34 lines
8.0 KiB
HTML
34 lines
8.0 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
|
|
<head>
|
|
<title>Blue Letter Bible: Text Commentaries</title>
|
|
<script src="../../../js/basepath.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
|
|
<script src="./js/nav.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
|
|
<script src="./js/MainHeader.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
|
|
<script type="text/javascript">
|
|
PriorBook = '1 Thessalonians';
|
|
PriorBookURL = './Comm/jfb/1Th/1Th000.html';
|
|
PriorChapter = '1 Thessalonians 5';
|
|
PriorChapterURL = './Comm/jfb/1Th/1Th005.html';
|
|
NextBook = '1 Timothy';
|
|
NextBookURL = './Comm/jfb/1Ti/1Ti000.html';
|
|
NextChapter = '2 Thessalonians 1';
|
|
NextChapterURL = './Comm/jfb/2Th/2Th001.html';
|
|
Title = 'The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians';
|
|
SubTitle1 = 'Commentary by A. R. FAUSSET';
|
|
SubTitle2 = '';
|
|
SubTitle3 = 'INTRODUCTION';
|
|
SubTitle3Cased = 'Introduction';
|
|
Author = ' Jamieson, Fausset & Brown';
|
|
imageMasthead = 'jfb.gif';
|
|
authorCite = 'Robert Jamieson; A.R. Fausset; and David Brown';
|
|
</script>
|
|
<script src="./js/Comms/JFB.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
|
|
</head><body>
|
|
<p id="Introduction" align="center">Commentary by A. R. FAUSSET<br>INTRODUCTION
|
|
<p>Its GENUINENESS is attested by POLYCARP [<i>Epistle to the Philippians,</i> 11], who alludes to <a onclick="return mV('2Th',3,15);">2Th 3:15</a>. JUSTIN MARTYR [<i>Dialogue with Trypho,</i> p. 193.32], alludes to <a onclick="return mV('2Th',2,3);">2Th 2:3</a>. IRENAEUS [<i>Against Heresies,</i> 7.2] quotes <a onclick="return mV('2Th',2,8);">2Th 2:8</a>. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA [<i>Miscellanies,</i> 1.5, p. 554; <i>The Instructor,</i> 1.17], quotes <a onclick="return mV('2Th',3,2);">2Th 3:2</a>, as Paul's words. TERTULLIAN [<i>On the Resurrection of the Flesh,</i> 24] quotes <a onclick="return mV('2Th',2,1);">2Th 2:1</a>, <a onclick="return mV('2Th',2,2);">2</a>, as part of Paul's Epistle.
|
|
<p>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 (<a onclick="return mV('1Th',4,13);">1Th 4:13</a>, etc., and <a onclick="return mV('1Th',5,2);">1Th 5:2</a>), and the <i>possibility</i> of its being at any time, led them to believe it was <i>actually</i> at hand. Some professed to know by "the Spirit" (<a onclick="return mV('2Th',2,2);">2Th 2:2</a>) 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 <a onclick="return mV('2Th',2,2);">2Th 2:2</a> refers to such a spurious letter, rather than to Paul's first Epistle, appears likely from the statement, <a onclick="return mV('2Th',3,17);">2Th 3:17</a>, 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 (<a onclick="return mV('2Th',2,'1-17');">2Th 2:1-17</a>), that before the Lord shall come, there must first be a great <i>apostasy,</i> and <i>the Man of Sin</i> 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 (<a onclick="return mV('2Th',3,'7-9');">2Th 3:7-9</a>), and that the faithful must withdraw themselves from such disorderly professors (<a onclick="return mV('2Th',3,6, '10-15');">2Th 3:6, 10-15</a>). Thus, there are <i>three</i> divisions of the Epistle: (1) <a onclick="return mV('2Th',1,'1-12');">2Th 1:1-12</a>. Commendations of the Thessalonians' faith, love, and patience, amidst persecutions. (2) <a onclick="return mV('2Th',2,'1-17');">2Th 2:1-17</a>. The error as to the immediate coming of Christ corrected, and the previous rise and downfall of the Man of Sin foretold. (3) <a onclick="return mV('2Th',3,'1-16');">2Th 3:1-16</a>. Exhortations to orderly conduct in their whole walk, with prayers for them to the God of peace, followed by his autograph salutation and benediction.
|
|
<p>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 <a onclick="return mV('Act',18,18);">Act 18:18</a>, with <a onclick="return mV('Act',19,22);">Act 19:22</a>; indeed, as to Silas, it is doubtful whether he was ever subsequently with Paul), it follows, the <i>place</i> of writing must have been Corinth, and the <i>date,</i> during the one "year and six months" of his stay there, <a onclick="return mV('Act',18,11);">Act 18:11</a> (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.
|
|
<p>STYLE.—The style is not different from that of most of Paul's other writings, except in the prophetic portion of it (<a onclick="return mV('2Th',2,'1-12');">2Th 2:1-12</a>), 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 <a onclick="return mV('Col',2,8,16);">Col 2:8, 16</a> with <a onclick="return mV('2Th',2,3);">2Th 2:3</a>; <a onclick="return mV('1Cr',15,'24-28');">1Cr 15:24-28</a>, with <a href= "#" onclick="return mV('2Th',2,8,9);">2Th 2:8-9</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Rom',1,18);">Rom 1:18</a>, with <a onclick="return mV('2Th',2,8,10);">2Th 2:8, 10</a>), 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 (<a onclick="return mV('1Th',4,'1-');">1Th 4:1 - 5:28</a>), 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 (<a onclick="return mV('2Th',2,5);">2Th 2:5</a>). Several points of coincidence occur between the two Epistles, confirming the genuineness of the latter. Thus, compare <a onclick="return mV('2Th',3,2);">2Th 3:2</a>, with <a onclick="return mV('1Th',2,15,16);">1Th 2:15-16</a>; again, <a onclick="return mV('2Th',2,9);">2Th 2:9</a>, the Man of Sin "coming after the working of Satan," with <a onclick="return mV('1Th',2,18);">1Th 2:18</a>; <a onclick="return mV('1Th',3,5);">3:5</a>, where Satan's incipient work as the <i>hinderer</i> of the Gospel, and the <i>tempter,</i> appears; again, mild <i>warning</i> is enjoined, <a onclick="return mV('1Th',5,14);">1Th 5:14</a>; but, in this second Epistle, when the evil had grown worse, stricter discipline (<a onclick="return mV('2Th',3,6,14);">2Th 3:6, 14</a>): "withdraw from" the "company" of such.
|
|
<p>Paul probably visited Thessalonica on his way to Asia subsequently (<a onclick="return mV('Act',20,4);">Act 20:4</a>), 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 (<a onclick="return mV('Act',27,2);">Act 27:2</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Col',4,10);">Col 4:10</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Phm',1,24);">Phm 1:24</a>). According to tradition he became bishop of Apamea.
|
|
</div></div><div class="return"><a href="#top">Return to Top</a></div>
|
|
<script src="./js/MainFooter.js" type="text/javascript"></script> |