THE CHURCH THAT
PERSECUTION BUILT:
THE
THESSALONIAN EPISTLES IN CONTEXT
another
scripture essay by textman ;>
.
-
CONTENTS -
.
Prologue
& Thematic Breakdown
The
Four Thessalonian Letters
.
PART ONE:
PRELIMINARY DIGRESSIONS & METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
1. Definitions
2. A Pauline Chronology
3. A Note on Diction
4. Emergent Traditions &
the Prophet-Version
5. The Problem With Luke
6. What Aren't They Saying
About Paul?
7. Methodological Respect
8. Intro to textman's Reconstruction
& the Wrath
9. Four Versions of 1Th.2:13-16
10. What Can be Learned from
a Map?
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PART TWO:
PAUL & THE EARLY CHURCH
11. Paul's Jewish
Heritage
12. I Have Become All Things
13. New Directions: Parting
the Way
14. Hellenist Tradition &
Enthusiasm
15. The Turning Point
16. The Apostolic Council
& After
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PART THREE:
INTRODUCTION TO THESSALONIANS
17. Paul's Travel's
Before the Greek Mission
18. Who Was Silvanus?
19. Jewish Roots in Alien
Soil
20. Sources of Thessalonian
Traditions
21. Commentary on Havener
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PART FOUR:
EXEGESIS ON VITUPERATIO
22. Introduction to Vituperatio
23. Lost Diamond in the Ruff:
v15
24. Commentary on Wanamaker
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[BY WAY
OF EPILOGUE]
25. Concluding Reflections
on 1&2 Thessalonians
Works Cited
.
]
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"...
and to wait for His Son from Heaven,
whom
He raised from the dead, this
Jesus
who delivers us from the Wrath to come"
[1Th.1:10
/ Prophet Version]
.
^
PROLOGUE
Dear cyber-saints, despite almost 2000 years of ever-improving bible-making techniques, the New Testament is *still* in dire need of some serious re-constructing and re-editing. The canonical format which has served the churches so well for so long has now become a liability to all earnest seekers after Truth. So the time has come to cut away at least part of the gilded cage, and set free the dove within; so that she may sing her song anew, to a strange new generation. And what better place to begin this dangerous enterprise than with the earliest epistles of the Apostle to the Gentiles? But before we can begin to unravel the mystery and confusion surrounding the "two" Thessalonian letters that History & Providence have elected to pass unto us, we must needs first have in hand the letters as they were first written. Which is to say some bizarre reconstruction of what the original autographs MAY have looked like; as they were *before* the Thessalonian-Editor reworked them (c.65-70CE) into the format that later became our canonical books 1&2Thessalonians. But - you may rightly object - can such a thing really be done? Perhaps. Or perhaps not; but even if we fail in our attempt, something may yet be learned along the way . . .Now there was no better place or time for God to challenge his stubborn and wayward people once again than in Palestine during the first century of the common era (ie. 1-99CE). The Galilean prophet Joshua ben Joseph and the earliest pre-christian believers gave Israel chance after chance to accept Y'shua as their promised Messiah. It was all the early churches could think to do. They had no thoughts of converting the Empire (which they knew was doomed). But after two decades of minimal successes, the noble project of converting Jerusalem (and all Israel) seemed increasingly impossible. And so the Lord called upon a strange man (named Paulos of Damascus) to take the gospel to the Gentiles. In mid-first century this was very much a radical idea. Before Paulos and his closest friends came along to attempt the unthinkable, there was no real effort among the Jewish believers to do such an absurd and foolish thing. That first passage over into Greece (c.48CE) was revolutionary in the extreme. Yet at the time, Paulos and Silvanus just wanted to get away from the influence of those "pushy" believers in Palestine and Antioch; ie. the "pillars" in Jerusalem, and the so-called "first council". ... No one could have predicted what would happen there; least of all Paulos, Silvanus, and Timothy. Yet it was that little band of three missionaries that actually set the foundations of the newly-born Faith, and cleared a way for its future path ... a future which they could NOT foresee ... Even as they forged it out of conviction and determination; and in spite of seemingly endless obstacles and hardships ... and even the tiresome schemings of the Evil One!
