2 Thessalonians

2022: from my notes from my seminary class:

2 Thessalonians is one of the most disputed regarding the authorship of Paul.
But most think it was written a generation or 2 after Paul's death
Paul thought Jesus' return was imminent but 2 Thessalonians gives a very different picture.

-The author is disputing a claim that Christ has already returned.
-The author then outlines a series of events that will happen before Christ returns: Rebellion, revelation of the lawless one, and an eschatological figure.
-Paul said Jesus was coming back imminent. So when Jesus hadn't come back yet, people had to reckon with that and try to explain that.
-The eschatology of the church needed rethinking

There are other perspectives - so why might these people not be working? The author of 2 Thes doesn't ask that question. Maybe they weren't lazy, maybe they thought the world was going to be ending soon. Maybe they couldn't find employment. Maybe they were injured. There were multiple ways of thinking about it.

Our inclination for a long time has been to side with the author of the text, but we don't have to do that.