1. ‘ Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the assembly of the Thessalonians who acknowledge God as Father and Jesus Christ as Lord, and are gathered together in this twofold Name, we send you the new greeting with the old. Grace, the source of all good, be unto you, and with grace Peace, the crown of all blessings.’ 1. Παῦλοςκ. Σιλουανὸςκ. Τιμόθεος] For the combination of names see Intr. p. 34 f. In neither of the Thessalonian Epp. nor in the Ep. to the Philippians does St Paul add, as elsewhere, his official title ἀπόστολος, doubtless owing to the special footing of friendship on which he stood to the Macedonian Churches, and to the fact that his authority had never been seriously questioned among them. Σιλουανός (Σιλβανός DG, as regularly in the papyri), the Gentile by-name of the Σιλᾶς (for accent, WSchm. p. 74) of Acts 15:22 to Acts 18:5 (see Deissmann BS. p. 315 n.2), and the form always used by St Paul, is here mentioned before Timothy, both because he was already known as ‘ a chief man among the brethren’ (Acts 15:22, cf. v. 32), and because he had taken a more prominent part in the founding of the Thessalonian Church (Acts 17:4; Acts 17:10). After St Paul’ s departure from Corinth (Acts 18:18) Silvanus does not again appear in connexion with him. He is generally identified with the Silvanus of 1 Peter 5:12. For an attempt to distinguish the Pauline Silvanus from the Jerusalem Silas, see Weizsäcker Ap. Zeitalter2 p. 256 (Engl. Tr. 1. p. 292 f.), and as against this Zahn Einl. in d. N.T. 1. p. 148 ff. In the traditional lists of the ‘ Seventy,’ compiled by Ps.-Dorotheus, Silas and Silvanus appear as distinct individuals, the former as Bishop of Corinth, the latter as Bishop of Thessalonica (Fabric. Lux Evang. p. 117). Timothy joined St Paul on his second missionary journey at Lystra (Acts 16:1 ff.), and though he is not specially mentioned either at Philippi (Acts 16:19), or at Thessalonica (Acts 17:4; Acts 17:10), this was probably due to his subordinate position at the time. We read of him as left behind at Beroea (Acts 12:14). Apparently he rejoined St Paul at Athens (1 Thessalonians 3:1), and after a special mission to Thessalonica followed him to Corinth (Acts 18:5): see further Intr. p. 30. With occasional short interruptions he was the Apostle’ s constant companion to the end of his life, and is associated with him in the opening of six of his Epp. (1, 2 Thess., 2 Cor., Phil., Col., Philemon), and mentioned in the concluding chapters of other two (Rom., 1 Cor.): cf. also Hebrews 13:23. Two Epp. were addressed specially to him. For the light in which he was regarded by St Paul see the note on 3:2. τῇἐκκλησίᾳΘεσσαλονικέων] a form of address peculiar to these Epp. (cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:1), and in which the thought of the local gathering of believers is still prominent. In the Corinthian Epp. St Paul prefers to connect the Ecclesia with the name of the place where it is it situated τ. ἐκκλησίᾳτ. θεοῦτ. οὔσῃἐνΚορίνθῳ (1 Corinthians 1:2, 2 Corinthians 1:1, cf. Galatians 1:2 τ. ἐκκλησίαιςτ. Γαλατίας), as if he were thinking rather of the one Church of Christ as it was represented there in a particular spot. In the addresses of the Epp. of the Captivity all mention of the Ecclesia is dropped, and some such general designations as πᾶσιτ. ἁγίοις (Phil.) or τ. ἀγίοιςκ. πιστοῖς (Eph., Col.) are substituted: cf. however Philem. 2. For the Biblical history of the word ἐκκλησία, which meant originally any public assembly of citizens summoned by a herald, see especially Hort The Christian Ecclesia (1898) p. 1 ff. ἐνθεῷπατρίκτλ.] a defining clause connected with ἐκκλησίᾳ, the absence of any uniting art. (τῇ) helping to give more unity to the conception (WM. p. 169 f.). In themselves the words bring out the truly Christian origin and character of the Ecclesia spoken of as compared with the many ἐκκλησίαι, religious and civil, which existed at the time at Thessalonica. Grot.: ‘ quae exstitit, id agente Dee Patre et Christo’ ; Calv.: ‘ non alibi quaerendam esse Ecclesiam, nisi ubi praeest Deus, ubi Christus regnat.’ On the formula θεὸςπατήρ in the salutations of the N.T. Epp. see Hort’ s note on 1 Peter 1:2, and on the union here of θεῷπατρί and Κυρ. Ἰης. Χρ. under a common vinculum (ἐν) see Intr. p. 66. The whole phrase is an expanded form of the characteristic Pauline formula ἐνΧριστῷἸησοῦ by which, as Deissmann has shown (Die neutestamentliche Formel ‘in Christo Jesu,’ Marburg 1892), the Apostle emphasizes that all Christians are locally united ‘ within the pneumatic body of Christ,’ in so far as they together build up His body. The different titles applied to the Lord throughout the Epp. are discussed in Add. Note D. χάριςὑμῖνκ. εἰρήνη] a greeting doubtless suggested by the union of the ordinary Gk. and Heb. forms of salutation (cf. 2Ma 1:1), though both are deepened and spiritualized. Thus χαίρειν (cf. Acts 15:23; Acts 23:26, James 1:1) now gives place to χάρις, a word which, without losing sight of the Hellenic charm and joy associated with the older formula, is the regular Pauline expression for the Divine favour as shown in all its freeness and universality; while εἰρήνη, so far from being a mere phrase of social intercourse (cf. Judges 19:20; Judges 19:19 :2Es 4:17), is not even confined to its general O.T. sense of harmony restored between God and man (e.g. Numbers 6:26), but has definitely in view that harmony as secured through the person and the work of Christ (cf. John 14:27). On the varied meanings of χάρις in the Biblical writings see especially Robinson Eph. p. 221 ff., and for the corresponding growth in the sense of εἰρήνη see SH. p. 15 f. This same form of greeting is found in all the Pauline Epp. except 1, 2 Tim. where ἔλεος is added (cf. 2 John 1:3). It occurs also in 1, 2 Pet. In Jas. we have the simple χαίρειν, and in Jude ἔλεοςκ. εἰρήνηκ. ἀγάπη. On St Paul’ s use of current epistolary phrases see Add. Note A, and for an elaborate discussion on the Apostolic Greeting see F. Zimmer in Luthardt’ s Zeitschrift 1886 p. 443 ff. It will be noticed that the T.R. clause ἀπὸθεοῦπατρόςκτλ. is omitted by WH. in accordance with BG 47 73. Its insertion (àAC(?)DKLP) is clearly due to the desire to assimilate the shorter reading to the later Pauline practice: cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:2.