Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5, Hold to the traditions, and let the word run
Paul thanks God for choosing the Thessalonians, urges them to stand firm and hold to the traditions they were taught by word or by letter, prays for them, and asks them to pray that the Lord's message will run swiftly.
2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul thanks God for choosing the Thessalonians to be saved through the Spirit's work and their trust in the truth. He urges them to hold on to the teaching they received from him, whether in person or by letter, and prays that God will encourage and strengthen them. He asks them to pray that the Lord's message spreads quickly and that he is rescued from wicked people, confident that the Lord will guard them.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/following-a-teacher\/","n":"Following a teacher","s":"A disciple walked behind his teacher, lived with him, learned his ways and carried his reputation. Jesus chose his own, which only radical teachers did.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/letters-and-letter-carriers\/","n":"Letters, scribes and carriers","s":"Letters were usually dictated to scribes, carried by trusted travelers because there was no public post, and read aloud to the people they were sent to.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/athletes-and-games\/","n":"The games and the victor's wreath","s":"Greek cities held great athletic festivals, and Corinth hosted the Isthmian Games every two years, second only to the Olympics. Athletes trained for months under oath for a wreath of leaves that soon withered.","r":""}
In the Old Testament God chose Israel, and the New Testament often calls Gentile believers chosen (Keener and his notes). Whether God chose them from the beginning or as firstfruits is a textual question: Carson, Moo and Morris find the manuscripts divided and prefer from the beginning, since scribes were likelier to change it to Paul's familiar firstfruits, and they reject theories that the letter went only to the church's first, Jewish converts. Pharisaic Judaism stressed handing on earlier teachers' traditions, and Paul passed on Jesus' sayings (Keener and his notes). By letter points back to an earlier letter, which the ESV Study Bible and Carson, Moo and Morris take as a sign that 1 Thessalonians came first; after weighing the case for reversing the order, Carson, Moo and Morris conclude, "It is better to retain the traditional order." The prayer that the word may run probably borrows from the Greek of Psalm 147:15 (Keener and his notes). Arnold notes that protect recurs in the magical papyri in recipes for amulets against evil spirits, so 3:3 promises protection of another kind; the evil one recalls the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:13; the cultural backgrounds notes).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to 2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5, and on 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, 2:15 and 3:1-4
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on 2 Thessalonians 3:3
- ESV Study Bible, Introduction to 2 Thessalonians, Relationship to 1 Thessalonians
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 14, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Relation Between 1 and 2 Thessalonians, with its notes on 2:13
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 8, Secure and Protected
