1 and 2 Thessalonians (2nd ed.)

This substantially revised edition is effectively a major new commentary, with Seyoon Kim retaining portions of Bruce while introducing a distinctive and ambitious theological reading of the letters. Kim’s chief contribution is his argument that the fundamental contours of Paul’s later theology are already present in Thessalonians: justification, election, Christ’s saving work, and continuity between the earliest letters and Romans are therefore much more prominent than commonly recognized. He also makes an unusually extensive case for Jesus and Son-of-Man traditions behind Paul’s eschatological teaching and reads 1 Thessalonians 2 as genuinely apologetic, defending the integrity of Paul’s missionary eisodos. These proposals make the volume one of the most original commentaries available, even where they do not fully persuade. At times Kim’s controlling theses can lead him to classify too much material under justification or to detect Jesus traditions that remain difficult to demonstrate, but the commentary is indispensable for serious work on Pauline theology and Thessalonians.