2 Thessalonians 1:2-12

1:2 Grace and peace to you ¹  from God the ²  Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Thanksgiving

1:3 We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, ³  and rightly so, ⁴  because your faith flourishes more and more and the love of each one of you all for one another is ever greater. 1:4 As a result we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions you are enduring.

Encouragement in Persecution

1:5 This is evidence of God’s righteous judgment, to make you worthy ⁵  of the kingdom of God, for which in fact you are suffering. 1:6 For it is right ⁶  for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 1:7 and to you who are being afflicted to give rest together with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed ⁷  from heaven with his mighty angels. ⁸  1:8 With flaming fire he will mete out ⁹  punishment on those who do not know God ¹⁰  and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 1:9 They ¹¹  will undergo the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, ¹²  1:10 when he comes to be glorified among his saints and admired ¹³  on that day among all who have believed – and you did in fact believe our testimony. ¹⁴  1:11 And in this regard we pray for you always, that our God will make you worthy of his calling ¹⁵  and fulfill by his power your every desire for goodness and every work of faith, 1:12 that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to ¹⁶  the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

[1:2]  ¹ tn Grk “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ² tc ‡ Most witnesses (א A F G I 0278 Ï lat sy sa) have ἡμῶν (Jhmwn) after πατρός (patros), reading “God our Father,” in apparent emulation of Paul’s almost universal style. The omission of the pronoun (the reading of B D P 0111^vid 33 1739 1881 pc) seems to be the original wording of this salutation. As well, the intrinsic evidence also supports the shorter reading: If 2 Thessalonians is authentic, it was one of Paul’s earliest letters, and, if so, his stereotyped salutation was still in embryonic form (see discussion at 1 Thess 1:1). NA²⁷ places the word in brackets, indicating some doubts as to its authenticity.

[1:3]  ³ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[1:3]  ⁴ tn Grk “as is worthy.”

[1:5]  ⁵ tn Grk “so that you may be made worthy.” The passive infinitive καταξιωθῆναι (kataxiwqhnai) has been translated as an active construction in English for stylistic reasons.

[1:6]  ⁶ tn Grk “if in fact/since,” as a continuation of the preceding.

[1:7]  ⁷ tn Grk “at the revelation of the Lord Jesus.”

[1:7]  ⁸ tn Grk “angels of power,” translated as an attributive genitive.

[1:8]  ⁹ tn Grk “meting out,” as a description of Jesus Christ in v. 7. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started at the beginning of v. 8 in the translation.

[1:8]  ¹⁰ sn An allusion to Jer 10:25, possibly also to Ps 79:6 and Isa 66:15.

[1:9]  ¹¹ tn Grk “who,” describing the people mentioned in v. 8. A new sentence was started here in the translation by replacing the relative pronoun with a personal pronoun.

[1:9]  ¹² tn Or “power,” or “might.” The construction can also be translated as an attributed genitive: “from his glorious strength” (cf. TEV “glorious might”; CEV “glorious strength”; NLT “glorious power”).

[1:10]  ¹³ tn Or “marveled at.”

[1:10]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “because our testimony to you was believed.”

[1:11]  ¹⁵ tn Or “your calling.”

[1:12]  ¹⁶ tn Or “by means of.”