First and Second Thessalonians

by Nathan Eubank

  Why was this solemn adjuration necessary? It shows that Paul considered the letter absolutely vital for them to hear. It was not enough for some of them to read it and share the gist of the message. They all needed to hear these words read aloud. The letter probably would have been delivered in the first place to the leaders, and Paul wants to ensure that it is shared with all, including those who would have been unable to read it for themselves. Also, although there is no indication that Paul knew that he was writing Scripture when he composed this letter, this verse shows that the letter was always intended for an ecclesial setting. Its natural habitat is not the scholar’s study or the individual Christian’s private reading but rather the congregation, before “all the brothers.” Reading and studying in these other settings is essential, but the setting that is most closely analogous to its original one is ecclesial.

  [5:28]

  All of Paul’s Letters end with a benediction. Instead of a simple “farewell,” Paul offers one more prayer, stressing yet again the fundamental importance of God’s generosity: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you (see commentary on 1 Thess 1:1). “Grace” or “gift” (charis) becomes a major topic in Paul’s later letters when he feels that some Christian teachers are attacking God’s generosity (see especially Galatians). But even before those events Paul puts a special emphasis on God’s grace, going so far as to invent an idiosyncratic way of opening and closing letters with invocations of God’s grace.

  1. See the discussion of Titus 1:6–7 in George T. Montague, First and Second Timothy, Titus, CCSS (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 219–20. Montague notes that St. Jerome (Letters 146.1) also acknowledged that the offices of bishop and elder are one and the same in the New Testament.

  2. John Chrysostom, Homiliae in epistulam i ad Thessalonicenses (PG 62:455); Thomas Aquinas, Super ad Thessalonicenses I reportatio 5.1.124.

  3. It also appears in Rom 12:8, where its meaning is not clear.

  4. E.g., Abraham J. Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 32B (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 311–13.

  5. Already in 1928 Adolf von Harnack (“Κόπος [κοπιᾶν, οἱ κοπιῶντες] im frühchristlichen Sprachgebrauch,” ZNW 27 [1928]: 1–10, here 10) noted that the “laborers” here were a group of people with the office of caring for and admonishing the congregation.

  6. For instance, BDAG cites Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 14.196, and Letter of Aristeas 1.182 as evidence of “care for,” but in both cases the caring is done ex officio, by rulers and court officers respectively. Compare to LSJ and The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek. See the discussion in Béda Rigaux, Saint Paul: Les Épitres aux Thessaloniciens, EBib (Paris: Lecoffre, 1956), 577–78.

  7. See Benjamin L. White, “The Traditional and Ecclesiastical Paul of 1 Corinthians,” CBQ 79 (2017): 651–69.

  8. Interpretatio in xiv epistulas sancti Pauli (PG 82:653 [my translation]).

  9. Homiliae (PG 62:455).

  10. Saint Caesarius of Arles: Sermons, vol. 1 (1–80), trans. Mary Magdeleine Mueller, FC 31 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1956), 349.

  11. Homiliae (PG 62:457 [my translation]).

  12. See Matt 5:38–48; Luke 6:27–36; Rom 12:17; 1 Pet 3:9; Polycarp, To the Philippians 2.2.

  13. Fifth Lateran Council 4; Lumen Gentium 12; Catechism 801.

  14. Athanasius, Festal Letters 3.4, citing Wis 1:5; John Chrysostom, Homiliae (PG 62:461).

  15. Orations 29.21.

  16. Super ad Thessalonicenses I reportatio 5.2.133.

  17. The Way of a Pilgrim; and, The Pilgrim Continues His Way, trans. Olga Savin (Boston: Shambhala, 2001), 1.

  18. Exposition on the Book of Psalms 38.13 (NPNF1 8:107).

  19. Epistolae 130.8.17. See Paul J. Griffiths, “Pray without Ceasing,” Christian Reflection: A Series in Faith and Ethics (Waco: The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 2009): 11–17.

