Charles J. Ellicott’s Commentary on the Letters to the Thessalonians

This is a detailed commentary on the Greek text of Paul’s Letters to the Thessalonians by Biship Charles Ellicott. As such those with a good knowledge of Greek will benefit most from it. This title is in the public domain.

Charles John Ellicott [1819-1905], St. Paul’s Epistles to the Thessalonians: With a critical and Grammatical commentary and a revised translation, 4th edn. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1880. Hbk. pp.167. [Click here to visit the download page]

Table of Contents

• Preface to the Third Edition
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Preface to the First Edition
• 1 Thessalonians
• 2 Thessalonians

Introduction

This calm, practical, and profoundly consolatory Epistle was written by the Apostle to his converts in the wealthy and populous city of Thessalonica not long after his first visit to Macedonia ( Acts xvi. 9), when in conjunction with Silas and Timothy he laid the foundations of the Thessalonian Church (Acts xvii. 1 sq.). See notes on ch. i. 1.

The exact time of writing the Epistle appears to have been the early months of the Apostle’s year and a half stay at Corinth (Acts xviii. 11), soon after Timothy had joined him (1 Thess. iii. 6) and reported the spiritual state of their converts, into which he had been sent to enquire (eh. iii. 2), probably from Athens; see notes on eh. iii. 1. We may thus consider the close of A.D. 52, or the beginning of A.D. 53, as the probable date, and, if this be correct, must place the Epistle first on the chronological list of the Apostle’s writings….