Thematic Breakdown of the Letters :
-
letter A -
Thanksgiving
(v13)
Vituperatio
(v14-16)
Paul's Anxiety (v17-20)
Timothy Sent Back (3:1-5)
Good Reports (v6-10)
On Divine Aid (v11-13)
Final Appeal (4:1-2)
- letter
B -
Thanksgiving
(v13-14)
Exhortation and Appeal (v15-17)
Teaching on Idleness (3:6-15)
Paul's Blessing (v17-18)
- letter
C -
Thanksgiving
(v3-4)
Teaching on Persecution & Judgment (v5-10)
Interlude: Divine Aid (v11-12)
Silvanus on the Lawless One (2:1-12)
Prayer & Appeal (3:1-4)
Final Blessing (v5)
- letter
D -
Address
& Thanksgiving (v1-3)
History of the Thessalonian Assembly (v4-10)
Teaching on the Preacher's Role (2:1-12)
Teaching on Holiness (4:3-12)
The Fate of the Dead (4:13-18)
Paulos on the Day of Wrath (5:1-11)
General Instructions & Exhortations (v12-22)
Final Prayers & Blessings (v23-28)
The
Four Thessalonian Letters
--
Translation & Headings by textman --
*
Letter A / 1Th.2:13-4:2
/ Athens / 49CE
Thanksgiving & Opening: Vituperatio
Because of this we for our part unceasingly thank God that when you received from us the word of the message of God you accepted not a word of men, but what it really is, a Word of God (which works in you who believe). For you brothers and sisters became imitators of the assemblies of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judea. You suffered the same treatment from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all people by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they may be saved. They always fill up the measure of their sins; but the wrath of God has come upon them at last!
(2:17) Now, brothers and sisters, when we were made orphans, physically but not spiritually, from you for a short period, we endeavoured (with great desire) all the more to see you face to face; for we resolved to come to you (I, Paulos, indeed; and that, several times). But Satan prevented us. For who is our hope and joy and crown of boasting - is it not you, with others - before our Lord Jesus in his Parousia? ... Yes, indeed you are our glory and joy.
(3:1) And so because we were no longer able to endure it, we willingly resolved to remain behind (alone in Athens), and we sent Timothy (our brother and God's fellow-worker in the gospel of Christ) to strengthen you and encourage you in respect of your faith, so that no one may be disturbed by these tribulations. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this; for indeed when we were with you, we foretold you that we were to experience tribulation (as even it happened, and as you know). So because I, for my part, was no longer able to endure it, I sent Timothy to learn about your faith; fearing that in some way the Tempter had tempted you, and our labor might have been in vain and fruitless.
(3:6) However, when Timothy returned (just now) to us from you, he told us the good news of your faith and love; and that you always remember us affectionately (for you long to see us, just as we wish to see you). For this reason, brothers and sisters, we were encouraged (in all our affliction and tribulation) because of you, through your faith; because we now live, if you stand firm in the Lord. What thanksgiving, then, are we able to return to God for you, in all the joy with which we rejoice (on your account) before our God, as we pray night and day with deep earnestness; so that we may see you in the flesh, and make good the deficiencies of your faith?
(3:11) Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our path to you. And as for you, may the Lord make you to abound and overflow richly with love for one another, and for all people (as we do for you), so that he may strengthen your hearts to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the Coming of our Lord Jesus (with all his holy ones).
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(4:1) As our last matter then, brothers and sisters, we ask and request you (in the Lord Jesus) that (just as you received from us how you ought to live and progress in order to please God, just as you are indeed progressing) that you excel more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through our Lord Jesus.
Letter B / 2Th.2:13-17; 3:6-18 /Athens / 49CE
Thanksgiving & Opening: Gospel & Tradition
Now we ought always to give thanks to God for you (brothers and sisters loved by the Lord), because God chose you from the beginning for savlation through sanctification by the Spirit, and by your faith in the truth to which he called you (by means of our Gospel), to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast the traditions which you were taught; both in our oral statements and our letter [ie. Letter A]. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father (who has loved us and given us - in his eternal grace - encouragement and good hope), encourage and strengthen your hearts in every good deed and word.
(3:6) Now, brothers and sisters, we instruct you (in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ) to keep away from every one who behaves as a rebel (eg. living in idleness), and not according to the tradition which was received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; for we did not live as idle rebels among you, nor accept our keep from anyone without paying; but rather we worked with toil and hard labor night and day (so as not to be a burden on any of you). It is not that we do not have the right to our keep, but we did it to offer ourselves as an example for you to imitate. For when we were also with you, we used to instruct you: 'If anyone is not willing to work, he shall not eat'.
