And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.
And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia - that is, from Thessalonica, where Silas had probably accompanied Timothy when sent back from Athens (see the note at Acts 17:15),
Paul was pressed in the spirit - but the true reading is, 'pressed by the word.' х too (G3588) logoo (G3056) is supported by most manuscripts, and these the oldest; 'Aleph (') A B D E, etc., with the Vulgate, and all the best versions: too (G3588) pneumati (G4151), only by H. and some others, and by indifferent version authority.] This, as the more difficult reading and so powerfully supported, is undoubtedly to be preferred; expressing not so much the apostle's zeal and assiduity in preaching it, as some inward pressure which at this time he experienced in the work (to convey which more clearly was probably the origin of the common reading). What that pressure was we happen to know, with singular minuteness and vividness of description, from the apostle himself, in his First Epistles to the Corinthians and Thessalonians (1 Corinthians 2:1-5; 1 Thessalonians 3:1-10). He had come away from Athens, as he remained there, in a depressed and anxious state of mind, having there met, for the first time, with unwilling Gentile ears.
He continued, apparently for some time, labouring alone in the synagogue of Corinth, full of deep and anxious solicitude for his Thessalonian converts. His early ministry at Corinth was coloured by these feelings. Self deeply abased, his power as a preacher was more than ever felt to lie in demonstration of the Spirit. At length Silas and Timotheus arrived with exhilarating tidings of the faith and love of his Thessalonian children, and of their earnest longings again to see their father in Christ; bringing with them also, in token of their love and duty, a pecuniary contribution for the supply of his wants. This seems to have so lifted him as to put new life and vigour into his ministry. He now wrote his FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS, in which the "pressure" which resulted from all this strikingly appears. (See Introduction to 1 Thess.) Such emotions are known only to the ministers of Christ, and, even of them, only to such as "travail in birth until Christ be formed in" their hearers. (It is the same word as is used in the well-known passage, "The love of Christ constraineth us," 2 Corinthians 5:14.)
And testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ - or, 'that the Christ was Jesus' (as the grammatical form of the clause more strictly is).