. 2:13). When accepted into the life, the word does its divinely appointed task.

In you that believe. The effectual working of the word operates in the Christian through faith. The word of God profits only when it is "mixed with faith" in those who hear (Heb. 4:2). The gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" (Rom. 1:16). In one of Paul's great benedictions, he tells how God is able to do for us far more than we can ask or think by "the power that worketh in us" (Eph. 3:20). Again, he speaks of his own experience, and tells how he strives in preaching with all the "energy" which God "mightily inspires" within him (Col. 1:29, RSV). In this case the mighty power of God's word was working in the Thessalonian believers, giving them patience under trial and persecution.

14. Followers. Gr. mimeµtai (see on ch. 1:6).

Churches of God. The plural expression is found only here and in 1 Cor. 11:16, but the singular form is common in the NT (Acts 20:28; etc.).

Judæa. The reason for Paul's comparison of the Thessalonian with the Jewish Christians is not clear. He may have set forth the Judean churches as prime exemplars of fortitude, or perhaps the Jewish persecutors in Thessalonica may have reminded him of similar conditions in Palestine. Whatever his reason, he reveals the high regard in which he holds the Judean believers, and accounts them as models for other churches to follow.

In Christ Jesus. These words show plainly that Paul is referring to the Christian Jewish churches, and not to the synagogues of the Jews, who thought themselves to be the church of God. The Judean Christians had passed through fiery persecution at the hands of the national leaders who had rejected the gospel message (Acts 8:1; 9:1, 2). The Thessalonians were persecuted by Gentiles at the instigation of Jews (Acts 17:5-8). The two Christian communities, one in Palestine, the other in Macedonia, could therefore sympathize with each other in their similar sufferings.

15. Killed the Lord Jesus. The church of the Thessalonians was a Gentile church, but many of its members had been Jewish proselytes (see on Acts 17:4). These members had been used to looking for religious instruction to the Jewish leaders in their city. They might have thought that something was wrong with Paul's teaching, since it had called down the wrath of religious leaders upon him and his followers. But Paul shows that their animosity might have been well expected, for they "killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets" (1 Thess. 2:15; RSV; cf. Matt. 23:31; Acts 7:52). The apostle makes the Jews responsible for Christ's death (cf. on Acts 2:23).

Persecuted us. This phrase may have both a general and a local application. The Jews had pursued Paul from the time of his conversion (see on Acts 9:23), and continued their evil designs against him and his companions (see on Acts 13:45). In particular, the same Jews who caused trouble in Thessalonica, pursued Paul, Silas, and Timothy to Berea (see on Acts 17:13).

Please not God. The form of the verb in Greek shows that the Jews habitually displeased God. They had a zeal for God and thought that their cruel bigotry was pleasing to Him (John 16:2), but their enmity against the Christians was inspired by envy. It was envy that touched off the persecution at Thessalonica, as elsewhere (Acts 17:5; 13:45). Such conduct could not do other than incur God's strong displeasure.

Contrary. The Jews were contrary, or in opposition, to all races of men. If their zeal had been founded on love to God, they would also have loved their fellow creatures. Instead, they manifested a narrow-minded exclusiveness. This attitude caused many of the pagan writers to describe the Jews as feeling "only hate and enmity" toward other nations (Tacitus Histories, v. 5). Paul sees this hatred taking the terrible form of trying to withhold the gospel from those who desired it (see v. 16).

16. Forbidding. Gr. koµluoµ, "to hinder," "to prevent," "to forbid." The Jews would "compass sea and and land to make one proselyte" (Matt. 23:15), and were glad to have men accept Judaism. But they did all in their power to prevent Christians from spreading the good news of salvation through Christ.

That they might be saved. Paul was convinced that apostolic preaching resulted in the salvation of those who accepted its message. He knew that there is no salvation except through Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). He also, knew from personal experience, that any effort to propagate the gospel would incur the wrath of the Jews (cf. Acts 22:22).

To fill up. Gr. anapleµrooµ, "to fill up full," "to fill to the brim." The Jews' rejection of salvation through Christ, and their preventing others from benefiting from the Saviour's sacrifice, filled "to the brim" the measure of their sins (cf. on Matt. 23:32).

Always. By the killing of the prophets in OT times, by the rejection and crucifixion of their Lord, and now, by the determined persecution of His followers, the sins of the Jews were rising higher and higher, until the measure of their iniquity was more than filled.

The wrath. That is, the wrath of God (see on ch. 1:10).

Is come. The consummation of God's wrath against the chosen people was still in the future (a.d. 70), but Paul sees the way the Jews are taking and speaks with certainty concerning the end to which they are hastening. In the light of OTprophecy (see on Dan. 9:24), and of that of our Lord Himself (Matt. 23:37-39; 24:15-20), as well as by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, the apostle could see the wrath of God falling upon the impenitent nation. Jerusalem was not yet destroyed, but God's protection had been withdrawn. Soon the city would be "trodden down." the Jews scattered, and the prophecy of the Lord fulfilled (see on Luke 19:43, 44; 21:24).

To the uttermost. Or, "at last."

17. Being taken. Gr. aporphanizoµ, "to bereave of a parent." After speaking of the Jews in vs. 15, 16, the apostle resumes his argument that there is no warning of his love for them. The Greek word suggests the intimate family relationship existing between Paul and his converts. When circumstances separated them, each member felt as if the family was broken up.

For a short time. Literally, "for a season of an hour." The extent of time between his leaving them (Acts 17:10) and his writing this epistle is not known, but several months must have intervened.

Endeavored. Gr. spoudazoµ, "to hasten," "to exert oneself," "to be diligent."

The more abundantly. That is, excessively, as strongly as possible. Paul was not halfhearted in his efforts to revisit the Thessalonians.

With great desire. Paul assures the Thessalonians that he had left no stone unturned in his efforts to return to them. Such assurance would counteract any suggestion that Jewish opponents might be making concerning a deliberate absence from Thessalonica on the part of Paul. The facts were that the forcible expulsion of the apostles from among the new believers greatly intensified their desire to return to Thessalonica.

18. We would have come. Literally, "we wished to come," or "we willed to come."

Even I Paul. Here Paul distinguishes himself from his co-workers, whom he has consistently associated with himself throughout the epistle. Accuracy demanded this, for Silas and Timothy had stayed at Berea when Paul went to Athens (Acts 17:14), and Timothy had actually paid the Thessalonians a visit at Paul's direction (1 Thess. 3:1-2). They all three wished to return, but speaking for himself, the apostle could assert that he had definitely planned to do so "once and again" (literally, "once and twice"), that is, again and again. He longed to see them.

Satan. Paul had been guided in his missionary tours by the Holy Spirit. Before crossing into Europe on the journey that led him to Thessalonica, the apostle had thought of working in the province of Asia, or in Bithynia, but had been turned away from those places by the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:6, 7). It was not the Holy Spirit, however, who had expelled Paul and his companions from Thessalonica and opposed their return. That deed was in reality the work of the great adversary, Satan.

Hindered. Gr. egkoptoµ, "to cut in," "to impede one's course by cutting off his way." As in a chariot race a driver would "cut in," and thus effectively check an opponent, or as on modern highways, a selfish motorist will sometimes "cut in" and block the progress of the car he has overtaken, so Satan had placed an obstacle in Paul's way and thus prevented him from returning to Thessalonica. The apostle gives no hint as to the manner in which Satan hindered him. Satan, however, can only hinder, he cannot prevent the final triumph of the gospel. The Lord is ruler, and He and His church will triumph.

19. What is our hope? Here the apostle comes to the supreme reason for his longing to return to the Thessalonian believers. He lived in the hope of presenting his converts to the Lord Jesus as trophies of faithful ministry. His hope was not groundless, for he was aware of the fine quality of the Thessalonians' Christian life (cf. on ch. 1:3, 4).

Joy, or crown. See on Phil. 4:1; cf. on 2 Cor. 1:14.

Rejoicing. Rather, "boasting," or, "glorying." In the day of triumph, Paul would be able to point to his converts with permissible pride, rejoicing that the Lord had used him in their salvation. Such sentiments, expressed by the apostle at this juncture, would have a twofold effect upon his readers: (1) convince them of the sincerity of his love for them, and his desire to revisit them; (2) encourage them to remain steadfast in spite of persecutions.

In the presence of. Or, "before," as in ch. 3:13.

Coming. Gr. parousia (see on Matt. 24:3).

20. Ye are our glory. In v. 19, Paul had describe his converts as his "hope," "joy," or "crown." Here he introduces the thought of their also being his "glory" (or, "honor"). This is high praise for the Thessalonians. Not only would these believers be his joy and crown of glorying at Christ's coming, but even now they are his pride and delight. He glories in the evidences of the working of God's Spirit among them. Their faith and love and hope (ch. 1:3), together with their strong missionary spirit (v. 8), are reasons for rejoicing and constant thanksgiving on his part (v. 2). Beyond all effective contradiction, his heart is in Thessalonica.

Ellen G. White Comments

3-8AA 256

6, 9 AA 347

10 Ev 632

10-13AA 257

12 1T 137

13 COL 59

19 AH 279; CT 284; MYP 23

19, 20 AA 257; Ed 70; EW 61; MB 90; 6T 310

1 Thessalonians Chapter 3

1 Saint Paul testifieth his great love to the Thessalonians, partly by sending Timothy unto them to strengthen and comfort them: partly by rejoicing in their well doing: 10 and partly by praying for them, and desiring a safe coming unto them.

1. Wherefore. That is, because of the apostles' intense love and burden for their converts, and Paul's continued frustration in his attempts to return to Thessalonica.

Forbear. Gr. stegoµ, "to cover," "conceal," "to endure" (cf. 1 Cor. 9:12; 13:7). The use of the plural subject in this verse seems to indicate that the apostle wished to make it plain that his companions shared his solicitude for these new believers, and that they participated wholeheartedly in his efforts to solve the problems created by separation (see on 1 Thess. 2:17, 18).

Thought it good. That is, we resolved. The tense of the Greek verb (eudokeoµ) shows that a definite decision was made.

At Athens alone. The record states that when Paul had been forced to leave Macedonia, "Silas and Timotheus abode there still" (Acts 17:14). Upon reaching Athens, the apostle sensed the tremendous challenge presented by the cultured heathen metropolis, and felt his own need of faithful helpers. He therefore sent the directive for them "to come to him with all speed" (v. 15). The record in Acts does not state that either Silas or Timothy was able to come to Athens, but the present passage suggests that Timothy did go, and that he was sent back to Macedonia almost immediately, in order to minister to the Thessalonian believers. Paul was to be left alone in Athens. This decision must have been a most difficult one for him to make. The great sacrifice that the apostle was willing to make in depriving himself of Timothy's companionship and help, indicates the urgency of the needs of the Thessalonians. After his visit there, Timothy, accompanied by Silas, came to Paul at Corinth (ch. 18:5). It is clear, therefore, that the three workers united in the plans which were laid, and that Paul took the initiative, both in making them, and in having them carried out.

2. Sent Timotheus. See on v. 1.

Minister. Gr. diakonos (see on Mark 9:35).

Our fellowlabourer. Textual evidence is divided (cf. p. 10) between including and excluding this phrase. Whether it is included or not, Paul is highly commending Timothy. The younger man was not only Paul's brother, fellow believer, and associate, but was also a fellow worker with God in proclaiming the gospel of Christ. This noble conception of being linked with God in His great mission of love for fallen humanity occupied a prominent place in Paul's thinking, and often found expression in his writings (cf. Rom. 1:9; 1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor. 6:1; Phil. 4:3).

To establish. Gr. steµrizoµ (see on Rom. 16:25). The chief objective of Timothy's visit was to strengthen and confirm the believers, that none might turn back.

To comfort. Gr. parakaleoµ (see on Matt. 5:4). The second purpose in Timothy's mission was to exhort the believers. This would include a review of what they had been taught, a widening of their doctrinal horizons, and a strengthening of their daily Christian experience. All this is found in the phrase "concerning your faith."

3. Be moved. Gr. sainoµ, "to disturb," "to agitate," used only here in the NT. In classical writings it is used literally of dogs, with the meaning "to wag the tail," hence the derived meanings, "to flatter," "to beguile." Some believe that these latter meanings should be applied to the present verse. Others hold to the meaning "to disturb," which is supported by the ancient versions. Paul knew the dangers that local persecution would present to the Thessalonians. Hence he fervently hopes that Timothy's ministry would save them from being in any way weakened in the faith.

By these afflictions. Or, "in these afflictions," since Paul was visualizing the difficult circumstances in which his converts were having to practice their faith.

We. The pronoun refers not only to the apostles but to their converts as well. The realization that God knows about the persecution they are suffering, and that it plays an appointed part in His plan for their lives, strengthens Christians to endure affliction. The trials that our loving Father permits are the necessary means of salvation, and are directed and tempered toward that end (1 Cor. 10:13). Characters are perfected by trials, and Christians must not rebel at the refining process (see on Mal. 3:3; Acts 14:22; 2 Tim. 3:12; 1 Peter 2:21; 4:12, 13).

4. We told you before. In the short time that Paul and his companions were with the Thessalonians, they endeavored to prepare them for the inevitable trouble that lay ahead (see Acts 18:23). To begin with, these believers knew of the terrible flogging that Paul and Silas had received at Philippi (see on 1 Thess. 2:2). In their preaching, the missionaries had forewarned them of the coming persecution. Now Paul reminds them of his prediction and its painful fulfillment. The verity of the apostolic word must have confirmed the Thessalonians' confidence in it (cf. on John 13:19), and have provided an effective incentive to steadfastness.

We should suffer tribulation. Or, "we are about to suffer tribulation."

5. For this cause. Although Paul knew that the Thessalonians would be persecuted, he did not callously accept such a certainty. He loved his spiritual children and was affectionately anxious for their welfare. For this reason he dispatched a personal messenger to bring him firsthand news concerning their condition. He does not here name the person sent, since he had already given that information (v. 2). He simply states the reason for sending Timothy. He has already made a similar statement in vs. 1, 2 but here makes it more personal by speaking in the first person singular employing "I," not "we."

Forbear. See on v. 1.

Know your faith. The state of his converts' spiritual health was Paul's main concern.

The tempter have tempted. Paul knew the frailties of human flesh, and feared that some of the believers might have fallen from the purity of the faith. His concern could be dispelled only by having direct news from Thessalonica. The apostle reveals his understanding of the workings of temptation. God had permitted trials to assail the Thessalonian Christians, but temptation did not come from Him. Paul recognizes that incitement to evil comes from the tempter, Satan himself (cf. on Matt. 4:1; James 1:13, 14). He realizes that a personal devil, working through wicked men, is attacking God's people with the purpose of discouraging them and causing them to abandon their faith. If the devil should succeed, then the labor expended upon the believers would have been in vain, for Paul considers his efforts fruitless unless they result in the salvation of those for whom he works.

6. But now. The adverb "now" clearly indicates that Timothy had just arrived from Thessalonica. This first epistle, then, was written soon after Timothy's arrival, and consequently reflects the loving sentiments evoked by Timothy's encouraging report. It is also clear that the epistle was written at Corinth, not Athens (see pp. 224, 225), for the record states that Timothy and Silas had joined Paul at Corinth (Acts 18:5)

Charity. Gr. agapeµ, "love" (see on Matt. 5:43; John 11:3; 1 Cor. 13:1). It was balm to Paul's heart to know that the believers' faith had not been shaken, and their love had not waxed cold.

Good remembrance of us. Paul had feared that Jewish misrepresentations would have turned the Thessalonians against him when he was absent from them. The news that they still thought lovingly of him and were continually longing to see him, must have been very reassuring to the apostle. He declares that the longing is mutual-he desires to see them (cf. ch. 2:17, 18).

7. We were comforted. Paul, who was so careful to encourage others, is himself comforted by those whom he is seeking to help. Even so may God's modern ministers be heartened by those for whom they labor. The best encouragement a convert can give to the one who has brought him to the Saviour, is to be steadfast in the Christian way.

Affliction and distress. Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) the inversion of the words "affliction" (thilipsis) and "distress" (anagkeµ). For the meaning of the two Greek words see on Rom. 2:9 and 1 Cor. 7:26 respectively. Some interpreters have thought that the phrase "affliction and distress" refers to inner and outer troubles. The more likely reference is to the severe trials imposed by the Jews upon the apostle in Corinth (Acts 18:1-17). There the Jewish leaders had so vehemently and blasphemously objected to Paul's preaching of the gospel that he separated himself from them, and turned completely to the Gentiles (v. 6). Their harassing attempts to silence him did not cease, but rather increased, until they stirred up open insurrection against him (vs. 12). At such a time of trouble the Lord in a vision mercifully encouraged Paul to be bold in presenting his message, and assured him of protection and success in his work (vs. 9, 10). It was probably at this time that he received the comforting message brought by Timothy.

8. For now we live. In contrast with the troubled existence, conditioned by affliction and distress, that the apostles had been enduring.

If ye stand fast. For the significance of "stand fast" see on Phil. 1:27. Paul states that so long as the Thessalonians remain steadfast, he and his companions will enjoy life in its fullest Christian sense. Such a heartfelt expression of love and his ardent interest in their eternal welfare must have encouraged the Thessalonians to be faithful.

9. What thanks can we render? Paul's heart overflows with permissible elation at the thought of his converts' excellences. Paul naturally desires to give thanks for their exemplary witness, and to give such thanks, not to man, but to God, who made possible their victorious lives. His joy is spiritual. It arises from contemplating the spiritual worth of the believers. Such joy contains no selfishness. It is akin to the happiness felt by the angels at the conversion of a sinner (Luke 15:10). For the third time Paul expresses thanks to God for His keeping power in behalf of his converts (see 1 Thess. 1:2; 2:13). What could be greater cause for thanksgiving? The joy that a true servant of Christ experiences as he learns of the faithfulness of those whom he has brought to the Lord is the greatest remuneration for service (see 3 John 4).

10. Night and day praying. See on ch. 2:9. Here we have a glimpse of the apostle's hidden life of prayer. Paul worked "night and day" (ch. 2:9); yet, like the high priest, he bore his converts on his heart continuously (see on Ex. 28:29).

Might see your face. Compare chs. 2:17, 18; 3:6. Paul believed there was something he could do in person that could not otherwise be accomplished. Yet the fact that he was prevented from fulfilling his desire led to the writing of this letter, which accomplished much for his distant friends. But how much more did he accomplish for the church in all ages This epistle, probably the earliest of his known writings (see pp. 224, 225), was penned as a direct result of his unsuccessful attempts to return to Thessalonica (see on ch. 2:18). It is possible that he did visit this church later and gave its members further instruction (see Acts 20:2). But for the present his way was obstructed. The delay forced upon the apostle was by the Lord's grace made the occasion for the writing of the epistle. Thus the wrath of man was turned to the praise of God.

Might perfect. Gr. katartizoµ (see on Luke 6:40; Gal. 6:1). Paul was anxious to supply what was lacking in their spiritual equipment. He had previously extolled their faith, love, and hope (1 Thess. 1:3), but he recognized that they lacked essential virtues (see on chs. 4:11; 5:14), and needed to "increase more and more" (ch. 4:10) in the Christian graces.

11. Now God himself. With these words Paul begins a fresh section, and records a specific prayer. The fact that God and Christ are mentioned together emphasizes the unity of these two members of the Godhead. For comment on Paul's titles for the Father and the Son see on Rom. 1:7; Gal. 1:4; Phil. 2:5.

