After meticulously noting their differences (or sometimes similarities), he or she then proclaims confidently that it is impossible for the same person to have written both epistles. First, these types of arguments generally are very subjective and arbitrary. Which of the following books is definitely, All of the following were reasons for writing pseudonymously. In addition, there are differences in style (2 Thessalonians is more wooden) and tone (2 Thessalonians is more impersonal). 5:8, 10) and their rejection of the gospel (pp. In addition, pseudonymity greatly affects the interpretation of numerous passages. //-->. This subreddit is not for contemporary theological application. "; Praise His Name. Ibid. Further, the letterstheologyis pertinent. In 1980 Trilling wrote a commentary on 2 Thessalonians (based on his 1972 monograph) in which he consistently interprets the letter as a pseudonymous work. 2 Thessalonians 1:10, 12; 2:14. 3 Corinthians. In fact, the case has been made by various critics at one time or another that all of the NT epistles are pseudonymous. p. 389. One might expect as much from those who do not have a high view of the Scriptures and do not claim the name of Christ. A substantial minority of biblical scholars continue to hold the traditional view that 2 Thessalonians was an actual letter written by the apostle Paul to a gathering of Christians at Thessalonica. Green did for 2 Peter in his Tyndale New . . d. Early Christians did not think Colossians was Pauline. Critics marshal a plethora of arguments and hypotheses to support the idea of pseudonymous epistles within the cannon. Finally, the idea of canonical pseudonymity falls short ethically. was equally available to Jews and Gentiles. Unfortunately, this kind of experience is all too common. a. it claims to have been written by Paul, b. it talks about church leadership structures unknown in Paul's day, c. it teaches the end will not come immediately, d. the author claims to have worked in Thessalonica, b. they believed everyone had received gifts from God's Spirit, d. when there was a problem they wrote to Paul for advice, a. Finally, the urging of wives (3:18) and slaves (3:22) to be subordinate appears to not sit well with the admonitions found in 1 Corinthians 7 and Philemon. p. 389. Usually, the case for pseudonymity of a particular NT epistle focuses on technical arguments concerning vocabulary, style, and certain doctrinal and historical idiosyncrasies. ." It is not hard to understand, then, that this teaching also trickles down to many pastors and churches. Neither of these should be confused with anonymity, the absence of an authors name, which would apply to some NT books such as Hebrews. In Romans, he writes the night is far gone, the day is near (Rom 13:12). "; Great, thanks for sharing these points. Bassler, Jouette M. 2010. Norman Perrin writes the following (The New Testament: An Introduction, pp. So. Both the Gospel of Luke and Acts highlight the significance of which of the following cities? A.D. 190): For our part, brethren, we receive both Peter and the other apostles as Christ, but the writings which falsely bear their names (ta de onomati auton pseudepigrapha) we reject, as men of experience, knowing that such were not handed down to us.9 On another occasion, Tertullian explains that a man was deposed from the ministry for writing the pseudonymous 3 Corinthians, even though he wrote it out of love for Paul.10 Invariably the early church rejected works deemed to be inauthenitic. The eschatology of 2 Thessalonians, it is alleged, bears close resemblance to the eschatology of the Revelation, a late-first-century book. Although these views may have some details in their favor, several other arguments have persuaded a number of scholars of thepseudonymity of 2 Thessalonians(5). The purpose of this article is three-fold. When they say There is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! (1 Thess 5:2-3). The same epistles, however, sharply denounce lying and deception of any kind (e.g., Eph 4:15, 25; Col 3:9; 1 Tim 4:1,2; 1 Pet 2:1). var time=new Date(); One of the largest differences between 2 Thessalonians and other letters that were supposedly written by Paul are the ideas mentioned in the letters on the end times, or eschatology. In light of these factors, neither position regarding the authenticity or pseudonymity of 2 Thessalonians has acquired a general consensus. 6:5). The author enlarges on the apocalyptic theme of the Antichrist, prehaps identified with Nero risen from the dead, whose manifestation was to cause the ruin of the Roman Empire. Bassler, Jouette M. 2010. The letters themselves claim to be from Paul the Apostle (cf. 2 Thessalonians 3:17: "I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. The author's writing style is poor. 3:13) are angels (pp. Who informed Paul of the Corinthians' change of heart between Paul's writing of the two parts of 2 Corinthians? An example of this is 2 Thessalonians, which is written by an author claiming to be Paul. 6. Ibid. To this evidence, I would add the consideration that Ephesians contains allusions to the entire Pauline corpus with the exceptions of 2 Thessalonians and the Pastorals. Which of the following is not one of the Pastoral epistles? 