Introduction
Occasion for writing the second epistle to the Thessalonians
The content of the epistle
The time and place of writing the epistle
The authenticity of the epistle
Occasion for writing the second epistle to the Thessalonians
By whom and how the first epistle of Apostle Paul was delivered to Thessalonica, this can only be conjecture. The state postal service, established by Emperor Augustus, served only the needs of officials and authorities; hence private correspondence could reach its recipients only through the hands of special messengers or through friends and chance travelers. One must suppose that the epistle of Apostle Paul was delivered to Thessalonica through some Christian, since entrusting it to strangers would have been quite dangerous. Now, as for the effect of this epistle on the Thessalonians, we can judge by the content of the second epistle. The first epistle undoubtedly removed the chief difficulty among the Thessalonians—namely, the Apostle answered the question about the fate of those who died before the parousia. Nor does the second epistle contain indications of lack of discipline toward those in authority and so forth. But, on the other hand, the person who delivered 1 Thessalonians to Thessalonica was able in turn to bring information about the condition of the church in Thessalonica after receiving the epistle. The Apostle could have obtained information on this matter through outsiders (2 Thess 3:11) who were in Thessalonica, or through people who came from there with the express purpose of informing the Apostle about the state of affairs in the young church. The information obtained in this way was far from favorable. The second epistle to Thessalonica appears as an attempt by Apostle Paul to introduce the necessary correction into the troubling and dangerous situation of affairs in Thessalonica. The Apostle praises the faith and love of the Thessalonians (2 Thess 1:3), and speaks of their patience in persecutions (2 Thess 1:4-12). These latter, apparently, not only did not cease, but on the contrary intensified. The malice of Thessaloniki’s Jewish population infected the entire population and Christians found themselves in the most terrible situation. The Apostle comforts them, praises their firmness, and speaks about the saving significance of sufferings for them, pointing out that “in the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven,” they will receive consolation for this. But here apparently the pleasant side of the picture ends. The question about the fate of those who died before the parousia receded into the background, but instead the very “parousia” turned into an extraordinarily burning question of life. The belief that this parousia had already come, that its hour had already struck, and that even if it remains invisible for now, it could still appear before their eyes at any moment, had seized the community of believers, and produced a complete disruption of the normal course of life. There developed in the widest degree “disorderliness,” expressed in the fact that many, while awaiting the sudden arrival of the Lord’s coming, abandoned the normal way of life, gave themselves over to “ideological” idleness in view of the near passing of the form of this world, and became, even if not always consciously, a burden on those laboring in the Christian community. But they not only gave themselves over to ideological inaction, but even went further: they began to “be busybodies”; “abandoning their own work, these ‘disorderly’ ones began going from house to house, spreading and discussing the very latest and sensational rumors about the parousia, and thus disturbed the peace of the church, and interrupted work among laboring brothers.” The first stirrings of this internal disturbance the Apostle had already touched on in his first epistle (1 Thess 4:11-12). The evil, however, not only did not disappear, but even grew to an unprecedented degree. There resulted a dangerous “mental reeling and confusion.” It was necessary to take measures against this “eschatological upheaval,” which, by disrupting the inner peace of the church, also disrupted external relations, putting Christians in a very unfavorable light before the pagan population of Thessalonica. This disorder could have been advantageous only to the Jews, who undoubtedly looked upon this upheaval not without pleasure. Thus, the occasions for writing the second epistle to Thessalonica were the disorders in the church of Thessalonica, arising in connection with the question of the parousia, and the signs of its approach. In this epistle Apostle Paul makes an attempt to direct the attention of the Thessalonians to that aspect of his eschatology about which he spoke to them when he was still with them (2 Thess 2:5), but which apparently was completely overlooked in Thessalonica.
The content of the epistle
Having given a greeting, the Apostle moves to the expression of thanksgiving to God for the continuous growth of the Thessalonians in faith and love, which he notices among them, and which serves the Apostle as a subject of praise in the churches of God (2 Thess 1:1-3). But the Apostle especially praises their patience in sorrows and persecutions. The latter not only should not serve as a means of turning them away from God, but on the contrary should encourage them to stand firm in view of the coming “consolation” for them in the coming of the Lord. Then the Apostle describes the latter, as well as the fate of believers and unbelievers after the “parousia” (2 Thess 1:4-10). He ends his thoughts with a prayer that God may establish the fate of Thessalonica “in the day” of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thess 1:11-12). After this begins the most important and essential part of the epistle (2 Thess 2:1-12). The Apostle asks the Thessalonians not to be shaken in mind and not to be troubled regarding the coming of the day of the Lord’s coming. That day will not come, he says, until certain definite events take place—signs before its arrival. Such will be—a departure and the revelation of the man of sin with his godless acts. The mystery of lawlessness is already working, but for now the full manifestation of evil is held back by the presence of an opposing force—to katerchon. Once this force is removed, the kingdom of the lawless one will begin, whose coming will be accompanied by the manifestation of all kinds of false miracles and signs. Deception will be sent upon those who did not receive the truth. But finally—the revelation of the Lord Jesus will put an end to this orgy of evil. At the end of the chapter (2 Thess 2:13-17) the Apostle again exhorts Thessalonica to stand firm, and to keep the traditions which they were taught, and to trust in God, from whom alone they can receive both consolation and strengthening for the accomplishment of every good. The third chapter of the epistle begins with a request that the Thessalonians in turn pray for the favorable progress of the work of preaching among the evangelists (2 Thess 3:1-5). Then the Apostle turns to the “disorderly ones” with words of exhortation, asking them to labor, not to be busybodies (2 Thess 3:6-10). Those among them who prove obstinate, he commands to subject to exclusion from communion, but not for the purpose of punishment, but of correction (2 Thess 3:11-15). The epistle ends with wishes for peace. At the end of the epistle there was appended a greeting and blessing, written by Apostle Paul with his own hand.