Direct. Literally, "make straight" (cf. Luke 1:79; 2 Thess. 3:5). Paul's path had been blocked by Satan (1 Thess. 2:18), so the apostle turned to the Father and Christ, asking them to clear away all obstacles and to make it possible for him and his companions to visit the Thessalonians again.

12. And the Lord. Or, "but the Lord," placing vs. 11 and 12 in contrast with each other. Paul is virtually saying: Whatever happens to me, I wish you to grow in spiritual stature.

Make ... to increase. Gr. pleonazoµ, "to superabound." The additional "abound" serves to emphasize the intensity of Paul's desire for his converts. He prays that Christ will give them an ever-deepening love, first, for their fellow believers, then for those without the church. He wanted the ardent love that he felt for them to be reproduced in their own hearts on others' behalf. Fervent love for one another is a sign to the world of the genuineness of the Christian religion. This is Christ's explicit teaching (John 13:34, 35).

13. To the end. Or, "so that," pointing to the result of having hearts overflowing with love.

Stablish. Gr. steµrizoµ (see on Rom. 16:25). In 1 Thess. 3:2 steµrizoµ is translated "to establish." Paul is confident that Christ will stabilize the believers' hearts, and recognizes that the Thessalonians cannot accomplish that work for themselves.

Unblameable. Gr. amemptoi, "blameless," "deserving no censure," "free from defect" (cf. on Eph. 1:4; Phil. 2:15; 3:6). The apostle's wish for his converts is that in spiritual matters they be free from every flaw.

Holiness. This indicates the sphere in which Christ is to make the believers blameless. He will so enable them to live holy lives that they will be able to stand without censure before the Judge of the universe. "Unblameable in holiness" represents the highest possible ethical and spiritual standard. The apostle believes that such a standard can be reached by the grace that Christ supplies to those of His followers who increase in love. To believe less would be to deny the gospel.

Before God. Paul's concern is that his converts should be ajudged blameless, not by men, who are fallible, but by God who searches the hearts and knows what is in the mind.

Even our Father. Compare v. 11.

Coming. Gr. parousia (see on Matt. 24:3). The coming of our Lord is one of the keynotes of this epistle (see 1 Thess. 1:10; 2:19; 4:16; 5:23). In the present setting Paul sees the day of Christ's coming as the time when the believer's character must be established. There will then be no possibility of change.

Saints. Gr. hagioi (see on Rom. 1:7). In the NT hagioi generally refers to the redeemed children of God (Matt. 27:52; Acts 9:13; 1 Cor. 1:2; etc.). Some believe that hagioi here refers to the angels who accompany Christ at His parousia (Matt. 25:31). Others believe that Paul is thinking of the dead and living saints who are united at the time of Christ's appearing (1 Thess. 4:13-17) and with whom Jesus will be associated at that time.

Ellen G. White Comments

1 AA 234

6-10AA 255

8 EW 28; MH 167

11, 12 ML 221

12, 13 AA 263; 5T 693

13 MB 149

1 Thessalonians Chapter 4

1 He exhorteth them to go on forward in all manner of godliness, 6 to live holily and justly, 9 to love one another, 11 and quietly to follow their own business: 13 and last of all to sorrow moderately for the dead. 15 And unto this last exhortation is annexed a brief description of the resurrection, and second coming of Christ to judgment.

1. Furthermore. Gr. loipos, "for the rest," translated "finally" in 2 Cor. 13:11; Eph. 6:10; Phil. 4:8; 2 Thess. 3:1 (see on Phil. 3:1). Paul now turns from prayer to an extended exhortation concerning Christian living.

We beseech. Gr. eroµtaoµ (see on Phil. 4:3). Instead of using apostolic authority and issuing commands to his readers, Paul, with tact and humility, entreats them to listen, and addresses them as brethren.

Exhort. Gr. parakaleoµ (see on Matt. 5:4). Paul does not content himself with entreaty. He adds earnest exhortation to his appeal. He had prayed that the Thessalonians might be made ready for the Lord's coming (ch. 3:12, 13), but prayer alone would not suffice. There was something for them to do. Their part was to heed the instruction given, and, by the Lord's grace, to act upon it.

By the Lord Jesus. Literally, "in the Lord Jesus" (cf. on Phil. 2:19). Paul was not giving personal opinions or advice, he was writing by divine inspiration. He was exhorting in the name of the Lord, and by His authority. Tactful as this approach is, it bears a strong note of authority, and is calculated to carry great weight with its hearers.

Received of us. Paul reminds his readers of what they had been taught while he was with them (cf. 1 Cor. 15:1; Gal. 1:9; Phil. 4:9). Practical instruction had been given them (cf. 1 Thess. 2:2, 7, 8, 13).

To walk and to please God. That is to walk so as to please Him. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) adding the words "even so also walk," or "even as ye are also walking," or "just as you are doing" (RSV). The object of the walking, or living (see on ch. 2:12), should be to gain God's approval of their conduct (cf. on v. 4). The apostle had taught the Thessalonians to live, not like the Jews in general, who were displeasing to God (v. 15), but rather in accordance with gospel principles, and thus to have divine approval continually.

Abound more and more. The apostle has lofty heights of Christian excellence in view for his converts. He believes they can go far beyond their present achievements (cf. Ed 18). Such confidence in their possibilities would open the hearts of the Thessalonians for the serious admonitions that follow.

2. Ye know. Compare ch. 2:1, 2, 9, 11, where Paul stresses the Thessalonians' personal knowledge of his previous ministry to them. He is making no new demands upon them.

Commandments. Gr. paraggeliai, "announcements," or "charges," hence, "commands," and often used in classical literature of military orders. The reference here is to the instructions previously given by Paul in Thessalonica.

By the Lord Jesus. Or, "through the agency of the Lord Jesus." The apostle is again reminding his readers that his teachings were given under divine authority. Now that he was about to speak of particular sins of which some in the church were guilty, he was most anxious that every member should recognize that he was enunciating Christ's own principles (cf. v. 8). Such recognition would ensure a positive response to the standards of which he now reminds them.

3. The will of God. God's will here represents His desires for His children. It is not His will that even one member of His family should perish because of any kind of sin (Matt. 18:14).

Sanctification. Gr. hagiasmos (see on Rom. 6:19). The term hagiasmos is an inclusive one, and is not to be limited to chastity, although the apostle has chastity in the forefront of his mind in the present context. The will of God, however, can be fulfilled only in our complete consecration. Christ died to make our holiness possible (Eph. 5:25-27), but such a result is not obtained in a moment. Justification is accomplished momentarily when the repentant sinner accepts God's forgiveness, but not so with sanctification, which is a continuous work of grace (see on Rom. 12:1, 2). It is "not the work of a moment, an hour, a day, but of a lifetime" (AA 560).

Abstain. Gr. apechomai, "to hold oneself away from," hence, "to abstain." God expects the Christian to keep away from sin, not to expose himself to temptation (see on 1 Cor. 6:18).

Fornication. Gr. porneia (see on Matt. 5:32; Acts 15:20; 1 Cor. 5:1). This sin needed emphatic denunciation among Gentile converts, for they had been reared in an atmosphere where moral laxity was accepted and vice consecrated as a religious rite (see Vol. VI, pp. 91, 92). The patron deity of Corinth, whence Paul was writing, was Aphrodite, the goddess of love and generation, and her worship was accompanied by the wildest orgies. It would be difficult for Christians in any pagan city to remain unaffected by such blatant immorality. But all that is contrary to chastity of heart, in speech and behavior, is contrary to the command of God in the Decalogue, and to that holiness which the gospel requires (cf. Matt. 5:27, 28; Acts 15:29; 1 Cor. 6:18; Gal. 5:19; Eph. 5:3). In our day, when standards of sexual conduct are lowered, when chastity is so commonly regarded as being outmoded and divorces are so frequent, this injunction deserves the scrupulous attention of every professed follower of the Lord.

4. Know. Or, "understand." In 1 Thess. 5:12 Paul uses the verb, "to know," in the sense of "to know the worth of," "to appreciate," "to respect." Different forms of the same verb are used in 1 Thess. 4:5; 2 Thess 1:8; Gal. 4:8 to describe those who know not God, that is, they do not understand or appreciate Him.

Possess. Gr. ktaomai, "to acquire," "to get for oneself," "to procure for oneself."

Vessel. Gr. skeuos, "a thing," "an object," "vessel," "jar," "dish." Skeuos is translated "vessel" 19 out of the 23 times it is used in the NT. There is difference of opinion as to its meaning in this verse. Some hold that Paul is referring to the Christian's body, with special reference to its sexual functions. This interpretation accords with the context, which treats of sexual purity (vs. 3, 5), but not so well with the meaning of ktaomai, "to acquire" (see above under "possess"). However, it is possible to give to ktaomai the meaning "to gain control over." General scholarly opinion prefers to interpret skeuos, "vessel," as referring to a man's wife. Such opinion has scriptural support in 1 Peter 3:7, where the wife is described as "the weaker vessel," and in rabbinical literature, which speaks of the wife as a "vessel" for the man. This interpretation would make Paul say this: "Each Christian should know how to take a wife for himself in a consecrated and honorable manner."

One other view calls for consideration. A few interpreters have suggested a division of the verse which results in this translation: "That each one of you respect his own wife, and that he get gain in sanctification and honor." They have held that the second thought applies to business relationships, the getting or acquiring of wealth, and that Paul is urging that this be done on an ethical basis. But such an interpretation disturbs the flow of Paul's thought, which is concentrating on matters of sexual purity in vs. 3-7.

Paul's approach to the subject of impurity and marriage in this epistle is in harmony with his discussion of similar topics in 1 Cor. 7. He sees marriage as a divinely appointed union that will aid Christian partners in avoiding sexual temptations (see on 1 Cor. 7:1-5).

5. Lust. Gr. pathos, "emotions," good or bad, but in the NT only evil desires (Rom. 1:26; Col. 3:5).

Concupiscence. Gr. epithumia, "desire," "craving," "longing," but in the NT generally evil desire, specifically, "lust" (see on Mark 4:19; Rom. 7:7). The phrase "lust of concupiscence" may thus be rendered, "passion of lust." The close connection between 1 Thess. 4:4 and 5 supports the view that Paul is dealing with sexual aspects of marriage. In v. 4 he makes the positive approach; in v. 5 he stresses the attitude Christians should avoid. Though reared in an immoral atmosphere, they should not allow themselves to be tainted by that immorality.

Gentiles. Or, "heathen." Since the Thessalonians themselves had been Gentiles, or heathen, they understood Paul's references. But the fact that the apostle now clearly distinguishes them from the heathen would encourage them to maintain the distinction by refusing to indulge in immorality, as the Gentiles did.

Which know not God. See on Rom. 1:21, 28.

6. Go beyond. Gr. huperbainoµ, "to step over," "to go beyond," metaphorically, "to transgress." The verb is used only here in the NT.

Defraud. Gr. pleonekteoµ, "to take advantage of another," "to overreach." A different word (apostereoµ) is used for "defraud" in 1 Cor. 7:5, but the meaning is similar.

In any matter. Rather, "in the matter." One's understanding of what is implied by "the matter" vitally affects the interpretation of this verse. Some hold that the reference is to commercial transactions, and that Paul is admonishing his converts to be honest in their dealings. This view cuts across Paul's line of thought as expressed in vs. 5 and 7, where he clearly deals with sexual purity. It seems preferable to assume that the apostle is maintaining his topic throughout vs. 3-7, and that he delicately states that fornication is a form of robbery, since it takes that which rightfully belongs to another.

Avenger. Gr. ekdikos (see on Rom. 13:4). The Lord is here portrayed as the executor of judgment. He who forms the tie that unites husband and wife, watches over it (see Matt. 19:5, 6). Relationships which are thought to be secret, which come before no earthly tribunal, are seen by the Lord (see Heb. 4:13). He judges. The wrongdoer cannot escape His punishment. In this way Paul reminds his readers that sin, especially the kind of which he is speaking, will not go unpunished. This statement is given as the first reason for not defrauding one's brother.

All such. That is, all people who practice the fleshly sins of fornication, adultery, and every other form of sexual impurity.

Forewarned. Gr. proeipon, "to say before," that is, formerly. Paul is giving no new counsel. He is repeating the teaching he had previously given to the believers.

Testified. Or, "testified earnestly," "charged religiously." Paul had faithfully warned his converts against the corrupting influences that bore sway in society. Such solemn admonition needs to be taken to heart by the church of God today, surrounded as it is by the debasing influences of a corrupt society.

7. For. This preposition introduces the second reason given by Paul in his appeal for purity of conduct (see on v. 6).

Called. See on ch. 2:12. The call of God is a powerful reason for eschewing all forms of impurity. Compare on 1 Cor. 6:18-20; 1 Peter 1:14-16.

Unto uncleanness. See on ch. 2:3. The preposition "unto" (epi) may be rendered "for," since it refers to purpose. God has called no man to be unclean or impure.

Unto. Gr. en, literally, "in."

Holiness. Gr. hagiasmos (see on Rom. 6:19), translated "sanctification" in 1 Thess. 4:3 (see comment there). The preposition (en) differs from that used with "uncleanness" (epi), and denotes the sphere in which God expects His called ones to live--the sphere of holiness (cf. Heb. 12:14). Holiness should characterize every aspect of the Christian's life.

8. Despiseth. Rather, "rejecteth," that is, he who rejects Paul's counsel (vs. 3-7) is actually rejecting the word of God. This view places great weight on the moral standards set forth by the apostle.

Hath also given. Textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of "also" and favors the reading "is giving" instead of "hath given." God is continually imparting His Holy Spirit to His children.

Unto us. Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) the reading "unto you." Paul is not speaking of his own inspiration by the Holy Spirit, but of the provision God has made for His people to be victorious over all forms of sin. The Lord has not only called His children to holiness, and given positive commands against uncleanness, but has provided power whereby they may reach His high standard. Thus strengthened, the Christian is able to surmount all obstacles in his quest of a character like that of his Master (cf. Eph. 3:16-19; Phil. 4:13; Col. 1:11).

9. As touching. Or, "concerning."

Brotherly love. Gr. philadelphia (see on Rom. 12:10). Compare Heb. 13:1; 1 John 3:14; 4:20, 21. Paul has discussed (1 Thess. 4:6) a particular type of the violation of principles of love, but feels it unnecessary to pursue the subject further.

Taught of God. When one has accepted the new covenant of grace, and has allowed the Lord to write the divine law in his heart, he is taught of God, and is no longer dependent solely upon human instruction (see Heb. 8:10, 11).

To love one another. The purpose of divine instruction is to promote brotherly love in the believers' hearts (cf. on ch. 3:12). Fervent brotherly love is one of the strongest evidences of conversion (AA 262).

10. Indeed ye do it. This was another reason for Paul's not needing to write more concerning brotherly love. The Thessalonians had already shown their love toward the believers in northern Greece, and Paul had commended them at the beginning of the epistle for their "labour of love" (see on ch. 1:3). He does not explain what form their brotherly love took, but it was doubtless Christian hospitality toward fellow Macedonians. He now uses this proved trait as a basis for appeal in respect to purity of life. Having demonstrated their love on such a large scale, surely they will practice it in their day-by-day relationships with their brethren in the church.

We beseech. Rather, "we exhort" (cf. on v. 1).

Increase more and more. Compare the phrase "abound more and more" (v. 1). The love that the Thessalonians displayed is not yet perfected. He entreats them to strive for still higher attainments. The Christian path is one of continual progress. It is only when we love one another fully that God's love is perfected in us (1 John 4:12, 20, 21).

11. Study. Gr. philotimeomai, literally, "to be fond of honor"; here, "to be ambitious," "to aspire."

To be quiet. That is, to live a quiet life, to live calmly. There may have been fanaticism among the Thessalonian believers. Fanciful ideas and doctrines were being promulgated by a few to the disquieting of the many (see 2 Thess. 3:11, 12; AA 261). It appears, from the context and the tenor of the epistle, that these unsettling views were connected with the doctrine of the second advent (see 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 5:1-11; cf. AA 228, 229).

Do your own business. Or, "mind your own affairs." It would appear from this that some of the church members had been meddling in affairs that were not their own, possibly even in the affairs of the church (cf. on 2 Thess. 3:11, 12).

Work. One of the best safeguards against meddling is active pursuit of one's own work. But it seems that some were teaching that in view of the second advent it was too late to work at ordinary pursuits. As a result, some had stopped working for a livelihood and were depending for support upon the generosity of their brethren.

We commanded. Paul had already dealt with the problem while he was with the Thessalonians, so he can now appeal to his previous verbal instructions, and he not only commanded this way of life but set a notable example of industry, independence, and helpfulness (cf. on Acts 18:3).

12. Walk. Gr. peripateoµ (see on ch. 2:12).

Honestly. Gr. euscheµmonoµs, "becomingly," "in a seemly manner." The admonition refers, not to business relations, but rather to living a consistent Christian life, minding one's own affairs, and diligently working for one's living so as to be self-supporting.

Them that are without. That is, outside the church, non-Christians (see on 1 Cor. 5:12). Living consistently the Christian life will commend itself to the unbelieving world.

Lack of nothing. Or, "need of no man." Whichever translation is taken, the meaning is clear. The Christian should aim to be independent, not dependent on others for his support.

13. I would not. Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) the reading "we would not," that is, we do not wish. Paul may be consciously associating Silas and Timothy in his statement, or the use of "we" may be editorial (see on ch. 1:1).

The apostle here broaches a fresh topic, the fate of the Christian dead in relation to Christ's return. It may be that Timothy, who had just returned from Thessalonica (ch. 3:6), had brought the news that the church members were gravely concerned over the fate of those of their number who had died since being converted. How could such share in the glories of Christ's kingdom at His coming? Paul now considers the subject in detail (vs. 13-18), and passes on to deal with the closely related topic, the time of Christ's appearing (ch. 5:1-11). He treats both matters, not as new doctrines, but as familiar teachings on which the believers needed further instruction and admonition. Paul had not had time to answer every question or to clarify every topic while with them.

Are asleep. Gr. koimaoµ, "to sleep," "to die." Important textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the reading "are falling asleep." More were continually being laid to rest. For sleep as a figure for death see on John 11:11. Greek inscriptions show that a burial place was sometimes known as koimeµteµrion, a word also used for a dormitory, or sleeping room. In Christian usage the dead were thought of as sleeping, awaiting the resurrection morning.

That ye sorrow not. It would appear that the Thessalonians had been unduly grieving over those of their number who had died since accepting the gospel. Those who remained feared that the deceased would lose the glorious experience that Christians expected to enjoy at Christ's return. Paul devotes vs. 13-18 to removing this misapprehension and to consoling the believers. He explains that there is no need for the living Christian to be sorrowful over his dead brother, for the hope of the resurrection removes the cause for sorrow. Paul is not frowning on natural grief. He is teaching the believers not to be immersed in hopeless human sorrow but to lift up their heads in expectation of reunion with their departed loved ones at the time of their Lord's return and the resurrection.

Even as others. Rather, "even as the rest," that is, the non-Christians.

Which have no hope. The non-Christian has no equivalent of the Christian's hope. The unbeliever has no grounds for expecting life after death. To him, death must be the end, for he knows no power that can break the bonds of death and give life to the dead. The Christian alone knows Him who has conquered death on behalf of Himself and His followers. Thus Paul contrasts the believer's outlook with the hopelessness of the pagan world around him.

