Epistola II ad Thessalonicenses
by Anselm of Laon and his school
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://migne.app/pl/114/epistola-ii-ad-thessalonicenses/
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## THE ARGUMENT.

[0619D]

The Apostle writes a second Epistle to the Thessalonians, and makes known to them concerning the last times, and concerning the casting down of the adversary. He writes this Epistle from Athens by Titus the deacon and Onesimus the acolyte.

## CHAPTER ONE.

[0620D]

VERS. 3.-- *To give thanks,* etc. Here he gives thanks to God for their good things, lest perchance they be lifted up over so great a good as they had from God, as though they had it from themselves. *Toward one another.* Namely, that he who is loved may love others, and by mutual services show forth charity.

[0621A]VERS. 5.-- *For an example of the just,* etc. For if he punishes sins so severely in the penitent, what will he do to the hardened? He says this, that it may be understood that he spares not the ungodly who spares not the just. *Just: if indeed it is just,* which it is agreed to be. For *if indeed* is not put here for doubt, but for affirmation; whence another interpreter says: *Since indeed he is just,* etc.

VERS. 7.-- *Unto the revelation.* [var: Vulg. *in revelatione*, ablative, "at the revelation"] He begins to show how horrible the tribulation is to be for those, and how pleasant the rest for these.

VERS. 8.-- *Of the Lord Jesus.* Of him coming *in a flame of fire:* not that he is encompassed with flame, but by the effect, because he will burn up his enemies. *To them that have not known God.* For others are they who know not the law.

VERS. 9.-- *Who shall give penalties.* That is, they shall undergo them. [0621B] For "to give" is sometimes put for "to undergo," and so here also. And fittingly: for he who suffers gives to him whom he has offended penalties as it were acceptable. *Eternal in destruction.* As if he should say: They will always feel the penalties, yet they will not always fail.

*When he shall come to be glorified,* etc. For he himself will be seen glorious and wonderful in them that believe, but he will appear severe upon the unbelieving, when he shall shut them up in eternal punishments. And the brief sense of these words is this: He will come to punish the wicked, and to glorify the good.

VERS. 10.-- *Because the testimony.* Therefore he gives rest with us to you that are afflicted, because the testimony, that is, whatever we have said concerning that day of judgment, you have believed concerning the glory of the good and the punishment of the wicked.

VERS. 11.-- *In which.* The order of the words is this: *In which day we pray, that he may vouchsafe,* that is, may judge you worthy: [0621C] *We always pray.* Or *in which,* that is, for which, or for the avoiding of the peril of which day, prayer must always be made. *The work of faith.* That is, confession, which properly is the work of faith in power, so that they may in no wise be turned aside from confession. Or, the work of faith is every good thing which faith requires: and without which faith is dead. *In the power* of perseverance, namely, that he may give you perseverance even unto the end.

## CHAPTER II.

VERS. 1.-- *And we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,* etc. Thus far he has said that he gives thanks for them and prays; here he determines concerning the day of judgment, beseeching them that they do not lightly and readily take up an opinion concerning the coming of the Lord as of one close at hand, nor be terrified.

VERS. 2.-- *Be not soon moved.* As if he should say: If you be moved; it is soon, for nothing is brought upon you which lasts long. *Nor by spirit.* That is, if a malignant spirit, appearing in a vision as an angel of light, should persuade you of this. Or, if any man should say that through the Holy Spirit revealing it he has come to know this, that the day of judgment is at hand, do not believe him. *Nor by epistle.* For prevaricators are wont, that they may deceive, to feign a letter under the name of some famous man, that the authority of the name may commend what by itself could not be received. *As if the day of the Lord were at hand.* He does not say this in such a way as not to wish that they should have their loins girt and lamps burning in their hands, waiting for when the Lord shall return from the wedding.

[0622A]VERS. 5.-- *For unless there come.* He speaks covertly of the destruction of the Roman empire, lest he should provoke them to the persecution of the Church. Or he says this of the spiritual empire of the Roman Church, or of a departure from the faith. *Unless the deserter come first.* [var: Vulg. *discessio*, "the departure"] So some codices have it. And it is doubtful to none that he said this of Antichrist, whom he calls a deserter: from the Lord God, assuredly. For if this can deservedly be said of all the ungodly, how much more of this one! *The son of perdition.* Antichrist, not by nature, but by imitation.

VERS. 4.-- *In the temple.* Or, *the temple.* Some will have it that in this place not the prince himself only, but his whole body, that is, the multitude of men belonging to him together with the prince himself, is to be understood; and they think it more rightly said, as it is in the Greek, [0622B] not *in the temple,* but *that he sit into the temple of God,* as though he himself with his own were the temple of God, which is the Church. As it is said: He sits into a friend, that is, as a friend.

VERS. 6.-- *You know.* He says that they know what withholds, and he does not openly expound it, and therefore we know not, save that certain men suspect it to have been said of the Roman empire, until it be taken away, or be made out of the midst. And therefore that the Apostle did not wish to write this openly, lest, namely, he should incur the calumny of having wished ill to the Roman empire, since it was hoped to be everlasting. *In his own time.* The accession to the Roman empire and to the obedience of the Roman Church being completed, there will come the departure from both empires: which being fulfilled, that wicked one will come, the time of mercy being fulfilled in which the fulness [0622C] of the Gentiles enters into the faith: the departure will be revealed, and so the day of the Lord will be at hand.