The time and place of writing the epistle.
To determine the time and place of writing the second epistle, it is necessary to clarify the following points: a) the epistle is again addressed from three evangelists, Paul, Silas and Timothy; the latter two were with Apostle Paul during his second apostolic journey. b) The general state of affairs; the situation of both the church and the Apostle, although they differ somewhat from those described in 1 Thessalonians, remain in many respects identical. c) The Temple of Jerusalem, judging by 2 Thess 2:4, still stood unbroken. d) In 2 Thess 2:15 and 2 Thess 3:14, the Apostle apparently hints that he had already written once to the church of Thessalonica. All these considerations together speak to the fact that the second epistle to Thessalonica could only have been written during the second apostolic journey, and of course in Corinth, from where the first epistle was also written. How soon after the first epistle the second epistle appeared—it is very difficult to say with sufficient precision. Usually people find something like a date of writing in 2 Thess 3:1-2, where the Apostle asks the Thessalonians to pray for him, that God would deliver him from disorderly and wicked people. In this some see an allusion to an outburst of Jewish hatred and fanaticism that took place just toward the end of Apostle Paul’s stay in Corinth (Acts 18:12-13). But one must confess that the allusion is too indefinite to be used as a basis for any conclusions about the time of writing of our epistle. As we saw above, 1 Thessalonians was written either at the end of 50 or at the beginning of 51; if we now suppose that some time was necessary both for the mutual exchange of information and for the development of internal developments in the church of Thessalonica, then we can date the writing of the second epistle either to the end of 51 or to the beginning of 52 (in April 52 Apostle Paul left Corinth; see N. N. Glubokovskii, chronology, pp. 131–132). Not to date the writing of our epistle to a time after 70 allows the consideration in point c) as well as 2 Thess 2:7, where the “restrainer” is undoubtedly the Roman power, a view of which, after Nero’s persecution, changed radically among Christians. There are absolutely no grounds for the opinion (of Grotius, Baur, Ewald) that the second epistle is essentially the first in origin (according to Ewald—it was sent by Apostle Paul from Beroea; and our first—second in order of appearance—was written in Corinth). To convince oneself of this, it is sufficient only to compare the entire second epistle with 1 Thess 2:17. The most superficial comparison will show that 1 Thess 2:17 in no way could have been written by Apostle Paul once he had written the second epistle to Thessalonica. On the contrary—if we accept the traditional order of the epistles, both of them will become clear to us and will serve to beautifully complement one another. “The first epistle describes how Thessalonica received the Gospel, while the second points to their progress in faith and love; the first alludes to the beginning, the second to the growth of Christian life. The first indicates the beginning of eschatological disturbances, the second describes them in full development. Finally, 2 Thess 2:15 and 2 Thess 3:15 would be difficult to explain on the assumption that the second epistle is first, not second in order of appearance. Thus—the second epistle was written in Corinth, at the end of 51 or at the beginning of 52, and was written after the first epistle.
The authenticity of the epistle
Testimonies about the second epistle to the Thessalonians exist from the first centuries. With this epistle was acquainted St. Polycarp of Smyrna, who in his epistle to the Philippians writes the following: “so then be prudent and you yourselves in this; and do not regard such as enemies, but as suffering and erring members recall them, that you may save all your body.” Here the words “do not regard such as enemies”... resemble the words of the second epistle to the Thessalonians in 2 Thess 3:15. In the same chapter St. Polycarp writes a little higher: “indeed, Paul glories about you (Paul) in all the churches”... which strongly recalls 2 Thess 1:4 of our epistle.
One should suppose that here St. Polycarp borrows words from Apostle Paul, spoken by the latter about the church of Thessalonica, and applies them to the church of Philippi, with which the Apostle was in especially good relations. Echoes of our epistle can be found in St. Justin Martyr (140 A.D.) in his Dialogue with Trypho, chapters XXXII, XC, XCII. The 2nd epistle is directly cited in St. Irenaeus of Lyons (for example in Against Heresies, V:25, I: “in the epistle, which is to the Thessalonians second”...), in Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian. It is found in the canon of the heretic Marcion and in the Muratorian canon. If we were to suppose that our epistle is inauthentic, then the fact that it is already in the canon of Marcion speaks against any hypothesis whatsoever dating the writing of our epistle to 100–120 A.D. As for internal evidence in favor of the authenticity of the second epistle, it is sufficient to attribute the epistle to Apostle Paul himself. It bears the stamp of the character of Apostle Paul; here we encounter both his lively sympathy toward his disciples (2 Thess 1:4), and his tender reproaches to them (2 Thess 3:14-15) and his praise of them (2 Thess 1:5), as well as the manner characteristic of the Apostle of speaking of himself (2 Thess 3:7-9) and his desire that the Thessalonians pray for him and his preaching work (2 Thess 3:1).