14. If we believe. The Greek shows that there is here no expression of doubt. The conditional clause assumes the death and resurrection of Jesus to be true. Since Paul had presented these teachings to the Thessalonians when he first entered their city (Acts 17:1-3), his converts were well grounded in these basic tenets of the Christian faith. Paul now wants them to use these teachings as a foundation on which to build belief concerning the future resurrection of the Christian dead. The death and resurrection of Jesus give to the Christian a sure hope of resurrection (see John 14:19; see on 1 Cor. 15:20-23). Therefore the Thessalonians should not despair when their loved ones die.

Which sleep. Rather, "which have fallen asleep," that is, the Christians who have already died.

In Jesus. Literally, "through Jesus." Various interpretations have been offered to explain the force of this difficult expression. Some think that Paul means that death is a sleep only by virtue of Christ's life-giving power that will one day awaken the dead. If Christ's power did not operate, death would be the end. Others connect the phrase "through Jesus" with the latter part of the verse, making it read, "even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep" (RSV). Such a translation is possible, but the Greek tends to favor the KJV rendering.

Still others regard the expression as parallel with the phrase "dead in Christ." This interpretation is perhaps to be preferred inasmuch as the two expressions occur in close contextual relationship.

With him. That is, with Jesus, from the grave. Paul reaches the crux of his reply to the troubled Thessalonians. They have been concerned over the fate of their dead. The apostle now assures them, by a categorical statement, that God has planned for those Christians who have died to be resurrected as Jesus was resurrected. Such words assured the believers that their loved ones were not forgotten. This inspired assurance would satisfy the queries of the Thessalonians and set their minds at rest. It should be noted that Paul is concerned primarily with the fact that the righteous dead are not forgotten, not with the chronological details of the resurrection. These are set forth in 1 Cor. 15:23: "Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming." Paul wished to stress the fact that as God brought forth Christ from the grave, even so would He bring forth the sleeping saints from the graves.

Some teach that Paul is here speaking of disembodied souls, which, they assert, ascend to heaven at death and return with Jesus when He descends to this earth at the time of the second advent. But the Bible nowhere teaches that the soul of man is immortal and that it ascends to heaven at death (see on Matt. 10:28; Luke 16:19-31; 2 Cor. 5:2-8). Furthermore, the interpretation is quite out of harmony with the context. Paul is not speaking of immortal souls, but of "them which are asleep" (1 Thess. 4:13), "them also which sleep in Jesus" (v. 14), "the dead in Christ" (v. 16). The "dead in Christ" rise (v. 16), not descend. The living are described as not preceding them, with reference to being with the Lord (v. 15). All enter the kingdom together (v. 17). If the dead preceded the living and spent some time with the Lord prior to the resurrection, the apostle's language would be quite meaningless, in fact, absurd. His comfort would be misplaced. Paul would have told the Thessalonians to dispel all their concern, for their loved ones were enjoying the bliss of heaven. But this he did not do. This he could not do. His teaching was in harmony with that of his Lord (see on John 14:3). Some commentators, seeing the problems involved, freely admit that "the disembodied souls are not here spoken of" (Jamiesen, Fausset, and Brown).

15. By the word of the Lord. The apostle is appealing to a higher authority than his own (cf. on 1 Cor. 7:6, 10, 12, 25).

We which are alive and remain. Literally, "we the living ones, the remaining over ones," that is, those who, in contrast with the righteous dead, remain alive until Christ's return. Paul here appears to express a hope that he, and the converts to whom he is writing, will be alive when Jesus comes, a hope common with Christians of all ages. But he does not explicitly state that he will live until that great day (see Rom. 13:11; 1 Cor. 10:11; Phil. 4:5; Titus 2:13; see Additional Note on Rom. 13). He clarifies his thoughts on the matter in 1 Thess. 5:1-11, where he deals with the unexpectedness of the second advent and the uncertainty of his or their still being alive at the time of their Lord's return (v. 10). It appears that the Thessalonian believers misunderstood Paul's statements, and some willfully perverted them and taught that the day of the Lord was even then at hand (see on 2 Thess. 2:2). It was to rectify this error in their thinking that the apostle wrote his second letter a short time later (AA 264; see p. 262).

Coming. Gr. parousia (see on Matt. 24:3). Parousia was sometimes used for the arrival of a Roman general to celebrate a triumphal procession through the streets of a city. The word is thus appropriate for describing Christ's triumphal return.

Not. The negative is strongly expressed in the Greek.

Prevent. Gr. phthanoµ, "to come before," "to precede." This was the meaning of "prevent" when the KJV was translated. But the word has changed its meaning so that it no longer correctly translates the Gr. phthanoµ. Paul is assuring his readers that the living Christians will not be united with their Lord before those who have fallen asleep. "The dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them" (vs. 16, 17). Thus the living saints will have no priority over those who have died in the Lord. This teaching makes clear the true state of those who have died "in Christ." They are asleep, awaiting the Saviour's coming. They have not yet been united with Him, but, like the living Christians, await the second advent for their longed-for union with the Master (cf. John 11:23-25). Neither class has precedence over the other; both will be taken to glory together by their Lord at His coming.

16. For. Rather, "because." Paul is stating the factual basis for his teaching in v. 15.

The Lord himself. The personal, visible, bodily appearing of the Lord in great majesty is here clearly described. Christ does not send a deputy, nor does He come spiritually. He Himself comes in person. The same Jesus who ascended to heaven now descends from heaven. Just before He went to heaven He promised to return (John 14:3). The church was assured when He ascended in a cloud that "this same Jesus" would "come in like manner" (Acts 1:9-11). Paul reiterates these promises and records additional details concerning the manner of their fulfillment.

Shall descend. Gr. katabainoµ, "to go down," "to come down," "to descend," used nowhere else in the NT for Christ's second advent, but used of the Son of man's coming down from heaven for the first advent (John 3:13; 6:33, 38; etc.). Christ's descent at His second coming is implied in other scriptural accounts of His return (Matt. 16:27; 24:30; etc.).

A shout. Gr. keleusma, "a command," "a shout of command." The word occurs only here in the NT. In non-Biblical writings keleusma is used of an officer issuing orders to his troops or of a charioteer urging his horses. It is not clear from the Greek construction whether Christ utters the command or whether another being cries aloud as the Lord descends, but contextual evidence favors Christ as the speaker (see below on "archangel," and "the trump of God"). No specific reason is here given for the "shout," but the "shout," "the voice of the archangel," and "the trump of God" are immediately followed by the rising of the "dead in Christ"; hence the arousing sounds may be taken as preliminaries to the resurrection of the just (cf. John 5:25, 28, 29; 11:43). Christ comes from heaven proclaiming His victory. He has conquered death and the grave (Rev. 1:18). No longer can the enemy, death, hold any of the redeemed in his cold grasp. The righteous dead respond to their Lord's command and rise from their graves.

Archangel. Gr. archaggelos, "chief angel," "first angel," compounded from archi, a prefix denoting "chief," or "high," and aggelos, "angel," hence, "chief of the angels." The word archaggelos appears in the NT only here and in Jude 9, where Michael is said to be the archangel. This commentary holds the view that Michael is none other than our Lord, Jesus Christ (see on Dan. 10:13; Jude 9; Rev. 12:7). This interpretation makes it possible to conceive of Christ's own voice, as the voice of the archangel, being heard as He descends (see on Jude 9).

The trump of God. Or, "a trump of God." This does not necessarily refer to any particular trumpet as belonging exclusively to God, but rather to an instrument that is used in God's service. The OT frequently refers to trumpets in connection with notable interventions by God, either actual or predicted (Ex. 19:13, 16, 19; Ps. 47:5; Isa. 27:13; Joel 2:1; Zeph. 1:16; Zech. 9:14). Trumpets were also used for assembling God's people (Num. 10:2-4), for the sounding of war alarms (vs. 5-9), and for national occasions (v. 10). In the NT the sounding of a trumpet is associated with the gathering of the elect and the raising of the dead (Matt. 24:31; 1 Cor. 15:52).

And the dead in Christ. The conjunction "and" is used to indicate the result accompanying the heaven-reverberating sounds, namely, the raising of the righteous dead. The "dead in Christ" are those who fell asleep in faith, including OT saints (see on Rom. 4:3; 1 Cor. 15:18; cf. Rev. 14:13). They are included among those whom Jesus described as "the children of the resurrection" (Luke 20:36). Paul elsewhere calls them "they that are Christ's at his coming" (1 Cor. 15:23). Their being raised corresponds to the "first resurrection" (see on Rev. 20:5, 6). The phrase "the dead in Christ" is here used to distinguish the sleeping saints from two other classes of people: (1) the unrighteous dead, who, as a body, are not raised at Christ's second coming; (2) the living Christians, who are being assured that their beloved dead will be at no disadvantage when Jesus returns, but will rather receive prior attention by being first raised and thus being placed on an equal footing with the living saints.

Shall rise first. That is, shall rise before the living are caught up to meet the Lord in the air (v. 17).

17. Then. That is, after the righteous dead have been resurrected.

We which are alive and remain. See on v. 15.

Caught up. Gr. harpazoµ, "to snatch away" (see on Acts 8:39; Phil. 2:6; Rev. 12:5).

From harpazoµ, by way of the Latin verb rapioÇ, is derived the English word "rapture," a term that some use in a technical theological sense to describe the catching up, or carrying away, of the saints, of which Paul here writes. Those who thus use the word "rapture" teach that Christ's visible, audible appearance with power and great glory will be preceded some years earlier by His coming secretly and invisibly to the air of this planet to catch away His saints, while the rest of earth's population lives on through a period marked by a tribulation under the rule of Antichrist.

But the present passage, which they declare describes this secret coming, speaks of Christ's coming with a "shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God"--hardly a secret event. Furthermore, this is obviously "our gathering together unto him," concerning which the Thessalonians were troubled, but which is after the revelation of Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:1-3), not before, as set forth in the "pretribulation rapture" view (see Additional Notes on Rev. 20, Note 2). The trumpet is mentioned also in Matt. 24:30, 31 in a context that clearly describes a visible coming: "All the tribes of the earth ... shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." There is nothing in the phrasing of these scriptures that even remotely suggests that the coming described in Matt. 24 is different from that described in 1 Thess. 4. Hence both passages describe one event happening at one point of time. This is the uniform teaching of all the Scriptures. For a discussion of certain false concepts on which the belief in a secret rapture is based see Additional Notes on Rev. 20, Note 2.

Together with. Gr. hama sun. The adverb hama signifies "at the same time," while the preposition sun here means "together with." A literal translation of this portion of v. 17 thus reads, "at the same time together with them we shall be snatched away." Such an assurance would set the Thessalonians at rest by explaining to them that the Christians who were then dead and those who remained alive would be simultaneously united with their Lord.

In the clouds. Compare Matt. 24:30; Acts 1:9; Rev. 1:7.

To meet the Lord. Literally, "unto a meeting of the Lord," expressing the fulfillment of the purpose for which the righteous have been caught up from the earth, that is, that they might meet their Lord. At the moment of meeting, the Christian's dearest desire is fulfilled--he is united to the One whom he loves above all others (cf. on Phil. 1:23).

In the air. The saints have ascended from the earth, the Lord and His accompanying hosts have descended from heaven; they meet in the air, between earth and heaven.

And so. That is, as a result of Christ's coming and the consequent events described in vs. 16, 17, all believers are united with their Lord.

Ever be with the Lord. Paul does not attempt to take his readers further than the ecstatic moment of meeting. Disciples of all ages are at last united with the Master, the future is assured. There is no need at this juncture to delve into what lies beyond. But we know from other scriptures that after the union the redeemed continue the journey they have begun and go with Christ to His heavenly home (see on John 14:2, 3). Thus shall they "ever be with the Lord."

18. Wherefore. Or, "so then." This verse presents the conclusion of Paul's reasoning in vs. 13-17. He has explained the relationship of the dead and the living believers at the time of Christ's coming, to set at rest the minds of the troubled Thessalonians who feared that their dead would not share in the benefits and glories of the Lord's return.

Comfort one another. This is more than a suggestion. In a kindly way the apostle is commanding the believers to meditate on "these words" (vs. 13-17), to perceive their comforting import, and to share such consolation with one another so that all may be encouraged by their message.

Ellen G. White Comments

1-3AA 262; CH 584

2, 3 SL 87

3 AA 559, 566; GC 469; 2T 170; 8T 64

4 2T 450, 472, 474, 475

7, 9-12AA 262

13, 14 AA 257

14 AA 259; DA 786; GC 550

16 DA 832; GC 301

16, 17 DA 320; EW 16; GC 322, 625; LS 66; PK 240; PP 339; SR 412; 1T 60; 5T 14

16-18AA 258; GC 302, 548; LS 51; ML 345; PP 89; 1T 41

17 AA 34; EW 110, 273, 287; ML 349; 1T 184

1 Thessalonians Chapter 5

1 He proceedeth in the former description of Christ's coming to judgment, 16 and giveth divers precepts, 23 and so concludeth the epistle.

1. Times and the seasons. For the meaning of this phrase see on Acts 1:7. Paul has carefully explained about "them which are asleep" (ch. 4:13), and has reminded his converts of the order of events at the second advent, but, for reasons that follow, he does not propose to discuss the chronology of the last days.

Ye have no need. The Thessalonians had received thorough instruction from the apostle (cf. chs. 2:11, 13; 3:4; see on ch. 4:1, 2), and he had given them all needful information concerning "the times and the seasons."

2. Know perfectly. Rather, "know accurately." Not that the Thessalonians knew all there was to know about "the day of the Lord," but that they were well aware of its sudden coming. From this it is clear the apostle had given them the Lord's teaching on the subject (Matt. 24:32-44; etc.). There was need only to confirm them in their knowledge and to press home its significance.

The day of the Lord. Important textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of the first "the." Such an omission in Greek possibly indicates that the phrase "day of the Lord" was a formula understood by the church. For the meaning of the phrase see on Acts 2:20. Paul makes frequent reference to the formula, or its equivalent, sometimes abbreviating it as "the day," or "that day" (1 Thess. 5:4; Rom. 2:16; 1 Cor. 1:8; 5:5; 2 Cor. 1:14; 2 Thess. 1:10; 2:2). Here, "the day of the Lord" refers to Christ's second advent.

Cometh. The form of the verb in Greek stresses the certainty of the Lord's return.

As a thief. Compare Christ's words in Matt. 24:43; Luke 12:39, 40. Compare also 2 Peter 3:10; Rev. 3:3; 16:15. By his use of the figure of a thief the apostle emphasizes the unexpectedness of the second coming, thus warning his readers to be ready for its occurring at any time (see on 1 Thess. 4:15). If they heed his words, they need not be taken unawares (cf. Luke 21:34-36; 1 Thess. 5:4).

In the night. The Gospels often connect the coming of Christ with nighttime (Matt. 24:43; 25:6; Mark 13:35; Luke 12:35-38; 17:34). The early church took the illustrations literally and expected the Lord's return to occur around midnight. Jerome mentions a Jewish tradition, based on the midnight coming of the Lord at the first Passover in Egypt, that the Messiah was to come at midnight. He attributes to this the "apostolic tradition" that the pre-Easter vigil should continue until midnight, in anticipation of the coming of Christ (Jerome, on Matt. 25:6). The apostle's use of the word "night" should be seen, also, in the context of vs. 4-6.

3. When they shall say. Or, "whenever they may say." Paul does not specifically identify who "they" are, but it is clear from the context (vs. 4-6) that he is referring to unbelievers. Although the apostle does not specifically state the time when the worldlings utter the words attributed to them, it is clear from the remainder of the verse that the words must be spoken immediately prior to Christ's coming.

Peace and safety. These words, spoken by those who have not prepared for their Lord's return, refer to inner tranquillity and external security, and reveal the satisfied state of the speakers' minds. The calm is unjustified, for disaster is close at hand, and the unbeliever should really learn from the Christian, who is watchfully ready for last-day events. The Scriptures teach that the time immediately preceding Christ's appearing will be one of universal distress (see on Luke 21:25, 26). See below on "sudden" and "destruction."

Sudden. Gr. aiphnidios, "unexpected," "unforeseen," "sudden." The word occurs in the NT only here and in Luke 21:34.

Destruction. Gr. olethros, "destruction," "death," "ruin," a noun derived from the verb ollumi, "to destroy." Thus the phrase "sudden destruction" implies that "the day of the Lord" will bring unexpected catastrophe to the unbelieving world.

Cometh. Gr. ephisteµmi, "to stand over," "to stand by," "to approach," especially used of sudden appearances (Luke 2:9; 20:1; 24:4; Acts 6:12; etc.; cf. on Acts 12:7).

As travail. Or, "even as birth pang." Childbirth cannot be called an unexpected event, but the onset of labor, with its pains, comes suddenly. Paul uses the figure to illustrate the suddenness of the last-day catastrophes.

Shall not escape. Rather, "shall in no wise escape," no more than a woman can escape the birth of her child. Thus the apostle stresses the inevitability of the destruction that will come upon those who have rejected their Saviour. Paul appears to have had Christ's own words (Luke 21:34-36) in mind as he wrote these thoughts to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 5:3).

4. But ye, brethren. Paul now contrasts his converts with the unbelievers who figure in v. 3.

In darkness. That is, in ignorance, and, indirectly, in wickedness. In the NT, "darkness" is frequently used for a state of spiritual poverty and reprobation (Matt. 4:16; 6:23; John 3:19; Acts 26:18; Rom. 13:12). Christians are no longer in that state (1 Thess. 5:5; 1 John 2:8-10).

That day. That is, "the day of the Lord" (v. 2).

Overtake. Gr. katalambanoµ, "to lay hold of" (see on John 1:5), here used in the sense of catching, seizing. The informed child of God, guided by the light that streams from the Divine Word, need not be caught in the destruction of the last days. He may be adequately prepared for all that will come upon the world and its inhabitants.

5. Ye are all. Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) the reading, "for ye are all." The clause is an explanation of the thought in v. 4 that Christians "are not in darkness." Paul generously includes all the Thessalonian members in his statement, although he is well aware that some are weak (vs. 14, 15).

Children of light. Literally, "sons of light." The Christian is a son of God (1 John 3:2), and God is light (John 1:9), so the Christian is a son of light by virtue of his relationship to the Father of lights (James 1:17). In addition, the gospel brings light (2 Cor. 4:4; 1 Peter 2:9); so those who live according to the gospel dwell in light (see on Luke 16:8; John 12:36).

Children of the day. Literally, "sons of day."

We are not. Note the change from "ye" to "we." The apostle includes himself and his companions with the Thessalonians. He stated the ideal, trusting that it will inspire even the weakest member to reach the high standard of truly being "children of light."

6. Let us not sleep. Or, "let us not go on sleeping." The children of light will have no advantage if they fall asleep. "Sleep" here implies indifference to the nearness of Christ's coming, a lethargy that keeps the Christian from being prepared for final events (cf. Matt. 25:5). Paul exhorts his friends not to be ensnared by such spiritual sloth, but to be wide awake (cf. Mark 13:35-37; Luke 21:34-36; Eph. 5:14-16).

Others. That is, the children of darkness, who are unaware of the terrible and glorious events that herald the Lord's return.

Watch. Gr. greµgoreoµ, "to become fully awake" (cf. on v. 10), "to watch," used frequently in the Gospels for spiritual alertness (cf. Matt. 24:42; Mark 13:33, 34; Luke 12:37).

Sober. Gr. neµphoµ, "to drink no wine," "to be sober." It is unlikely that Paul is referring to actual drunkenness among the Thessalonians (cf. 1 Peter 1:13; 4:7; 5:8). He is rather admonishing the Christian to be steady, temperate, calm in spirit, in view of the great "day" that is coming.

