Thessalonians
EPISTLES TO THE, the Pauline epistles. The first epistle to the Thessalonians, the earliest extant epistle of the Apostle Paul, was written at Corinth probably about the beginning of the year A. D. 53, or, at latest, in A. D. 54, within a year and a half of the founding of the Church at Thessalonica under the circumstances related in Acts, xvii: 1-10. Some time after leaving Thessalonica, the apostle had heard of "sufferings" to which his converts there had been subjected by Thess. ii: 14; iii: iii: 2-4), and there was some cause for fear lest "the tempter" had "tempted" them from their faith from Athens to learn further about their state, and to "establish" and "comfort" them (iii: 2, 5). Timothy brought back to the apostle, then in Corinth, a fairly satisfactory account of their faith and Christian doctrine and life in which they were deficient; hence the epistle.
Of the two parts of which it is composed the first is mainly personal and particular against sins of impurity, perhaps also of commercial greed (iv: 6), and still more specially against a tendency of the Thessalonians toward pious haps also of commercial greed (iv: 6), and still more specially against a tensecond coming and toward a hopeless dency of the Thessalonians toward pious ber who had already died. With regard to the second coming, the apostle's own doctrine is that it may be expected at any time.
The second epistle consists of three doctrine is that it may be expected at and mainly an expression of the writer's any time. The second epistle consists of three Thessalonians have displayed under conand mainly an expression of the writer's part (ii. 1-12) is eschatological and warns the readers against supposing "that the THESSALY "at hand"). On the contrary, it will not be except the falling away ("the apos- "at hand"). On the contrary, it will not revised version; authorized version has be except the falling away ("the apostasy") come first, and the man of sin that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God. The third that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple setting himself forth as God. The third and concluding part of the epistle (ii.
I Thessalonians. The genuineness of this epistle was substantially repeats the exhortations of I Thessalonians. ple of God, The genuineness of this epistle was the volume of opinion in this sense has steadily increased since then, and is now The difficulty about the on ii. 1-12. very great. The argument turns chiefly a word, that no traces of such a view occur in any other writing of the Apostle Paul, whether prior or subsequent to the supposed date of II Thessalonians.
It is impossible to fix with any ac curacy the date of the verses in ques current in Jewish (and in a less degree tion. They are conceived in the spirit of current in Jewish (and in a less degree in Christian) circles during the last two sis of its genuineness, in whole or in part, II Thessalonians must have been written shortly after I Thessalonians and before the apostle's sojourn of 18 months in Corinth had come to an end. Apart indeed from ii. 1-12, II Thessalonians may conceivably have been written before I Thessalonians, a view which has been argued for by Grotius among others.