2 Thessalonians

THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE

THESSALONIANS

[1] [2]

[3]

INTRODUCTION

Its GENUINENESS is attested by

POLYCARP

[Epistle to the Philippians, 11], who alludes to

2Th 3:15.

JUSTIN

MARTYR

[Dialogue with Trypho, p. 193.32], alludes to

2Th 2:3.

IRENÆUS

[Against Heresies, 7.2] quotes

2Th 2:8.

CLEMENT OF

ALEXANDRIA

[Miscellanies, 1.5, p. 554;

The Instructor, 1.17], quotes

2Th 3:2,

as Paul's words.

TERTULLIAN

[On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 24] quotes

2Th 2:1, 2,

as part of Paul's Epistle.

DESIGN.--The accounts from Thessalonica, after the sending of the

first Epistle, represented the faith and love of the Christians there

as on the increase; and their constancy amidst persecutions unshaken.

One error of doctrine, however, resulting in practical evil, had sprung

up among them. The apostle's description of Christ's sudden second

coming

(1Th 4:13,

&c., and 1Th 5:2),

and the possibility of its being at any time, led them to

believe it was actually at hand. Some professed to know by "the

Spirit"

(2Th 2:2)

that it was so; and others alleged that Paul had said so when with

them. A letter, too, purporting to be from the apostle to that effect,

seems to have been circulated among them. (That

2Th 2:2

refers to such a spurious letter, rather than to Paul's first Epistle,

appears likely from the statement,

2Th 3:17,

as to his autograph salutation being the mark whereby his genuine

letters might be known). Hence some neglected their daily business and

threw themselves on the charity of others, as if their sole duty was to

wait for the coming of the Lord. This error, therefore, needed

rectifying, and forms a leading topic of the second Epistle. He in it

tells them

(2Th 2:1-17),

that before the Lord shall come, there must first be a great

apostasy, and the Man of Sin must be revealed; and that

the Lord's sudden coming is no ground for neglecting daily business;

that to do so would only bring scandal on the Church, and was contrary

to his own practice among them

(2Th 3:7-9),

and that the faithful must withdraw themselves from such disorderly

professors

(2Th 3:6, 10-15).

Thus, there are three divisions of the Epistle: (1)

2Th 1:1-12.

Commendations of the Thessalonians' faith, love, and patience, amidst

persecutions. (2)

2Th 2:1-17.

The error as to the immediate coming of Christ corrected, and the

previous rise and downfall of the Man of Sin foretold. (3)

2Th 3:1-16.

Exhortations to orderly conduct in their whole walk, with prayers for

them to the God of peace, followed by his autograph salutation and

benediction.

DATE OF WRITING.--AS the Epistle is written in the joint names of

Timothy and Silas, as well as his own, and as these were with him while

at Corinth, and not with him for a long time subsequently to his having

left that city (compare

Ac 18:18,

with Ac 19:22;

indeed, as to Silas, it is doubtful whether he was ever subsequently

with Paul), it follows, the place of writing must have been

Corinth, and the date, during the one "year and six months" of

his stay there,

Ac 18:11

(namely, beginning with the autumn of A.D. 52, and

ending with the spring of A.D. 54), say about six

months after his first Epistle, early in A.D.

53.

STYLE.--The style is not different from that of

most of Paul's other writings, except in the prophetic portion of it

(2Th 2:1-12),

which is distinguished from them in subject matter. As is usual in his

more solemn passages (for instance, in the denunciatory and prophetic

portions of his Epistles, for example, compare

Col 2:8, 16,

with 2Th 2:3;

1Co 15:24-28,

with 2Th 2:8, 9;

Ro 1:18,

with 2Th 2:8, 10),

his diction here is more lofty, abrupt, and elliptical. As the former

Epistle dwells mostly on the second Advent in its aspect of glory to

the sleeping and the living saints

(1Th 4:1-5:28),

so this Epistle dwells mostly on it in its aspect of everlasting

destruction to the wicked and him who shall be the final consummation

of wickedness, the Man of Sin. So far was Paul from laboring under an

erroneous impression as to Christ's speedy coming, when he wrote his

first Epistle (which rationalists impute to him), that he had

distinctly told them, when he was with them, the same truths as to the

apostasy being about first to arise, which he now insists upon in this

second Epistle

(2Th 2:5).

Several points of coincidence occur between the two Epistles,

confirming the genuineness of the latter. Thus, compare

2Th 3:2,

with 1Th 2:15, 16;

again,

2Th 2:9,

the Man of Sin "coming after the working of Satan," with

1Th 2:18; 3:5,

where Satan's incipient work as the hinderer of the Gospel, and

the tempter, appears; again, mild warning is enjoined,

1Th 5:14;

but, in this second Epistle, when the evil had grown worse, stricter

discipline

(2Th 3:6, 14):

"withdraw from" the "company" of such.

Paul probably visited Thessalonica on his way to Asia subsequently

(Ac 20:4),

and took with him thence Aristarchus and Secundus: the former became

his "companion in travel" and shared with him his perils at Ephesus,

also those of his shipwreck, and was his "fellow prisoner" at Rome

(Ac 27:2;

Col 4:10;

Phm 24).

According to tradition he became bishop of Apamea.