7. They that sleep. An observation, drawn from everyday life, to bring out the contrast between those who are "children of the day" and those who are "of the night" (v. 5).

8. But let us. In strong contrast with those whose conduct is described in v. 7.

Sober. Continuing, by repetition, the thought begun in v. 6.

Putting on. That the Christian needs to put on certain qualities implies that he is not naturally clothed in them. Here Paul tells him to don defensive spiritual armor, implying that war is in progress and that the Christian will need to safeguard himself from attack (see on Eph. 6:11, 12). For a fuller treatment of the Christian panoply see on Rom. 13:12, 14; 2 Cor. 10:4; Eph. 6:13-17.

The breastplate. See on Eph. 6:14, where the breastplate is defined as being "of righteousness" (cf. Isa. 59:17; 2 Cor. 6:7).

Of faith and love. That is, the breastplate which is faith and love. The two qualities, faith and love, are integral parts of righteousness. Faith is the active laying hold of that righteousness that Christ imparts to the believer. Love, that great attribute of God's character (1 John 4:8), is shed abroad in our hearts by God's Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). The apostle had already commended the Thessalonians for their exercise of these qualities (1 Thess. 1:3). Here he urges them and all Christians to make fuller use of these attributes as sure defenses in their conflict with evil.

Helmet. See Eph. 6:17, where this piece of armor is defined as being "of salvation," whereas here Paul describes it as being "the hope of salvation." In so doing he teaches that salvation, in its ultimate stage, lies still in the future (see Matt. 24:13; Heb. 9:28; 1 Peter 3:5).

9. For God. Paul presents his understanding of God's purposes as the basis for the hope of salvation (v. 8).

Appointed. Gr. titheµmi, "to set," "to place," translated "to appoint" in Matt. 24:51; Luke 12:46; 2 Tim. 1:11; Heb. 1:2; 1 Peter 2:8. The word concerns God's purpose toward men, which is, and always has been, benevolent (see on John 3:16, 17; 2 Peter 1:9).

Wrath. Gr. orgeµ (see on Rom. 1:18).

Obtain salvation. Paul has just stated God's purpose negatively and now proceeds to give it positive expression. The Lord desires and designs that all men should be saved (see above on "appointed"; see Isa. 55:1; John 7:37; Rev. 22:17), and, by the gift of His Son, has made salvation possible.

By our Lord. Salvation is the gift of God, but, like all of God's goodness to man, it is bestowed through the person of Jesus Christ (cf. on Rom. 6:23).

10. Who died for us. See on Rom. 5:8; 1 Cor. 15:3. The specific purpose of the sacrifice is here stated to be that all believers might "live together with" Jesus. This purpose is fulfilled through the life, death, and resurrection of our Saviour.

Wake. Gr. greµgoreoµ (see on v. 6).

Sleep. See on ch. 4:13. Paul is reverting to the topic that started the train of thought recorded in ch. 4:13-18, that is, the status of the Christian dead as compared with the living believers at the time of Christ's return. Here he assures his readers that there will be no difference in the position of the two. Ultimately, both classes of Christians will "live together with him," that is, with Christ (cf. on ch. 4:14-17).

11. Wherefore comfort. Compare on ch. 4:18, where almost identical words are used.

Yourselves. Rather, "one another," as in ch. 4:18. Paul shows that the work of encouraging the downhearted is not the work only of the ministry. All Christians are to comfort their fellows.

Edify. Gr. oikodomeoµ, "to build up" (see on Acts 9:31). By mutual consideration of such elevated themes as the Lord's coming, and the glory of the saints' inheritance, church members can build up one another's spiritual courage (cf. on Mal. 3:16-18; Acts 20:32).

As also ye do. The apostle is ever ready to give his converts credit for any good they are already doing, but does not hesitate to urge them not only to continue good practices but to intensify them (cf. on ch. 3:12). With this exhortation, Paul concludes his treatment of the topics begun in ch. 4:13.

12. And. Rather, "but," showing the connection between the thought here and that in v. 11.

Beseech. Gr. eroµtaoµ (see on Phil. 4:3; 1 Thess. 4:1). Paul does not wish the Thessalonians' brotherly care for one another to weaken respect for church officers.

To know. That is, to recognize, therefore, to respect (see on ch. 4:4).

Labour. Gr. kopiaoµ (see on Phil. 2:16; 1 Thess. 1:3). It was Paul's custom to ordain elders in every church he established (Acts 14:23). The new officers were necessarily inexperienced, and were perhaps not receiving proper recognition. Those who minister to the church should be respected. They should be remembered and acknowledged for their own sake (see 1 Cor. 16:15-18; Heb. 13:7). Such consideration places a great responsibility upon church officers to be men of God.

Are over. Gr. proé¬steµmi, "to set over," "to superintend," "to preside," translated "to rule" in Rom. 12:8 (see comment there).

Admonish. Gr. noutheteoµ, "to put in mind," "to warn," "to admonish" (see on Acts 20:31; cf. on 1 Cor. 4:14; 2 Thess. 3:15). The word comes from nous, "mind," and titheµmi, "to put." Paul recognizes the weaknesses of his flock and the probability that its officers would need to guide, firmly, its members.

13. To esteem. Gr. heµgeomai (see on Phil. 2:3), here, "to have an opinion of."

Very highly. Gr. huperekperrissoµs, "beyond measure," "more exceedingly," "very highly."

In love. This is added lest the spiritual quality of the Thessalonians' esteem for their elders be questioned.

For their work's sake. Or, "because of their work." The Christian church has no room for man worship, but encourages proper respect of those who bear worthily sacred responsibilities.

Be at peace. This firm injunction suggests that church unity at Thessalonica had been disturbed, possibly by disagreement between officers and laity, since he says "among yourselves." There must be no rivalries, no divisions in the church, with some acknowledging one worker as their spiritual leader, while others contend for another, as was the case later at Corinth (see 1 Cor. 1:12; 3:4-6; 4:6; cf. Rom. 12:18; 14:19).

14. We exhort. Gr. parakaleoµ (see on Matt. 5:4).

Warn. Gr. noutheteoµ (see under "admonish," v. 12).

Unruly. Gr. ataktoi, "out of the ranks," "disorderly," used in the NT only here. The corresponding verb atakteoµ occurs in 2 Thess. 3:7, and the adverb ataktoµs in 2 Thess. 3:11 (see comment there).

Comfort. Gr. paramutheomai "to encourage," "to cheer up."

Feebleminded. Gr. oligopsuchoi, literally, "little-souled ones," that is, those who are little of heart, or the fainthearted. Such ones, possibly those overburdened with sorrow for the dead (ch. 4:13-18) or uncertain of the time of Christ's return (ch. 5:1-11), were to be comforted, not reprimanded. Christians should speak words of comfort and encouragement to timid, needy souls (Heb. 12:12, 13; cf. Gal. 6:2).

Support. Gr. antechomai, "take an interest in," "to pay attention to," "to help." The weak, whom Paul wishes to see supported, are probably those who are being tempted by impurity (ch. 4:3-7). Such members need spiritual support rather than censure, that they may be saved from yielding to temptation.

Be patient. Gr. makrothumeoµ, literally, "to be of a long spirit," hence, "to be long-suffering," "to be slow to anger," "to be patient." The same Greek word is used in 1 Cor. 13:4 to describe charity, or love, which "suffereth long." The love of God in the Christian will lead him to be kindly patient toward all, both within and without the church.

15. See. The form of the Greek verb implies "be vigilant," "see continually."

Render evil for evil. Or, "give back evil in exchange for evil." It is the natural tendency of the heart to do this, but the Christian way is different. Christ forbids retaliation in kind, and urges His followers to return good for evil (see on Matt. 5:38-48 cf. on Rom. 12:17).

Follow. Gr. dioµkoµ, "to run after," "to pursue," "to aspire to." Instead of perpetuating evil by retaliation, the Thessalonians are admonished always, under all circumstances, to aspire to the good. Paul knew that those who pursued good would have little if any time for doing evil.

Among yourselves. Or, "unto one another."

16. Rejoice evermore. Literally, "always rejoice," with emphasis in the Greek on the idea "always." Paul placed value on the ability to be happy (see on Phil. 3:1; 4:4; cf. 2 Cor. 6:10). Whether from possession of present good or anticipation of future happiness, the Christian has abundant reason for rejoicing. With forgiveness of his sins his conscience is free, and peace fills his soul. He knows that "all things work together for good" to him (see Rom. 8:28). Why should he ever be downcast? Those who are constantly complaining do not have genuine religion (MH 251).

17. Pray without ceasing. Literally, "incessantly pray," with emphasis in the Greek on the idea of continuity (cf. on v. 16). There should be a constant spirit of prayer breathing through the Christian's life. Never must the connection with Heaven be broken (see on Luke 18:1). Paul labored "night and day" (1 Thess. 2:9); he also prayed "night and day" (ch. 3:10). His many activities did not crowd out his prayers. Active connection with his heavenly Father was always maintaine 1. So it should be with us. Compare the prayer life of Jesus (see on Mark 3:13).

18. In every thing. That is, under all circumstances, whether of joy or sorrow (cf. on Phil. 4:6; Col. 4:2). Here we have definite assurance that even those things which appear to be against us may work out for our good; for God would not ask us to be thankful for that which would harm us (MH 255). Daniel gave thanks when he knew of the decree designed to take away his life (see Dan. 6:10). Paul himself has left a striking example of being thankful under the most adverse circumstances (see Acts 27:20, 35). Thanksgiving should be the Christian's rule; health and joy are promoted by it (MH 251).

For this. These words may include not only the giving of thanks but also the continual rejoicing and prayer (vs. 16, 17).

The will of God. God is concerned with the whole life of His children, but He feels especial concern for their spiritual health. He wishes Christians to be happy, prayerful, and thankful. Our failure to cultivate these traits represents a failure to fulfill the divine will.

In Christ Jesus. The will of God was exhibited in Christ Jesus. He who would ascertain God's will for his own life should study the life of Jesus and there perceive the supreme illustration of what God intends the Christian to be. Nowhere will there be found a more consistent pattern of happiness, prayerfulness, and gratitude than in the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

19. Quench. Gr. sbennumi, "to extinguish," "to put out," "to stifle," "to suppress." In Matt. 12:20; Mark 9:44-48; Eph. 6:16; Heb. 11:34 the word is used for extinguishing fire and in Matt. 25:8 for the failure of lamps. Since the Spirit is associated with fire (Matt. 3:11; Acts 2:3), sbennumi is particularly appropriate. It is probable that the Thessalonian church had been cooling the ardor of some of its number who had been exercising spiritual gifts (see on 1 Cor. 12:1; 14:1) in an enthusiastic manner. Paul cautions the church against extinguishing the flames of the spiritual fires that burn in their midst, lest they drive away the Holy Spirit. By so advising, he gives no license to fanatical manifestations that discredit the Spirit, but speaks only of such works as may be rightly sponsored by the Holy Spirit.

20. Despise. Gr. exoutheneoµ, "to make of no account," "to despise utterly."

Prophesyings. See on 1 Cor. 12:10; Eph. 4:11. From the close connection between vs. 19 and 20 of 1 Thess. 5, it would appear that prophesying was one of the main ways in which spiritual gifts were displayed in Thessalonica. The church's interest in Christ's return (chs. 1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:13-18; 5:1-11) would add cogency to the gift of prophecy. There were a number of true prophets in the apostolic church (see Acts 11:28; 11:28; 15:32; 21:8-11).

21. Prove. Gr. dokmazoµ (see on ch. 2:4). Careful discrimination is to be made in distinguishing the false from the true (see AA 263).

All things. Specifically the manifestation of the Spirit (vs. 19, 20). God has provided definite tests to determine whether a prophet is genuine: (1) The true prophet must confess Christ in life as well as in word (1 John 4:1-3). He will acknowledge and confess Christ's deity (1 John 2:22, 23). (2) His teachings must accord with the teachings of Scripture (see Acts 17:11; Gal. 1:8, 9). (3) The result or fruitage of his teaching must be good (Matt. 7:18-20).

Hold fast. The believer is not only to test spiritual gifts, but, having discerned the difference between the true and the false, the good and the bad, he is to hold the good, to retain it, in spite of all temptations to let it go.

That which is good. That is, the good among the spiritual gifts.

22. Abstain. Gr. apechomai, "to hold oneself away from" (see on ch. 4:3).

Appearance. Gr. eidos, "form," "outward appearance," "kind." Paul has referred to the "good" (v. 21) in the singular since he sees the "good" as being the one fruit of the Spirit; but he recognizes that "evil" appears in many guises, and he warns his converts against all the many forms in which it masquerades. The reading of the KJV has sometimes been used to prohibit the doing of that which is right simply because it may appear wrong to some onlookers. As appropriate as such counsel may be under certain circumstances, it is not this that the apostle is here setting forth. There are also many exceptions to such a rule. Jesus healed on the Sabbath (John 5:2-16; etc.), and ate with publicans and sinners (Matt. 9:10-13). To the prejudiced Jewish leaders these acts had the appearance of evil. But in spite of this prejudice (Matt. 12:9-13), Jesus did these acts as part of His great work of righteousness. However, He kept Himself entirely free from every form of evil.

23. And the very God of peace. Rather, "but the God of peace himself." With this verse Paul begins the final section of his epistle, and molds it in the form of a prayer. He has upheld high standards (vs. 12-22), but recognizes that no man can reach them without divine aid; so his closing words direct his readers to the enabling power of God Himself. The title, "the very God of peace," refers to the God whose outstanding quality is peacefulness, the God who is the source of all true peace (cf. Rom. 15:33; 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:11; Heb. 13:20, 21; cf. on Phil. 4:7). God ever seeks to restore peace between Himself and His rebellious subjects (see on 2 Cor. 5:18, 19).

Sanctify. Gr. hagiazoµ (see on Matt. 6:9; John 17:17; 1 Cor. 7:14).

Wholly. Gr. holoteleµs, "perfect," "compete in all respects," from holos, "whole," and teµlos, "end." Luther renders holoteleµs "through and through." True sanctification involves the whole being: it is not really possible to be partially sanctified, in the sense of withholding certain areas of the life from being made holy. Every department of life must be submitted to the purifying power of God's Spirit.

Whole. Gr. holokleµros, "complete in all its parts," "complete," "entire," from holos, "whole," kleµros, "lot," or "part." The adjective may apply to each of the nouns that follow--"spirit," "soul," and "body"; or it may be construed with the verb "to preserve," with the sense of "preserve in entirely."

Spirit and soul and body. Paul is not giving a study on the nature of man, but is making sure that no part of his convert's lives is left untouched by God's sanctifying power. Generally the Bible seems to speak of a twofold division in man, either body and soul, or body and spirit (see on Matt. 10:28; Rom. 8:10; 1 Cor. 5:3; 7:34). In Thessalonians these ideas are combined to emphasize that no part of man is to be excluded from the influence of sanctification. It is possible to see special significance in the divisions that Paul makes. By "spirit" (pneuma, see on Luke 8:55) may be understood the higher principle of intelligence and thought with which man is endowed, and with which God can communicate by His Spirit (see on Rom. 8:16). It is by the renewing of the mind through the action of the Holy Spirit that the individual is transformed into Christ's likeness (see Rom. 12:1, 2).

By "soul" (psucheµ see on Matt. 10:28), when distinguished from spirit, may be understood that part of a man's nature that finds expression through the instincts, emotions, and desires. This part of one's nature can be sanctified, too. When, through the working of the Holy Spirit, the mind is brought into conformity with God's mind, and sanctified reason bears sway over the lower nature, the impulses, which would otherwise be contrary to God, become subject to His will. Thus the humble Christian may reach such a height of sanctification that when obeying God he is really carrying out his own impulses. He delights to do God's will. He has God's law in his heart (see Ps. 40:8; Heb. 8:10; cf. COL 312; DA 668).

The meaning of "body" (soµma) seems evident. It is the corporeal frame--flesh and blood and bones--which is controlled by either the higher or the lower nature. When the sanctified mind is in control, the body is not abused. Health flourishes. The body becomes a fit instrument through which the active Christian can serve his Master. Sanctification that does not include the body is not complete. Our bodies are God's temples. We should ever seek to keep them holy and glorify God in them (1 Cor. 6:19, 20).

Preserved. Gr. teµreoµ, generally, "to keep," but here and in Jude 1 translated "to preserve."

Blameless. Gr. amemptoµs (see on Phil. 2:15; 1 Thess. 2:10; 3:13). The one who is sanctified will be kept by God and presented faultless in the great day of the Lord's coming (cf. on Jude 24).

Unto. Or, "at," that is, at the time of the coming.

Coming. Gr. parousia (see on chs. 3:13; 4:15).

Lord Jesus Christ. For comment on the Saviour's names see on Matt. 1:1; Phil. 2:5.

24. Faithful. Compare 1 Cor. 1:9; 10:13; 2 Thess. 3:3; 2 Tim. 2:13; Heb. 10:23.

He that calleth. Or, "he who is calling." see on Rom. 8:30. God's calling of the individual is the first in a series of divine operations that terminate in glorification.

Will do it. That is, He will do the sanctifying and the keeping (v. 23). There is no failing with the Almighty.

25. Pray for us. Paul constantly prays for his converts (chs. 1:2, 3; 5:23). He now pleads for their prayers on behalf of himself and his companions (cf. Rom. 15:30; 2 Cor. 1:11; Eph. 6:18, 19; Col. 4:3). There is no selfishness in this request, for his ambitions concern only the free course of the gospel message which he was called to proclaim (2 Thess. 3:1). Ministers and laymen need one another's prayers, and both should pray that nothing be allowed to hinder the advance of the gospel message to the ends of the earth (5T 718).

26. Greet. Gr. aspazomai, "to salute," "to greet" (Matt. 5:47; Mark 9:15; Rom. 16:3, 6; etc.).

All the brethren. Some of the members were weak, but Paul, from the depth of his brotherly love, wishes all to be included in his greeting.

Holy kiss. In the East, especially, the kiss was a common mode of expressing love and friendship in greeting (see Luke 7:45; Acts 20:37). The "holy kiss," or "kiss of charity" (1 Peter 5:14), was a symbol of Christian affection. It seems to have become a custom with early Christians to exchange this greeting at the time of the Lord's Supper (Justin Martyr First Apology 65). Later writings indicate that it was not the custom to give this "holy kiss" to one of the opposite sex (Apostolic Constitutions ii. 57; viii. 11).

27. I charge. Gr. horkizoµ, "to adjure," as in Mark 5:7; Acts 19:13. The use of such a strong word (cf. Deut. 6:13) may imply that some of the Thessalonian leaders were unwilling to have the epistle read to all the believers, or that some of the members were unwilling to listen (cf. 2 Thess. 3:14).

By the Lord. Paul was bringing not only personal but religious pressure to bear on those who first received the epistle. He implies that his epistle contains an inspired message that is urgently needed by all the Thessalonian believers.

Be read. That is, publicly, before the assembled Christians (cf. on Col. 4:16).

Holy. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the omission of this word.

28. The grace of our Lord. A similar salutation appears in all Paul's epistles (cf. Rom. 16:20, 24; 1 Cor. 16:23). The fullest form of benediction is given in 2 Cor. 13:14. The apostle's Christology shines forth throughout the epistle. At the beginning (1 Thess. 1:1) and at the end he invokes the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the believers.

Amen. Textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of this word.

The postscript following v. 28 appears in no early manuscript. It was a later editorial addition and not part of the original inspired account. Historical evidence favors Corinth as the city from which Paul wrote this epistle (see pp. 224, 225).

