A Comparison with an Early Christian Source
A Comparison with an Early Christian Source
Paul’s Thessalonian correspondence confirms the antiquity of these eschatological sayings of Jesus.20 Most scholars accept 1 Thessalonians as the earliest extant Christian document, probably from c. 50 or 51 CE. I also draw on Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians. Although a number of NT scholars reject that letter’s authenticity,21 I, with many other scholars, regard it as simply inconceivable that a pseudepigrapher writing after the temple’s destruction in 70 CE would have spoken of an antichrist figure establishing his throne in the temple. 22 Many scholars question the authenticity of 2 Thessalonians because its eschatological schema seems much more detailed than that of 1 Thessalonians; I would argue that early Jewish sources, including Mk 13 itself, often included such tensions between detailed schemas and warnings of imminence.23 Whether or not the second epistle’s author is Paul, however, it seems likely that the author wrote before the temple’s destruction in 70, since the letter predicts the man of lawlessness being enthroned and worshiped in the temple (2:3-4), a different outcome than what happened literally.
These early letters appear to indicate that their eschatological material reflects prior tradition attributed to Jesus. In 1 Thessalonians 4:15, Paul appeals to “the word of the Lord” as the basis for his eschatological instruction, in a letter where he has already appealed to instructions he gave them by the authority of the Lord Jesus (4:2).24 Second Thessalonians, which includes some comparable eschatological material, also appeals to the “traditions” that Paul delivered to the Thessalonians (2:15; cf. 2:2).
Parallels between the eschatological discourse and 1 Thessalonians include, in decreasing order of significance (in view of how common the motifs were in early Judaism and how close the parallels are): an unexpected coming like a “thief in the night” (Matt 24:43; 1 Thess 5:2-4); the trumpet for gathering (Matt 24:31; 1 Thess 4:16); coming on the clouds (Mk 13:26; 1 Thess 4:17); the term parousia (Matt 24:3, 27, 37, 39; 1 Thess 4:15; 2 Thess 2:1, 8); unexpected destruction in a time of peace (“Q” material in Matt 24:38-41; Lk 17:27-32; 1 Thess 5:3); birth pangs (Mk 13:8; 1 Thess 5:3); and the exhortation to stay alert (Mk 13:33-37; 1 Thess 5:6). Interestingly some of these correspondences are with Mark; others from “Q”; and others from Matthean redaction, but apparently based on earlier tradition. Parallels with 2 Thessalonians 2 include apostasy (Matt 24:10, 12; 2 Thess 2:3); the temple’s desolation (Mk 13:14; 2 Thess 2:4); a false prophet or prophets working signs (Mk 13:22; 2 Thess 2:9); and the “gathering” (Mk 13:27; 2 Thess 2:1). None of these parallels are exclusive to the Thessalonian correspondence, but their relative concentration there is instructive.
Because the Gospels’ eschatological discourses are longer than the eschatological sections in 1 and 2 Thessalonians, we should not expect the Thessalonian material to recall every point. But of 28 eschatological motifs I noted in Matthew 24 with parallels somewhere in Jewish or Christian literature,25 12 appear in 1 Thessalonians and 8 in 2 Thessalonians. By contrast, I found 5 in 1 Enoch; 5 in the list of eschatological troubles in Jubilees 23; 6 in 4 Ezra; 5 in 2 Baruch; 3 in Testament of Moses; 3 in the Sibylline Oracles; and one in m. Sota 9:15. Although one could count up the statistics differently, and I undoubtedly did not find all possible parallels in these works, these estimates remain significant in view of the mere 15 verses (245 words) in the most relevant section of 1 Thessalonians (4:13-5:9), and the 12 verses (217 words) in the most relevant section of 2 Thessalonians (2:1-12). By contrast, in some of the other sources I drew from large bodies of material.
Thus over 40% of the motifs in the discourse in Matthew 24 appear in 1 Thessalonians, and over 70% appear in the two sections of the Thessalonian correspondence if they are taken together. If we omit the motifs that were fairly common in early Judaism, this reduces the Thessalonian parallels, but it almost eliminates our control group of other early Jewish sources. Some motifs, such as Q’s “thief in the night” (Matt 24:43; Lk 12:39), recur elsewhere in other early Christian sources (Rev 3:3; 16:15; 2 Pet 3:10) in addition to 1 Thessalonians (5:2- 4), but not outside Christian sources, reinforcing the picture of a common source for some elements of early Christian eschatology.
If we start from 1 Thessalonians and look for parallels in Matthew 24, the correspondence is even higher (a bit more so if augmented by some other fragments of Jesus tradition, such as the identical expression “times and seasons” in Acts 1:7). We may find 11 out of 15 correspondences, or almost 75%. Again, one could count the number differently, but it could be calculated even higher than I have suggested: the four elements in 1 Thessalonians that lack exact correspondence (the Lord descending from heaven; the voice of an archangel; the resurrection; and the living being caught up to meet the Lord “in the air”) could be viewed as inferences from this tradition. (Thus, for example, Jewish Christians who accepted the resurrection would naturally assume it at the gathering of the elect; a meeting, or apant?sis, belongs to the same conceptual and social world as parousia, and a gathering to one coming on the clouds would naturally occur “in the air.”)26
Despite such lacunae, it appears that Paul drew directly on the same eschatological tradition later reported in Matthew and Mark. The same is true for 2 Thessalonians, though again we lack some elements (such as the tantalizing explanation for the letter’s “restrainer of lawlessness”). Apart from the obvious motif of the resurrection, I did not find any eschatological motifs in 1 Thessalonians that appear elsewhere in early Jewish literature but not in Matt 24 or Mk 13.