THE NEW TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST, IN THE ORIGINAL GREEK: WITH NOTES, BY CHR. WORDSWORTH, D.D. CANON OF WESTMINSTER. PART III.-ST. PAUL'S EPISTLES. LONDON: RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE. 1859. CONTENTS. ORDER of the EPISTLES of ST. PAUL, as arranged in this Edition COMPARATIVE TABLE of Order of the Epistles in this Edition and in other Editions CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE of the Life and Epistles of St. Paul ANCIENT UNCIAL GREEK MANUSCRIPTS of St. Paul's Epistles Introduction to St. Paul's First Epistle to the Thessalonians FIRST EPISTLE to the THESSALONIANS Introduction to the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians SECOND EPISTLE to the THESSALONIANS Introduction to the Epistle to the Galatians PAGE ORDER OF THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL IN THIS EDITION AND IN OTHER 1 The Text of these Epistles, arranged in chronological order, and printed in the same type as the present Volume, may be had separately; as specified in the Advertisement at the end. PREFACE. SOME explanation may be required of the reasons which have led to the adoption of the order in which the Epistles of St. Paul are arranged in the present Edition. That order is designed to be chronological; in other words, the Epistles are placed according to the time in which they appear to have been written. Let it be premised, however, that this arrangement does not imply any disparagement of the order in which they are usually disposed in other editions of the Original, and in the English Authorized Version of the Holy Bible. That order has its appropriate uses. It has been received for many centuries in our own and other countries. The Calendar of our Liturgy is conformed to it. It could not therefore be disturbed without much consequent embarrassment. But the question may properly be entertained,-whether, in addition to that common order, another arrangement may not also be provided for private use? The order commonly received, it is well known, is not chronological. The Epistle to the Romans, which there stands first, was written after the Epistles to the Galatians and to the Corinthians; and it is generally acknowledged, that the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, which are placed in the common order among the last, were the first Epistles written by St. Paul. Various and conflicting opinions have been given concerning the reasons which produced the common arrangement. Some ancient writers supposed, that it was caused by considerations of the comparative proficiency of those persons to whom the Epistles were addressed'. Others conjectured that it arose from regard to the importance of the Cities to which the Epistles were respectively sent, or to the length and copiousness of the Epistles themselves 2. The last opinion seems to be most probable 3. The order commonly received is not, however, precisely that in which the Epistles are found in the most ancient Manuscripts. In very early copies of collections of St. Paul's Epistles, the Epistle to the Hebrews was placed between the Epistles to the 1 So Primasius, Præfat. in Epistolas Pauli (p. 416 of Vol. 68 of Migne's Patrologia), "Movet quosdam, quare Romanorum Epistola in primo sit posita, cùm eam posteà scriptam ratio manifestet. Unde intelligendum est, ita omnes Epistolas ordinatas, ut prima poneretur, quæ ad inferiores (qu. infirmiores ?) fuerat destinata, et per singulas Epistolas gradatim ad perfectiores veniretur." 'See Theodoret, Præfat. in Epist. S. Paul. p. 8, Vol. iii. ed. Hal. 1771. And has been adopted by Dr. Mill, Prolog. N. T. num. 237; and by Dr. Lardner, History, Vol. iii. p. 457, ed. Lond. 1815. |