  20. Super ad Thessalonicenses I reportatio 5.2.130 (my translation). Thomas attributes these words to the Vitae Patrum.

  21. See Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi 43.

  22. Saint Basil: Ascetical Works, trans. M. Monica Wagner, FC 9 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1962), 68.

  23. E.g., Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.6.1; Origen, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans 1.10.2. In his commentary on 1–2 Thessalonians, Thomas Aquinas labels this view “condemned in church teaching” (Super ad Thessalonicenses I reportatio 5.2.137). See also Catechism 367.

  24. Super ad Thessalonicenses I reportatio 5.2.137 (my translation).

  25. BDAG.

  26. Interpretatio in xiv epistulas sancti Pauli (PG 82:656 [my translation]).

  27. Justin Martyr, First Apology 65–67. The same practice is well attested in other Church Fathers.

  28. Tacitus, Histories 1.36.12; Suetonius, Vitellius 7.3.7; cited by Michael Philip Penn, Kissing Christians: Ritual and Community in the Late Ancient Church (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 2005), 28.

  29. In epistulam i ad Corinthios (PG 61:376 [my translation]).

  Thanksgiving for Endurance in the Midst of Suffering

  2 Thessalonians 1:1–12

  Not long after writing 1 Thessalonians, Paul learned that the church’s struggles were far from over.1 The Thessalonians continued to be confused about the timing of the Lord’s return, some were directly flouting Paul’s instructions about the importance of work, and on top of all this they were experiencing significant opposition from outside the church. This short letter was written to respond to these crises and to encourage the Thessalonians to remain faithful.

  In the letter’s opening, Paul and his associates give thanks for the Thessalonians’ endurance in the midst of difficult times. Paul also comforts them with the reminder that when Jesus returns he will comfort the afflicted and punish their oppressors, and he reminds them of his prayers that God will deem the young congregation worthy of the kingdom of God.

  Letter Opening (1:1–2)

  1Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: 2grace to you and peace from God [our] Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

  NT: 1 Thess 1:1

  [1:1]

  The opening address is almost identical to the opening of 1 Thessalonians.2 Once again the letter is said to be from Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy. Are Silvanus and Timothy real coauthors of this letter, or were they simply present with Paul when he dictated the letter?3 Like 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians occasionally lapses into the first-person singular, indicating that Paul is the main author. In 2:5 the author asks the Thessalonians to remember what “I told you,” and 3:17 concludes the letter by emphasizing that Paul himself has penned the final greeting with his own hand. Nevertheless, the fact that Silvanus and Timothy are listed in the opening suggests that the letter is to be read as if it came from all three men, and it is reasonable to suppose that they participated in the letter’s composition. As noted in the comments on 1 Thess 1:1, Paul’s Letters often mention coworkers who are present with him without mentioning them as coauthors. Silvanus and Timothy were present during the initial mission to Macedonia, and they join Paul in revisiting the Thessalonians through this letter.

  Only in the letters to the Thessalonians does Paul refer to himself simply by his name. In his other surviving letters he gives more elaborate self-descriptions such as “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” (2 Cor 1:1). Paul’s more fulsome descriptions of himself in his letter openings sometimes indicate that his authority or teaching has been called into question, as in the letters to Corinth and Galatia.4 In Galatians, for instance, he identifies himself as “Paul, an apostle not from human beings nor through a human being but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead” (1:1). Paul thereby reasserts the divine origin of his teaching against those who had come to Galatia after him teaching “a different gosp
el” (1:6). The simple self-description in the Thessalonian letters could suggest that Paul did not feel that his authority was under attack. Paul also had a good relationship with the Thessalonians’ Macedonian neighbors, the Philippians, so it is interesting to note that his self-description in that letter too is relatively simple: “Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:1).