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For we have heard that there are some among you who are behaving as rebels, doing no work, but being mere busybodies. Such people we instruct and request (in the Lord Jesus Christ) to work quietly and earn their own keep. But you, brothers and sisters, do not be slack in helping them. Now if anyone does not obey our commands in this letter, take note of him, not to associate with him (so that he may be ashamed). However, do not treat him as an enemy, but rather admonish him as a brother.
(3:16) Now may the Lord of Peace himself give you peace all the time, and in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all. ... This greeting in my own handwriting, which is a sign in every letter; this is the way I (Paulos) write. May the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you all.
Letter C / 2Th.1:3-2:12; 3:1-5 / Corinth / 50CE
Thanksgiving & Opening: Persecution & Judgement
We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, as is right, because your faith grows greatly, and the love of each one of all of you for one another abounds, so that even we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God. We boast about your endurance and faith in all the persecutions and tribulations which you are bearing. This is a sure sign of the righteous judgment of God; that you will be thought worthy of the Kingdom of God (for which you also are suffering).
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(6) If it is just (as it surely is in the sight of God) to repay tribulation to those who cause you tribulation (and to you who suffer tribulation: Peace, together with us, at the apocalypse of the Lord Jesus from Heaven, with the angels of his power in a Flaming Fire); then he will inflict vengeance on those who do not know God, and do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus; they will pay the penalty of eternal destruction out from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his might, on that Day when he comes to be glorified in his saints, and marveled at in all who believed (for the testimony we brought to you was believed).
(11) With this in mind, we are also always praying for you, that our God may make you worthy of his call, and may powerfully accomplish every resolve for goodness, and every effort of faith; so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, in virtue of the grace of our God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
(2:1) Now, brothers and sisters, we beg you (in connection with the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our being gathered unto him) not to be readily shaken out of mind, nor to be alarmed because of a 'spirit' or oral statement or letter purporting to come from us saying that the Day of the Lord is present [cf. 1Th.2:16]. Let no one deceive you in any way; for first the Rebellion must take place, and there revealed the Lawless One (the Daughter of Doom and Destruction); being the one who sets herself against, and exalts herself above, all being called God, and every sacred object, so as to sit in the temple of God proclaiming that she herself is God! Surely you remember that while I was with you I told you these things? So you know what is restraining her now, so that she may be revealed in her time.
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(7) For the Mystery of Lawlessness is already set to work; but the one who now restrains it will do so until He is out of the way. And then the Lawless One will be revealed, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth, and will destroy by the manifestation and splendor of his Coming. But the coming of the Lawless One is through Satan's activity in all power and signs and wonders intended to deceive, and in every deceit of wickedness and unrighteousness for the ones being destroyed, because they did not accept the love of the Truth (nor did they receive salvation). (11) And for this reason, God sends on them a powerful delusion to make them believe what is false; in order that all who have not believed the Truth, but delighted in wickedness, may be judged and condemned.
(3:1) Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us, that the Word of the Lord may spread swiftly and gloriously, just as among you, and that we may be delivered from perverse and wicked people (for not everyone has faith). But the Lord is faithful, and will strengthen you and guard you from the Wicked One. We have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing (and will go on doing) what we instruct. May the Lord direct your hearts to God's love, and to the steadfastness of Christ.
Letter D / 1Th.1:1-2:12; 4:3-5:28 / Corinth / 50CE
Postscript & Thanksgiving
From Paulos and Silvanus and Timothy: to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be with you. We are always thanking God for you all, constantly mentioning you whenever we pray, remembering your achievement of faith, costly labor of love, and endurance of hope directed towards our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father.
(4) Since we know your election, brothers and sisters loved by God, that our Gospel did not come to you with words only, but with power, and with the Holy Spirit, and with much conviction; just as you know the kind of people we were among you for your own sakes. And you, for your part, became imitators of us (and of the Lord), in receiving the Word (in much tribulation) with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the Believers in Macedonia and Achaia (8) For the Word of the Lord has sounded out from you, not only into Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith (a faith in God) has come into every place, so that we have no need to say anything about it. For these report about you the kind of an entrance we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and real God, and to wait for his Son out of Heaven, whom he raised from the dead; this Jesus who delivers us from the Wrath to come.
