SECOND EPISTLE.—The apostle's allusion in his former epistle to the second coming of Christ, and especially his statement in ch. iv. 15-18, appear to have been misunderstood by the Thessalonians, or wilfully perverted by some among them, so as to favour the notion that that event was near at hand. This notion some inculcated as a truth specially confirmed to them by the Spirit ; others advocated it as part of the apostolic doctrine ; and some claimed for it the specific support of St. Paul in a letter (ii. 2). Whether the letter here referred to is the apostle's former epistle to the Thessalonians, or one forged in his name by some keen and un scrupulous advocates of the notion above referred to, is uncertain. The latter opinion has been very generally adopted from the time of Chrysostom downwards, and is certainly somewhat counten anced by the apostle's statement in the close of the epistle as to his autograph salutation being the mark of a genuine letter from him (iii. 17). At the same time, it must be admitted that the proba bility of such a thing being done by any one at Thes salonica, is, under all the circumstances of the case, not very strong.
On receiving intelligence of the trouble into which the Thessalonians had been plunged, in con sequence of the prevalence among them of the notion (from whatever source derived) that the second coming of Christ was nigh at hand, Paul wrote to them this second epistle, in which he be seechingly 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 expres sions of affection to the Thessalonians, and of con fidence in them ; of prayers on their behalf, and of ex hortations and directions suited to the circumstances in which they were placed. As regards the dispo
sition and arrangement of these materials, the epistle naturally divides itself into three parts. In the first (i. 1-12), the apostle mingles commenda tions of the faith and piety of the Thessalonians with prayers on their behalf. In the second (ii. I 17.1, 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. 1-16), he ac cumulates exhortations, encouragements, and direc tions, :o the Thessalonians, respecting chiefly the peaceable, quiet, and orderly conduct of their lives. which he follows up with a prayer on their behalf to the God of peace. The epistle concludes with a salutation from the apostle's own hand, and the usual benediction (ver. 17, IS).
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 whilst writing the other ; nor do those of the Thessalo nians present any greater difference than such as the influences referred to in the second epistle may be supposed in a very short time to have produced. What seems almost to decide the question is, that whilst writing the second epistle, the apostle had Timothy and Silas still with him. Now, after he left Corinth, 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 evi dence that he and St. Paul were ever together at any subsequent peiiod. At what period, however, of the apostle's abode at Corinth this epistle was written, we are not in circumstances accurately to determine.