1 Thessalonians 5:27 I charge you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the holy brothers. This is by implication a remarkable ecclesiastical sanction claimed for this Epistle. In the Jewish Church Moses and the Prophets were constantly read (Luke 4:16; Acts 12:27; 15:21). The injunction here reminds us of the blessing in Revelation 1:3, and the impressive solemnity with which it is given is worthy of note. Surely it suggests the duty of reading passages of the New Testament in church, and even the guilt of neglecting it, or of keeping it from the people. This is one of the passages which give us an idea of the great authority attributed to the Epistles from the earliest times. They were carried by the apostle's delegates (like the iggereth of the synagogues); they were held to have equal dogmatic authority with the apostle himself; they were read out and finally deposited among the archives of the church; they were taken out on solemn days and read as sacred documents, with a perpetual teaching. Thus the epistolary form of literature was peculiarly the shape into which apostolic thought was thrown — a form well adapted to the wants of the time, and to the character and temperament of St. Paul. (Bp. Alexander.) Parallel Verses KJV: I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.WEB: I solemnly command you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the holy brothers. |
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