Beza: "When I more closely consider the whole genius and character of Paul’s style, I must
confess that I have found no such sublimity of speaking in Plato himself ... no exquisiteness of
vehemence in Demosthenes equal to his."
Ewald begins his Commentary on the Pauline Epistles (Göttingen, 1857) with these striking
and truthful remarks: "Considering these Epistles for themselves only, and apart from the general
significance of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, we must still admit that, in the whole history of
all centuries and of all nations, there is no other set of writings of similar extent, which, as creations
of the fugitive moment, have proceeded from such severe troubles of the age, and such profound
pains and sufferings of the author himself, and yet contain such an amount of healthfulness, serenity,
and vigor of immortal genius, and touch with such clearness and certainty on the very highest truths
of human aspiration and action .... The smallest as well as the greatest of these Epistles seem to
have proceeded from the fleeting moments of this earthly life only to enchain all eternity they were
born of anxiety and bitterness of human strife, to set forth in brighter lustre and with higher certainty
their superhuman grace and beauty. The divine assurance and firmness of the old prophets of Israel,
the all-transcending glory and immediate spiritual presence of the Eternal King and Lord, who had
just ascended to heaven, and all the art and culture of a ripe and wonderfully excited age, seem to
have joined, as it were, in bringing forth the new creation of these Epistles of the times which were
destined to last for all times."
On the style of Paul, see my Companion, etc., pp. 62 sqq. To the testimonies there given I
add the judgment of Reuss (Geschichte der h. Schr. N. T., I. 67): "Still more [than the method] is
the style of these Epistles the true expression of the personality of the author. The defect of classical
correctness and rhetorical finish is more than compensated by the riches of language and the fulness
of expression. The condensation of construction demands not reading simply, but studying. Broken
sentences, ellipses, parentheses, leaps in the argumentation, allegories, rhetorical figures express
inimitably all the moods of a wide-awake and cultured mind, all the affections of a rich and deep
heart, and betray everywhere a pen at once bold, and yet too slow for the thought. Antitheses,
climaxes, exclamations, questions keep up the attention, and touching effusions win the heart of
the reader."§ 89. The Epistles to the Thessalonians.
Thessalonica,^1134 a large and wealthy commercial city of Macedonia, the capital of "Macedonia
secunda," the seat of a Roman proconsul and quaestor, and inhabited by many Jews, was visited
by Paul on his second missionary tour, a.d. 52 or 53, and in a few weeks he succeeded, amid much
persecution, in founding a flourishing church composed chiefly of Gentiles. From this centre
Christianity spread throughout the neighborhood, and during the middle ages Thessalonica was,
till its capture by the Turks (a.d. 1430), a bulwark of the Byzantine empire and Oriental Christendom,
and largely instrumental in the conversion of the Slavonians and Bulgarians; hence it received the
designation of "the Orthodox City." It numbered many learned archbishops, and still has more
remains of ecclesiastical antiquity than any other city in Greece, although its cathedral is turned
into a mosque.(^1134) Strabo calls it Θεσσαλονίκαια. Its present name is Salonichi.
A.D. 1-100.