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2 Thessalonians

About this book
Chapter 1

1 From Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! 3 We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith flourishes more and more and the love of each one of you all for one another is ever greater. 4 As a result we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions you are enduring. 5 This is evidence of God’s righteous judgment, to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which in fact you are suffering. 6 For it is right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,⁠ 7 and to you who are being afflicted to give rest together with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.⁠ 8 With flaming fire he will mete out punishment on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.⁠ 9 They will undergo the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength,⁠ 10 when he comes to be glorified among his saints and admired on that day among all who have believed—and you did in fact believe our testimony. 11 And in this regard we pray for you always, that our God will make you worthy of his calling and fulfill by his power your every desire for goodness and every work of faith, 12 that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Isaiah 2:19 and 2 Thessalonians 1:9

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

The Greek Septuagint translation of Isaiah says the wicked will hide from the fear of God and the glory of his strength when he rises to crush the earth. 2 Thessalonians echoes this exact Greek phrase to describe the final punishment of the wicked.

Passages

LXX Isaiah 2:19

Septuagint
18 And they shall hide all idols made with hands, 19 having carried them into the caves, and into the clefts of the rocks, and into the caverns of the earth, from the presence of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his might, when he shall arise to strike terribly the earth. 20 For in that day a man shall cast forth his silver and gold abominations, which they made in order to worship vanities and bats;
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Isaiah

2 Thessalonians 1:9

New Testament
8 With flaming fire he will mete out punishment on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will undergo the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, 10 when he comes to be glorified among his saints and admired on that day among all who have believed—and you did in fact believe our testimony.
80–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Thessalonians

References

... The final words of 1.9 are, in a literal translation: 'far away from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his power'. They have been derived from Isaiah 2.10, 19, and 21. Isaiah 2.6–22 is a description of God's judgment of 'the house of Jacob' (2.6); such a text could be read easily as dealing with God's final judgment, and the borrowing from it in 2 Thessalonians 1.9 occurred no doubt on the presupposition that it indeed concerns the events of the end. Three times we hear in the Isaiah passage that people will hide themselves (I translate again literally) 'far away from the face of the terror of the Lord and from the majesty of his highness'. The Septuagint has 'far away from the face of the terror of the Lord and from the glory of his power', and this version has been used in 2 Thessalonians. In Hebrew the word 'face' is often used redundantly in combination with a preposition in cases where we would use a preposition only: in Isaiah 2.10, 19, and 21 we would simply say 'far away from the terror of the Lord' ...
Maarten J. J. Menken, 2 Thessalonians, New Testament Readings (London: Routledge, 1994), 90.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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LXX Isaiah 2:19 and 2 Thessalonians 1:9

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