From:
M. Eugene Boring, I & II Thessalonians: A Commentary (The New Testament Library; Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015)
On Oral Tradition/παραδοσις
The
church was founded on the Pauline kerygma, the message proclaimed by Paul and
Silvanus that the Thessalonian converts heard as “the word of God” (1 Thess
2:13). . . . The new converts only knew what Paul and his coworkers had taught
them . . . (p. 22)
Boring’s translation of 1 Thess
2:13:
And
this is in fact why we constantly give thanks to God, namely, that when you
received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a
merely human word but as what it truly is, the word of God, which continues to
work among you believers. (p. 92)
The
word “merely” does not appear in the Greek text. It is appropriate here because
Paul has made a point of stating that the word the Thessalonians heard was the
human word of the missionaries, which he contrasts with the word of God they
accepted; cf. Also 1:5, where the contrast with mere human word and the power
of God’s word is explicit.
The
term energeitai, here taken as a middle, could theoretically be possible,
“it is made to be effective” [i.e., by God],” but this is not Pauline usage. The
subject here is logos (word), thought of as sent by God, but working
powerfully and effectively. Paul is thinking along the lines of Isa 55:11. (p.
93)
2 Thess 2:15
The
author of 2 Thessalonians concentrates this Pauline exhortation into a charge
to stand fast to the tradition. . . . Colossians, too, commends the
churches for continuing faithfulness to the truth of the Pauline gospel that
they had not learned directly from Paul (Col 2;1) but that had come to them via
one of his followers, in which they are to “continue securely established and
steadfast,” not “shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard,”
“just as you were taught” (NRSV: Col 1:5-7, 23; 2:7, hence rejecting “human
tradition,” 2:8). The author of Colossians cites traditional material that had
been handed along and around in the oral tradition (e.g., 1:15-20; 3:18-4:1),
and he encourages his readers to attend not only to his letter but also to
other Pauline letters in circulation (4:16). (p. 286; note contrast between
human and divine tradition)
2 Thess 3:6:
Boring’s translation:
Now
we command you, brothers and sisters, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to
keep your distance from any brother whose way of life is not in line with the
tradition they received from us. (p. 295)
Note about “they [received]”:
Though
most MSS reads parelabete (you received), corresponding to the
second-personal plurals of vv. 1, 4, 7, 13, 14, 15, this instance of the third-person
plural (and in the unusual dialectical form parelabosan instead of parelabon)
is found in A* A 0278 33. As the more difficult reading and the reading that
best explains the other readings, parelabosan (they received) is more likely
original. The author’s point: the “disorderly” received the apostolic tradition
as did the Pauline churches in general, but they are not following it. (p. 295)
