Tuesday, October 4, 2022

M. Eugene Boring on 1 Thessalonians 2:18 and Paul’s Satanology

  

The śāṭān, the prosecuting attorney in the heavenly court (Job 1) who, in later Jewish apocalyptic thought, became the prince of the demonic world, is a figure of the Jewish Scripture and tradition and thus unknown to the Gentiles of Thessalonica. Paul’s intent here is not to teach the new converts something about the workings of Satan. The self-evident way in which the work of Satan is spoken of indicates that such aspects of the apocalyptic worldview have been a part of the initial mission preaching and have been communicated in the instruction the congregation has received since, as they have appropriated the new symbolic universe. . . . Satan does not play an essential role in Paul’s theology; in Rom 1-8 he can develop his understanding of sin, the human predicament, and salvation with no reference to Satan. For the modern reader< the main point is assumed rather than stated—that Paul saw his life and mission as something not his own, in which he was not in control. (M. Eugene Boring, I & II Thessalonians: A Commentary [The New Testament Library; Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015], 111)