rived) that the second coming of Christ was nigh at hand, Paul wrote to them this second epistle, in which he beseechingly adjures them by the very fact that Christ is to come a second time, not to be shaken in mind or troubled, as if that event were near at hand. He informs them that much was to happen before that should take place, and especially predicts a great apostasy from the purity and simplicity of the Christian faith (ii: 5-12). He then exhorts them to hold fast by the traditions they had received, whether by word or epistle, and commends them to the consoling and sustaining grace of God (ver. 15-17). The rest of the epistle consists of expressions of affection to the Thessalonians, and of confidence in them; of prayers on their behalf, and of exhortations and directions suited to the circumstances in which they were placed.
(2) Arrangement. As regards the disposition and arrangement of these materials, the epistle naturally divides itself into three parts. In the first (i:1-12), the Apostle mingles commendations of the faith and piety of the Thessalonians, with prayers on their behalf. In the second (ii :1-17), he dilates upon the subject of the trouble which had been occasioned to the Thessalonians by the anticipation of the near approach of the day of the Lord. And in the third (iii:1-t6), he accu mulates exhortations, encouragements, and direc tions, to the Thessalonians, respecting chiefly the peaceable, quiet, and orderly conduct of their lives, which he follows up with a prayer on their be half to the God of peace. The epistle concludes with a salutation from the Apostle's own hand, and the usual benediction (ver. 17, 18).
(3) Where Written. There is the strongest reason for believing that this second epistle was written very soon after the first, and at the same place, viz. Corinth. The circumstances of the Apostle, while writing the one, seem very much the same as they were while writing the other; nor do those of the Thessalonians present any greater difference than such as the influences re ferred to in the second epistle may be supposd in a very short time to have produced. What seems almost to decide the question is, that while writ ing the second epistle, the apostle had Timothy and Silas still with him. Now, after he left Cor inth, it was not for a long time that either of these individuals was found again in his com pany (Acts xviii:18, compared with xix:22) ; and with regard to one of them, Silas, there is no evidence that he and Paul were ever together at any subsequent period. At what period, how ever, of the Apostle's abode at Corinth this epistle was written, we are not in circumstances ac curately to determine.
(4) Genuineness. 'The genuineness of the epistle,' remarks Eichhorn, 'follows from its con tents. Its design is to correct the erroneous use which had been made of some things in the first epistle; and who but the writer of that first epistle would have set himself thus to such a task? It however appears that the author of the first must also be the author of the second; and as the for mer is the production of Paul, we must ascribe the tatter also to him. It was essential to the
Apostle's reputation, that the erroneous conclu sions which had been deduced from his words should be refuted. Had lie refrained from notic ing the expectation built upon his words, of the speedy return of Christ, his silence would have confirmed the conclusion, that this was one of his peculiar doctrines; as such it would have passed to the succeeding generation ; and when they per ceived that in this Paul had been mistaken, what confidence could they have had in other parts of his teachings? The weight of this, as an evi dence of the genuineness of this second epistle to the Thessalonians, acquires new strength from the fact, that of all the other expressions in the epistle, not one is opposed to any point either in the history or the doctrine of the Apostle' (Einleit. ins N. T. iii. 69).
The internal evidence in favor of the genuine ness of this epistle is equally strong with that which attests the first. Polycarp (Ep. ad Philip. sec. t 1) appears to allude to chap. iii. 15. Justin Martyr, in his Dialogue with Trypho (p. 193, 32, cd. Sylburg. 1593), speaks of the reigning of the man of sin (ton tas anontios anth•opon), which seems to be an evident allusion to chap. ii. 3; and in a passage, quoted by Lardner (vol. ii. p. 125), he uses the phrase ho tas apostasies anthropos, The eighth verse of this second chapter is for mally cited by Irenxtts (iii. c. 7 sec. 2), as from the pen of an apostle; Clement of Alexandria spe cially adduces chap. iii. 2 as the words of Paul (Strom. lib. v. p. 554, ed. Sylb.), and Tertullian also quotes this epistle as one of Paul's (De Res urrec. Carnis, C. 24).
Notwithstanding these evidences in its favor, the genuineness of this epistle has been called into doubt by the restless skepticism of sonic of the German critics. The way here was led by John Ernest Chr. Schmidt, who, in 18oi, published in his Bibliothek fur Kritik E.regese, a tract entitled Vermuthungen fiber dic Bciden Bridle an die Thessalonicher, in which he impugned the genuineness of the first twelve verses of the sec ond chapter. He afterwards, in his Einleitung, p. 256, enlarged his objections, and applied them to the whole epistle. De Wette took the same side, and, in his Einleitung„ has adduced a num ber of reasons in support of his opinion, drawn from the epistle itself. His cavils are more than usually frivolous, and have been most fully re plied to by Guericke (Beitrage :ur Hist. Krit. Einl. ins N. T. s. 92-99, Halle, 1828), by Reiche Post. ad Thess. Epist. Vindicia', Gott. 1829), and by Pelt in the Prolegomena to his Commentary on the Epistles to the Thessalonians (p. xxvii.).
Jewell, Bp., An Exposition upon the two Epis tles of the Apostle Saint Paul to the Thessalo nians, Lond. 1583, 12M0., 1811, 8vo ; W. Sclater, Exposition and Notes on the Epistle to the Tltess., Lond. 1619, 1629, 4to ; J. Alph. Turretin, Com mentaries in Epp. Pauli ad Thess., Basil, 1739. 8vo ; Lud. Pelt, Epist. Pauli Apost. ad Thcss. perpetua illust. Commcntario, etc., Gryphiswald, 1830, 8vo ; Lange, Cam.; Alford, Com.; Barnes' Notes. W. L. A.