TESSALONICESI, EPISTOLE I-II ai. – The first two letters written by St. Paul, in A.D. 50–51, from Corinth, a few months apart from one another.
I E. AI T. - 1. Occasion. - At the beginning of the second apostolic journey, in the first months of 50, s. Paolo, after evangelizing Philippi (Act. 16), encountering, as usual, opposition from the Jews, who inflicted upon him “sufferings and insults” (I Thess. 2, 2), proceeded with Silas (Act. 16, 25-17, 4) toward Thessaly.
Amphipolis (v.), APOLLONIO (v.), and stopped at Thessalonica (150 km from Philippi), where there was a synagogue of Jews. For three Sabbaths he expounded the Holy Scriptures to them, demonstrating the messiahship of Jesus; some of them believed and joined Paolo and Silas; “a great number of proselytes and Greeks and not a few women of the leading families” also adhered to them (Act. 17, 4). This infuriated the Jews, who incited the rabble, hired the parasites of the marketplaces and squares, and threw the city into turmoil; in order to rid themselves summarily of Paolo and Silas, they surrounded the house that was hosting him, but they had fled during the night to Berea, a nearby town, so as to follow closely the development of the new community of the T.; but the Jews also at Berea stirred up the populace against Paolo, who, leaving his collaborators behind, had to depart for Athens (Act. 17, 1-15). The I Thess. refers to external trials, sufferings, and insults that Paolo and the converts endured at Thessalonica—persecutions that continued with great ferocity (2, 2-20); and Paolo, trembling with anxiety and unable to return, sent
(courtesy of the Treccani Institute)
Having succeeded in driving the Apostle away after barely three weeks, without allowing him to complete his instruction concerning the truths of Christianity (I Thess. 3, 10), the Jews now hoped to erase every trace of his work; they resorted to violence and slander, portraying Paolo as a charlatan, vain and cowardly, who had abandoned those who had believed him. S. Paolo learned this from Timoteo, who nevertheless brought consoling news about the converts’ steadfastness. This report was the immediate occasion of the I Thess.
2. Content. - After the greeting, which is a wish and a blessing (1, 1), s. Paolo proudly defends the honor of his ministry, as in Gal. e II Cor. The faithful of Thessalonica remain attached (3, 6 ff.) to Paolo, who interweaves the highest praises of them with the most emphatic assertions in his own defense. Against those who wished to depict him as a charlatan, he recalls (1, 3) the miracles, the manifest signs of the Holy Spirit that accompanied his preaching (cf. 2, 2), and the great result achieved (1, 6-9). Paolo always acted with the sole concern of fulfilling the divine will amid continual sufferings and humiliations (2, 1-6); his disinterestedness was such that, although he had the right to be supported by the faithful, he always chose to provide for himself and his collaborators through manual labor (2, 7), impelled by a supernatural motive (cf. I Cor. 9, 7-18), not by distrust of his faithful, whom he loved like a nurse and a father (2, 8-11). It is not true that he fled out of concern for himself, abandoning the others to their fate (2, 13; 3, 1-13); he twice attempted to return to them, but Satan prevented him; he therefore sent Timoteo, who, upon his return, gave him the finest news. The Apostle feels himself come alive again and gives thanks to God, whose graces he invokes upon the faithful (3, 8-13). Here the principal and unified part of the letter ends (chaps. 1-3). Chapters 4-5 contain various practical recommendations, brief and very brief, which follow one another without forming an organic whole. Let them preserve their purity (4, 1-8); let them progress in charity (4, 9-12); let them moderate the outward expressions of mourning, giving the Gentiles, who have no hope, a demonstration of their faith in the future resurrection through the reunion in Christ of those whom death had separated (4, 13-18); let them fervently await the fulfillment of the divine promise concerning the triumph of the Kingdom of God, preparing themselves for it through prayer and holiness of life (5, 1-12); let them respect and love the leaders of the community, correct the idle and those in need of admonition, remain always joyful in the Lord and grateful to God, persevere in prayer, receive the lights and charisms of the Holy Spirit, and flee every evil (5, 16-22). Paolo concludes by invoking every grace of the Lord upon the faithful and sending them his greeting (5, 23-28).
