The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians (New International Commentary on the New Testament)

534 Pages·1987·3.06 MB·English

by  Gordon D. Fee

Table of Contents

THE NEW INTERNATIONAL COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT
Title Page
Copyright Page
PREFACE
ABBREVIATIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Introduction to 1 Thessalonians

I. AUTHORSHIP AND DATE
II. THE CITY AND ITS CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY
III. THE OCCASION AND PLACE OF WRITING

Text, Exposition, and Notes

I. THANKSGIVING, NARRATIVE, AND PRAYER (1:1-3:13)
II. SUPPLYING WHAT IS LACKING (4:1-5:11)
III. CONCLUDING MATTERS (5:12-28)

The Second Letter to the THESSALONIANS - Introduction to 2 Thessalonians

I. AUTHORSHIP AND DATE
II. OCCASION FOR WRITING

Text, Exposition, and Notes

I. THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER (1:1-12)
II. THE SECOND ISSUE: THE “WHEN” OF THE DAY OF THE
LORD (2:1-17)
III. THE THIRD ISSUE: ABOUT THE DISRUPTIVE-IDLE (3:1-15)
IV. CONCLUDING MATTERS (3:16-18)

INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORS
INDEX OF SUBJECTS
INDEX OF BIBLICAL AND OTHER ANCIENT REFERENCES
THE NEW INTERNATIONAL COMMENTARY ON
THE NEW TESTAMENT

General Editors

NED B. STONEHOUSE (1946-1962)

F. F. BRUCE (1962-1990)

GORDON D. FEE (1990- )

© 2009 Gordon D. Fee All rights reserved

Published 2009 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids,
Michigan 49505 / P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K. www.eerdmans.com

Printed in the United States of America

14 13 12 11 10 09 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fee, Gordon D. The First and Second Letters to the
Thessalonians / Gordon D. Fee. p. cm. — (The New international commentary on the New Testament)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-0-8028-6362-1 (cloth: alk. paper)
1. Bible. N.T. Thessalonians — Commentaries. I. Title.

BS2725.53.F44 2009 227’.81077 — dc22 2009010683

Scriptures taken from the HOLY BIBLE: TODAY’S NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. TNIV®.
Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of IBS-STL U.S. All rights
reserved worldwide. Also used by permission of The Zondervan Corporation.
PREFACE

When I assumed the editorship of this series of commentaries in the late 1980s,
one of my first tasks was to contact some of the authors of the original series as
to their readiness to bring out a second, updated edition of their commentary —
especially since the series was already by then in its fifth decade and some of the
volumes had not yet appeared at all. One of those I was able to contact
personally was Leon Morris, of Melbourne, Australia, when I was on a
teaching/preaching visit to that city in the Spring of 1987. During that most
cordial visit I discovered that Professor Morris had already determined to offer a
second edition of his commentary on Thessalonians, and that he had done so at
the request of my predecessor, F. F. Bruce. Although he was then ninety years
old, he was still able and keen of mind. But by then he was also basically
housebound, since he did not drive; thus the “revision” turned out to be more of
a “tweaking” of a few passages and an updating of some of the footnotes. As it
turned out, his “revision” was also the final item edited by Professor Bruce in the
series.
Since I have taught these letters for over three decades in at least three
different settings (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Regent College, and
Fuller Theological Seminary), I have toyed for several years with replacing
Professor Morris’s commentary. Now in my fifth year of retirement from Regent
College, with several “backlog” items finished, and with the encouragement of
the publishers, I decided to carry through with this desire. In the meantime the
secondary literature has proliferated nearly out of reach for anyone who would
attempt this task. Indeed, my guess is that the amount of secondary literature on
these letters has doubled in the last fifteen years — so much so that one can no
longer have a sense of “mastering” it. Indeed, the amount of material that I
discovered just in the final editing alone is enough to cause one to apologize in
advance to all who have written on these letters and who do not appear in the
present bibliography! It is quite clear that what were once dubbed “the
Cinderellas” in the Pauline corpus have finally come to the ball.
But for all that, apart from scholars within the Dispensationalist tradition, the
second of these letters still remains something of a “Cinderella,” the evidence for
which is to be found in the general paucity of secondary literature on this letter
in comparison to the first one. While some of that can be attributed to its being
just over half the size of the first letter (45 percent fewer words), most of it
seems to be related to the general dislike of the eschatological materials in 2:1-
12, which many scholars would like to think unworthy of the Paul they know
and like from Galatians and Romans. But as I. H. Marshall put it some years
ago, several very weak arguments (against authenticity) do not add up to one
strong one; and prejudice against the content of the letter (although no one
would dare admit it to be such) is simply not adequate grounds for denying
Pauline authorship. This apparently idiosyncratic moment, when compared to
the rest of the corpus, is no greater than the content of Romans 9-11.
The present work has thus been mostly a labor of love — for the apostle
whom I got to know well over many years of teaching and writing on his letters.
I say “mostly” because, as has been my lifelong habit, I write the commentary
first and then consult the secondary literature, making any necessary adjustments
and adding the proper footnotes. While most of it has been helpful, I admit to
some frustration with what appear to be purely idiosyncratic moments, foisted on
us by the present “publish or perish” culture of the academy.
I grant with others that these two letters are not the “highlights” of the Pauline
corpus; but they are full of historical and theological grist that make them well
worth the effort. It is true that the great passion of Paul’s life — Jew and Gentile
as one people of God through Christ and the Spirit — does not emerge front and
center; but it is always his underlying agenda, and thus his concern that these
(mostly Gentile) believers get it right in terms of how one lives in light of the
work of Christ and the Spirit.

GORDON D. FEE
ABBREVIATIONS