1 Thessalonians 3:6
Timothy's good news
- The gospel’s word εὐαγγελίζομαι euangelizomai · to speak good news
Original
Translations
But just now, Timothy has returned from his visit with the good news about your faith, your love, and the fond memories you have preserved, longing to see us just as we long to see you.
But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you:
And Timotheus now having come to us from you, and having declared good news to us of your faith and love, and that you always have a good remembrance of us, desiring much to see us, as we also [to see] you,
지금은 디모데가 너희에게로부터 와서 너희 믿음과 사랑의 기쁜 소식을 우리에게 전하고 또 너희가 항상 우리를 잘 생각하여 우리가 너희를 간절히 보고자 함과 같이 너희도 우리를 간절히 보고자 한다 하니
그러나 지금은 디모데가 너희를 떠나 우리에게로 와서 너희의 믿음과 사랑의 좋은 소식과 또 너희가 항상 우리를 잘 기억하여 우리가 너희를 보고자 하는 것 같이 너희도 우리를 간절히 보고자 한다는 소식을 우리에게 가져왔으니
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on 1Thess 3:6-10 as a whole
Thankfulness to God is very imperfect in the present state; but one great end of the ministry of the word is to help faith forward. That which was the instrument to obtain faith, is also the means of increasing and confirming it, namely, the ordinances of God; and as faith…
Read the whole commentary →Wesley
Nothing on this verse itself.
Read the whole commentary →
Note
In all of Paul's letters, this is the one place where the verb for preaching the gospel is used of other news. Timothy has come back from Thessalonica, and Paul uses the gospel's own verb for his report of the believers' faith and love.
But just now, Timothy has returned from his visit with the good news about your faith, your love, and the fond memories you have preserved, longing to see us just as we long to see you.
1 Thessalonians 3:6Paul had sent Timothy "for fear that the tempter had somehow tempted you and that our labor might have been in vain" (1 Thessalonians 3:5). Acts tells that Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia to Corinth (Acts 18:5), and this letter is usually taken to have been written soon after they arrived. "Just now" (ἄρτι) keeps the freshness of news that has only just come.
The verb is εὐαγγελισαμένου, an aorist middle participle of . Timothy brought good news to Paul and his companions, and the news was the Thessalonians' faith and love. Everywhere else in Paul's letters this verb means preaching the gospel of Christ. Only here does he use it in its older and wider sense, to bring welcome news of any kind. Yet this news is not unrelated to the gospel. It is the report that what the gospel planted in Thessalonica has grown into faith and love: news of the gospel's fruit.
The KJV says Timothy "brought us good tidings of your faith and charity", charity being its word for love; the LSV, "having declared good news to us of your faith and love". None of the versions writes "gospel" here, rightly, since this is not the message about Christ, but each keeps the root idea of glad news.
Matthew Henry finds in this paragraph that "one great end of the ministry of the word is to help faith forward" Matthew Henry, and that "as faith cometh by hearing, so it is confirmed by hearing also" Matthew Henry.
In the Greek of the time this group of words was used for any welcome report, and Josephus uses it for the news of a new emperor Josephus, Jewish War 4.618, 4.656. Paul's good news was not a new emperor but a small church standing firm, and his answer to Timothy's report is a single line: "For now we can go on living, as long as you are standing firm in the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 3:8).
The faith and love of someone who has received the gospel become, in turn, good news to someone else: where the gospel reaches a person, that person's life becomes news worth carrying.
Source
- Josephus, The Jewish War 4.618, 4.656 — c. AD 75. When word spread that Vespasian had been made emperor, every city kept festivals and sacrifices for the "good news" (euangelia). English: Whiston (1737).