3. The “consolation” concerning the dead
The text of the third exhortation (4, 13-18) is as follows: “We do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who die (‘fall asleep’), so that you may not give yourselves over to sorrow like the others (the pagans), who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we must also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who die in Him. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord: We, the living, the survivors, will not be separated from our dead at the coming of the Lord (we shall go to meet the Lord when He comes, all together, we and those whom today we mourn as dead). For the Lord Himself, at the command, at the cry of the archangel, at the sound of the divine trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ (all of them) will rise first; then we, the living survivors, together with them (the beloved dead whom we mourn), shall be caught up on the clouds to meet the Lord in heaven, and thus united we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” This translation, especially for the phrase “We, the living survivors, shall be reunited with our dead when the Lord comes,” which excludes in Paolo and in his faithful the error of any fanciful expectation of Christ’s imminent return and the end of the world, and therefore of exemption from death for supposed survivors of the Lord’parousia (v.) (in stark contrast with what s. Paolo explicitly and repeatedly teaches concerning the universality of death and the certainty and desire he has to die in order to be with Christ), has been established on solid lexicographical and syntactical foundations by A. Romeo (Nos qui vivimus, qui residui sumus, in Verbum Domini, 9 [1929], pp. 307-12; 339-47; 360-64) and accepted by K. Staab in his recent commentary (1950) as the only rendering corresponding to the text, the context, and the whole of Pauline teaching. To explain, as many still do, “we who are left for the parousia of the Lord,” and to hold that “the principal purpose (of s. Paolo in this letter) is manifestly to correct the error of the neophytes concerning the disadvantages suffered by the dead at the moment of the parousia,” regarded as imminent, and to connect the idleness of some with this error (D. Buzy and commonly), is to base a fanciful reconstruction upon an erroneous foundation. In reality, the verb περὶ λείπωσαι (“to be a survivor”) is never construed with εἰς and the accusative; it never refers to the future. By contrast, the verb φθάνω (Grimme, Zorell: “nequaquam ante illos aut sine illis ad gloriam perveniemus”) is, in more recent Greek authors, always construed with εἰς and the accusative; and this is s. Paolo’s usage in the other two instances in which he employs it (Rom. 9, 31; Phil. 3, 16), always placing εἰς and the accusative before the verb φθάνω. The two participles (“living, surviving”), with the article, are equivalent to two relative clauses; and they must be detached from the future verb, since otherwise one would have to translate: “We shall not be the first to live” (cf. Plato, Euthydemus, II, beginning; Curtius, § 391 e), which would be nonsense.Nor can it be maintained that the six verses (4:13–18), placed among the other recommendations, constitute the principal purpose of the epistle, which here speaks of an excessive expression of mourning; the Apostle explicitly states that he is writing to the faithful «so that they may not grieve like the pagans, deprived of the consoling Christian hope», and in order to «console them» (vv. 13, 18): this is a secondary theme concerning practical life, not an «error» or a new doctrine (Vosté, Buzy, Amiot, etc.). Of alleged «advantages» or «disadvantages» with regard to Christ’s final coming, there is no trace either in s. Paolo or in the rest of the New Testament; it is impossible to understand the motives and nature of the supposed «error». Finally, it is arbitrary to connect the most natural recommendation against the idle (which recurs, for example, in Eph. 4, 28; I Tim. 5, 13), «We urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, etc.» (I Thess. 5, 14; cf. 4, 11 ff.), with the alleged expectation of the imminent end. S. Paolo would repeat it forcefully in II Thess. 3, 6–12: «If anyone refuses to work, neither let him eat». There must have been many idlers in Thessalonica (cf. Act. 17, 5), and some had insinuated themselves among the faithful, perhaps exploiting the generous charity of the good converts, which Paolo praised (II Thess. 1, 3). Not a single word in the two letters can arouse the suspicion that anyone was abstaining from work because of a theoretical error, specifically because of the expectation of the parousia.
