On Paul's 2nd letter to the Thessalonian Church

Lois Berkhof wrote an analysis of the 2nd Epistle to the Thessalonians. Here is my summary of his report mirroring Berkhof’s outlining method...

Content- Paul wrote this elegant, well balanced letter with three chapters each of which comprises a self-standing unit. Berkhof finds that the epistle “naturally falls into three parts”.

1) “Introduction, ch. 1.

This comprises Paul’s usual greeting followed by emendations and edification with practical concerns implicitly serving doctrinal and even prophetic points. Berkhof divides the chapter one into two sections.

2) “Instruction respecting the Parousia, ch. 2.” Berkof divides the second chapter in two sections.; 1-12 and 13-17. Paul warns of the deceptions of the anti-Christ (aka. son of perdition) and reassures the church that they shall be fine.

3) “Practical Exhortations, ch. 3.” Berkhof divides chapter three into four sections. Somewhat neatly Berkhof noted Paul’s structure as two sections each in the preceding two sections followed by four in the last chapter of the epistle. The ancients sometimes used veritably a poetic structure with prose since historically prose originated as poetry and he was writing to Greeks. It is good Paul didn’t use dactylic hexameter as did the Homeric poets.

Paul instructs the faithful to keep working and be not idle, to withdraw from the disorderly, do what the Apostle commanded and beware of false instruction.

Characteristics- Paul’s description of characteristics of events leading to the apocalypse and the second coming of Jesus Christ are the central point the epistle Berkhof finds. Berkhof points out the arrival of ‘the man of sin’ or anti-Christ that need appear to lead the unsaved, anti-Christian worldly forces prior to the conclusion of this generation of mankind living on Earth.

“1. The main characteristic of this letter is found in the apocalyptic passage, 2:1-12. In these verses, that contain the most essential part of the Epistle, Paul speaks as a prophet, revealing to his beloved church that the return of Christ will be preceded by a great final apostacy and by the revelation of the man of sin, the son of perdition who, as the instrument of satan, will deceive men, so that they accept the lie and are condemned in the great day of Christ. II Thessalonians, no doubt, was written primarily for the sake of this instruction.”

Berkhof’s paradigm of analysis for the leader of the world of the lost is itself an illumination of the present times we live in. Evidently the forms of existing political rule such as that of the Roman Empire would need to disappear in order not to conflict with a unified global empowerment of the anti-Christ. Obviously one might discern a present trend toward economic globalism and networking that could develop over time into a de facto planetary unified economic and indirectly political power that the anti-Christ could find a convenient stage for putting him or herself/itself into power as the pseudo-omnipotent one perhaps assisted by bionic appendages, steroids, nano-bot healing from wounds and nano-computer-enhanced synapses and intellect plugged into a quantum computer. When Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Universe appears it will probably be historically necessary that he appears to end a perpetual dictatorship of absolute corrupt power in comparison to which contemporary corrupt power is trivial.

There are two additional characteristics of the epistle that Berkhof notes. One is the practical and direct reinforcement of the persecuted church and the second regards the language of the epistle that has several unique words. Elsewhere Berkhof and others have noted that this letter bears substantial content with the prior letter. In a brief letter to the same church congregation accentuating some key points that isn’t too unusual.

Authorship

Berkhof writes; “The external testimony for the authenticity of this Epistle is just as strong as that for the genuineness of the first letter. Marcion has it in his canon, the Muratorian Fragment names it, and it is also found in the old Latin and Syriac Versions. From the time of Irenaeus it is regularly quoted as a letter of Paul, and Origen and Eusebius claim that it was universally received in their time. The Epistle itself claims to be the work of Paul, 1: 1; and again in 3:17”

Composition

Occasion and Purpose- “The persecution of the Thessalonians still continued and had probably increased in force, and in some way the impression had been created that the day of the Lord was at hand. This led on the one hand to feverish anxiety, and on the other, to idleness. Hence the apostle deemed it necessary to write a second letter to the Thessalonians. The purpose of the writer was to encourage the sorely pressed church; to calm the excitement by pointing out that the second advent of the Lord could not be expected immediately, since the mystery of lawlessness had to develop first and to issue.”-Berkhof

Time and Place- Berkhof’s best estimate is the middle of A.D. 53

Canonical Significance

Berkhof concludes his analysis of the second epistle to the church of Thessalonica writing that “It is quite evident, however, that Polycarp used the Epistle. Moreover it has a place in the canon of Marcion, is mentioned among the Pauline letters in the Muratorian Fragment, and is contained in the old Latin and Syriac Versions. Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian and others since their time, quote it by name. The great permanent value of this Epistle lies in the fact that it corrects false notions regarding the second advent of Christ, notions that led to indolence and disorderliness. We are taught in this Epistle that the great day of Christ will not come until the mystery of iniquity that is working in the world receives its full development, and brings forth the son of perdition who as the very incarnation of satan will set himself against Christ and his Church.”

This letter of Paul’s is an expression of the apocalyptic criterion following those remarks of The Lord such as given in the Gospel according to Matthew. The timing of the Apostle’s martyrdom perhaps in 67 A.D., three years before the destruction of Jerusalem, seems meaningful regarding God’s structuring of history. The work of the Apostle to the Gentiles was complete and the seat of the old covenant destroyed, yet it to would be resurrected from the ashes.

The Lord was crucified circa 33 A.D. , the Apostle Paul was martyred about 33 years later and John’s Revelation published perhaps 33 years after that. The dating of the composition of the Revelation is inexact yet it was noted that Emperor Domitian popularized banishments and John was banished to Patmos. Domitian was emperor from A.D. 81 to 96, and John may have been released from the prison isle after the death of Domitian (he was murdered for oppressing the aristocrats and his wife expedited his death) with his vision ready to be set down in print for the edification of the church.

The Apostle Paul spent three years in Ephesus and it was to Ephesus that he sent his ‘spiritual son’ Timothy to instruct the congregation in the right way. Paul’s apocalyptic remarks (2:1-12) undoubtedly were encountered by the Disciple and Evangelist John who lived in Ephesus (incld, Patmos nearby) for a quarter century until his own death in old age circa 101 A.D. John may have developed his thoughts about the apocalypse for some time, especially with the recent experience of the destruction of Jerusalem and his own exile. His vision of the Lord’s return apparently encompassed multiple time paradigms. Even the end of the Eastern Roman Empire and of Constantinople as the capitol of an Orthodox neo-theocratic state brought Ephesus into the rule of a non-Christian theocratic imperium, one that would be the foe of Jews as nationalists and occupier of the Temple Mount for something approaching 700 years starting in the 15^th century. Well, there is much history one may adduce to illustrate the relationship of temporal Earthly history to teleogical constructions I would venture to guess. The Apostle Paul in his letters to the Thessalonicans did help set the stage for the following Revelation of John.

Berkhof writes a little more on the enduring value of the letter to the church.