Ellen G. White Comments

1-6AA 260

2 CM 127; 6T 166; 9T 135, 216

2, 3 FE 335, 354

2-5GC 38, 371

3 AA 220, 535; COL 411; DA 635; Ev 26; PP 104, 167; TM 233, 407; 4T 309; 5T 99, 187, 211, 233, 715; 8T 250

3-55T 10

4 ChS 41; 5T 216, 276; 6T 129; 9T 135

4, 5 GC 315

4-6DA 235

5 1T 404; 2T 441, 488; 3T 199

5, 6 4T 580

6 ChS 41; 5T 160, 409; 6T 410; 9T 135

8-10AA 260

12, 13 AA 261

13 2T 163

14 5T 489

14-24AA 263

15 8T 130

16-18GC 477

17 CH 423; GW 254, 258; MH 510; SC 98; TM 511; 2T 242, 397, 635; 6T 471; 7T 42

17, 18 5T 317

18 MH 255

19 CSW 28; 3T 428

22 AH 332; CH 591; Ev 680; EW 117; GW 129; MH 486, 491; MM 143, 218; TM 223; 1T 336, 353, 381, 490; 2T 248, 304, 306, 455, 457, 458, 615; 3T 239; 4T 364; 5T 138, 358, 367, 593; 6T 201

23 FE 144; GC 469, 473; ML 248; SL 7, 26; 3T 84, 570; 6T 475

24 1T 167; 2T 131

26 EW 117

INTRODUCTION

1. Title. In the earliest extant Greek manuscripts the title of this epistle is simply, Pros Thessalonikeis B ("To [the] Thessalonians II"). The considerably lengthened title in the KJV, The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians, is the result of later elaboration.

2. Authorship. Until recent times the Pauline authorship of the epistle has not been seriously questioned. The character of Paul is reflected throughout the epistle. The author's tender regard for his converts (ch. 2:13-17), his commendation of their virtues (chs. 1:3-5; 3:4), the extreme care he uses in pointing out weaknesses, and yet the strong, authoritative nature of his commands (ch. 3:6, 12), all give evidence that the author was Paul. Not until the early part of the 19th century was serious question raised over the Pauline authorship of the section dealing with the "man of sin." It was urged that there is nothing else of such an apocalyptic nature in Paul's other epistles. This fact, however, does not make unreasonable the long-held view that Paul wrote the epistle. Although he nowhere else deals so directly with the apocalyptic, the fact that he did have visions (Acts 22:17-21; 2 Cor. 12:2-4) makes it understandable that he could have written such an apocalyptic passage. The author's treatment of this prophecy, with the earnest solicitude that God's people should not be deceived with respect to the time of the Lord's coming, but be ready for that great event, is definitely Pauline.

The genuineness of the epistle is sustained by strong evidence. Besides being named in the earliest extant lists of the NT canon, the second epistle is referred to or quoted by the same early church writers as is the first epistle (see p. 223). In addition, it seems to have been known by Polycarp (c. a.d. 150; Epistle of Polycarp to the Phillipians 11); and Justin Martyr (c. a.d. 150; Dialogue With Trypho 32; 110) mentions the "man of sin," as if making reference to Paul's prophecy in 2 Thess. 2:3. Concerning the date of writing see Vol. VI, p. 103.

3. Historical Setting. That the time and place of writing of the second epistle are the same as for the first is evident from the fact that the same three apostles are associated together (see 1 Thess. 1:1; 2 Thess. 1:1). Paul remained at Corinth only a year and a half on his Second Missionary Tour (see Acts 18:11), and there is no evidence that Silas was associated with him later. The second letter must have been written not more than a few months after the first; consequently their historical backgrounds are in general the same (see p. 223; for a discussion of the date of writing see Vol. VI p. 103). Probably the messenger who bore the first epistle returned and brought information to Paul that there was a feverish, fanatical spirit of unrest spreading among the members at Thessalonica owing to a feeling that the Lord's advent was about to take place. This condition demanded immediate attention. Any delay would be fatal to the best interests of the church, for among these humble Christians were fainthearted ones who were in grave danger of falling a prey to the deceptions of agitators.

4. Theme. In view of the problems at Thessalonica that prompted this letter, one of its first objectives was to assure the humble Christians of that church of their acceptance with the Lord. He insists that he must thank God for the victories won. He notes their advance in the Christian virtues of faith (2 Thess. 1:3), brotherly love (2 Thess. 1:3; cf. 1 Thess. 4:9, 10), and steadfastness under persecution (2 Thess. 1:4).

Since the second letter says nothing further in regard to the manner of Christ's coming and the resurrection of the righteous dead, the first letter must have succeeded in enlightening the church concerning these matters. In accomplishing this, however, the apostle had emphasized the necessity of being prepared for the great day of the Lord's return, of daily living with the second coming of Christ constantly in view (1 Thess. 5:1-11; cf. Titus 2:11-13). This emphasis upon the second advent seems to have been understood by many as indicating that Paul expected Christ's return almost immediately (see 2 Thess. 2:2). That such was not his meaning he now hastens to explain, reminding his readers that he had taught them in person that the apostasy, followed by the appearance of the antichrist, must first take place (see vs. 2, 3, 5). Paul appeals directly to the unruly idlers, who apparently claimed that work was unnecessary in view of the imminent advent. He had already warned them in his first epistle (1 Thess. 4:11; 5:14), and now he commands and admonishes them in the Lord (2 Thess. 3:12). He urges that the church take disciplinary measures against them, with the objective of reforming them (vs. 14, 15).

Thus the theme of the second epistle, as that of the first, is practical godliness (ch. 1:11, 12). The fainthearted must be comforted and established (ch. 2:17); the agitators must be silenced (ch. 3:12). The church must know of the deceptive work of the great adversary in bringing about the apostasy and the reign of the antichrist, and also of the final overthrow of all the power of Satan (ch. 2:3-12). With the glorious hope of the triumph of God's cause before them, the Thessalonian Christians are urged so to live that they may be accounted worthy of the Lord's calling (ch. 1:11, 12).

5. Outline.

I. Consolation of Persecuted Believers, 1:1-12.

A. Salutation, 1:1, 2.

B. Thanks to God for their spiritual growth, 1:3, 4.

1. Marked advancement in faith and brotherly love, 1:3.

2. Patient endurance in persecution, 1:4.

C. The prospect of judgment and salvation, 1:5-10.

1. Persecuted believers accounted worthy, 1:5.

2. Tribulation recompensed to persecutors, 1:6.

3. Rest from affliction for righteous at the Lord's advent, 1:7.

4. Eternal separation from God of rejectors of His mercy, 1:8, 9.

5. Glorification of Christ in His saints, 1:10.

D. Prayer for the afflicted ones, 1:11, 12.

II. Instruction and Exhortation Regarding the Antichristian Consummation of Evil, 2:1-17.

A. Warning against being led into fanaticism regarding the time of Christ's coming, 2:1-12.

1. Not to be deceived by any means, 2:1, 2.

2. The apostasy and the reign of the man of sin must come first, 2:3, 4.

3. Reminder of previous oral teaching, 2:5.

4. Mysterious work of the adversary, 2:6, 7.

5. The revelation, destiny, and working of the wicked one, 2:8-10.

6. The deluding and damning of those who accept the wicked one, 2:11, 12.

B. Thanksgiving, admonition, and prayer, 2:13-17.

1. Thanks to God for His saving choice of the Thessalonians, 2:13, 14.

2. Admonition to stand fast and hold the truths taught, 2:15.

3. Prayer for comfort and stability, 2:16, 17.

III. Final Requests, Admonitions, and Commands, 3:1-15.

A. Requests for prayer on behalf of the apostles, 3:1, 2.

B. Paul's confidence and petition concerning the Thessalonians, 3:3-5.

C. Commands and exhortations relating to those who walk disorderly, 3:6-15.

1. Command to withdraw from the disorderly, 3:6.

2. The apostles' personal example, 3:7-9.

3. Previous command concerning idleness, 3:10.

4. Present injunctions, 3:11-13.

5. Counsel concerning the obstinate, 3:14, 15.

IV. Closing prayers and salutation, 3:16-18.

A. Prayer for peace, 3:16.

B. Personal salutation, 3:17.

C. Benediction, 3:18.

2 Thessalonians Chapter 1

1 Saint Paul certifieth them of the good opinion which he had of their faith, love, and patience: 11 and therewithal useth divers reasons for the comforting of them in persecution, whereof the chiefest is taken from the righteous judgment of God.

1. Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus. For comment on this superscription see on 1 Thess. 1:1.

In God our Father. This phrase differs from that in 1 Thess. 1:1 only in the use of the word "our," which stresses the intimate and personal relationship of Paul and his converts to the One whom they worshipped. However, textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of "our."

2. Grace unto you. The customary Pauline benediction (see on Rom. 1:7; cf. 1 Thess. 1:1). Only in the pastoral epistles is the formula varied by the addition of "mercy." The apostle recognizes that the spiritual gifts of grace and peace can come only from God. Grace is God's love in action, freely providing complete salvation to undeserving sinners through Jesus Christ, whereas peace, the result of such action, involves the consciousness of sins forgiven, the recognition of reconciliation with God.

3. We are bound. Or, "we ought."

To thank God. Upon hearing the good news of the spirituality of the church situated at Thessalonica (see p. 262), Paul, rather than feeling that he should take credit to himself for their spirituality, considered it to be solely a cause for returning thanks to God.

As it is meet. Or, "even as it is befitting" (see on 1 Cor. 16:4). In view of his previous request concerning the spiritual condition of the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 3:12), Paul felt it to be only just that he acknowledge the answer to his prayers.

Your faith groweth exceedingly. Paul had been anxious about his converts, and had prayed earnestly for the opportunity to visit them in order to strengthen them, and to build up that which was lacking in their faith (see 1 Thess. 3:10). This privilege had been denied him. And yet God, in His own good way, had so blessed them that abundant growth in faith had been made.

Charity. Gr. agapeµ (see on 1 Cor. 13:1). Not only had the faith of the Thessalonians grown, but their love for one another had overflowed, as it were, and was also increasing. They doubtless had continual opportunity to help one another because of the perils and privations arising from repeated persecutions. This is high commendation indeed. But Paul does not mean to imply that there are no weaknesses in the church. On the contrary, he proceeds in the two following chapters to point out serious defects, but he wants all to know that he has confidence in their spiritual powers.

4. We ourselves. That is, Paul and his companions, not the Thessalonians, who could not rightly boast of their own record.

Glory. Gr. kauchaomai, "to boast," "to glory" (cf. on Rom. 5:2).

In the churches. Paul does not identify these churches by name, neither does he imply that all the Christians knew of the Thessalonians' excellent qualities. It is probable that he is referring to the local groups, such as those in Corinth and Berea. Later, in writing to the Corinthians, he boasted of the churches of Macedonia and urged that the Corinthians follow their Macedonian brethren's example in opening their hearts to the Spirit of God (see 2 Cor. 8).

Patience. Gr. hupomoneµ (see on Rom. 2:7; 5:3).

Faith. Gr. pistis (see on Rom. 3:3). To be of value, patience must be combined with faith; for without divine aid none can hope to succeed in his fight against the powers of darkness (Eph. 6:11-16). Merely stoical endurance is nowhere inculcated in Scripture, and sufferings in themselves are not to be coveted. It was not in his converts' sufferings that the apostle gloried, but in their steadfastness and faith.

Persecutions. see on ch. 3:3.

Tribulations. Gr. thlipseis (see on Rom. 2:9; 5:3). See 1 Thess. 3:4.

Endure. Gr. anechomai, originally, "to hold oneself erect," hence, "to sustain," "to bear," "to endure." The word should be translated "are enduring," implying that the believers were even then being persecuted.

5. A manifest token. Gr. endeigma, "evidence," "proof," "token" (cf. on Phil. 1:28, where a related word, endeixis, is used). It is not the persecutions and tribulations that are proof of the righteous judgment of God, but rather the attitude of the believers toward such affliction. Patient endurance and courageous faith under persecution, being the result of God's grace, are evidence of His present interest and care for the sufferers, and thus proof that He will finally reverse the injustices of the world (cf. Eccl. 3:16, 17).

Righteous judgment of God. This may be applied to God's interposition on behalf of His people (v. 6), and to the great judgment whose execution is portrayed in vs. 7-10 (see on Ps. 73:3-24; Rom. 2:5). The fortitude of the persecuted saints is to the wicked an omen of their own coming destruction (cf. on Phil. 1:28).

Counted worthy. The Christian is not of himself worthy of the kingdom of God, nor do sufferings necessarily make him so. There is nothing he can do to merit the kingdom of God (cf. on Eph. 2:8), but by God's forgiving grace he is deemed worthy (cf. on Rom. 6:23).

The kingdom of God. The expression, as here used, is generally considered synonymous with "heaven" (cf. on Matt. 4:17).

Ye also suffer. Or, "you, too, are suffering." Paul realizes that the apostles are not the only sufferers, but that the Thessalonians even then were enduring persecution for the kingdom's sake.

6. A righteous thing. That is, a just thing from God's point of view. God sees not as man sees, and is able to come to completely just decisions, since He knows all the facts and can discern the motives in men's hearts.

To recompense. Gr. antapodidoµmi, literally, "to give back in return," hence, "to repay," "to requite." Principles of justice require that men be rewarded according to their works. Those who spurn the Saviour's atonement are without protection, and expose themselves to just retribution. Compare on Rom. 2:6; Gal. 6:7; Rev. 22:12.

Trouble. Gr. thliboµ, "to press hard upon," "to afflict," the verb that corresponds to the noun thlipsis, "affliction," "tribulation" (see on v. 4). Those who afflict the Thessalonians are not here identified, but from the narrative in Acts (ch. 17:5-9) it is clear that the Jews were the instigators of the persecution.

7. Rest. Gr. anesis, "a loosening," "relaxing," "relief," hence, "rest." It should be noted that the word "rest" is here a noun, not a verb, as the KJV may seem to imply. Paul is contrasting the rewards of the persecutors and the persecuted. Persecutors will receive the tribulation they have meted out to others, whereas the persecuted will gain what they have longed for, that is, "rest." The value of this "rest" is heightened by the knowledge that it will be enjoyed in company with the apostles. Converts and evangelists will triumph together. What an incentive to steadfastness this must have been to the persecuted Thessalonians!

Shall be revealed. The clause may be literally translated, "at the revelation of the Lord Jesus." The word used for "revelation" (apokalupsis) means "an unveiling," "uncovering," or "revealing" (see on 1 Cor. 1:7; Rev. 1:1). Paul identifies with the second advent of their Lord in glory the finding of rest by the believers. At that time recompense will be given to the righteous and the living wicked (see Additional Notes on Rev. 20, Note 2).

With his mighty angels. Compare on Matt. 25:31; Jude 14.

8. In flaming fire. This phrase should probably be attached to v. 7, as further describing the coming of Christ. The context and the general teaching of Scripture seem to support this. At the great advent day the Lord will be revealed in His own glory, with the glory of His Father, and of the holy angels (see Luke 9:26). Such glory appears to mortal eyes as fire. Thus Moses described the glory of God (Ex. 3:2), and thus, Ezekiel (Eze. 1:27), Daniel (Dan. 7:9, 10) and John the revelator (Rev. 1:14, 15).

Vengeance. Gr. ekdikeµsis (see on Rom. 12:19). The phrase may be translated, "inflicting punishment."

Know not God. Paul conceives those whom the Lord punishes as belonging to two classes, those who know not God and those who obey not the gospel. Some interpret these classes as the Gentiles and the Jews respectively (cf. Jer. 10:25; Rom. 10:16), but it seems better to think of them as two general classes of people. The first are those who have had opportunity to know God but have spurned the privilege (see Ps. 19:1-3; Rom. 1:18-21). The second class are those who know the gospel message but have refused to obey it. Their reasons for rejecting the gospel are clearly shown by the Lord Himself to be their love of sin (see John 3:17-20).

9. Everlasting destruction. Gr. olethros aioµnios. For the meaning of olethros see on 1 Thess. 5:3; for the significance of aioµnios see on Matt. 25:41. The juxtaposition of the two words accurately describes the eventual fate of those who reject the Lord's mercies. All such will finally be destroyed, not temporarily, with a resurrection later, but with a destruction from which there will be no awakening. Paul's words preclude any idea of eternal torment (see on Matt. 3:12; 5:22).

From the presence of the Lord. Literally, "from the face of the Lord." The phrase conveys the thought of separation from the Lord. Just as the summit of bliss for the righteous is to dwell in the presence of the Lord (Matt. 5:8; Rev. 22:4), so, at the other end of the scale, the worst part of the punishment of the wicked will be their exclusion from the divine presence. On earth, they have spurned their opportunities to know the Lord (cf. on 2 Thess. 1:8), but at the end, when it is too late, they will realize the value of the privileges they have rejected.

It should be noted that Paul is not distinguishing between the comings of Christ before and after the millennium, but is comprehending the two as one grand event. The death of the wicked at the beginning of the millennium is followed, a thousand years later, by their resurrection, when they will be cast into the lake of fire and burned up (see Mal. 4:1-3; see on Rev. 20:5, 15). Since Paul is speaking of "everlasting destruction," it is not correct to refer to this passage as evidence that the wicked are destroyed at the second coming of Christ (see on Rev. 20:3).

Glory of his power. Or, "glory of his might," that is, the glory that emanates from Christ's strength (see on John 1:14), which is manifested in His saving the saints and destroying the wicked.

10. When he shall come. The apostle again identifies the event around which his thoughts are revolving, namely, the coming of the Lord in glory (cf. v. 7).

Glorified in his saints. That is, to be glorified in the persons of His saints. The supreme vindication of Christ's ways will take place when the whole family of His saints is gathered together. Then the universe will see the value of His sacrifice and the success of the course He pursued. Thus the Saviour will be glorified (cf. Gal. 1:24; 1 Thess. 2:20; 2 Thess. 1:4). As the artist is glorified in his masterpiece, so Christ is glorified before the heavenly throng by His handiwork--the miracles of His grace (see Matt. 13:43; TM 18, 49, 50). Throughout eternity glory will redound to the Saviour as His saints make known more fully the wisdom of God in His wondrous plan of salvation, which has been "realized in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Eph. 3:10, 11, RSV).

Admired. Gr. thaumazoµ, "to wonder," "to wonder at," "to marvel"; in a secondary sense, "to admire." Both senses appear in the text. The saints have eagerly awaited their Deliverer, they have joyfully anticipated His appearing, but the realization of their expectations far exceeds their most sanguine hopes. They never dreamed their Lord could be so glorious. When the beauty of His presence has dawned upon them, to their wonder is added a reverent admiration (see Isa. 25:9).

In all. Or, "by all."

That believe. Literally, "who have believed," or "who have fixed their faith." It is those who fixed their faith before Christ's coming who are saved "in that day." It is those who have already accepted their Lord by faith, and who have endured to the end, who will be saved when Jesus returns (Matt. 24:13). Paul particularly had in mind his Thessalonian converts and their initial act of belief in the gospel, as is made clear from the parenthetical expression "because our testimony among you was believed." They had become transformed as they accepted the message of salvation, and were assured that, if they were faithful, they would also be among the saints. But the phrase "all them that believe" also applies to all faithful believers.

Our testimony. The apostles bore witness to the great truths of the gospel (Acts 1:8; 2:32; 8:25; 1 John 1:1, 2). They did not preach abstract discussions, finespun theories, or "cunningly devised fables" (2 Peter 1:16). Rather, their preaching was the testimony of eyewitnesses. These truths they knew experimentally, and they urged the acceptance of a way of life which they themselves lived. Such preaching always has power.