4. The fourth recommendation (5, 1–11)
After the final Resurrection and the physical coming of Jesus the judge have been mentioned, another theme begins (περί δέ, as in 4, 9), concerning the determination of the time of the «day of the Lord». All exegetes (Plummer, Orchard, in Biblica, 19 [1938], pp. 24–31; Buzy, Amiot, Rinaldi, etc.) recognize that here s. Paolo takes up literally (as in II Thess. 2, 1) the theme of Jesus (Mt. 24; Lc. 17, 22–18, 8; 21), with the same exhortations to remain vigilant, since death can overtake each person suddenly, especially on the occasion of collective calamities. Jesus spoke directly and exclusively of the end of Jerusalem, as is increasingly recognized today (A. Feuillet, F. Spadafora, A. Romeo, P. Benoit, in Revue biblique, 59 [1952], p. 119 ff.; P. Benoit, comm. a Mt. [La Bible de Jérusalem], Parigi 1950, pp. 135 ff.; C. Spicq, in Rev. des sciences philos. et théol., 36 [1952], p. 166, n. 53). The «day of the Lord», as in the Prophets of the Old Testament and as in Lc. 17, 22 ff., is the Lord’s intervention with his justice to punish the wicked and protect his own; a spectacular manifestation of the Messiah’s power, a prophecy of hope for the nascent Church persecuted by the Synagogue, it is precisely the destruction of Jerusalem (Mt. 10, 23; 16, 27 ff.; 26, 69 ff.; and parallel passages; in addition to Mt. 24 and Lc. 17; V. ESCATOLOGIA). S. Paolo repeats the Redeemer’s exhortation. Instead of investigating the time and circumstances (Mt. 24, 36, 42; Act. 1, 6 ff.: identical terms), which are God’s secret, let the disciples take care always to be well disposed; for God’s judgment, for each of them, may come suddenly (Mt. 24, 43; Lc. 21, 34, 36, etc.). In the punishment that will fall upon the Jewish people (as, in general, in the scourges that descend upon humanity), the righteous and sinners will perish together: the former for reward, the latter for eternal punishment. Among the disciples themselves, all who allow themselves to be caught in sin will perish forever. Jesus dwells on this warning in Lc. 17, 26–30, 33 ff. (cf. Mt. 24, 36–44); s. Paolo repeats it and concludes: «therefore console one another and build one another up, as indeed you are doing» (5, 11); this is therefore the same prophecy of Jesus concerning the end of the persecuting synagogue (Lc. 17, 20–18, 8; Mt. 24; Lc. 21; Mc. 13), a source of comfort for the nascent Church. In Thessalonica, the same situation had arisen as in Palestine (s. Paolo expressly states this in I Thess. 2, 14 ff., with a perfect parallelism). The Apostle therefore strengthens the neophytes persecuted by the Jews by setting before them Jesus’ celebrated prophecy; he had, moreover, alluded to it in the same passage, 2, 15 ff.: «The Jews, by persecuting the Church, are continually filling up the measure of their sins; God’s wrath is already descending upon them in all its force»; here too, the connection with Mt. 23, 32, 34, 38; 24, 2 leaves no doubt: «the wrath threatened by Paolo against the Jews as imminent and definitive, or complete, is the impending total destruction of Jerusalem foretold by Jesus» (G. Rinaldi [V. BIBLICA.], p. 56). II E. TO THE T. - A continuation and supplement to the First, it was written a few months later.After the initial greeting (1, 1 ff.) and the most heartfelt thanksgiving to God for the perseverance of the T. in faith and in the practice of charity, despite the harassment by the Jews,
s. Paolo encourages the faithful with the promise of the triumph of the kingdom of God and of their liberation from the hateful persecution (events for which they must prepare themselves worthily, V. 11 ff.) and with the threat of the deserved punishment for the Jews (1, 3-10).
