The authors do not, however, believe that the truthfulness of scripture is necessarily undermined if some Pauline letters are pseudonymous (p. 81). The problem is that those post-Pauline or Pseudo-Pauline letters are primarily counter-Pauline and anti-Pauline. Murray J. Harris What intellectual topics did the Renaissance humanist Sir Thomas More explore? Bassler, Jouette M. 2010. In 2 Thessalonians 2:2, Paul warns the Thessalonians not to be misled by letter as from us (di epistoles hos di hemon). In one sense the commentary complements that of E. Best (1972) in Blacks New Testament Commentaries since the author focuses on more recent discussion of the epistles, describing Bests commentary as detailed and marked by a sobriety and wisdom of judgment from which I have generally been unwilling to differ (Preface). Third, I will provide a reasonable defense for why Bible believing Christians can and should trust the authenticity of each NT book. 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10; 2:9-14. (2:16), or we find the prayer, "May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ" (3:5). I will offer three basic lines of defense against canonical pseudonymity. I don't see a majority position on this question. 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. // --> Also, this intent would make it unique among the Pauline pseudepigrapha, right? 9. The pseudonymity of Colossians is arguably stronger (7). Often, certain historical or theological presuppositions drive scholars to find or to contrive arguments for pseudonymity. //-->. /* Leaderboard-bot */ Among the Pauline documents in the New Testament, six are thought by many to be pseudonymous, i.e., documents falsely claiming to be written by Paul.1 These six include: Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians and the Pastoral Epistles . Bassler, Jouette M. 2010. 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. (3) Some propose that pseudonymity was merely a literary device, a kind of transparent fiction, in which the readers were fully aware that the author wrote under an assumed name. This is the standard position for liberal scholarship. 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. The writer, moreover, portrays too intimate an acquaintance with the Thessalonian situation (cf. 8:6; Phil. The thesis of 2.2 refers to a letter either written or alleged to have been written by Paul, as captured in the most common rendering of the text, 'a letter allegedly from/by us'. It was formerly a print journal operated by RTSF/UCCF in the UK, and it became a digital journal operated by The Gospel Coalition in 2008. I'm browsing through search results. var date=time.getDate(); , Your email address will not be published. Which of the following does not reflect an early Christian tradition about Paul's activity in Rome? This is in opposition to in many of his prior letters to both Thessalonians and other cities. This is a forum for discussion of academic biblical studies; including historical criticism, textual criticism, and the history of ancient Judaism, early Christianity and the ancient Near East. In 1 Thessalonians the parousia, the coming of Jesus from heaven as apocalyptic judge and redeemer, is imminent. Believe it or not, today the majority of NT scholars argue that many of the epistles in the NT are pseudonymous. 3. The church included many people who had come out of idolatry that implies that Paul had preached to gentiles there. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write." Given statements like these, I think it is logically and morally incompatible to hold to pseudonymity / pseudepigraphy and the ultimate authority of Scripture. However, 2 Thessalonians 2:2 seems to warn its readers against accepting teachings from a letter forged in Paul's name, indicating that either a pseudonymous author was attempting to disarm the letter's audience into accepting his forgery as authentically Pauline, or that Paul himself was writing to warn his readers that forged letters were . What are the arguments for its authenticity? We got the seven authentics. Please buy the CD to support the site, view it without ads, and get bonus stuff! months[1]="Jan."; 5:8, 10) and their rejection of the gospel (pp. One of the largest issues in the study of the New Testament is authorship of the writings. bomb on Hiroshima? The undisputed letters say Paul was blameless before following Christ while Ephesians says he followed the desires of the flesh, b. Ephesians says Christians have been raised with Christ while the undisputed letters look forward to being raised with Christ, c. Ephesians speaks of works of the law while the undisputed letters talk about works more generally, d. Ephesians has much longer sentences than the undisputed letters, a. it will come like a thief in the night, c. it should not encourage apocalyptic freeloading. When this general disclaimer is coupled with Pauls custom of signing his own letters (see 2 Thess 3:17, 1 Cor 16:21, Gal 6:11, Philemon 19, and Col 4:18), it is clear that, in the words of T. L. Wilder, Paul puts a moratorium on pseudonymity in his name. 7 In addition, Revelation 22:18, 19 forbids anyone to add to Scripture. The church is depicted as a cosmic entity (2:19; 4:15) instead of a local gathering of believers. document.write("2001-" + year); What happens across those three sets of letters is that the radical Paul of the authentic seven letters (Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, Philemon) is slowly but steadily morphed into the conservative Paul of the probably inauthentic threesome . var months=new Array(13); The letters themselves claim to be from Paul the Apostle (cf. 2. 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. Not really able to afford the most recent academic work, I can't find much accessible scholarly commentary on 2 Thessalonian's authorship. a. google_ad_slot = "4364046558"; Paul is writing to the early church and new believers. 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. 2 Thessalonians is a pseudonymous True A teaching circulated among the Thessalonians that Christ had already come True Paul visited thessalonica on his second missionary journey True Thessalonica is part of the Roman province called Macedonia Apostasy Falling away from it abandoning the faith Thessalonica Dont discount the authorship of the letter based solely upon your misinterpretation of two totally different events. All of the following were reasons for writing pseudonymously except. Those who reject it say its eschatology differs too much, and even the author's insistence that he isn't a pseudonymous author is actually evidence he is. Archived post. First, the letter is close in language and structure to 1 Thessalonians, which suggests that both letters were written around the same time while the words were still fresh in the Apostle Pauls mind or, alternately, that one served as the literary template for the other, indicating a different author (1).]. Norman Perrin writes the following (The New Testament: An Introduction, pp. 100, 211). Acts 14:1517; 17:31) (p. 57). Powered by WordPress & WPstart Theme. was justified? The nature of the error that Colossians addresses (Col. 2:8, 16-23) is difficult to reconstruct with precision but it is not impossible to reconcile it with developments that were plausible in Pauls lifetime. . Bassler, Jouette M. 2010. 6:5). Paul frequently refers to the "distinguishing mark" in all his letters (e.g. (abstract) _____________________. The author thinks that Christians already participate in Christ's resurrection. As good a read as these are, I'm caught up on the arguments for or against the authenticity of these letters. The time of composition is likely to have been in the last two decades of the first century when hopes in the imminent parousia were faltering. I will follow your article. 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. , This is a very good post which I really enjoy reading. 3:17) and in 2 Thessalonians 2:2 warns believers against a "letter supposed to have come from us." Decide which form of the vocabulary word in parentheses best completes the sentence. In the known Pauline epistles, Paul was adamant that the end of the age was at hand and was coming very quickly. 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. months[9]="Sept."; 2 Thessalonians 3:17: "I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. If the letter is genuine, this means that early in Pauls career, letters were being written and sent to groups in his name, but without his approval, although many scholars find this unlikely. The nearly unanimous consensus of modern scholarship is that 2 Thess. The best explanation, many argue, is that 2 Thessalonians is pseudonymous and therefore written in Paul's name to correct an eschatological error that had developed in that church. An example of this is 2 Thessalonians, which is written by an author claiming to be Paul. 10. Rom. An example of this is 2 Thessalonians, which is written by an author claiming to be Paul. months[6]="June"; Many ancient historians express a preference for. I was attending FBBC while he attended another well-known Christian college. First, the vocabulary differs somewhat from Pauls undisputed letters (8). 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