1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

Thanksgiving for Response to the Gospel

1:2 We thank God always for all of you as we mention you constantly ¹  in our prayers, 1:3 because we recall ²  in the presence of our God and Father ³  your work of faith and labor of love and endurance of hope ⁴  in our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 1:2

Thanksgiving for Response to the Gospel

1:2 We thank God always for all of you as we mention you constantly ⁵  in our prayers,

1 Thessalonians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul ⁶  and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians ⁷  in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to you! ⁸ 

Nehemiah 9:5

9:5 The Levites – Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah – said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God!”

“May you be blessed, O LORD our God, from age to age. ⁹  May your glorious name ¹⁰  be blessed; may it be lifted up above all blessing and praise.

Psalms 71:14-15

71:14 As for me, I will wait continually,

and will continue to praise you. ¹¹ 

71:15 I will tell about your justice,

and all day long proclaim your salvation, ¹² 

though I cannot fathom its full extent. ¹³ 

Psalms 71:2

71:2 Vindicate me by rescuing me! ¹⁴ 

Listen to me! ¹⁵  Deliver me! ¹⁶ 

Colossians 2:14

2:14 He has destroyed ¹⁷  what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness ¹⁸  expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

Colossians 1:15

The Supremacy of Christ

1:15 ¹⁹ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn ²⁰  over all creation, ²¹ 

[1:2]  ¹ tn Or “mention you in our prayers, because we recall constantly…”

[1:3]  ² tn Grk “making mention…recalling.” The participle ποιούμενοι (poioumenoi) in v. 2 has been translated as temporal, and μνημονεύοντες (mnhmoneuonte") in v. 3 has been translated as causal.

[1:3]  ³ tn Or the phrase may connect at the end of the verse: “hope…in the presence of our God and Father.”

[1:3]  ⁴ tn These phrases denote Christian virtues in action: the work produced by faith, labor motivated by love, and endurance that stems from hope in Christ.

[1:2]  ⁵ tn Or “mention you in our prayers, because we recall constantly…”

[1:1]  ⁶ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ⁷ map For the location of Thessalonica see JP1 C1; JP2 C1; JP3 C1; JP4 C1.

[1:1]  ⁸ tc The majority of witnesses, including several early and important ones (א A [D] I 33 Ï bo), have ἀπὸ θεοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν καὶ κυριοῦ Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ (apo qeou patro" Jhmwn kai kuriou Ihsou Cristou, “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”) at the end of v. 1. The more abrupt reading (“Grace and peace to you”) without this addition is supported by B F G Ψ 0278 629 1739 1881 pc lat sa. Apart from a desire to omit the redundancy of the mention of God and Christ in this verse, there is no good reason why scribes would have omitted the characteristically Pauline greeting. (Further, if this were the case, why did these same scribes overlook such an opportunity in 2 Thess 1:1-2?) On the other hand, since 1 Thessalonians is one of Paul’s earliest letters, what would become characteristic of his greetings seems to have been still in embryonic form (e.g., he does not yet call his audience “saints” [which will first be used in his address to the Corinthians], nor does he use ἐν (en) plus the dative to refer to the location of the church). Thus, the internal evidence is overwhelming in support of the shorter reading, for scribes would have been strongly motivated to rework this salutation in light of Paul’s style elsewhere. And the external evidence, though not overwhelming, is supportive of this shorter reading, found as it is in some of the best witnesses of the Alexandrian and Western texttypes.

[9:5]  ⁹ tc The MT reads here only “from age to age,” without the preceding words “May you be blessed, O LORD our God” which are included in the present translation. But apparently something has dropped out of the text. This phrase occurs elsewhere in the OT as a description of the Lord (see Ps 41:13; 106:48), and it seems best to understand it here in that light. The LXX adds “And Ezra said” at the beginning of v. 6 as a transition: “And Ezra said, ‘You alone are the LORD.” Without this addition (which is not included by most modern English translations) the speakers of vv. 9:5b-10:1 continue to be the Levites of v. 5a.

[9:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the name of your glory.”

[71:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and I add to all your praise.”

[71:15]  ¹² tn Heb “my mouth declares your vindication, all the day your deliverance.”

[71:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “though I do not know [the] numbers,” that is, the tally of God’s just and saving acts. HALOT 768 s.v. סְפֹרוֹת understands the plural noun to mean “the art of writing.”

[71:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in your vindication rescue me and deliver me.” Ps 31:1 omits “and deliver me.”

[71:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”

[71:2]  ¹⁶ tn Ps 31:2 adds “quickly” before “deliver.”

[2:14]  ¹⁷ tn The participle ἐξαλείψας (exaleiyas) is a temporal adverbial participle of contemporaneous time related to the previous verb συνεζωοποίησεν (sunezwopoihsen), but has been translated as a finite verb because of the complexity of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences. For the meaning “destroy” see BDAG 344-45 s.v. ἐξαλείφω 2.

[2:14]  ¹⁸ tn On the translation of χειρόγραφον (ceirografon), see BDAG 1083 s.v. which refers to it as “a certificate of indebtedness.”

[1:15]  ¹⁹ sn This passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[1:15]  ²⁰ tn The Greek term πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos) could refer either to first in order of time, such as a first born child, or it could refer to one who is preeminent in rank. M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), 43, expresses the meaning of the word well: “The ‘firstborn’ was either the eldest child in a family or a person of preeminent rank. The use of this term to describe the Davidic king in Ps 88:28 LXX (=Ps 89:27 EVV), ‘I will also appoint him my firstborn (πρωτότοκον), the most exalted of the kings of the earth,’ indicates that it can denote supremacy in rank as well as priority in time. But whether the πρωτό- element in the word denotes time, rank, or both, the significance of the -τοκος element as indicating birth or origin (from τίκτω, give birth to) has been virtually lost except in ref. to lit. birth.” In Col 1:15 the emphasis is on the priority of Jesus’ rank as over and above creation (cf. 1:16 and the “for” clause referring to Jesus as Creator).

[1:15]  ²¹ tn The genitive construction πάσης κτίσεως (pash" ktisew") is a genitive of subordination and is therefore translated as “over all creation.” See ExSyn 103-4.