  [1:2]

  The only significant difference between the openings of the two Thessalonian letters appears in the greeting; in the second letter Paul specifies that grace and peace come from God as well as the Lord Jesus Christ.5 The phrase “grace to you and peace from God [our] Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” is familiar from Paul’s other letters, but it is important not to rush past it and miss its surprising content. Grace and peace are described as coming from a single source, God and Jesus, who together form the joint object of the preposition from (apo). God and Jesus are distinguishable, and yet Paul assumes that they work in concert in granting grace and peace. As in 1 Thessalonians (see commentary on 1 Thess 3:11), Paul does not reflect on how Jesus and God could jointly bestow gifts on the churches. He simply assumes that it is the case and that his audience will understand him. In later centuries commentators would struggle to spell out the implications of the mutual action of the Father and Son. In the fourth century, St. Ambrose saw the action of all three persons of the Trinity in this Pauline phrase:

  Behold we have it that there is one grace on the part of the Father and the Son, and that there is one peace on the part of the Father and the Son, but this grace and peace are the fruit of the Spirit, as the Apostle himself taught when he said: “But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience” [Gal 5:22].6

  In other words, the Father and Son jointly give peace, but Paul says elsewhere that peace is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22). Thus, for Ambrose, the Father and Son grant peace to the churches through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

  Thanksgiving (1:3–4)

  3We ought to thank God always for you, brothers, as is fitting, because your faith flourishes ever more, and the love of every one of you for one another grows ever greater. 4Accordingly, we ourselves boast of you in the churches of God regarding your endurance and faith in all your persecutions and the afflictions you endure.

  OT: Ps 116

  NT: 1 Thess 1:2–9; Phil 1:3–7

  [1:3]

  It was Paul’s custom to follow his letter opening with a report of how he thanks God for the letter recipients, and often these thanksgivings hint at the main themes that will unfold in the rest of the letter (see commentary on 1 Thess 1:3). The letters to the Thessalonians are unique in having two thanksgiving sections (2 Thess 1:3–12; 2:13–14; 1 Thess 1:2–10; 2:13–16). In this case, the first thanksgiving stretches from verses 3 to 12, and 3–10 is a single sentence, which is broken up in translation for the sake of clarity. The beginning of the thanksgiving section might appear counterintuitive because Paul thanks God for something that the Thessalonians are doing: their faith flourishes ever more and their love . . . for one another grows ever greater despite the hardships they have endured (see also Rom 1:8; Phil 1:5; 4:10–20; Col 1:3–4; Philem 1:4–5). It only makes sense for Paul to pray this way if he thinks that their faith and love are ultimately attributable to God. At the same time, when Paul thanks God for their faith, he is also subtly encouraging them to continue to cultivate this divine gift.

  LIVING TRADITION

  St. Augustine on the Divine Origin of the Thessalonians’ Faith and Love

  Augustine drew on both letters to the Thessalonians to argue that God makes it possible for humans to have faith and love.

  There would be no merit in men’s choosing Him unless the action of God’s grace in choosing them had gone before. This is why in imparting his blessing to the Thessalonians the Apostle Paul declares: “And may the Lord make you to increase and abound in charity towards one another, and towards all men” [1 Thess 3:12]. He who gave this blessing to love one another is the same who gave us the love to love one another. Again, because some of them were sure to possess already the good dispositions he wished to be theirs, he went on to say in another passage, directed to the same Thessalonians: “We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, as is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly and your charity each for the other increases” [2 Thess 1:3]. This he said so that they might not be elated over this great blessing which they enjoyed from God, as if it were something they possessed of themselves. Seeing, therefore, that your faith grows exceedingly and your charity for each other increases, as the Apostle says, we ought to thank God in your regard, and not praise you as if you possessed all this of yourselves.a

  a. Grace and Free Will 18.38. In The Teacher; The Free Choice of the Will; Grace and Free Will, trans. Robert P. Russell, FC 59 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1968), 294.

