TRADITION VS SCHOLARSHIP

2 Thessalonians 2:2 tells its readers not to be alarmed by a message that claims to come from Paul. In what forms does the verse say it might arrive?

The answer

By spirit, by word, or by letter. The verse asks its readers not to be "shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here." A letter in Paul's name is on guard against a letter "as though from us" that says the day has come.

Why it’s interesting

The phrase "as though from us" suggests letters under Paul's name were already going around. The same letter ends by insisting on its own signature: "This is the mark in every letter of mine" (2 Thessalonians 3:17). Scholars argue both ways about who wrote it.

Genuinely debated

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