2 Thessalonians 2:1

1. The first ημων (after κυριου) is wanting in B and syrhel. It may have come in from 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:23, &c.: ημων appears slightly to weaken the collocation of παρουσια του κυρ. Ιησ. Χρ. and ημων επισυναγ. επʼ αυτον, and is better left out.

1. Ἐρωτῶμεν δὲ ὑμᾶς, ἀδελφοί, ὑπὲρ τῆς παρουσίας τοῦ κυρίου [ἡμῶν] Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ ἡμῶν ἐπισυναγωγῆς ἐπʼ αὐτόν. But we ask you, brothers, on behalf of the coming of the [or our] Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to (meet) Him. By δέ of contrast we pass from the certainty and blessedness of the παρουσία (2 Thessalonians 1:5 ff.) to the state of disquiet about it into which this Church is in danger of falling.

For ἐρωτάω in requests, see 1 Thessalonians 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:12, and note on the former verse; as in the above instances, ἀδελφοί is naturally interjected where common Christian interests and sentiments are involved. Ὑπέρ may be nothing more than an equivalent for περί (about, concerning), stating the matter of request (see, for περί in like connexion, 1 Thessalonians 5:10, and note; 1 Corinthians 7:1; Philemon 1:10, &c.); but it may be questioned whether ὑπέρ in St Paul ever quite loses the stronger meaning, on behalf of: cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:2; 2 Corinthians 1:6; 2 Corinthians 13:8; Philippians 2:13. “In the interest of” that very advent, in which their future happiness is wrapped up (ἡμῶν ἐπισυναγωγῆς), the Apostles warn their readers against deception. The Latin rendering, followed by the A.V., per adventum, is certainly erroneous: this ὑπέρ obtestationis, frequent in Homer after λίσσομαι (see e.g. Iliad xv. 660), is rare otherwise. The full title, “our Lord Jesus Christ,” heightens the solemnity of the appeal; see note on 1 Thessalonians 1:1, also 1 Thessalonians 5:9; and, for παρουσία, 1 Thessalonians 2:19.

The writers add καὶ ἡμῶν ἐπισυναγωγῆς ἐπʼ αὐτόν, remembering what they had said in 1 Thessalonians 4:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:10 concerning the reunion of departed and living saints at Christ’s coming; perhaps also under the painful sense of continued separation from their “brothers” in Thessalonica and the uncertainties of meeting in “this present evil world”: see 1 Thessalonians 2:17 ff; 1 Thessalonians 3:6; 1 Thessalonians 3:11; 2 Thessalonians 1:4 f.; and the pathetic “rest with you” of 2 Thessalonians 1:7. Ἐπισυναγωγή (the noun in Hebrews 10:25, δὶς λεγόμενον in N.T.; also 2Ma 2:7, ἐπισυναγωγὴν τοῦ λαοῦ) recalls the prophetic words of Jesus in Matthew 24:31 f., Mark 13:27, ἀποστελεῖ τοὺς�. ἐπισυνάξει τοὺς ἐκλεκτοὺς ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων�.τ.λ., which rest on the promise of Deuteronomy 30:4 respecting the διασπορά of Israel; cf. the echoes of our Lord’s sayings on the Last Things noted in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 to 1 Thessalonians 5:11. The ἐπι- in this compound—a word of the κοινή, which loved cumulative prepositional compounds—implies “convening upon” some centre: Christ supplies this mark,—ἐπʼ αὐτόν (as in Mark 5:21); cf. note on ἐφʼ ὑμᾶς, 2 Thessalonians 1:10. Under the single article, παρουσία and ἐπισυναγωγή form one object of thought, the latter accompanying the former (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17); cf. εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν … καὶ δόξαν, 1 Thessalonians 2:12.