In that day. Ambiguity is avoided if this phrase appears earlier in the verse, after "when he shall come," or following "his saints." For comment on "that day" see on Acts 2:20; cf. on Phil. 1:6.

11. We pray always. Compare 1 Thess. 1:2; 2 Thess. 1:3; see on Phil. 1:4.

Count you worthy. See on v. 5, where Paul implies that the Thessalonians' manner of enduring persecution commends them to God. Here he prays that God would count, or "make" (RSV), them worthy of His calling.

This calling. Rather, "the calling." See on Rom. 8:28, 30; 2 Tim. 1:9. The calling is to a holy life, to come out of the world and to be separate (2 Cor. 6:17, 18), to be citizens of the heavenly kingdom (Phil. 3:20, RSV). We may well ask, "Does my life conform to the divine purpose of the One who so graciously calls? Will the Judge count me worthy?"

Good pleasure of his goodness. Gr. eudokia agathosuneµs, literally, "good pleasure of goodness," there being no word for "his" in the Greek text. Eudokia means "good will," "wish," "desire." Agathoµsuneµ, a word used only by Biblical and ecclesiastical writers, denotes uprightness of heart and life. But it is not God's goodness that is spoken of, but rather every "good desire" on the part of God's people. Paul prayed that God would "fulfil," that is, fill to the full, or completely bring to pass, every aspiration for goodness felt by his converts. It is God who by His Spirit puts into our hearts the desire to do His "good pleasure" (eudokia), and by the same Spirit gives us enabling power to carry out such desire (see Phil. 2:13; 1 Thess. 5:24). Moral goodness is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22).

The work of faith. The passage may be rendered, "every good resolve and every work inspired by faith." The kind of faith that Paul desires to see in the lives of God's people is not mere theoretical belief, but an active, working principle (cf. James 2:17). He recognized that such living, energizing faith was inspired by God and His Spirit (see 1 Thess. 1:3, 5). Consequently, he earnestly pleaded that God would enable His people to overcome human hindrances and perfect the work of faith in their lives (cf. Rom. 4:20, 21).

With power. Or, "in power," the words being construed with the verb "fulfil" as follows, "God would ... fulfil in power."

12. That the name. The final purpose in Paul's prayer was that the Thessalonians' lives should bring glory to the name of Jesus. For comment on the significance of the "name" see on Acts 3:6; Phil. 2:9.

Glorified. We glorify that name when we demonstrate the saving power of His grace in our lives. This glorification is mutual; for as we glorify Him, He gives us of His glory by perfecting in us His character (see John 17:10, 22).

Grace. Again Paul recognizes that the believer can of himself do no good thing (cf. on John 15:5; Rom. 7:18), and that goodness can come only through the operation of divine grace in the Christian's life.

Our God and the Lord. The Greek permits the translation, "our God and Lord, Jesus Christ" (see on Rom. 9:5). But in 1 Thess. 2:2, Paul speaks of "our God" without reference to Christ; so it is possible that here he is also referring to the Father and the Son.

Ellen G. White Comments

4 AA 264

7, 8 PP 339

7-9AA 264

7-10LS 51; 1T 41

8 GC 424; 5T 15

9 2T 396

10 9T 285

11 Ed 134; MB 110

11, 12 AA 265

2 Thessalonians Chapter 2

1 He willeth them to continue stedfast in the truth received, 3 sheweth that there shall be a departure from the faith, 9 and a discovery of antichrist, before the day of the Lord come. 15 And thereupon repeateth his former exhortation, and prayeth for them.

1. We beseech you. It appears that erroneous ideas concerning Paul's teaching about the nearness of Christ's coming were being circulated in the church at Thessalonica. To correct these misconceptions Paul wrote the second epistle. He handles the matter with great tact, addressing his readers, not as inferiors, but as brethren, and begs them to heed the instruction he is about to give. He desires to encourage, not discourage, the fainthearted.

By. Rather, "concerning," or "on behalf of the coming."

Coming. Gr. parousia (see on Matt. 24:3). Paul's argument in vs. 1-12 revolves around the theme of Christ's return.

Our gathering together. One of the paramount purposes of Christ's return is to gather together His elect (see on Matt. 24:31; John 14:3) that they may "ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:17). Paul invokes the prospect of this event to focus the Thessalonians' thoughts on his topic, and to solemnize their thinking.

2. Shaken in mind. The Thessalonians were not to be driven from their anchorage of settled conviction, and "carried about with every wind of doctrine" (Eph. 4:14). Christians must be intellectually steadfast.

Troubled. Gr. throeoµ, "to cry aloud," "to frighten," hence, "to trouble." Here the word refers to a state of agitation or nervous excitement. The thought that the coming of the Lord was imminent had been keeping the Thessalonians in a state of continuous alarm.

Spirit. Here doubtless signifying the Spirit of prophecy (cf. on 1 Cor. 7:40; 12:10).

Word. That is, oral teaching.

Letter. That is, a written communication.

As from us. This phrase may be understood as applying to all three types of communication, in which case all had allegedly come from Paul. Many interpreters consider that Paul is here referring to some communication forged in his name. It is possible that Paul had forged writings in mind, especially in the light of the precaution that he took to sign the letter with his own hand (see on ch. 3:17). Others believe that if such were the case, he would probably have dealt more forcefully with the question. They suggest that it is more likely that some actual utterance of Paul in teaching, or in formal address, or in the writing of his first epistle was being misconstrued (see on 1 Thess. 4:15, 17; 2 Thess. 2:1; cf. AA 264).

The day of Christ. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the reading "the day of the Lord." For comment on "the day of the Lord" see on Acts 2:20.

Is at hand. Gr. enisteµmi, "to stand near," "to be impending," or in the form here found "to have arrived," "to have set in." Enestoµs is translated "present" in Gal. 1:4. Paul had emphasized in his first epistle, as had Lord in His teachings, that Christians should be living in a state of preparedness for the Lord's return (Matt. 24:42, 44, 1 Thess. 1:10; 5:23). They are to watch and be ready, but they are never to be so imbued with a sense of the second advent's immediacy as to be in a state of unreasonable agitation.

3. Let no man. The apostle recognizes that the danger of deception is real and grave (cf. Matt. 24:4). The anticipated methods of deceit are many, and Paul does not attempt to limit them to the three mentioned in 2 Thess. 2:2, but allows for "any means." The enemy of the church will use signs and apparent miracles to lead the unwary into accepting the great delusion, or lie (vs. 9-11). Hence, God's people should beware of being led astray. Their faith must stand upon the plain statements of God's Word.

That day shall not come. These words are validly supplied to complete the thought. What is not to come until Anti-christ's revealing is obviously Christ's gathering of His own, about which the Thessalonians were troubled (v. 1).

A falling away. Gr. heµ apostasia, "the falling away," or "the apostasy." Apostasia occurs in the NT only here and in Acts 21:21. The article (heµ) indicates that a definite apostasy is referred to, and implies that this falling away is something well known to the readers. Paul himself had doubtless given oral instruction to the Thessalonians concerning the coming apostasy. In his address to the elders of the Ephesian church some years later he predicted that the apostasy would be due to men within the church arising "to draw away disciples after them" (Acts 20:30). He warned Timothy of similar dangers, adding that a time was coming when men would turn to fables, closing their ears to the truth (1 Tim. 4:1-3; 2 Tim. 4:3, 4). Peter and Jude speak with searing words about those who have forsaken the right way (2 Peter 2:1, 12-22; Jude 4, 10-13). And John testifies that, at his time of writing, many antichrists have come (1 John 2:18). The Lord Himself urged His followers to beware of false prophets (Matt. 7:15; 24:24), and predicted that many would be offended (Matt. 24:10). The form of the apostasy is not specifically defined by Paul at this juncture, but can be inferred from the above-mentioned scriptures. This much, however, is clear: (1) The apostasy is a religious matter, a spiritual rebellion, having no prime connection with politics. (2) The falling away is still future at the time of Paul's writing. (3) The apostasy was not only to precede the second advent (2 Thess. 2:2), it would serve as a sign of the nearness of Christ's return; hence the Lord's coming should not be expected without the prior apostasy. The prophecy concerning the falling away was partially fulfilled in Paul's day, and much more so during the Dark Ages, but its complete fulfillment occurs in the days immediately prior to the return of Jesus (cf. Additional Note on Rom. 13). See Vol. VI, pp. 64-67.

That man of sin. That is, the man whose distinguishing characteristic is sin. Important textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the reading "the man of the lawlessness" (cf. on v. 8, where "that Wicked" is literally, "the lawless one"). The presence of the definite article (here translated "that") indicates that Paul is referring to an enemy about whom he had already spoken to the Thessalonians, and that he expects them to know of whom he is writing. That he employs the Greek word for "man" (anthroµpos) further indicates a definite person or power. For comment on the identity of that person or power see on v. 4.

Revealed. Gr. apokaluptoµ, "to uncover," "to unveil," "to disclose," "to make known," (cf. on Rev. 1:1). The same verb is repeated in 2 Thess. 2:6, 8, and is used elsewhere in the NT of supernatural revelations (cf. Matt. 16:17; Luke 10:22; etc.) and particularly of the appearing of Christ (cf. Luke 17:30. The noun form, apokalupsis, "revelation," occurs in 1 Cor. 1:7; 2 Thess. 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7, 13; 4:13). This would suggest that the revelation of the "man of sin" may involve supernatural elements, and that his area of operation may be distinctly religious in character. That the "man of sin" is going to be "revealed" implies that he will be hidden until a certain moment when he will be manifested to the world, from which he has hitherto been concealed, or he will lay aside his disguise and appear in his true colors, or the disguise will be torn from him and his true nature be made known to earth's inhabitants.

The son of perdition. Or, "son of destruction," that is, a son destined to destruction. This is another title or description of the "man of sin." There is only one other place in Scripture where this appellation is used. There it is applied by the Saviour to Judas (see on John 17:12), an apostle, once a companion and equal of the other disciples, but one who so allowed Satan to enter into his heart (John 13:2, 27) that he betrayed his Lord (Matt. 26:47-50).

4. Opposeth. Gr. antikeimai, "to be adverse to," "to withstand," "to oppose."

Exalteth. Gr. huperairomai, "to lift [oneself] above," "to raise [oneself] up over" something.

Above. Or, "against."

All that is called God. This rightly includes all forms of deity, both true and false, and should not be limited to the Christian's God.

That is worshipped. Gr. sebasma, "an object of worship," "whatever is religiously honored." Paul's words depict an arrogant power that opposes all competitors in the filed of religion and permits no rival to receive the worship he claims for himself.

So that. These words serve to indicate the purpose of the actions of the haughty power.

As God. Important textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of these words. Such omission does not seriously affect the meaning of the related passage, since the thought is implicit in the words that follow. The overbearing power assumes divine prerogatives, with reference to the true God and not simply pagan deities.

In. Literally, "into," indicating both the entrance of this power into the temple of God and his seating himself there.

Temple. Gr. naos, the inner sanctuary, or shrine, contrasted with hieron, which designates the entire temple complex. Some, on the basis of 1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21, believe that "temple" here refers to the church; others, that Paul is using the term temple figuratively to represent a center of religious worship. In a place presumably dedicated to the worship of the true God the wicked one sits soliciting worship of himself.

Shewing himself. Gr. apodeiknumi, "to point out," "to exhibit," "to declare." His taking his seat in the inner sanctuary of the temple reveals that he claims to sit "as God," that, indeed, "he is God." Blasphemy can go no further.

To informed students of the Bible, the marks of identity enumerated in vs. 3, 4 are already familiar, since they are found elsewhere in the Inspired Word. A comparison with Daniel's prophecy of the blasphemous power that succeeds that of pagan Rome (see on Dan. 7:8, 19-26), and with John's word picture of the leopardlike beast (see on Rev. 13:1-18), reveals many similarities between the three descriptions. This leads to the conclusion that Daniel, Paul, and John are speaking of the same power, namely, the papacy (GC 49-54, 356). Many commentators apply the term Antichrist, "one who opposes Christ," or "one who stands in the place of Christ" (cf. on 1 John 2:18), to the power here described. For extended comment on the various marks of identity see on the above-mentioned passages in Daniel and in Revelation.

In a larger sense the power here described may be identified with Satan, who has long striven to be "like the most High" (see on Isa. 14:14). "Satan is working to the utmost to make himself as God and to destroy all who oppose his power. And today the world is bowing before him. His power is received as the power of God" (6T 14). "The determination of antichrist to carry out the rebellion he began in heaven will continue to work in the children of disobedience" (9T 230). "In this age antichrist will appear as the true Christ, and then the law of God will be fully made void. ... But the true leader of all this rebellion is Satan clothed as an angel of light. Men will be deceived and will exalt him to the place of God, and deify him" (TM 62). "The last great delusion is soon to open before us. Antichrist is to perform his marvelous works in our sight" (GC 593).

5. Remember ye not? In his two epistles to the Thessalonians the apostle frequently appeals to his former oral instruction (cf. 1 Thess. 2:1, 9, 11, 13; 3:4; 4:1; 5:1, 2; 2 Thess. 2:15; 3:10).

I told you. Rather, "I used to tell you," as indicated by the Greek. It is unlikely that so conscientious a teacher as Paul would have failed to instruct his converts in so important a topic. That he can freely remind his readers of his former teaching shows that his vies concerning the coming of Christ had undergone no change, and that he had not previously expected the Lord's immediate appearing. At the same time, his written words are carefully framed, possibly with a view to avoiding political complications should his letter fall into opponents' hands.

6. And now ye know. Paul is again reminding his readers of a subject on which they were at least partially informed. Later students of his words have the disadvantage of not knowing the full content of his oral instruction.

Withholdeth. Gr. katechoµ, "to detain," "to hold back," "to restrain." The phrase is, literally, "the restraining thing," or "the withholding thing," being of neuter gender in the Greek. In v. 7 Paul uses a similar expression, but employs the masculine gender, "the withholding one," or "he who withholds."

Commentators recognize great difficulties in vs. 6-12, and trace those difficulties to the fact that Paul is addressing the Thessalonians against a background of previously imparted information, which we do not now possess. Thus any explanation of the passage that is advanced contains an element of conjecture, and must be carefully weighed against the context of Paul's message to the Thessalonians.

Some hold that the restraining power is the Roman Empire. Pagan persecutions held in check the tendency of the church to adopt heathen customs and beliefs, and thus held back the appearance of the papacy (GC 49). Probably Paul does not here identify the restraining power because he is dealing with a delicate question on which he dare not be more explicit for fear of bringing further persecution upon his converts should his letter fall into enemy hands.

Others see a wider application of the phrase. They believe that the masculine form "he who withholds" (see above) refers to God. In such a case "what withholdeth" could be regarded as a reference to the circumstances arranged and permitted by God (cf. on Dan. 4:17) to delay the manifestation of the Antichrist, both in his historical aspect and in his final manifestation yet to come (see on 2 Thess. 2:4). For the manner in which God keeps the powers of evil in check see on Rev. 7:1.

That he might be revealed. Although Paul does not specifically identify the "he," the context makes it clear that he is still speaking of the "man of sin" (vs. 3, 4). For comment on "revealed" see on v. 3.

In his time. Or, "in his season," that is, in the time or season appointed by God, not in a time determined by the "man of sin" himself. The Antichrist will be manifested when the proper time comes. When applied to the historical papacy (see on v. 4) this has been understood to refer to the 1260-year period of domination of that religious power (see on Dan. 7:25; Rev. 12:6). When given the wider application (see on 2 Thess. 2:4) the passage is viewed as referring also to the time when Satan will play a personal role in last-day events only to have his carefully laid scheme for world domination unveiled and its true nature become apparent (see on 2 Thess. 2:4; Rev. 17:16).

7. Mystery of iniquity. Gr. musteµrion teµs anomias. For the significance of musteµrion, as something hidden, see on Rom. 11:25; for anomias, "contempt and violation of law," "iniquity," see above on "that man of sin" (2 Thess. 2:3). The title refers to a power that is characterized by lawlessness. The reference to law is particularly significant in view of the attempt to change the law referred to in Dan. 7:25 (see comment there). In the last analysis, this description applies to Satan, the author of lawlessness (TM 365), but the devil has generally camouflaged his personality by working through agents. In the last days he will personally play a more direct role, culminating his deception by personally counterfeiting the coming of Christ (see on 2 Thess. 2:4, 9).

Work. Gr. energeoµ (see on Phil. 2:13). Paul is referring to an agency already operating. In Paul's day the apostasy had begun (see on 2 Thess. 2:3). As time passed, that apostasy took the form of papal pretensions, so that, from a modern historical point of view, "the mystery of iniquity" can be identified with the papal power (GC 49-55). Hence the "man of sin" and "the mystery of iniquity" may be considered as representing the same apostate papal power (GC 356); and behind all human manifestations of iniquity stands Satan himself, who in the end will play a personal role in an effort to lead the whole world captive (see on vs. 4, 9).

Only. This word introduces the element that delimits the operation of the mystery of iniquity.

Letteth. Gr. katechoµ (see on v. 6). In Old English "let" meant "to restrain." Most commentators agree that the Greek construction calls for the addition of an explanatory phrase such as "will restrain," in order to complete the thought of the sentence. Some believe that the Roman Empire is referred to here as in v. 6; others, that God is the restrainer (see on v. 6).

Taken out of the way. Or, "out of the midst is taken." Those who hold that the restraining power is the Roman Empire (see above on "letteth") believe that it is this power that is taken away. Those who hold that God is the restrainer paraphrase the second half of the verse thus: "The Restrainer, God, who holds the evil in check [GC 589, 614], will continue to restrain, until the time comes for the mystery of iniquity to be `revealed' [v. 8] and `taken out of the way.'" Such commentators regard this phrase as assuring the believer that, in spite of the operation of the apostate power, it will not continue forever. God will, in His appointed time, bring its activities to an end (see on Matt. 24:21, 22).

8. Then. Those who hold that the one "taken out of the way" (v. 7) is the Roman Empire understand "then" to refer to the time that papal Rome ascended to power (see on Dan. 7:8). Those who hold that the one "taken out of the way" is the Antichrist (see below on "that Wicked"), believe that "then" applies to the time still future, when the papacy will experience a brief period of revival (see on Rev. 13:3), following which its true nature will be exposed (see on Rev. 17:16, 17), or, in a wider application, to the time when Satan, the supreme Antichrist, takes a personal part in last-day affairs, only to have the falsity of his claims to deity exposed (see on 2 Thess. 2:4).

It should be remembered that the apostle is not attempting to give a complete doctrinal outline of last-day events, but is seeking only to provide the Thessalonians with such prophetic information as will keep them from being deceived concerning the time of the Saviour's return. We, therefore, should not expect a complete chronology of events that precede "the day of Christ."

That Wicked. Gr. ho anomos, literally, "the [one] destitute of law," hence, "the violator of the law," "the lawless one," or "the wicked one." The reference is to the "man of sin" (v. 3), or the "mystery of iniquity" (v. 7). According to one view "the lawless one" is the papacy (see on v. 4; cf. GC 356, 579). According to a second view, he is not only the papacy, but more importantly, Satan himself, the supreme Antichrist, as he impersonates Christ just before the last day (see on vs. 4, 9).