VERS. 7.-- *For the mystery,* etc. Already in the very beginnings of the accession iniquity is found, but a mystical one, that is, cloaked under the name of piety, so that they wish to be held ministers of Christ when they are false ones. The devil secretly slew the martyrs through Nero and others, as he is then about to do openly through him, by slaying Elias and Enoch and very many others: and Nero and the others are a shadow of the Antichrist to come, as David and Abel are of Christ. *Until it be made out of the midst.* That is, let that power of the Roman empire be taken away out of the midst of the world: because all men from every side flowed together to Rome as to a head. Or, let him who holds the faith hold it, until it grow cold. Or, let him who withholds him, that is, the accession to the faith, withhold, until it be taken out of the midst. Or, until the iniquity which now is mystical be made out of the midst, that is, as it were among common things, so that a man blush not to commit adultery or to steal, as neither to walk or to speak. *Let it be made out of the midst.* Namely the departure, that is, let it appear manifestly: and then, the departure from the true God being now revealed, charity being now grown cold from the abundance of iniquity, he will be revealed, etc.

VERS. 8.-- *With the spirit of his mouth.* That is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, who is called the spirit of the mouth, because he proceeds from him.

VERS. 9, 10.-- *Lying, and in all seduction.* Those signs are called lying, either because they will not be true as they [0623A] appear, but phantastic. Or if true, by God's permission they will draw men to a lie.

*Therefore God shall send them. [n: (AUG., lib. XX, de Civit. Dei, c. 19.)]* God will permit the devil to do these things, etc., *as far as* otherwise most unjustly judged.

VERS. 12.-- *Firstfruits unto salvation.* Namely, that not in that perilous last time, but in the primitive Church we should believe in Christ, and confess the faith. Or, us the apostles the firstfruits of all believers, because the apostles believed first, and this unto the salvation of all nations.

VERS. 13.-- *Unto the purchasing of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.* Or, that you may be a purchase in which God may be glorified.

VERS. 15.-- *And hath given consolation.* By promising [0623B] the kingdom of heaven. *In grace.* That is, through the grace which he has given, we hope for eternal things. Or, he gave all these things not by our merit, but in his grace.



## CHAPTER III.

VERS. 1.-- *For the rest, brethren, pray.* He exhorts that prayer must be made, that God may vouchsafe to direct his doctrine with unwearied course and to pour it through the mouths of the apostles into the ears of the hearers, and from the ears into the hearts, that the seditions of the wicked may be curbed.

VERS. 2.-- *That we may be delivered.* From the false ones, lest they seduce ours, or lay snares for us. Or, that we may be delivered from importunate men, that is, from unbelievers who resist the word of God, and stand not in the haven of quiet. *And from wicked men,* who, being unbelievers, persecute. Therefore I say, *that we may be delivered,* because not yet [0623C] have all received the faith through me who are to receive it. *For faith is not of all men.* That is, not even with you praying will all believe, but only those foreordained unto the adoption of sons.

VERS. 6.-- *We charge.* He begins concerning the curious and the idle, admonishing the good to correct them.

VERS. 7.-- *You know how you ought to imitate us.* [var: Vulg. *quemadmodum oporteat imitari nos*, "how you ought to imitate us"] And since they do not these things, you ought to shun them. Or, [0624A] they walk not according to the tradition. For you know how I bore myself, which you do not see in them; as if he should say: There is no need that I should expound to you that tradition, because you know it, namely that we were not restless, as those are who mind other men's business, wandering hither and thither.

VERS. 9.-- *But that we ourselves.* It is to be noted that the Apostle taught not by words only, but exhorted also by deeds. For it belongs to a fit master to fulfil in works the things which he teaches in words.

VERS. 10.-- *For if any man will not work.* Certain men say that the Apostle enjoined this concerning spiritual works; otherwise, if he said this of bodily work, in which either husbandmen or craftsmen labour, he would seem to hold an opinion against the Lord, who says in the Gospel: *Be not solicitous, what you shall eat* [0624B] [n: (Matth. VI)], etc. But to no purpose do they strive to draw a mist over both themselves and others, so that they not only wish [sic: *velint*] to do what charity profitably admonishes, but not even to understand it, since the Apostle in many other places of the epistles most plainly teaches what he here means. For he wills that the servants of God work bodily whereby they may live, that they be not compelled by want to beg for necessaries. Nor is this against that which was said before: *Be not solicitous what you shall eat,* etc. For this was not said to this end, that they should not procure as much as is enough for necessity, from whence they honourably could, but not in order that [sic: *sed non ut*] they may look upon these things, nor do for the sake of these things whatever they are bidden to do by the proclamation of the Gospel.

VERS. 11.-- *Curiously meddling.* The Lord's discipline abhors this deed, for their god is the belly, [0624C] who with foul care provide necessaries for themselves.

VERS. 13.-- *Faint not.* Because although they work, yet they may want some things. And therefore he admonishes, lest those who had wherewith to supply necessaries to the servants of God should on this occasion grow slothful. For he does not come under reproof who is kindly in bestowing, but he who, when he could bear labour, wishes to lead his life in idleness.
