I and II Thessalonians
The books of I and II Thessalonians, which are in the New Testament, are both letters to a church that Paul the apostle helped establish in the biblical city of Thessalonica. First Thessalonians is agreed by biblical scholars to be written by Paul. The author of II Thessalonians, however, is still being debated about. In II Thessalonians itself, and in secondary sources, there is evidence to support the theories that Paul wrote II Thessalonians as well as the first letter but also that someone wrote II Thessalonians in his name. First Thessalonians was written from Corinth in about 51 CE. If Paul actually wrote the second letter, it was written shortly after that. If he did not, then it is hard to decide when the book of II Thessalonians was written. Since it is agreed that Paul wrote I Thessalonians, the text and style of II Thessalonians can be compared to it. If things such as vocabulary and style differ between the two, it shows that Paul may not have written II Thessalonians. An example of this is noticeable in II Thessalonians 1:3 and 2:13. The verses have the phrase, "we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters..." (NRSV) which cannot be found in any other works by Paul and they seem to be
Freed, Edwin D., The New Testament: A Critical Introduction. 2nd ed. Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1991. Meeks, Wayne A. et al., eds., The Harper Collins Study Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books. New Revised Standard Version. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1993. Williams, David J. New International Biblical Commentary: 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc, 1992. Evidence to support the argument that Paul is in fact the author of II Thessalonians can be found in the very beginning of the letter. The greetings of the two letters to the Thessalonians are very similar. The words, "work of faith", are used in I Thessalonians 1:3 and in II Thessalonians 1:11 (NRSV). Also, I Thessalonians 2:9 parallels with II Thessalonians 3:8 with the words, "with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you" (NRSV). The author of the second letter even uses the same phrase at the end as was used in Galatians which in known to have been written by Paul. "With my own hand" (Galatians 6:11, II Thessalonians 3:17).
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Approximate Word count = 948
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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