2 Thessalonians 3:11

Text (2 Thessalonians 3:11)

11 For we hear of some that walk among you disorderly, that work not at all, but are busybodies.

Translation and Paraphrase

11.

(We repeat our command about working,) for we keep hearing that some (among you) are walking disorderly (like the out-of-rank soldiers we mentioned), not working (at all), but going around (the) work, (bustling, and piddling around with trifling, useless matters).

Notes (2 Thessalonians 3:11)

1.

It seems to be a pet notion of some Bible interpreters to think that these people in the Thessalonian church who were not working were the people who thought that the Lord had come (or was coming very soon). Their idleness is assumed to have been caused by their faulty ideas about the Lord's coming.

The Scripture makes absolutely no connection between the fact that these people were loafing and their faulty notions about the Lord's coming. The habit of idleness may have been part of their background, as many of the Greeks were not very ambitious about physical work. Compare Titus 1:12, and the notes on 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12.

2.

Concerning this matter of walking disorderly, see the notes on 2 Thessalonians 3:6, paragraphs 2 and 6.

3.

Paul had no doubt received frequent reports from people coming in and out of Corinth about things that were happening in Thessalonica. He kept hearing (imperfect tense) that some of them were not working.

4.

There is a little play on words in this verse which is not apparent in English. We have tried to bring it out in our translation and paraphrase.

Paul said that he heard that some were not working (Gr., ergadzomai), but were busybodies (Gr., periergadzomai). Periergadzomai has the meaning of going around the work (as if dodging it), or bustling about uselessly, busying one's self with trifling, needless, useless matters. It is used to describe people who are meddlesome in the affairs of others. See 1 Timothy 5:13.

Moffatt renders the phrase cleverly: Busybodies instead of being busy.