This is the theme treated in I Thess. 5, 1-11, now reexamined: it is enough to compare II Thess. 1, 7, 10; Mt. 24, 30 f.; Lc. 21, 28, 31 (F. Spadafora, La fine di Gerusalemme, Rovigo 1951, pp. 93-108). There then follows the correction concerning a particular aspect of the subject in question: note further the literal parallelism between II Thess. 2, 1 ff. and Mt. 24, 31, 6, 4 etc. (Rinaldi [V. BIBLICA.], p. 141). “We beseech you, brethren, concerning the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ (= Mt. 24, 3; Mc. 13, 4; Lc. 21, 7; the ‘day of the Lord’ of I Thess. 5, 1-11 = the destruction of Jerusalem) and our gathering together with Him (= Mt. 24, 31; cf. Lc. 21, 28, 31; it is the ‘triumphal expansion of the Gospel, of the messianic kingdom, beginning with the ruin of Jerusalem’: M.-J. Lagrange; F. Spadafora, op. cit., p. 97 ff.), not to allow yourselves to be so disturbed (= Mt. 24, 6), as though the day of the Lord were imminent.” “Let no one deceive you” (= Mt. 24, 4 ff.); let them not be led astray; the Apostle has given them unmistakable signs that will show its nearness: let them recall them to mind (II Thess. 2, 1-17). There then follow a general admonition, which is also a prayerful wish of Paolo (3, 1-5); an energetic rebuke for those faithful who continue to live at the expense of others (3, 6-15); and the final good wish and greeting (3, 16-19).
The signs: “That day will not come before the apostasy has occurred (Mt. 24, 6-13; cf. 23, 16, 19; Mc. 13, 11 ff.; especially Lc. 18, 8; this concerns the defections that occurred in the Church of Palestine: Hebr. 6, 4 ff.; 10, 26-28; cf. Mt. 24, 13; Lc. 21, 19; Hebr. 10, 36) and the lawless one, the doomed one, the adversary (or ‘the Antichrist’: cf. I Io. 2, 18-22: it is the synagogue in the collective sense, the Zealots, their leaders, or in particular one of them), the one who opposes God and exalts himself (phrases taken from Dan. 11, 36; cf. 8, 10 f., spoken of the persecutor Antiochus IV Epiphanes, profaner of the Temple, ‘who shall exalt and magnify himself above every god...’), until he takes his seat in the Temple of God and proclaims himself God.” In reality, the Zealots and their leaders took possession of the Temple, which they profaned (Flavio Giuseppe, Bell. Iud., V. 1, 3, 13). This is the supreme and final sign given by Jesus for the beginning of the tribulation (the siege) and the destruction of Jerusalem (Mt. 24, 15; Mc. 13, 14: “when you see the horrible abomination [*Dan. 9, 17; 12, 11] standing in the holy place”). The abomination of desolation will be where it ought not to be (Mc.); more precisely, in the holy place (Mt.), that is, in the Temple (Dan.). It will be the profanation of the Temple, which occurred in 68 A.D., two years before the ruin of Jerusalem (Fl. Giuseppe, Bell. Iud., IV, 5, 1; 5, 3); the profanation of the Temple carried out by Antiochus Epiphanes and destined to be repeated on the eve of the desolation foretold by Daniel. In 68, when Giovanni di Giscala seized the sanctuary in order to turn it into his fortress, human blood flowed in streams in the holy place; two high priests and a crowd of noble victims fell beneath the daggers of the Zealots. This profanation was the presage of the imminent ruin. S. Luca put in place of this sign an equivalent one, more intelligible to his readers: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies....” In 69 A.D. the Roman legions occupied Hebron, Emmaus, Bethel, and Jericho; the iron circle was closing around the capital (F. Prat, Jesus-Christ, II, Parigi 1933, p. 247; S. Van Dodeward, in Studia catholica*, 20 [1944], pp. 125-35). “Do you not remember that, when I was with you, I used to tell you these things? And you know very well what is restraining (τὸ κατέχων ‘that which restrains’), so that he (the adversary) may be revealed only at the appointed moment (in his own time); for the mystery of iniquity is already at work, except that there is one who presently restrains it (ὁ κατέχων) until he is taken out of the way. Then the lawless one will be revealed; but Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and annihilate him with the brightness of his coming (parousia); and the ‘parousia’ of the wicked one, through the activity of Satan, will take place with every kind of seduction of which iniquity is capable, to the ruin of those who are lost because they did not accept and love the truth that would have saved them.”
