2. Thessalonias

The Papyrological Commentary on Second Thessalonians is aimed at investigating the use of published documentary papyri and ostraca (III BCE - III CE) to illuminate not only the text, language, society, and thought of 2Thess but also its contemporary and social background. It is a continuous and complete commentary based on documentary papyri and ostraca. Therefore, this Papyrological Commentary is an important supplement to traditional biblical commentaries. This volume contains three main parts (according to the series): "Additional remarks to the method of the Commentaries", "Introduction" and "Commentary". In the first part special investigations are made concerning the comparability of Egyptian and Non-Egyptian documentary papyri, ostraca and tablets. These witnesses are extremely valuable not only because they are mainly found outside of Egypt but also because they give evidence of the same kind of thinking and writing in the entire Roman Empire. On the one hand, phrases and formulas that occur in Greek documentary texts as well as in Latin demonstrate that the so called "Sonderstellung Ägyptens" must be considered as a myth. On the other hand, these examples show very clearly that the aim of the Papyrological Commentaries does make sense also in this particular way. In the second part the volume deals with the "traditional" questions of introduction of 2Thess in as far as the papyri are able to enlighten the traditional discussions. This is the case for the question of the authorship of 2Thess. In his contribution "Untersuchung der stilistischen Eigenheiten in antiken Papyrusarchiven" ("Analyses of stylistic peculiarities in ancient papyrus archives") Günther Schwab demonstrates that in ancient papyrus archives a linguistic and stylistic individuality of the ancient writers can be identified. The letters that have been compared in this never before made analysis are preserved in their original form. Based on this knowledge, answers can be given to the question who the author of 2Thess might have been. On the one hand, it is obvious that formulas and phrases in 2Thess are used in a way different from private papyrus letters. This leads to the hypothesis that the author of 2Thess tried to imitate Paul`s individual style of writing a letter which we can find in the "authentic letters" (Rom, 1/2Cor, Gal, Phil, 1Thess, Phlm) and which corresponds to the use of formulas in papyrus letters. But the author obviously exaggerates, and while trying to imitate Paul he breaks with the conventions of letter writing, which can be found both in the papyri and in the "authentic letters" of Paul. One important example is the combination of the two verbs paa and paaa in 2Thess 3:12, which cannot be found in the papyri. On the other hand, it is shown that remarkably many phrases in 2Thess belong to a legal context in the papyri and cannot be found in private letters. This allows the assumption that the author of 2Thess is accustomed to legal terminology and maybe also lawsuits. Taking 2Thess as a pseudepigraphic writing, references of the author concerning labor (2Thess 3:8) can be identified as a successful transfer of Paul`s own thoughts. The "unresting labor" to earn his own money in order to be no burden to the members of the community is one of the main characteristics of the Apostle Paul which is expressed several times in his "authentic letters" (1Kor 4:12, 9:1-23, 1Thess 2:9, 4:11). In the third part a verse-by-verse commentary of the text of 2Thess is given. One example (among the many payprological observations on several terms and phrases which are made in this part) is the characterization of the "man of sin" and the "son of perdition" (2Thess 2:3): The papyrological evidence shows that pea ("perdition") is found in the context of robbery, personal injury, and murder. Furthermore, other words like ed ("lie") in 2:9, which is used for "false statement" during lawsuits in the papyri, and p ("deception") in 2:11 stress the cruelty of his actions. In the papyri this kind of actions are supposed to have legal consequences. Equally, the destruction of "the lawless one" (2:8) is described in a strong terminology. Both, the lawless one and his doing are stopped: a ("slay") is used for different types of murder in the papyri, and ata ("to bring to nought") marks the stop of an ongoing action. As mentioned, the language of the author of 2Thess is full of terms that are used in a legal context in the papyri. One example is the phrase at da tp ("in no way") in 2:3 which can be found exclusively in legal texts, especially in contracts. In addition to the index of the quoted papyri, ostraca and tablets these volume contains for the first time ever also a list of corrections of published papyri that are made during the commentary, an index of the analyzed Greek terms and phrases and, finally, an index of modern authors.