Changes

The traditional understanding is that this letter was written shortly after 1 Thessalonians. It has been argued from time to time the 2 Thessalonians was written first, or that the two letters are addressed to two different communities or segments within the church at Thessalonika, to Gentiles in the community and to Jewish Christians there, or even that 2 Thessalonians was originally written to some other nearby community where Paul carried out some mission work, such as Philippi or Beroea. However, some scholars in more recent times have advanced the opinion that 2 Thessalonians is a ''pseudepigraph'' written authoritatively in Paul's name, long after the death of the apostle himself, as a letter intended to maintain apostolic traditions in a later period, perhaps as late as the last two decades of the first century, but certainly not later than that.

The traditional understanding is that this letter was written shortly after 1 Thessalonians. It has been argued from time to time the 2 Thessalonians was written first, or that the two letters are addressed to two different communities or segments within the church at Thessalonika, to Gentiles in the community and to Jewish Christians there, or even that 2 Thessalonians was originally written to some other nearby community where Paul carried out some mission work, such as Philippi or Beroea. However, some scholars in more recent times have advanced the opinion that 2 Thessalonians is a ''pseudepigraph'' written authoritatively in Paul's name, long after the death of the apostle himself, as a letter intended to maintain apostolic traditions in a later period, perhaps as late as the last two decades of the first century, but certainly not later than that.

Whatever is the truth, the audience of Second Thessalonians and certain features of its style and content presumably require that it be read and studied within a Pauline context, particularly the one provided by the situation seen in First Thessalonians. If the letter is regarded by the scholar against tradition as not by Paul himself, any understanding of its [[Apocalyptica|apocalyptic]] presentation of the conditions that must precede the Parousia  (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12) may profit from, and require, recourse to a much wider biblical basis for interpretation, [[Daniel (Biblical book|Daniel]] and [[Isaiah (Biblical book)|Isaiah]], Matthew 24–25; Mark 13; Luke 21:5-36; and [[Revelation, Book of (historical exegesis)|Revelation]].

Whatever is the truth, the audience of Second Thessalonians and certain features of its style and content presumably require that it be read and studied within a Pauline context, particularly the one provided by the situation seen in First Thessalonians. If the letter is regarded by the scholar against tradition as not by Paul himself, any understanding of its [[Apocalyptica|apocalyptic]] presentation of the conditions that must precede the Parousia  (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12) may profit from, and require, recourse to a much wider biblical basis for interpretation, [[Book of Daniel|Daniel]] and [[Isaiah (Biblical book)|Isaiah]], Matthew 24–25; Mark 13; Luke 21:5-36; and [[Revelation, Book of (historical exegesis)|Revelation]].

The letter can be divided into four sections:

The letter can be divided into four sections: