5. διὰτοῦτοκἀγώκτλ.] So keenly alive was St Paul to the dangers threatening his beloved Thessalonians that he reiterates his eagerness with regard to the despatch of Timothy, employing now the emphatic 1st pers. sing. ‘ I also,’ ‘ I on my part,’ to bring out still more forcibly his own share in the joint-action already referred to (v. 1). A wholly different turn is given to the verse by Hofmann’ s suggestion (favoured by Spitta Urchristentum 1. p. 121 ff.) that after the despatch of Timothy, and the subsequent departure of Silas, St Paul had still no rest, and in his anxiety despatched another messenger or letter on his own account. But if this were so, the fact and nature of this second sending would surely have been more clearly defined, whereas the actual words of vv. 1, 2 seem rather to be expressly repeated, in order to show that the same sending is still in view. μήπωςἐπείρασενκτλ.] Μήπως ‘ lest haply,’ a combination found in the N.T. only in the Pauline Epp., and construed here with both ind. and subj.— the former (ἐπείρασεν) describing an action that the writers feared had already taken place, the latter (γένηται) a possible future consequence of that action: see WM. p. 633 f. and for a similar transition only this time from the subj. to the ind. cf. Galatians 2:2. Findlay prefers to take the clause interrogatively to which there can be no grammatical objection, and which has the advantage of vividness: ‘ Had the Tempter anyhow tempted you, and would our toil prove in vain?’ For the thought cf. James 1:13 and the agraphon ascribed to Christ in Hom. Clem. 3. 55, p. 51, 20 τοῖςδὲοἰομένοιςὅτιὁθεὸςπειράζει, ὡςαἱγραφαὶλέγουσιν, ἔφη· ὁπονηρόςἐστινὁπειράζων (Resch Agrapha (1889) pp. 115, 233). ὁπειράζων] subst. part. applied to Satan as in the history of the Lord’ s Temptation (Matthew 4:3) to bring out his characteristic office (‘ seine hie ruhende Anstrengung’ Everling Angelologie, p. 78): cf. 1 Corinthians 7:5 ἵναμὴπειράζῃὑμᾶςὁΣατανᾶς. For the distinction between πειράζω (Att. πειράω) and δοκιμάζω (2:4 note) see Trench Syn. § 74. εἰςκενόν] ‘ in vain,’ ‘ to no purpose,’ cf. 2 Corinthians 6:1, Galatians 2:2, Philippians 2:16.