Revealed. Gr. apokaluptoµ (see on v. 3). Applied to the papacy this would refer to its assumption of power following the decline of the Roman Empire. The reference could also be to the time yet future when the papal power will be revived (see on Rev. 13:8), and to the time when following this brief period of revival the true nature of the system will be unveiled, or exposed (see on Rev. 17:16, 17).

Applied to Satan, the revealing, or unveiling, would refer to his attempted counterfeit of the coming of Christ (see on v. 9).

The Lord. Textual evidence is divided (cf. p. 10) between this and the reading "the Lord Jesus," a reading that harmonizes with the context, which speaks of Christ's glorious return.

Shall consume. Gr. analiskoµ, "to expand," "to use up," "to consume," "to destroy." Textual evidence is divided (cf. p. 10) between analiskoµ and the reading anaireoµ, "to take away," "to abolish," "to put out of the way," "to slay." See below on "shall destroy."

Spirit of his mouth. That is, the breath of his mouth (cf. on Luke 8:55; Rev. 19:15). There may be an allusion here to the wording of Isa. 11:4.

Shall destroy. Gr. katargeoµ, "to make idle," hence, "to render null and void" (see on Rom. 3:3). This latter meaning fits well into the picture of the fate that awaits the papacy or, more basically, Satan at Christ's second coming (cf. on Rev. 20:1-6). The papacy ceases to exist, and Satan's carefully laid scheme collapses.

The words of this verse have sometimes been used to describe the destruction of the wicked at the second coming of Christ. It is true that the wicked living at that time will suddenly be slain, but Paul is here dealing with the fate of "that Wicked," "the wicked one," not with that of the wicked in general.

Brightness. Gr. epiphaneia, "an appearing," "an appearance," a word that was often used in classical Greek to describe the glorious appearing of the pagan gods. In the NT it is exclusively used for the glorious advents of the Lord Jesus, both the first (2 Tim. 1:10) and the second (1 Tim. 6:14; 2 Tim. 4:1, 8; Titus 2:13).

Coming. Gr. parousia, the word generally used for Christ's second coming (cf. on 2 Thess. 2:1; see on Matt. 24:3).

9. Whose. The reference is to "that Wicked," "the lawless one" (v. 8).

Coming. Gr. parousia, the same word used for Christ's coming (see on v. 8) Because of (1) the quasi-technical force of the term parousia, (2) the frequent use of the term to describe the second advent of Christ, and (3) the juxtaposition of parousia here with the same word in v. 8, many hold that the apostle is referring to Satan's spurious imitation of our Lord's own glorious coming. For the fact that Satan will have a parousia see GC 593, 624, 625; 5T 698; 8T 27, 28. We may be thankful that God's Word provides clear descriptions of Christ's coming, so that believers may not be deceived. The Lord Himself will "descend from heaven" (1 Thess. 4:16) "with clouds" (Rev. 1:7), "in like manner as" His disciples saw Him "go into heaven" (Acts 1:11), and His coming will be "as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west" (Matt. 24:27), hence, "every eye shall see him" (Rev. 1:7). It will not be possible for Satan accurately and completely to counterfeit such a parousia (see GC 625). God's own people will, by diligent study of the Scriptures, and by reminding themselves of prophetic details concerning the genuine second advent, be able to escape the devil's deception (see on Matt. 24:24).

After. Gr. kata, "according to," "in conformity with" (cf. 8T 226).

Working of Satan. That is, according to Satan's method of operating.

Power ... signs ... lying wonders. The word "lying," literally, "of a lie," applies also to "power" and "signs." The same words, "power," "signs," "wonders," are used of the miracles of Jesus (see Vol. V, p. 208). But the Lord's marvelous works were genuine, and were signs attesting His divine nature (see John 10:25, 37, 38). Miracles involving creative acts are, of course, beyond Satan's power. It is recorded, however, that Satan has the power to bind men in physical infirmity (see Luke 13:16). Evidently, then, he has power to release them when it suits his purposes. Wonderful works of apparent healing, outwardly identical in character with those performed by Christ, will be performed by Satan and his agents (GC 588, 589, 593; TM 365; 5T 698; 9T 16). Marvelous acts and spiritualistic manifestations of supernatural power will be used in Satan's final attempt to deceive the world.

10. All deceivableness of unrighteousness. That is, all deceit that comes from unrighteousness. This further identifies the nature of the counterfeit by laying bare its purpose (to deceive) and origin (unrighteousness).

In them that perish. Literally, "to [or, "for"] the perishing ones," or "for them that are perishing." The same Greek phrase occurs in 2 Cor. 2:15; 4:3. Satan succeeds in deceiving the unredeemed. The elect will not be deceived (cf. Matt. 24:23-27).

Received. Gr. dechomai, "to receive with favor," "to welcome" (see on 2 Cor. 6:1). Paul here puts his finger on the reason why the unbelievers will be deceived. They had had an opportunity to love the truth, but had spurned that privilege.

The love of the truth. The unregenerate not only reject truth but even refuse to entertain a love for truth, that is, they hate truth. This attitude does not concern truth in the abstract, but "the truth," the one great truth that comes from God, which is embodied in Christ Jesus. Final condemnation of sinners will be based on their rejection of Jesus, who is "the truth" (John 14:6). Their refusal to cherish a love for what is true makes them susceptible to being influenced by all that is deceitful, by all the machinations of the wicked one.

Might be saved. Just as rejection of the truth which is in Christ Jesus spells death, so its acceptance brings life unto eternal salvation.

11. For this cause. Or, "because of this," that is, because of the unbelievers' refusal to love and believe the truth. What follows is a result of their obdurate attitude.

God shall send. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the reading "God sends"; that is, at the same time the "Wicked" one is flooding the world with his deceits (vs. 8-10). At the final stage in world history here forecast, the unregenerate have clearly chosen lies in preference to truth, and have placed themselves beyond redemption. God therefore abandons them to the course of their choosing (see on Rom. 1:18, 24). In the Scriptures God is often said to do that which He does not prevent (see on 1 Sam. 16:14; 2 Chron. 18:18).

Strong delusion. Literally, "a working of error" (cf. on v. 9), that is, an operation that leads to the final error that results in irrevocable condemnation.

A lie. Rather, "the lie," that is, the crowning deception, when Satan impersonates Christ. There can be no worse lie than this, that the author of evil should pose as Christ, the Source of truth. Those who are deluded into thinking Satan to be Jesus are beyond redemption.

12. Might be damned. Gr. krinoµ, "to judge." The result of such judgment is to be inferred from the context, not from the word krinoµ (see on Rom. 2:2).

Believed not the truth. A negative definition of those who, in v. 11, are said to believe literally, "the lie," as in v. 10 they are said to receive not the love of the truth.

But had pleasure. That is, they found their pleasure in unrighteousness or iniquity. This is the inspired analysis of the mentality of those who are lost: they preferred sin to righteousness, they enjoyed doing what was wrong rather than doing what was right.

13. Bound to give thanks. Compare on ch. 1:3. A transition takes place here. Having completed his discourse on the "man of sin" and the "Wicked" one (vs. 1-12), the apostle thinks of the wonderful provision God has made in the gospel so that none need be deceived and lost. He is also encouraging his readers after presenting the somber picture found in vs. 1-12.

Beloved of the Lord. Compare on 1 Thess. 1:4, where the converts are described, literally, as "beloved of God."

From the beginning. Textual evidence may also be cited (cf. p. 10) for the reading "first fruits," or "first converts" (RSV, margin), but the KJV rendering is to be preferred as possibly meaning "from eternity" (cf. 1 John 1:1; 2:13). Paul is reminding his readers that God had chosen them "from the beginning." This is parallel to the thought expressed in other epistles (Eph. 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:9). Compare on Rom. 16:25; Eph. 3:11; 1 Peter 1:20; Rev. 13:8; cf. DA 22).

Chosen you. Compare on Eph. 1:4; Col. 3:12; 1 Thess. 1:4; 5:9. That this choice is not an arbitrary choice on God's part is shown by the qualifying words that follow. The choice is contingent upon the sanctification of the chosen ones.

Through sanctification of the Spirit. Or, "in sanctification of spirit." It is recognized, however, that all true sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit (cf. on 1 Peter 1:2). Such sanctification, together with "belief of the truth," is the means through which salvation is effected in the believer's life.

Belief of the truth. This stands in striking opposition to belief of, literally, "the lie" (v. 11), which results from falling victim to the deceptions of Antichrist.

14. Whereunto he called you. This clearly shows that the previous verse does not teach the predestination of some to salvation, and others to damnation (see on 1 Thess. 1:4). Because He purposes to save men, irrespective of race, God has inspired Paul with a burning desire and determination to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. The call, bringing the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, was freely proclaimed. Its acceptance or rejection depended upon the individual. Those who believed and accepted the call were being transformed by the Holy Spirit. See on Rom. 8:28-30.

Our gospel. See on 1 Thess. 1:5.

Obtaining of the glory. This is the purpose of the gospel, that those who accept it may participate in the glory of Christ (cf. 1 Thess. 5:9). This "glory" may refer to the beauty of Christ's character, in which all the redeemed will share (see on 1 John 3:2), and to the glory of Christ's eternal kingdom (see on John 1:14; Rom. 8:17, 30).

15. Therefore, brethren. The Thessalonians had been discouraged by the misleading teachings concerning Christ's immediate return. Paul's instruction was specifically designed to encourage them. For the apostle's frequent use of "brethren" see on 1 Thess. 1:4.

Stand fast. Gr. steµkoµ (see on Phil. 1:27). A correct understanding of the "blessed hope" is a great incentive to steadfastness of character (see on Titus 2:12, 13). Misunderstanding leads to agitation and possibly fanaticism (see on 2 Thess. 2:2).

Hold. Gr. krateoµ, "to hold fast," "to keep carefully" (cf. Mark 7:8; Heb. 4:14; Rev. 3:11).

Traditions. Gr. paradoseis (see on Mark 7:3). The word means things delivered, handed over, or transmitted by way of teaching or doctrine. The prominent idea of the word is one of authority above that of the teacher; therefore, here it refers to inspired messages received by Paul and his companions and faithfully passed on to the Thessalonians.

By word, or our epistle. The adjective "our" applies to "word" as well as to "epistle." Compare on v. 2. By these phrases Paul covers all sources of acceptable teaching. His phraseology also places these two forms of instruction on the same footing, as regards inspiration.

16. Now. Or, "but," as if Paul, having urged the believers to stand fast (v. 15), wishes to make clear that God is the only true source of stability.

Our Lord Jesus Christ himself. Paul's usual custom is to mention the Father first, in address and in prayer (cf. 1 Thess. 1:1; 3:11; 2 Thess. 1:1, 2, 11, 12); but here he first names the Son (cf. 2 Cor. 13:14; Gal. 1:1). This order probably occurs because of the apostle's previous reference (2 Thess. 2:14) to "the glory of our Lord Jesus." This conjecture is supported by the Greek construction in which the word for "himself" has first, and therefore emphatic, place in the sentence.

Hath loved us. The verb is in the singular, and may be regarded as applying to both the Son and the Father. The close connection attests Paul's concept of the equal divinity of the Son with the Father. The form of the verb in the Greek shows that the author had a definite historical event in mind. He is referring to God's unique act of love in giving His Son a sacrifice for our sins, and the self-denying act of our Saviour in giving Himself (John 3:16; Titus 2:14). The apostle can cite no greater evidence than the cross as the supreme manifestation of God's love and the sure basis for comfort and hope.

Everlasting consolation. Gr. parakleµsis aioµnion. For parakleµsis see on Acts 9:31; for aioµnion see on Matt. 25:41. The consolation, or comfort, derived from the love of the Father and Son is not transitory, as earthly comfort so often is, but endures into eternity. Such a gift is well designed to cheer the fainthearted among the Thessalonians and to enable them to withstand any disturbing teachings concerning Christ's return (1 Thess. 5:11, 14; 2 Thess. 2:2). Fainthearted souls are not to be despised, but encouraged (see Rom. 14:1; Heb. 12:12).

Good hope through grace. Or, "good hope in grace." The hope (of redemption at Christ's coming) is "good" in the sense of being genuine and therefore reliable, in contrast with false hopes aroused by erroneous teachings about the immediacy of the Saviour's return. It is justifiably called "that blessed hope" (Titus 2:13). Like all God's gifts to men, it is bestowed freely, in accord with Heaven's abundant grace (cf. on Eph. 2:5, 8).

17. Comfort. Gr. parakaleoµ (see on Matt. 5:4). The verb is in the singular, as is that translated "stablish." The comforting and the stablishing come from both the Father and the Son (see on 2 Thess. 2:16).

You. Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) the omission of this word, making the verb "stablish" applicable to "your hearts." Only divine power can truly stabilize the heart, hence Paul's prayer that Christ and God would do this for the Thessalonians.

Every good word and work. Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) a reversal of word order, giving the reading "every good work and word." The two nouns "work" and "word" represent the area in which God comforts and stabilizes the believers' hearts. The assured heart will direct the production of acceptable works and words.

Ellen G. White Comments

2 MYP 30

2-4AA 265

3 GC 50, 356, 443, 446, 453, 456; 9T 230

3, 4 GC 49, 571; LS 96; SR 326, 382; 1T 76

4 GC 53; MB 126; SR 330; 6T 14

5, 7 AA 266

7 AA 587; GC 49, 54, 384; SR 326, 330; 5T 712; 7T 166

7, 8 GC 356

7-128T 226

8 DA 108; GC 37, 321, 579, 657; 2T 173

8-121T 290

9 EW 91, 261, 262, 265, 266; GC x; PP 686; 1T 302

9, 10 COL 414; GC 553; PK 717; 1T 291; 2T 172; 5T 746; 8T 49

9-11GC 389, 444

9-12AA 266

10 ChS 158; FE 88; GC 560; MYP 59; 1T 294, 299; 3T 407; 4T 557, 576, 594; 5T 102, 366, 429; 7T 113; 8T 28, 49, 162; 9T 62

10, 11 GC 559; PP 55; SR 397; TM 365; 1T 73, 300, 301; 6T 401; 8T 298

10-12GC 431, 523; 8T 249

11, 12 EW 44, 45, 88; 2T 173; 4T 595; 5T 144

12 GC 390; 2T 455, 470

13 CT 22; FE 189

13-178T 226

14 DA 341

15-17AA 267

2 Thessalonians Chapter 3

1 He craveth their prayers for himself, 3 testifieth what confidence he hath in them, 5 maketh request to God in their behalf, 6 giveth them divers precepts, especially to shun idleness, and ill company, 16 and last of all concludeth with prayer and salutation.

1. Finally, brethren. Compare on Phil. 3:1; 1 Thess. 4:1. In this case the words introduce the conclusion to Paul's epistle.

Pray for us. The apostle has just recorded a prayer for his converts that they might be comforted and stablished (ch. 2:17). Now he begs them to remember him and his colleagues in return (cf. 2 Cor. 1:11; Phil. 1:19; 1 Thess. 5:25). He ever felt his own insufficiency, and was conscious of his need of divine power (see 2 Cor. 2:16; 3:5).

Word of the Lord. There was no selfish element in Paul's request for the Thessalonians' prayers. He was anxious only that God's word should prosper through the ministry of himself and his companions.

May have free course. Gr. trechoµ, "to run," here used metaphorically. It seems that the word of God in the city of Corinth was not "running" as freely as the apostle wished. It was probably encountering determined opposition from the Jews (see on 1 Thess. 3:7). It may well have been in answer to the united prayers of the Thessalonians that Paul was given an encouraging vision and was later delivered from a Jewish plot to cut short his work in that city (see Acts 18:9-17). He continued in Corinth for a year and a half, and established an important church. Under normal conditions the "word of the Lord," activated by the Holy Spirit, makes rapid progress. It is "quick, and powerful" (Heb. 4:12). It "runneth very swiftly" (Ps. 147:15). It grows and multiplies (Acts 12:24).

Be glorified. The word of the Lord is glorified in the transformed lives of those who are guided by it. The gospel is said to be adorned by the godly lives of even the humblest Christians--converted slaves, who would not pilfer, but who would be entirely honest and faithful in their service (2:9, 10; cf. on Matt. 5:16).

As it is with you. Paul recalled the joyous reception of the gospel by the Thessalonians and its effectual working in them (1 Thess. 2:13).

2. May be delivered. Gr. ruomai, "to rescue." Although this second request has a distinctly pesonal flavor, the apostle is not primarily concerned with his personal safety, but wants to make sure that his evangelistic team will be left free to pursue its godly work.

Unreasonable. Gr. atopoi, literally, "out of place," hence, "improper," "evil," "wrong." The Greek contains the definite article, implying that Paul is referring to a specific class of opponents, doubtless the Jews who unitedly attacked him and brought him before Gallio, the Roman governor (see on Acts 18:9-17). These Jews were more perverse than many heathen in that they stubbornly resisted the appeals to Holy Scripture and the miracles wrought by the Holy Spirit in demonstration of the power of God. Some of their kind went so far at times as to blaspheme (Acts 13:45).

All men have not faith. This is probably a reference to the unbelieving Jews who refused the faith, that is, the Christian faith. The Thessalonians had been prompt to believe, but they must not be surprised if this is not the case with all others. There are those who have given themselves over so completely to evil that their consciences are seared (1 Tim. 4:2). Some, by shutting their minds fully against the evidence brought home to their hearts by the Holy Spirit, place themselves beyond the reach of the gospel. When the Lord, through His marvelous works in the flesh, gave unmistakable evidence of His divinity, there were those who so steeled their hearts against belief in His Messiahship that they actually attributed His miracle-working power to Satan. Such, the Lord warned, were in danger of committing the unpardonable sin, if they had not already done so (see Matt. 12:22-32). Some who have not gone that far have been so hardened by secular pursuits that the gospel can no more enter their hearts than the good seed can take root in the soil of the trampled wayside (see Luke 8:5, 12). Such people need a breaking up of the ground of their hearts by sincere repentance, that they may take hold of the word and believe (see Hosea 10:12).

3. The Lord is faithful. With man's unfaithfulness, especially that of the Jews, who turned their backs on God's truth, is contrasted the invariable faithfulness of God (see on 1 Cor. 1:9). Paul could personally testify to the Lord's trustworthiness, because of the promise of deliverance and its fulfillment in Corinth (Acts 18:9-17).

Stablish. Gr. steµrizoµ, "to confirm," "to establish," "to strengthen." Paul had already prayed that his converts might be established (ch. 2:17); now he expresses confidence that this will be done.

Keep you from evil. Literally, "guard you from the evil," or "guard you from the evil [one]." The reference may be to evil in general, or to Satan, the evil one (cf. Matt. 13:19, 38; Eph. 6:16, RSV; 1 John 2:13, 14; 3:12; 5:18, RSV). A reference to Satan is fitting in this epistle where Paul has brought into such prominence the work of Satan and his agents (see on 2 Thess. 2:3-12). The apostle assures his readers that the lord whom they serve will faithfully protect them even from the worst of enemies.

4. Confidence in the Lord. The thought of others' unfaithfulness brings Paul's mind back to the needs of the faithful Thessalonians. But, although the apostle is encouraging human believers, he makes it clear that the basis of his confidence is "in the Lord," and not in men (cf. Gal. 5:10).

Do and will do. Here we have an exhortation expressed in a winning way. Paul has definite commands for the Thessalonians, but tactfully expresses his conviction that they are already doing what he is requesting, and that they will continue to do so. His commands were from God. They had received them as such, and had been empowered by God's Spirit to fulfill them (see 1 Thess. 2:13). He believed that the Lord, who had begun a good work in their lives, would finish it and would prepare them for His glorious appearing (cf. Phil. 1:6).