2 Thessalonians? This latter ploy serves, of course, to throw the scent off one's own deceit. 2 Corinthians c. 3 Corinthians d. 1 Thessalonians All of the following were reasons for writing pseudonymously except _____. Ibid. Namely, is it legitimate to include a pseudonymous epistle within the NT canon? it will come like a "thief in the night" In addition, many Christian colleges and universities and virtually all secular universities are filled with professors who accept the pseudonymity of NT epistles as a standard presupposition. The canonical order also appears correct as Pauls careful rehearsal of his contact with the church in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-3:5 does not mention an earlier letter. google_ad_height = 90; Few will doubt that the most disputed question in the discussion of the Thessalonian epistles is the authenticity of 2 Thessalonians. The background of 1 Thessalonians 4:1318 was the failure of the Thessalonians to incorporate Pauls teaching about resurrection into their thinking, so that they feared that their dead would be excluded from future salvation (pp. VisitUs. The church included many people who had come out of idolatry that implies that Paul had preached to gentiles there. The outlier is 2 Thessalonians. 3:17) and in 2 Thessalonians 2:2 warns believers against a "letter supposed to have come from us." I don't see a majority position on this question. The New Testament. Bassler, Jouette M. 2010. In order to whet the readers appetite, the conclusions the author reaches on some of the principal exegetical points in the letters may be mentioned. Jesus does not come back to earth here. Which of the following did Paul meet for the first time in Corinth? /* Leaderboard-bot */ All of the following were reasons for writing pseudonymously, One reason scholars doubt the authenticity of the authorship claim of 2 Thessalonians is, All of the following are true about the Pastoral Epistles, One of the central concerns in the Pastoral Epistles is, In the churches that Paul founded, all of the following were true, The author of the Pastorals writes against all of the following, a. it claims to have been written by Paul, c. it teaches the end will not come immediately, d. the author claims to have worked in Thessalonica, a. they claim to have been written by Paul, d. they are addressed to church communities, b. they believed everyone had received gifts from God's Spirit, d. when there was a problem they wrote to Paul for advice. google_ad_slot = "4364046558"; The church is depicted as a cosmic entity (2:19; 4:15) instead of a local gathering of believers. Bart Ehrman observes (The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, p. 23): "The frequent occurence of forgery in this period does not suggest a basic tolerance of the practice. months[12]="Dec."; The best explanation, many argue, is that 2 Thessalonians is pseudonymous and therefore written in Pauls name to correct an eschatological error that had developed in that church. Ephesians speaks of "works of the law" while the undisputed letters talk about "works" more generally, The author of 2 Thessalonians claims all of the following about the end except. Paul is writing to the early church and new believers. In summary it may be said: 'The use of words, stylistic peculiarities and the train of thought must be seen together. Some are anonymous, and others are pseudonymous, meaning that they were written by someone pretending to be someone else. 1 Tim. Ibid. Which of the following does not reflect an early Christian tradition about Paul's activity in Rome? Those who accept Pauline authorship say it fits his writing style and theology. This nifty chart shows its authenticity has much less acceptance among scholars. This suggests that 2 Thessalonians, like the Pastorals, wasn't known as part of the Pauline corpus to the author of Ephesians. For some of the Gospels and teachings, we know who the authors were. The most common books that are said to be pseudonymous are 2 Peter, the Pastoral Epistles (1 & 2 Timothy, Titus), and Ephesians. Which of the following views of Paul did Jesus share? Why do critics argue for pseudonymity in the New Testament? Communl; cohesion among early Christian communities was fostered by all of the following except, The church in Corinth had all of the following problems except, members were concerned about those who had died, Class differences in the Corinthian church led to all of the following except, Paul says that his primary message to the Corinthians was, The Christians in Corinth appear to have believed that, they already enjoyed the full benefits of salvation, In 1 Corinthians, Paul says that he learned about some of the problems in Corinth from, Paul taught the Corinthians that the resurrected body, Paul demonstrates the truth of the general resurrection by appealing to, According to Paul, one problem with misunderstanding the resurrection is that, they are the only undisputed letters Paul writes to the same community, Presuming 2 Corinthians is a composite letter, Paul wrote at least ___ letters to Corinth, Corinth is all of the following except superapostles. B. A further detail complicates the situation (6): 2 Thessalonians 2:2 warns against a letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already arrived. Thank for the information, please visit 1 Thessalonians was almost certainly written by Paul (basic reason: it coheres in writing style, vocabulary, theological perspective, and presupposed historical situation with the other letters almost universally acknowledged as having been written by Paul). 