«It must be admitted with certainty that Jesus (Mt. 24; Mc. 13, 22) and Paul (II Thess. 2, 1-12) speak of the same event, and that the prophecy of Jesus is the source of Paul’s doctrine (R. Staab [V. BIBLICA.], p. 41). The “mystery of iniquity,” already at work, is the violent persecution by the Jews, of which the Apostle speaks in both letters. The keystone for the exegesis of the passage and of the subject under discussion is the identification of the power (τὸ κατέχων in the neuter) and the person (ὁ κατέχων, masculine participle) that prevent the full manifestation of this iniquitous fury. “The neuter of V. 6 expresses an impersonal function of the obstacle, the masculine of V. 7 the personal agent of this same function... It must be recognized that the only explanation that takes account of the transition from the neuter to the masculine is the oldest and the most common, from the Fathers of the Church to modern scholars, despite the different ways in which it is understood: the neuter indicates the Roman Empire, Roman authority; the masculine, the representative of this authority in Palestine (others say the emperor, with disagreement as to his identity). Hugo Grotius proposed, with some probability, the name of the governor, Vitellius” (O. Cullmann [V. BIBLICA.], p. 212 ff.). Fr. Vostè called this explanation “traditional” and almost “apostolic.” The objection repeatedly formulated (Cullmann, Buzs., etc.) against it—that the Roman Empire has fallen, whereas the Antichrist has not come with the end of the world—disappears when, instead of improperly projecting this passage onto the end of the world, its terms are explained in their true meaning and in the light of Mt. 24 and Lc. 21, from which they are taken; and when one looks realistically at the fulfillment of this prophecy. The Jews are restrained in their hatred against the nascent Church by the authority of Rome. They feign a popular uprising in order to kill, without authorization, s. Stefano (Act. 7, 57-60); only the providential intervention of a tribune wrests Paolo from their hands, while they are dragging him out of the sacred place to kill him (ibid. 21, 27-34); and the tribune must send him under escort to Cesarea in order to thwart the plot made to assassinate him (ibid. 23, 12-35). Under Erode Agrippa (ibid. 12), Giacomo is killed, and Pietro would have suffered the same fate. Once Judea had returned under the Roman procurators (42-62: from Agrippa’s persecution until the death of Giacomo “brother of the Lord”), however, the Church lived in peace. “This twenty-year truce was undoubtedly brought about by the Roman administration, which had resumed the government of Judea...” (G. Lebreton, in Fliche-Martin-Frutz, I [1937], p. 209). “In 61 and 62 the high priest Anna (Hanan) the younger, taking advantage of the circumstance that Festo had died and that Albino, his successor, had not yet arrived, convened the Sanhedrin and brought before it the brother of Jesus, called Giacomo, and some others, as guilty of having violated the law, and had them stoned” (Flavio Giuseppe, Antiq. Iud., XX, 9, 1). Hatred will erupt violently when this authority, in the person of its representative, is set aside by the rebellion of the Zealots, who rose up against the Romans; they expelled (in the middle of 66 A.D.) Gessio Floro and drove out the legate of Syria, Cestio Gallo (at the beginning of November 66), who had intervened with an army. For the prodigies, signs, etc., on the part of the wicked one, cf. Mt. 24, 23 ff.; Mc. 13, 21 f. (Fl. Giuseppe, Bell. Iud., VI, 3). Jesus had told the Jews that, by rejecting his word, they would accept any other false messiah (Io. 5, 43); this was being realized, and the Jews (II Thess. 