as certainly immediate. A thief may
come suddenly in the night, and yet the man who gives warning that the
thief will come, does not necessarily mean that the thief is coming
without delay. It has been urged (b) that the doctrine of Antichrist
in 2 Thessalonians is un-Pauline, and depends on the Book of
Revelation. But there is not the least improbability in supposing that
St. Paul was in touch with these ideas about the end of the world. We
know that such ideas were common among the Jews at this period. Nor is
there any proof that the teaching of 2 Thessalonians on this subject is
derived from the Revelation of St. John. Moreover, on the least
Christian view with regard to Christ and the Gospels, it is irrational
to deny that our Lord made various predictions about His second coming.
We find a list of such predictions in Matt. xxiv. and in the parallel
passages of the other Gospels. It is therefore natural to find St.
Paul speaking about the end of the world in language which resembles
that used by our Lord, or that found in Daniel, Ezekiel, and the later
Jewish Apocalypses.

[Sidenote: Where and when written.]

St. Paul sent this Epistle from Corinth, probably towards the end of
the year 51.

Several modern writers have dated 2 Thessalonians earlier than 1
Thessalonians. The grounds for this view are the references in this
Epistle to the teaching lately given by St. Paul while at Thessalonica.
But although these references would be natural in any Epistle written
first after his departure from that place, they do not necessarily
imply that 2 Thessalonians was the first. Moreover, ii. 2 probably
contains a reference to the First Epistle, and this letter was
apparently written to clear up a difficulty which the First Epistle did
not solve. Persecution had continued at Thessalonica, and higher
excitement and wider confusion prevailed. The Thessalonians were more
sure than ever that Christ's advent was coming immediately, on the
strength, perhaps, of some words in St. Paul's earlier letter to them,
{131} supported by a forged letter which pretended to be his and by
feigned revelations. The result was entire neglect of daily duties.
"There is no reason," men said, "why I should work for my living or try
to be provident, because the Lord is sure to come to-day or to-morrow."

As the circumstances are so similar to those in the First Epistle, and
as Silvanus (otherwise Silas) and Timothy are still with the ap