In my previous post I explained the major theses and emphases of 2 Thessalonians, and pointed out that in many ways it is very similar in its concerns and themes to 1 Thesssalonians.  But I also said that it is commonly considered by scholars to be “Deutero-Pauline,” that is, written by a later author only *claiming* to be Paul.  How can we know?  As I said there, the problem from a historian’s point of view is that someone who had decided to imitate Paul would no doubt try to sound like Paul. If both Paul and an imitator of Paul could sound like Paul, how could we possibly know whether we are dealing with the apostle himself or one of his later followers?

Here’s how I deal with the matter in my textbook on the New Testament (Oxford University Press, ch. 23).

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There is, in fact, a way to resolve this kind of historical whodunit, and it involves looking at the other side of the coin, that is, at the parts of 2 Thessalonians that do not sound like Paul. These peculiar features provide the best indicators of whether the letter is authentic or was written by a member of one of Paul’s churches after the apostle himself had passed from the scene. Such negative evidence is useful because we would expect an imitator to sound like Paul, but we would not expect Paul not to sound like Paul. It is, therefore, the differences from Paul that are most crucial for establishing whether Paul wrote this, or any other, disputed letter.

With respect to 2 Thessalonians, the most intriguing issue is one that I have already alluded to: the author writes to assure his readers that even though the end will be soon it will not come right away. Other things must happen first. They should therefore hold on to their hopes and their jobs, for there is still time left. Does this sound like the same person who urged the readers of his first letter to stay alert so as not to be taken by surprise when Jesus returns (1 Thess 5:3, 6) since the end would come with no advance warning, “like a thief in the night” (1 Thess 5:2), bringing “sudden destruction” (1 Thess 5:3)? According to 2 Thessalonians, there will be plenty of advance warning. That which is restraining the man of lawlessness will be removed, and then the Antichrist figure will reveal himself, exalt himself above all other objects of worship, establish his throne in the Jerusalem Temple, and declare himself to be God. Only then will Christ return. How is this like a thief in the night who comes when people least expect it?

It is particularly interesting that the author claims to have taught the Thessalonians these things while he was with them (2 Thess 2:5). If he had done so, one might wonder why he did not appeal to this knowledge of upcoming events in his first letter, when he answered the Thessalonians’ question about “those who have fallen asleep”—for example, by pointing out that of course some people would die before the end since it was not imminent. In 1 Thessalonians, however, Paul does not say, “Remember that the day of the Lord is not already here; first the man of lawlessness must be revealed.” Indeed, if the Thessalonians had already been fully apprised of this future course of events at the time of the first letter, one might wonder why they were surprised by the death of some of their members in the first place.

Finally, if the future appearance of the Antichrist actually was a central component of Paul’s teaching, as intimated in 2 Thessalonians 2:5, it is very strange that he never says a word about it in any of his other letters. These difficulties make it hard to see how Paul could have written both of the letters to the Thessalonians. One of the most interesting things about the second one is how it ends: “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the mark in every letter of mine; it is the way I write” (2 Thess 3:17). This means that “Paul” dictated the letter to a scribe but then added his own signature to it, as he did, for example, in Galatians (see Gal 6:11). What is peculiar is that he claims this to be his invariable practice, even though there is no evidence that he ended most of his other letters this way, including 1 Thessalonians! The words are hard to account for as Paul’s, but they make perfect sense as the words of an imitator of Paul who wants his readers to be assured that despite the fact that they have received at least one letter that was forged in Paul’s name (2 Thess 2:2), this is not another one.

Some scholars have taken the question of forgery a bit further and suggested that when the author, claiming to be Paul, tries to soothe his readers not to be led astray by a forged letter (“as if by us”; 2 Thess 2:2) that maintains, in Paul’s name, that the end is right around the corner, that the forger is actually referring to 1 Thessalonians! That is, someone living later wanted to disabuse readers of the message that Paul himself had taught about the imminent end, since it did not, after all, come, and Paul and everyone else had died in the meantime. And so, an author provided some reassurance by forging a letter claiming that the authentic letter was a forgery. Whether or not that is right, what seems relatively certain is that someone, after the time of Paul, decided that he had to intervene in a situation in which people were eagerly anticipating the end—so eagerly, he suggests, that they were neglecting the duties of daily life (2 Thess 3:6–12)—and did so by penning a letter in Paul’s name, knowing full well that he was someone else living later.

We obviously don’t know who actually wrote this letter of 2 Thessalonians if it wasn’t Paul, and we can only speculate about when the real author was living. We can assume that he wrote sometime after Paul had died, possibly near the end of the first century, when writing letters in Paul’s name became both more feasible and, from what we can tell, more popular. Moreover, we know that during the period, some Christian groups were beginning to face increased hostilities within their social contexts and that some of them were turning to a renewed hope in the return of Christ in light of these conflicts.

Thus the author must have been a Christian from one of the churches that Paul had established, who evidently had read 1 Thessalonians (hence, e.g., the almost identical opening). He wrote to help resolve the problems that Christians of his day were facing, choosing to do so in the name of Paul, the founder and hero of his church, one whose words would be heard and heeded. Writing as the apostle himself, he urged his readers to keep the faith and to maintain their hope but not to expect the end of the age in the immediate future. God’s plan for the end was in the process of being implemented, but believers must not be too eager, living only for tomorrow and not tending to the needs of today. They must suffer boldly and wait faithfully for the day of judgment in which their longings would be fulfilled and their afflictions vindicated.