The things. Not identified in this verse, but clearly listed in vs. 6-15.

5. Direct. Gr. kateuthunoµ, "to make straight." The word is part of Paul's petition--"may the Lord direct."

Hearts. Gr. kardiai, here used to include the mind, the seat of intelligence (cf. on Rom. 1:21; 10:10; Eph. 1:18). We need the continual guidance of the Lord in our thinking as well as in our emotions. He has promised to remind us of the truths we have been taught, to reveal their significance, and to guide us into a complete understanding of His will (see John 14:26; 16:13).

Into the love of God. This phrase defines the first of the two areas into which Paul wishes his readers' hearts to be directed. Two interpretations of the definition are possible: (1) That they may be led into love for God; (2) that they may come to possess, or to share in, God's love. Analogy with the phrase that follows makes the second alternative preferable.

Patient waiting. Gr. hupomoneµ (see on Rom. 2:7; cf. on Heb. 12:1). The complete phrase reads literally, "patience of Christ," which may mean, the patience shown by Christ, or a Christlike fortitude. The context, however, makes it possible to apply the purpose of Paul's prayer to the particular matter of patiently awaiting the Saviour's return.

6. Now we command you. With this phrase Paul begins to record his explicit directives to the Thessalonians (cf. on v. 4). In his first epistle he had appealed to the church to warn the fanatical faction in their midst (1 Thess. 5:14). His appeal appears to have been only partially successful, for he now resorts to stronger measures, and issues commands (cf. on 1 Thess. 4:2, 11).

Our. Textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of this word. For comment on the significance of the phrase, "In the name of our Lord," see on Acts 3:6; 1 Cor. 5:4. Paul invokes the Lord's name as support for the commands he himself is now giving to the believers (cf. on 1 Thess. 4:2; 2 Thess. 3:12).

Withdraw. Gr. stellomai, "to keep away," "to set oneself from," "to withdraw." This breaking off of intimate intercourse on the part of reliable church members was to bring the erring ones to their senses, in order that they might "be ashamed" (v. 14), and turn from their evil ways. It was a necessary step in church discipline (cf. Matt. 18:15-17), but it was not excommunication. That final act was reserved for more serious offenses (see on 1 Cor. 5:5).

Every brother. Paul's instruction is comprehensive; he wants all cases to be dealt with.

Disorderly. Gr. ataktoµs (see on 1 Thess. 5:14).

Tradition. Gr. paradosis (see on ch. 2:15).

He received. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the reading "they received." Important textual evidence may be cited for the reading "ye received," and this has strong support from the context (v. 7).

7. For yourselves know. Compare similar phraseology in 1 Thess. 2:1, 2, 5; 3:3; 5:2.

Follow. Gr. mimeomai, "to imitate." Compare the use of the word in Heb. 13:7; 3 John 11. The instruction that Paul and his companions had given was not rendered confusing by inconsistency in their own lives. The Thessalonians had a worthy example set before them (cf. on 1 Cor. 4:16; Phil. 3:17). Paul could urge Christians to follow him because he followed Christ (see 1 Cor. 11:1). If they would think of Paul's humble, careful, Christlike conduct, they would know what the Lord required of them. Every minister should so live that his life will be consistent with his teaching.

Behaved not ... disorderly. The disorderly behavior to which Paul was alluding (v. 6), seems to have been due to the fanatical idea that since the Lord was about to come, it was too late to continue worldly pursuits. Those who were imbued with this thought may have urged the principle of community of goods upon the church for selfish reasons, in order to profit from others' labor. Paul denounced these indolent agitators (v. 11), but first he reminded the brethren that his example had been a positive one. He was able boldly to appeal to his busy life among them.

8. For nought. Rather, "as a gift." Compare 2 Cor. 11:7-9, where Paul boasts of being no charge to the Corinthians.

Wrought. Or, "working."

Labour and travail. see on 1 Thess. 2:9. These words emphasize the extreme measures taken by Paul and his company to set a proper example before the people and to remove all possible grounds for criticism.

Night and day. see on 1 Thess. 2:9.

Be chargeable. Gr. epibareoµ, "to weigh down," "to be a burden." Paul did not wish to be a burden to the Thessalonians.

9. Power. Gr. exousia, "right" "authority," (see on John 1:12; Acts 1:7). The apostle wished to make it clear that he was not opposed to a church-supported ministry. Indeed, he elsewhere taught the definite obligation of the church to support those called by God to minister to them (see 1 Cor. 9:9-14). He appreciated the gifts sent for his support by the Philippians, and called such gifts an acceptable sacrifice, "wellpleasing to God" (Phil. 4:17, 18). But in Thessalonica he waived his right to church support in order to give the members a worthy example to follow.

Ensample. Gr. tupos, "type" (see on Rom. 5:14).

To follow. Gr. mimeomai (see on v. 7).

10. When we were with you. Compare on 1 Thess. 3:4; 2 Thess. 2:5.

We commanded you. The range of instruction given by Paul to the Thessalonians is amazing. In the short time he was with them he seems to have covered every vital topic, and to have turned his teaching to their immediate needs. Consequently, when absent from them, he was able to refer to the verbal commands he had given.

Would not work. Or, "is not willing to work." Paul is evidently referring to those who, anticipating the immediate return of Christ, were refusing to engage in normal labor, holding that it was unnecessary in view of the second coming.

Neither should he eat. The apostle succinctly opposes the reasoning of the fanatics with a terse saying that may have been current in his time or original with himself. His dictum also has present value. Work is a blessing; idleness, a curse (see DA 72; COL 359). God supplies food for the animals, but they have to search for it. Adam was told "in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (Gen. 3:19). The Saviour Himself, as "the carpenter," set us a worthy example (Mark 6:3). The Christian is to do everything in his power to keep from being a charge upon others. He should work so that, in addition to supporting himself, he is able to help the needy (Eph. 4:28).

11. For we hear. It would appear that Paul had received recent news from Thessalonica and was writing about a situation that was actually then in existence.

Some ... among you. While the apostle makes the Thessalonians responsible for the situation in their church, he does not include them all in his condemnation, but recognizes that the trouble is limited to a few.

Disorderly. Gr. ataktoµs (see on 1 Thess. 5:14).

Working not ... busybodies. In the Greek there is an evident play upon words, which may be conveyed as, "not busy, but busybodies" (Wordsworth). Busybodies are busy in unimportant things, in those things which do not concern them, in everybody's business but their own. Honest toil is the best cure for such people; for those who are conscientious in the discharge of their own duties will not find time, nor have the inclination, to be meddling in the affairs of others (cf. on 1 Thess. 4:11; 1 Tim. 5:13, 14; 1 Peter 4:15). Tattling and evilspeaking are the stock in trade of busybodies. A double curse follows, falling more heavily upon the gossiper than upon those he maligns (see 5T 176, 241, 242, 609, 610; Ed 235).

12. By our Lord Jesus Christ. This tactful addition of an exhortation not only claims the Lord's authority but implies that those addressed are regarded as being within the fold. The apostle ever wants to hold all who will stay within the church, but he wishes also to ensure their living up to the established standards.

With quietness they work. Compare on 1 Thess. 4:11. The appeal is to a consistent, godly, quiet life of useful labor, in contrast with that of a meddling busybody. The true Christian goes about his duties in a quiet, unostentatious way, being diligent in business, serving the Lord (see Rom. 12:11). Thus, like Paul, he will strive not to be dependent upon anyone for his daily bread (cf. on v. 8).

13. Brethren, be not weary. Again the apostle addresses himself to the body of the church (see v. 6), including the faithful members who have not been led astray by the fanatical agitators. God's people are not to become weary or disheartened in well-doing, from pressure either within or without. Compare on Gal. 6:9, 10, where reference is to works of beneficence in behalf of the needy. The fact that there are slothful, improvident, undeserving ones who look to the church for its bounty, must not be allowed to dry up the springs of Christian generosity. The church needs the blessing that comes from helping its poor. It is a privilege to share our temporal blessings with those less fortunate, and thus be mutually helpful (see 2 Cor. 8:14; 9:7-12; 3T 525; 2T 24-26).

14. Obey not our word. Paul desired the church to realize that the epistle was authoritative. It was the inspired word of God, written in the name of the Lord. It required obedience. The members were to help to support its instructions.

Note. Gr. seµmeiooµ, "to mark," from seµmeion, "a sign," "a mark," "a token."

Have no company. Such deliberate ostracism on the part of loyal Christians could hardly fail to have a remedial effect. The delinquents would more readily see themselves as others saw them, and be ashamed. Being ashamed of their wayward conduct, they would be led to repentance, and be saved.

15. Not as an enemy. This word of caution is very needful in the church. It is easy for Christians to be harsh in their thinking toward a perverse brother.

As a brother. Paul did not want the erring one to be excommunicated. He wished him still to be counted as a brother, and to be admonished as such. If the discipline had its intended effect, he would be susceptible to brotherly counsel, and be ready to return to a balanced interpretation of truth. Such a course will not be easy for either side, but it is the ideal for which the church should strive.

16. Now the Lord of peace. In 1 Thess. 5:23 Paul speaks of "the ... God of peace," referring to the Father, whose attributes the Son shares. In Isa. 9:6 the title "The Prince of Peace" is prophetically applied to the Messiah; in the Gospels Christ is shown bestowing peace upon His followers (John 14:27; 16:33; 20:19, 26); in Eph. 2:14 Christ is described as "our peace." Paul recognizes that only such a Christ could bring true peace into the troubled hearts of the Thessalonians.

Always. The apostle desires his converts to enjoy Christ's peace at all times, no matter how trying conditions might become.

By all means. That is, in every needful way.

You all. In this prayer the apostle includes the whole Thessalonian church, the stubborn, unruly members no less than the most faithful. He wants the Lord's presence to abide continually with them all (cf. 1 Thess. 5:26; 2 Thess. 1:3; 3:18). The divine presence in the heart of each believer will be the best guarantee of peace in the church on earth, and the enjoyment of eternal peace in the world to come.

17. Salutation. Gr. aspasmos (see on Col 4:18; 1 Thess. 5:26). The reference is to the benediction (2 Thess. 3:18), but the greeting bears added significance, since it was written with Paul's own hand (cf. on 1 Cor. 16:21; Gal. 6:11; Col. 4:18; Philemon 19). The personal autograph was not unusual in dictated letters, but it may have had special meaning in this epistle in view of the possible danger from forged letters (see on 2 Thess. 2:2). Even if no such danger existed, the sight of the personally written greeting would ensure an even more affectionate reception of the letter by the Thessalonians.

Token. Gr. seµmeion, "sign" (see on Luke 2:34), referring not so much to the salutation as to the fact that it was written in Paul's own handwriting.

In every epistle. This shows that it was customary for Paul to autograph all of his writings, even though he did not expressly mention the fact in each letter.

18. The grace of our Lord. Compare Rom. 16:24. For the meaning of the phrase see on Rom. 1:7. Compare on 1 Thess. 5:28.

Amen. Textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of this ending.

The postscript appearing at the end of the epistle is not in any early manuscript. It is a later editorial addition, not part of the original inspired account (cf. on 1 Thess. 5:28). The place of writing was Corinth, not Athens (see pp. 261, 262).

Ellen G. White Comments

3-5AA 267

8 1T 447

8, 9 AA 347

10 COL 247; CS 122; WM 200

10-12AA 348

11 AA 261

12 AA 267

13 2T 445; 3T 210; 9T 220

15 AA 268

Events Leading to the Writing of Paul's Letters to Timothy, Written From Asia and Rome After Paul's First Imprisonment, c. A.D. 64-66

INTRODUCTION

1. Title. In the earliest Greek manuscripts the title of this book is simply Pros Timotheon A ("To Timothy I"). Later elaboration has expanded the title to the form found in the KJV.

2. Authorship. This epistle identifies Paul as its author (ch. 1:1). For a discussion of authorship see Vol. V, pp. 183-185. Concerning the date of writing see Vol. VI, p. 107.

3. Historical Setting. The circumstances of the writing of 1 Timothy can be ascertained only by inference from incidental remarks in the epistle. For a discussion of these as they bear on the date and circumstances of the writing of this epistle see Vol. V, p. 184.

4. Theme. This epistle was written to Timothy while he was pastor of the Ephesian church, and is composed primarily of instructions addressed to him as a leader of the church. Accordingly it is classified as a pastoral epistle. In it Paul admonishes Timothy to conduct himself in a manner pleasing to God and helpful to the flock over which God has placed him, and delivers to him a solemn charge to preach the Word and to defend its teachings. This epistle reflects a rather fully developed plan for church organization and administration. The emphasis upon doctrine in 1 Timothy and the other pastoral epistles (see 1 Tim. 4:6, 13, 16; 2 Tim. 3:14-17; 4:1-4; Titus 1:9; 2:1, 7) is illustrated by the fact that of the 21 times the Greek word for doctrine (didaskalia) is found in the NT, 15 appear in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus.

Though Paul seems to have felt himself closer to Timothy than to his other associates (see Phil. 2:19, 20), the inference may be drawn from this epistle that Timothy was a man of mild temperament and not so aggressive as Paul might have wished. Accordingly the apostle encourages his younger companion in the ministry to more vigorous leadership. The close relationship between Paul and Timothy accounts for the free, frank manner in which the apostle expresses his desires, admonitions, and purposes to the pastor of Ephesus, and doubtless explains the consequent lack of systematic order. The epistle was apparently written, point by point, as successive aspects of ministerial activity came to the apostle's mind.

5. Outline.

I. Salutation, 1:1, 2.

II. The Charge to Rebuke Teachers of Perverted Doctrine, 1:3-20.

A. Perverted use of law produces strife, 1:3, 4.

B. Proper use of law develops character, 1:5-11.

C. Paul's life confirms power of proper use of law, 1:12-17.

D. Timothy challenged to competent leadership, 1:18-20.

III. The Universality of Christian Worship, 2:1-15.

A. Prayers for all men, 2:1-3.

B. Salvation for all men, 2:4-7.

C. Worship procedure for all men, 2:8-15.

IV.Prerequisites for Christian Leaders, 3:1-13.

A. The character of bishops, 3:1-17.

B. The character of deacons, 3:8-13.

V. The Christian Message, 3:14 to 4:5.

A. The essential message of Christianity, 3:14-16.

B. The counterfeit message within Christianity, 4:1-5.

VI. Practical Suggestions for a More Earnest Ministry, 4:6-16.

A. Study on sound doctrine, 4:6.

B. Avoid speculations, 4:7.

C. Be an example in godliness, 4:8-16.

VII. The Minister as Church Administrator, 5:1 to 6:19.

A. His relation to old and young members, 5:1, 2.

B. His relation to the widows, 5:3-16.

C. His relation to the elected elders, 5:17-25.

D. His instruction concerning Christian slaves, 6:1, 2.

E. His relation to teachers of false doctrine, 6:3-5.

F. His relation to worldly riches, 6:6-10.

G. His responsibility as a character pattern for all, 6:11-16.

H. His relation to the Christian rich, 6:17-19.

VIII. Paul's Final Charge to Timothy, 6:20, 21.

1 Timothy Chapter 1

1 Timothy is put in mind of the charge which was given unto him by Paul at his going to Macedonia. 5 Of the right use and end of the law. 11 Of Saint Paul's calling to be an apostle, 20 and of Hymenaus and Alexander.

1. Paul. The insertion of the author's name in his salutation was a common procedure in ancient times (see on Rom. 1:1).

Apostle. See on Acts 1:2; Rom.1:1. Though Paul was not of the Twelve, he was directly called by Christ at a later time (see Acts 13:2; 20:24; Gal. 1:11, 12, 15; see on Acts 9:15).

Commandment. Gr. epitageµ, "injunction," "command." No man could carry more impressive credentials than the direct authorization Paul had as an apostle. In the difficulties the church faced at Ephesus the authoritative support of Paul would reinforce Timothy's leadership.

Saviour. A title ascribed by Paul to both the Father (ch. 3, 5) and Jesus (Phil. 3:20; 2 Tim. 1:10; Titus 1:4; 2:13; 3:6). Attributes of each member of the Godhead are common to all (see on Col. 2:9). All members of the Trinity have participated in the work of man's salvation, each doing His specific task.

Lord Jesus Christ. Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) the reading "Christ Jesus."

Hope. Compare Rom. 15:13; see on Rom. 5:4; 8:24; 12:12. Christ is not only the object of man's hope but also its source. Men find their basis for "hope" for temporal support as well as for future immortality in Christ (see on Col. 1:27).

2. Timothy. For a brief biographical sketch see on Acts 16:1.

Own. Gr. gneµsios, "legitimate," "sincere," "true." Paul may be emphasizing that it was through his ministry that Timothy had been converted and trained for the ministry, or that Timothy was particularly noteworthy in genuineness of devotion to the cause of Christ and to Paul personally.

Faith. Here probably meaning the system of Christian belief.

Grace. See on Rom. 3:24; 1 Cor. 1:3.

Mercy, and peace. Compare Paul's introduction in 1 Cor. 1:1-3. This sequence of spiritual blessings corresponds to man's experience when he stands justified before God. When man fully understands and accepts God's plan for his restoration from sin, as revealed in His many overtures of mercy, a new state of tranquillity pervades his soul (see on Rom. 5:1).

Father and Jesus. See on Rom. 1:7.

3. Besought. Timothy had accompanied Paul on his first journey through Macedonia (see Acts 16:1-12; 20:1-4). The apostle here refers to a later journey, one that followed his first imprisonment at Rome (see Vol. VI, p. 101). Although Timothy very greatly desired to remain by Paul's side, the young church needed his faithful pastoral care.

Charge. Gr. paraggelloµ, "to command," "to declare." Paul frequently asserts his apostolic authority lest the young churches suffer because of some who disparaged his apostleship (see chs. 4:11; 5:7, 21; 6:13, 17).

Some. Or, "certain ones." Paul tactfully avoids magnifying the problem (see on Gal. 1:7).

No other doctrine. That is, no teaching contrary to the truth as proclaimed by the apostles (see on Gal. 1:8).

4. Fables. Gr. muthoi, "myths," "inventions," "falsehoods." Paul may here refer to the rabbinical fictions such as were later incorporated into the Mishnah and other Jewish writings (see Vol. V, pp. 96-100). However, he may also be warning against an early form of Gnosticism (see Vol. V, p. 181; Vol. VI, pp. 54-58).

Genealogies. Probably a reference to a Jewish practice in which an attempt was made to trace family ancestries back to a Davidic or priestly heritage. Much of Jewish teaching and preaching was based on finely spun allegories that pleased the fancies of the people without feeding their souls. See Titus 1:14.

Minister. Or, "cause," or "bring about."

Questions. Gr. ekzeµteµseis, "investigations," "speculations."

Edifying. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the reading "stewardship." Accordingly, the last clause of this verse may read: "which engender mere speculation rather than the stewardship of God, which is [accomplished] in faith." Mere disputation, which satisfies profitless curiosity only, will never promote the growth of the church.

5. End. Gr. telos, "aim," "purpose," "result." Compare on Rom. 10:4.

Commandment. Gr. paraggelia, that is, the charge, or commission, Paul gave to Timothy (v. 3).

Charity. Gr. agapeµ, "love" (see on 1 Cor. 13:1). Paul's charge (1 Tim. 1:3) to Timothy originated in love and was given to engender a spirit of love in the hearts of the church members at Ephesus. The result of unprofitable debates on myths and endless genealogies was not love, but contention and faction.

Pure heart. See on Ps. 24:4; Matt. 5:8.