Corpus-Paul

[Jeff Peterson <peterson AT mail.ics.edu>]

At 12:03 PM -0700 4/27/99, Jeff Peterson wrote:
>There is still the business of 3:17 to figure out -- the author for some
>reason wants to underscore that this letter bears his personal seal of
>approval -- but I think this is even harder to make work for pseudonymity.

It occurred to me after sending this that to conclude in this way risks
confusing the principal issue under discussion, viz. the significance of
the phrase MHTE DI' EPISTOLHS hWS DI' hHMWN in 2 Thess 2:2, which is
logically prior to a judgment on the authorship question. I.e., if the
interpretation of the phrase I've argued for is valid, one must then try
out construing it as Paul's statement and as a Paulinist's in order to
assess the probabilities for authorship (and so also with 3:17).

So while joining Abraham Malherbe and Stan Stowers in thinking that both
statements make better sense if Paul himself wrote the letter, I didn't
mean to collapse the two questions. And herewith my oath to respond to my
own posts only when I stand violently in need of correction.

Jeff

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Jeffrey Peterson
Institute for Christian Studies
Austin, Texas, USA
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