been rejoined by him (3:6), and this, as we learn from Acts 18:5, was not at Athens but at Corinth. We must assume, however, that an interval of several months had elapsed between the apostle's departure from Thessalonica and the despatch of this letter. We must allow time for Paul's journey to Athens and the subsequent arrival of Silas and Timothy, for Paul's work in Athens and later in Corinth, which had resulted in the establishment of churches in Achaia. The rhetorical statement that the news of the Thessalonians' acceptance of the gospel had gone into every place and the report of it had reached Paul must have some specific reference, and may point to news Paul had received from the churches in Galatia, which may have been occasioned by a letter sent to them by Timothy. The deaths which had occurred in the numerically small congregation also point in the same direction. We can scarcely allow less than six months for the interval; perhaps it should be more."-Peake, "Introduction to the New Testament."

Character and Contents of I Thessalonians.

"The Christians of Thessalonica were mainly Greeks by birth and training (1:9; 2: 14), who had been won over from paganism by the efforts of Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus. The mission had lasted only for a month or two. After preaching for three weeks in the local synagogue, the evangelists continued their work till they were prematurely driven from the city by the intrigues of the local Jews. They left a vigorous church behind them, however, and the central position of Thessalonica upon the Via Egnatia at the head of the Thermaic gulf presented excellent opportunities for the diffusion of the new faith (1: 1-7; 4: 10).

"His primary reason for writing to the Christians of Thessalonica was anxiety on their behalf. It was the first community of any importance which he had been able to found in Europe; and the exemplary character, the exceptional opportunities, and the influence of its members had already produced a wide impression on the surrounding district. To this Paul alludes (1:7-8) with a pardonable touch of hyperbole (cf. Rom. 1:8; Ph. 1: 13). From no church was he torn with such evident reluctance. But the urgent claim of the church on his solicitude was the suffering to which it had been exposed even during his stay, and especially since he had left. Con

cerned for his friends' stability, and unable to return in person, he had dispatched Timotheus, as the younger of his companions, from Athens in order to rally and confirm their faith. Meanwhile events had driven him from Athens across to Corinth (1:7-8) where Timotheus brought him the glad tidings of the Thessalonians' affection and constancy. He at once proceeds to send this informal letter, written (i) out of warm personal affection, which he rejoices to find returned, and (ii) in order to convey instructions upon some points of Christian belief and conduct.

"The former consideration (i) emerges in a series of allusions to malignant suspicions of his conduct, especially of the purity of his motives and methods, circulated by local outsiders (2:3b-18, etc.). This does not mean that he had reproached himself with having appeared to leave his friends in the lurch; such cannot be the entire explanation (so Spitta, pp. 115-116) of the phrases. A self-defense of this kind would be sadly post factum. The language undoubtedly implies that insinuations to his discredit were current in Thessalonica; they struck at the church through the apostle; and because the peace and faith of the Thessalonian Christians were so intimately bound up with confidence in his integrity, he vindicates their trust by showing how, in an age in which impostors, religious, medical, and philosophical, flourished by crooked methods, he had not worked for mercenary ends, nor set up high pretensions, nor made exacting demands on his followers, nor left them meanly in the lurch. He appeals to his record in Thessalonica, and shows that his absence was neither voluntary nor equivalent to a slackening of his interest or affection. Such malicious calumnies, circulated mainly or at least primarily by the Jews, Paul further meets by unbaring his very heart. He reveals his throbbing interest in the church (2:8; 3:6-10), tells them of the joy and pride their loyalty afforded him (see the praise of other Macedonians in Ph. 4: 1), and expands previous oral admonitions (2: 12; 4: 1-2, 6; 1: 1-12) in a series of written counsels.

"(ii) The second and supplementary part of the letter, passing from this personal and apologetic aspect, warns them against such perils as sensuality, selfishness, and noisy indolence, due as much to a misapprehension of their faith as to pagan surroundings. The occurrence of some deaths had raised uncertainties about the Lord's second coming, and Paul

briefly handles this with reference to (a) the dead, who are declared not to have forfeited their place in the messianic realm of the age to come; and (b) to the living, who are exhorted to moral alertness in view of this great event, which may be expected at any moment (5:3), as well as to an ethical steadiness unaffected by unsettling expectations of the end. This need of mutual exhortation (5:11) naturally leads to a word on subordination and obedience to the local church authorities, and with some general counsels the letter ends." -Moffatt, "Introduction to the New Testament."

For a discussion of II Thessalonians see any of the books referred to below.

To what Churches was the Letter to the Galatians addressed?

