An Introduction to the Thessalonian Epistles. By E. H. Ask.
with, B.D. (Macmillan and Co. 4s. net.)—Mr. Askwith's first chapter is given to a study of Acts xvii. 4. It is manifest that the Thessalonian Church largely consisted of converted heathen. How does this consist with the words " of the devout Greeks a great multitude." If they were proselytes, they had not come, at least through the agency of St. Paul and his fellow-evangelists, out of gross heathen vices (chap. iv. 1.8). It is possible to read :cal between est3tealese and `Exaheoev, or to interpret ses/30/.dvese more generally. A crowd of Gentile worshippers had thronged the synagogue, some proselytes, others of the ordinary type of Greek, moved with interest in non-material questions, but not devout in life. Chaps. 2-4 deal with the question of the genuineness of the Epistles, the two being first taken together and then each separately. We cannot attempt to estimate the argument, as even an outline of it would occupy much space. In chap. 5 Mr. Askveith pauses to consider the eschatology of the Second Epistle. In dismissing the futurist interpretation he is in agreement with the modern trend of thought on such subjects. (This does not, however, exclude the belief that an evil may develop itself in one way at one time, and in another at another.) His own view, put very briefly, is that the arsereacria is (probably) the revolt of the Jews against the Romans, that the icaTixcur is Claudius, who reversed the frantic policy of Caligula, and that the iii,outa was the principle of Emperor-worship. St. Paul seems to have looked forward to a literal wupouola. What really came about was the triumph of the Christian faith over the great world-Power of Rome. With Mr. A.skwith's general statement we are in full agreement. "I am aware that the explanation I am offering of the eschatological teaching of 2 Thessalonians will not commend itself to those who think to find in it a prophecy of the future exact in every detail. But I do not find that such exactness is of the essential nature of prophecy, which discerns the principles of the divine rule and governance, and contemplates the end with perfect assurance of the triumph of the cause of God." Here we have the root of the whole matter.
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