2, 12), “who do not know God, who do not obey the gospel of Our Lord,” will suffer the dreadful punishment (ibid. 1, 7-9). To Christians, on the other hand, the marvelous expansion of the Church is foretold in connection with the destruction of Jerusalem (Lc. 21, 28-31; II Thess. 2, 17: cf. A. Harnack, Missione e propagazione del cristianesimo nei primi tre secoli, Italian trans., Torino 1906, p. 41 ff.). At Tessalonica, in the face of the violent Jewish persecution, s. Paolo had communicated this prophecy, imitating the example of Jesus, who, after foretelling sufferings and persecutions to his followers, had added the promise of the Church’s triumph. S. Paolo knew from the apostolic catechesis that the destruction of Jerusalem would take place before the generation contemporary with the Redeemer had passed away (Mt. 24, 34 and parallels), but he did not know its precise date, which the Lord had kept secret (Mt. 24, 36; Mc. 13, 32). Approximately twenty years had passed (from 30 A.D. to about 51), and Paolo already considered it near (I Thess. 1, 10; 2, 16; cf. 5, 1-11). There is no cause for surprise or error (no new doctrine) if the faithful, under the lash of persecution, believed it to be even more imminent. But s. Paolo had also communicated to them the preceding signs, including the immediate and unmistakable sign of rebellion against Rome and the profanation of the Temple. They therefore should not, and could not, give themselves over to futile expectations or create illusions that might prove dangerous. This explains why s. Paolo does not return to this subject in his other letters (Gal., Cor., Rom., etc.); it is a matter of environmental circumstance. He will return to it instead, with fairly clear allusions, in Hebr. The literal-historical exegesis, which excludes any reference to the end of the world, is the only plausible one and does justice to the text and context (cf. L. Tondelli, Gesù Cristo, Torino 1936, pp. 388-399). It is enough to consider the futility of the attempts made to explain II Thess. 2 from the perspective of the end of the world (Buzy [V. BIBLICA.], p. 182 ff.), so that many modern scholars (B. Rigaux [V. BIBLICA.], p. 306 ff.; G. Ricciotti; etc.), echoing s. Agostino (De civ. Dei, XX, 19), assert that it is impossible to determine the nature of the obstacle and therefore the precise meaning of the passage.
Tra gli ultimi tentativi esegetici, gode attualmente favore tra i cattolici (Allo, Buzy, Amiot) quello che, avvicinando II Thess. 2, 1-11 ad Apoc. 11, vede nella lotta della bestia contro i due testimoni l'analogia chiarificatrice per la nostra pericope: i testimoni (che combattono le forze del male, vengono uccisi dalla bestia) corrisponderebbero esattamente all'ostacolo che impedisce la manifestazione dell'avversario, il quale avrà campo libero solo quando l'ostacolo sarà messo da parte; ma lo stesso Amiot deve riconoscere ([V. BIBLICA.] p. 277 sgg.) che «la scomparsa momentanea dei predicatori del vangelo rimane un mistero», che Gesù ha assicurato la sua protezione fino alla fine della fase terrestre del Regno di Dio (Mt. 28, 20). Ma, quel che più conta, è erroneo addurre qui l'Apocalisse, scritto posteriore e di