This lesson brings before us one of the most interesting problems of New Testament interpretation. It may be stated as follows: Are these churches, established by Paul and Barnabas as narrated in Acts 13-14, to be identified with those addressed by Paul in his letter to the Galatians? It is agreed by all that the cities named in Acts 13-14, namely, Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe, belonged to the Roman province of Galatia. The names of these Roman provinces, however, did not always coincide with the local names applied to the various districts by the people themselves. The original region of Galatia, from which the Roman province was named, was situated in north-central Asia Minor. It was so called because it had been settled by immigrants from Gaul (Latin Gallia), at an earlier period. Its chief cities were Ancyra, Pessinus and Tavium.

Now according to the "North-Galatian theory," Paul evangelized this region of Galatia proper, perhaps at the time of the journey recorded in Acts 16: 6-7; and the letter to the Galatians was sent to the people of this region. According to the "South-Galatian theory," Paul's Galatian letter was sent primarily to the inhabitants of the southern part of the Roman province Galatia, whose conversion is narrated in Acts 13-14.

The "South-Galatian theory" is now coming into somewhat general acceptance. The following are the chief arguments in its favor: In the first place, it does not seem probable that Luke would have passed over in silence the founding of churches which Paul, as we can see from his letter, regarded as so im

portant. The argument from silence is never conclusive, but in connection with other arguments, it has weight.

As to the appropriateness of the name, as applied to the people of the South-Galatian cities, it is noteworthy that Paul always uses the Roman provincial designations, whenever possible. Moreover, there was no other single name which could be applied to the people of all these cities; unless he could address them as "Ye Pisidians, Phrygians and Lycaonians," he must needs use the name Galatians.

A more important argument is from Paul's habits as a missionary. He always sought out the chief cities of the Roman empire, rather than obscure country provinces, and in general followed the main streams of Græco-Roman culture. The South-Galatian cities were on the direct route between Ephesus and the East. Greek was universally understood in these cities; and the new religion when once planted there would be disseminated in all directions. To have turned aside to Ancyrus and Pessinus, on the other hand, would have been, from Paul's standpoint, somewhat like going into a blind alley.. Moreover, it is a question whether Paul could have made himself understood in these towns, except to a limited degree. Three centuries later, in Jerome's time, the Celtic language was still spoken in north Galatia, at least in the country regions.

For these and other reasons, the South-Galatian theory is the one followed in this course.

Date of the Galatian Letter.

The letter itself does not contain much evidence regarding the date and place of writing. Zahn infers from Gal. 4:20, that the place was Corinth. Paul is unable to visit the Galatians, and takes it for granted that they will understand why. The letter, then, was written from some place far distant from Galatia. This fits Corinth better than Antioch or Ephesus. If it was written from Corinth, it was probably at the time of his first visit there; for Paul "marvels" that "ye are so quickly removing . . . to another gospel." (Gal. 1:6.) The phrase, "so quickly" is, of course, very indefinite; but it would seem to fit an interval of two or three years, better than one of four or five. Moreover, the struggle between Paul and the Judaizers, which called forth the letter, seems to have been still in its early stages. Within three years after Paul had closed his

first campaign in Corinth, he was engaged in a hot fight with these Judaizers in that very city Corinth, partly by letter, and partly in person. (See II Corinthians.) These men, setting out as they did from Jerusalem, would surely have visited the Galatian churches before they came to Corinth. Moreover, the tone of indignant surprise in the Galatian letter implies that Paul has just discovered for the first time that the enemy has invaded his own territory, that is, the Gentile churches which he has founded.

For these reasons, the theory followed in this lesson is that of Zahn, Bacon and others, namely, that the letter was written from Corinth, in the first year of Paul's first visit there; therefore probably in the spring of 51 A.D.

ADDITIONAL READING REFERENCES

Peake, A Critical Introduction to the New Testament, pp. 10-30. Moffatt, Introduction to the Literature of the New Testament, pp. 64-107. Bacon, Commentary on Galatians, Introduction. Frame, Commentary on Thessalonians, Introduction.

CHAPTER III.

WINNING BACK FAITHLESS CONVERTS.

TROUBLE IN THE CHURCH AT CORINTH.

PURPOSE OF THE LESSON.

To hold up before the pupils the ideal of keeping faith. All the delinquencies of the Corinthians may be included under the term faithlessness.

TELLING THE LESSON STORY.

In Chapter Two we studied the group of letters which Paul wrote from Corinth. The letters in the next group, which we are to consider in Chapter Three, were written to Corinth. When Paul wrote these letters he had seemingly gone back on his tracks a little. When he went from Galatia across Asia Minor, and the Aegean Sea and then to Corinth, he had left Ephesus on one side. So after nearly two years of very successful work in Corinth, he decided that it was now safe to leave the converts there to the care of their own leaders, while he went back to establish a church in the important city of Ephesus in the Roman province called Asia. This name,