II Thessalonians- Introduction

II Thessalonians

Who:  The Thessalonians, Christian residents of the city of Thessalonica (also spelled Thessalonike).  The reference in the letter to having given up idols suggests that the church in Thessalonica was probably made up predominantly (though not exclusively) of Gentiles.  Paul probably founded the church there sometime in 49-50 AD, his stay there being recounted in Acts 17.  

What: A letter written from Paul, Silvanus (also known as Silas), and Timothy, though it is acknowledged that Paul’s is the dominant voice in the letter.  Paul and Silvanus were probably co-workers, with Timothy being a junior partner at this time. 

When: II Thessalonians was probably written around 51 AD, just a few months after the writing of I Thessalonians.  We know that Timothy had returned to Thessalonica with I Thessalonians, and the news he brings back probably prompts the writing of the letter.  This means it was probably written, as with I Thessalonians, during Paul’s stay in Corinth (cf. Acts 18:1-18) 

Where: Thessalonica has a continuous history from its founding in the Greco-Roman period, till the present, because of its strategic location on at the northernmost point of the Thermaic Gulf (Gulf of Salonica), while also sitting along the Egnatian Way, the main road from Byzantium to the Adriatic ports of the west.  It was founded in 315 BC by Cassander, the king of Macedon.  Thessalonica had been under Roman rule for over two centuries, but it remained a Greek city culturally, and was religiously diverse, participating in a number of pagan religions as well as the cult of the emperor.  It also, enjoyed status as a “free city” thanks to its siding with the Second Triumvirate and then Octavian (eventually known as Augustus),  which granted it certain privileges including tax breaks.  It was the capital of the province of Macedonia. Around 65,000 to 80,000 lived inside the walls, with the population outside bringing the total number up to around 100,000.

Why: While I Thessalonians is not a problem-addressing letter, II Thessalonians in some senses is.  It is possible that Timothy reports back after carrying I Thessalonians, that the problem of the idle/disruptive is worse than originally thought, thus Paul addresses the issue more forcefully in this letter.  Also, his teaching on the parousia, the “day of the Lord”, seems to have been either misunderstood, or distorted.  While at first glance Paul’s teaching concerning “the day of the Lord”, his apocalyptic theology, may be different in II Thessalonians than it is in I Thessalonians, in reality what we see is a corrective to the misunderstanding of his teaching received in his first letter to the church in Thessalonica.