un genere letterario ben differente; il veggente di Patmos adombra la lotta continua di Satana contro il Regno di Dio in tutto il corso del suo sviluppo, dalla incarnazione del Verbo fino a che la fase terrestre del Regno di Dio non sia finita; e la pericope dei due testimoni è attualmente intesa, ben a ragione, del martirio di s. Pietro e di s. Paolo a Roma sotto Nerone. Satana trionfa, nei suoi satelliti; ma i veri trionfatori sono i martiri; la persecuzione è passata, Nerone è stato ucciso, ma la Chiesa permane, si sviluppa purificandosi, trionfa (Apoc. 11, 3-13; cf. J. Munck, Petrus und Paulus in der Offenbarung Johannis, Copenhagen 1950, recens. in Revue biblique, 58 [1951], p. 627 sgg.; P. Boismard, L'apocalypse ou les apocalypses de St Jean, ibid., 56 [1949], pp. 533 sgg., 540; e già J. Mariana, 1619). Né c'è bisogno di sottolineare come i segni offerti da s. Paolo dovevano essere cose chiare, inconfondibili, che si sarebbero realizzate allora. Nelle altre spiegazioni, invece, si rimane nella più grande indeterminatezza: i segni sarebbero generici e perciò inutili. L'ammeterre, poi, in Paolo una opinione errata circa la prossimità della fine, contraddice alle circostanze ambientali-storiche ed a tutto il contesto delle due Thess. Con la spiegazione del discorso di Gesù sulla fine di Gerusalemme (Lc. 17, 20-18, 8; Mt. 24; Mc. 13; Lc. 21), che esclude ogni accenno sulla fine del mondo, si è finalmente aperta la strada alla retta comprensione della II Thess. 1-2, in stretta connessione con la I Thess. (specie 5, 1-11); nelle due Thess. echeggia la solenne profezia di Gesù.
(Verbum Salutis, 14), ivi 1946, pp. 243-83; K. Staab (Regensburger Bibel), Ratisbona 1950, pp. 9-40; G. Rinaldi, Milano 1950. Comm. acatt. più recenti: G. Milligan, Londra 1908; W. Bornemann - E. V. Dobschütz, Gottinga 1909; S. Wohlenberg, 2ª ed., Lipsia 1909; J. E. Frame, Edimburgo 1912; A. Plummer, Londra 1918-19; J. Schreider (I Thess.), Berlino 1932; E. J. Bicknell, Londra 1932; L. Lindeboom, Kampen 1934; A. Cepke, 3ª ed., Gottinga 1937; M. Dibellius (Handbuch zum N. Test., 11), 3ª ed., Tubinga 1937, pp. 1-58; G. Putthammer, Amburgo 1938; G. Helbig (II Thess.), Berlino 1939; W. Neil, Londra 1950. Studi più recenti: B. Rigaux, L'Antéchrist, Gembloux-Parigi 1932, pp. 250-309; E. B. Allo, L'Apocalypse, 2ª ed., Parigi 1933, pp. cxxi-cxxxvii; O. Cullmann, Le caractère eschatol. du devoir mission. et de la conscience apostol. de St Paul. Etude sur le xxi(x) (uv) de II Thess. 2, 6 sgg., in Rev. d'hist. et de phil. relig., 16 (1936), pp. 210-45; J. N. Orchard, Thessalonians and the synoptic Gospels, in Biblica, 19 (1938), pp. 19-44; id., St. Paul and the Book of Daniel, ibid., 20 (1939), pp. 172-79; L. O. Bristol, Paul's Thessal. corrispond., in Expository times, 55 (1943-44), p. 222 sgg.; E. P. Blair, The first epistle to the Thessal. (Studia Biblica, 2), in Interpretation, 2 (1948), pp. 208-17; H. Lagenberg, Der zweite Thessalonichsbrief. Die Zubereitung der Gemeinde für ihren Beruf, für das Königreich Gottes zu leiden, Wüstenroth 1948; J. Schmid, Der Antichrist und die hemmende Macht (II Thess., 2, 1-12), in Theol. Quartalchr., 129 (1949), pp. 323-43; J. M. Ruiz Gonzales, La incredulidad de Israel y los impedimentos del Anticristo, según II Thess., 2, 6, 9, in Est. bibl., 10 (1951), pp. 180-203; V. Laridon, Paulus, Thess. Apostolus. Pauli doctrina eschatol. in Thess., in Coll. Brug., 47 (1951), pp. 29-33, 57-60, 89-94, 111-15, 169-74, 195-98.