1 Thes. Michael Holmes (NIVAC) [2 Thess = authentic]. 2 Thessalonians b. + date + " " + lmonth + " " + year); One of the key tests for canonicity that the early church used was apostolicity. . I will offer three basic lines of defense against canonical pseudonymity. 1 Thessalonians 2:16b means that the divine wrath in its full and final manifestation had drawn very near to the Jews collectively as a people since by and large they were opposed to the gospel (pp. Scholars agree thatPaul wrote all of the following except, Many scholars think Paul wrote his letters around, Paul believed all of the following about the Law except, it puts a person in right standing with God. Pauls thoughts about the end times coming suddenly are evident in other letters as well. In 1 Thessalonians 4:14 the word vessel (skeuos) refers to the mans own body in its sexual aspects and the whole verse to the need for sexual self-control (pp. Consider why immigrants risk coming to the United States illegally, the goal of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and its effectiveness, and efforts at immigration reform. months[2]="Feb."; Why should Christians reject pseudonymity and accept the authenticity of the New Testament? The fascinating instance of enallage of verb in 1 Thessalonians 3:11 (see also 2 Thes. In the known Pauline epistles, Paul was adamant that the end of the age was at hand and was coming very quickly. A careful reading of 2 ( as well as ) 1 Thessalonians shows that in the Thessalonians epistles the Holy Spirit through Paul is NOT discussion the departure OF THE FAITH referred to elsewhere by Paul ( 1 Timothy 4:1) but that rather in 2 Thessalonians Paul is encouraging and restating The Hope of The Believers that they ( we) will be meeting The Lord in the air upon Our Lords Return to earth to set up His Kingdom. p. 389. 2 Thessalonians b. Themelios is a peer-reviewed international evangelical theological journal that expounds on the historic Christian faith. months[6]="June"; ", Alfred Loisy comments (The Birth of the Christian Religion, pp. made no difference in whether a person was righteous, Galatians is unique among the undisputed Pauline letters because, Paul's opponents in Galatia appear to have, Paul countered his Glatian opponents by saying that he, One way Paul argued against his Galatian opponents was, to point out that the apostles agreed with him, Which of the apostles joined Paul in Antioch and stopped eating with the Gentiles, According to Paul, a person is justified by, According to Paul, Gentiles fulfill the law by, Philemon is different from the other undisputed letters because, Which Pauline letters includes a Christ hymn, Paul's letter to the Galatians is best characterized as, What is one likely reason for Paul's relative lack of attention to social inequities, Romans is unique among the undisputed Pauline letters because, it is written to a community Paul did not found, Paul may have written to the Romans for all of the following reasons except, In Romans, Paul defends himself and his beliefs using the rhetorical tool of, In the judicial model, all of the following are true except, The participationist model envisions Jesus' death and resurrection as, According to Paul's letter to the Romans, which statement is not true concerning both the Jews and Gentiles, They both can be made right with God by being circumcised, baptized, and obeying the Law, Paul believed all people were enslaved to sin because of. But one difference, as I mentioned before, is that the author of 2 Thessalonians tells them that they will have a warning before the eschaton and 1 Thessalonians says it could come at any time. document.write("2001-" + year); 2 Thessalonians 2:13, "But we ought always thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord . For example, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Paul encourages the community with the message of the nearness of the Lords return. This way of thinking is not only non-Pauline, it belongs to a generation later than Paul's, more poetically expressed in Rev 16:5-7 and 19:2. Yeah, not so much. 5. That is, when interpreting a canonical document as Christian Scripture, whatever might The pains taken by the author at the end (iii, 17) to declare his signature genuine render it the more suspect.". Bassler, Jouette M. 2010. The lawless one's revelation and humanity's final rebellion are prerequisites for Jesus' second coming. 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