Will Vaus

Today in our journey along Route 66 we come to Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians... Author 2 Thessalonians was received as a genuine letter of Paul by the early church fathers. [1]   However, Pauline authorship is questioned by quite a few modern scholars. Some modern scholars who doubt Pauline authorship believe that 2 Thessalonians was written in conscious imitation of 1 Thessalonians by an author writing in Paul’s name. However, I find the arguments of those who doubt Pauline authorship unconvincing. I agree with Tom Wright who has written that such arguments against Pauline authorship are “over-clever and unnecessary”. [2] Paul always dictated his letters to a secretary, and this may help to explain the differences in vocabulary in this letter. While it is possible that Paul did not write this letter (anything is possible) doubting Pauline authorship of this letter seems to me to make a mockery of what the author says at the end of this brief correspondence… I, Paul, wr...

Today in our journey along Route 66 we come to Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians... Author Paul is the undisputed author of 1 Thessalonians. Bible commentators ancient and modern are agreed upon that. Date   Another thing that all Bible commentators are agreed upon is that 1 Thessalonians is one of the earliest letters in the New Testament. In fact, it may be the oldest book in the New Testament. This letter may have been written as early as AD 48.   The Church at Thessalonica was founded by the Apostle Paul and was born amidst persecution. You can read the whole story in Acts 17. Pauls’ fellow Jews in Thessalonica, who had rejected his message, drove Paul out of town. Apparently, they continued to persecute those in Thessalonica who had become followers of Jesus as their Messiah. Paul wrote his first letter to the Thessalonian Church a short time after his first visit there. Themes Paul wrote this letter to encourage this fledgling church amidst their suffering. So, it...

Today in our journey along Route 66 we come to Paul’s Letter to the Colossians...   Author In the early church this letter was universally accepted as a genuine letter of the Apostle Paul. In the 19 th  century some critical scholars came to be belief that the heresy which Paul refutes in chapter 2 was that of Gnosticism.  The word “Gnosticism” comes from the Greek word “Gnosis” which means “knowledge”. The Gnostics believed that the world was created and ruled by a lesser divinity, a demiurge, and that Christ was an emissary of the remote supreme divine being. Furthermore, the Gnostics believed that Jesus had passed on to them, by word of mouth, secret knowledge of the one, true supreme being, enabling them alone to achieve redemption.  Now, here’s the thing…  the Gnostic heresy did not appear in its full-blown form until the second century. So, if the letter to the Colossians was addressing the Gnostic heresy, then it could not have been written...