(2:1) For you know on your part, brothers and sisters, that our entrance to you has not been in vain, although (as you know), we had earlier suffered and been abused in Philippi. Yet we were courageous in our God to speak to you God's Gospel amidst great conflict. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity, nor does it work through deception; but even as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with his Gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God (who scrutinizes our hearts). (5) For we did not behave with flattering speech (as you know), nor with a veiled desire to exploit (as God is my witness), nor as seeking after honor from men (neither you nor others), although as Christ's apostles we were able to have a position of importance; but we were gentle when we were among you. Just as a nursing mother cherishes her children, so in our great care for you we gladly determined to share with you not only the Gospel of God, but also our very being, because you had become beloved to us. And you remember, brothers and sisters, our hard labor and toil. It was while we worked day and night (so as not to be a burden on any of you) that we preached to you the Gospel of God. (10) You yourselves are witnesses (and so is God) how we behaved in a holy, just, and faultless way towards you who believe. As you know, we counselled each one of you as a father his children: exhorting, encouraging, and insisting that you should walk worthily of God (who calls you to his Kingdom and glory).
(4:3) For this is the will of God: that you sanctify yourselves (that is, to abstain from sexual sin). Each one of you must know how to keep his wife in sanctification and honor; not in passion of lust as even the pagans do (not knowing God). In this matter none of you is to injure or exploit his brother. This is to be done because the Lord is an Avenger in all these things; as indeed we told you earlier, and fully testified. For God did not call us because of our impurity, but so that we might exist in sanctification. Therefore, the one rejecting this spurns not Man but God (the very one who gives his Holy Spirit to us).
(4:9) Now on the subject of brotherly love you have no need for us to write to you; for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. For you even do this to all the believers in the whole of Macedonia. But we request you, brothers and sisters, to excel more and more, and to be ambitious to live unobtrusively, and mind your own affairs, and work with your hands (just as we instructed you), so that you may walk becomingly in the judgment of outsiders, and require no one's help.
(4:13) We do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, on the subject of those who are sleeping; so that you do not sorrow even as the rest of those who do not have hope. For if we believe, as we do, that Jesus died and rose, so also God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. For we say this to you (in a word of the Lord) that we who are living, who survive to the Coming of the Lord, will certainly not have any temporal advantage over those who fell asleep; because the Lord himself (accompanied by a command, the cry of an archangel, and the trumpet of God), will descend from Heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are living (who survive), will be snatched up simultaneously with them in the clouds to a meeting with the Lord in the air. And so we shall be with the Lord forever. So then, encourage one another with these arguments.
(5:1) Now on the subject of dates and times, brothers and sisters, you have no need to be written to; for you yourselves know accurately that the Day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. At a time when men say "Peace & Security!", then sudden disaster overtakes them (just as the pain of childbirth, a pregnant woman); and they will not escape. But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, that the Day [of Wrath] should surprise you like a thief. For you all are sons and daughters of Light, sons and daughters of the day; so we do not belong to the night, or to the Darkness. Well then, let us not sleep like the rest of them, but let us be alert and clearheaded; for those who sleep do so at night, and those who get drunk do so at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be vigilant, and put on the breastplate which is faith and love, and the helmet which is the hope of salvation; because God has not destined us for Wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (who died for us in order that whether we are awake or asleep we may begin simultaneously to live with him). Therefore encourage one another, and let each one of you build up his fellow believer, just as you are doing.
(5:12) Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to respect those who are working so hard among you by caring for you in the Lord, and by admonishing you; and esteem them very highly with your love because of what they do. Live at peace among yourselves. And we request you, brothers and sisters, to admonish the rebels, encourage the worried, help the weak, and be patient with everyone. See that no one pays back evil with evil, but at all times seek eagerly the good of one another, and of all people. Be joyful always, and pray unceasingly. Whatever happens, give thanks to God; for this is God's will in Christ Jesus for you. Do not extinguish the Spirit; and do not reject prophetic revelations, but test all of them. Hold fast to what is good, but keep clear of whatever kind is evil.
(5:23) Now may God himself (the God of Peace) sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved without fault at the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and he will accomplish it. Brothers and sisters, pray for us also. Greet all the believers with a holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord to have this letter read aloud to all the brothers and sisters. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