  Many modern commentators have argued that Paul’s thanksgiving sounds detached and cold. Paul says, We ought (opheilō) to thank God and that this is fitting (axios), suggesting that 1:3–12 is not a spontaneous expression of gratitude for the faith and love of the Thessalonians but rather the mere fulfillment of a requirement (see also 2:13). As noted in the introduction, this has been one of the main arguments against Paul’s authorship of the letter. First Thessalonians has a warm, spontaneous feel, it is argued, whereas 2 Thessalonians describes a relationship of dreary obligation.7 In fact, the ancients did not associate obligation with cold reluctance as many people do today. Instead, ancient Christians, Jews, and pagans used the language of debt and obligation to describe the appropriate response to kindnesses shown by friends or gods, and these obliged responses are often clearly very heartfelt (see sidebar, “The Obligation to Thank God,” above). Thanking God for the Thessalonians is both Paul’s duty and—as Paul’s boasting to the other churches suggests (1:4)—his delight.

  BIBLICAL BACKGROUND

  The Obligation to Thank God

  New Testament scholars have sometimes alleged that the mention of the “obligation” and “fittingness” of thanking God (1:3; 2:13) sets a cold, formal tone. In so doing they reveal more about themselves than about 2 Thessalonians. People today often suspect that religion is spoiled by obligation, formality, and reciprocity.a The ancients, however, did not share these concerns. The Old Testament often speaks of the obligation to render thanksgiving to God.b For instance, in Ps 116, a prayer of thanksgiving to God for deliverance from death, the psalmist says, “I will offer a sacrifice of praise / and call on the name of the LORD. / I will pay my vows to the LORD / in the presence of all his people” (vv. 17–18).c The “vow” here involves asking God for help and promising to render praise if God comes to the rescue. In this and similar passages, thanking God is both an obligation and a joyful response to God’s acts of faithfulness. The Thessalonians would have already been familiar with similar language even before their conversion. For instance, an inscription from Roman-era Macedonia gives thanks to the goddess Artemis by “repaying the vow” to her.d Rabbinic texts say similar things, such as the passage in the Mishnah that says “we are obligated to give thanks” to God for redeeming Israel from Egypt.e The late first-century Christian letter 1 Clement describes Christian worship as the services that “we ought [opheilō] to perform” for God (40.1). The second-century Shepherd of Hermas says, “You who suffer for the name ought [opheilō] to glorify God” (Parable 9, 28.5). Similar language has endured in liturgies and hymns down to the present day. For instance, in the preface of the eucharistic prayer of the Latin Rite the priest says, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God,” and the people respond, “It is right and just” (dignum et iustum est). Greek liturgies similarly affirm that it is right and just (axion kai dikaion) to give thanks to God. A fourth-century catechetical lecture explains the “obligation” to praise God in the Eucharist:

  Truly, we ought to give thanks, because when we were unworthy he called us to so great a gift. While we were enemies he reconciled us, count
ing us worthy of the Spirit of sonship. . . . In giving thanks we do a deed that is “right and just.”f

  For Paul, like other ancient worshipers, the obligation to thank God does not detract from the purity or sincerity of that thanksgiving (see also 1 Thess 3:9; Phil 1:7).g

  a. On the modern preference for spontaneity in approaching God, see Lori Branch, Rituals of Spontaneity: Sentiment and Secularism from Free Prayer to Wordsworth (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2006). On the modern suspicion of reciprocity between humans and God, see John M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015), 51–65.

  b. On this issue, see Roger D. Aus, “The Liturgical Background of the Necessity and Propriety of Giving Thanks according to 2 Thes 1:2,” JBL 92 (1973): 432–38.

  c. See also Pss 22:26; 50:14; 61:9; 66:13; 76:12; see Paul in Acts 18:18; 21:23–26.

  d. Epigraphes Anō Makedonias 29.

  e. Mishnah Pesahim 10:5.

  f. This lecture has sometimes been attributed to St. Cyril of Jerusalem. Greek text from Lectures on the Christian Sacraments: Greek Original and English Translation, Popular Patristics Series 57 (Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2017), 125 (my translation).

  g. The nineteenth-century English translation of the medieval hymn Victim Paschali encourages the offering of fitting praises to the risen Jesus: “Christ the Lord is risen today; / Christians, haste your vows to pay; / Offer ye your praises meet [i.e., “fitting”] / At the Paschal Victim’s feet.”