The eschatological teachings in 1–2 Thessalonians have a common purpose: correction. In 1 Thessalonians Paul wants to correct a disbelief that caused sorrow over the fate of deceased Christians. The author of 2 Thessalonians wants to correct a belief in the immediacy of Christ's return, a belief that may have had its origin in (or at least have been abetted by) exhortations to readiness in 1 Thessalonians. In both letters, earlier traditions come into play for the purposes of correcting the disbelief that caused sorrow, of exhorting the readers to readiness, and of correcting the belief in immediacy. Both dominical and Jewish materials make up these traditions. Though we may take a side-glance at the question of authorship in 2 Thessalonians, an examination of the ways in which the traditions are molded to make the correction in that epistle depends very little on the answer to the question. We shall discover that Paul (whose name will cover the authorship of both letters without prejudice) hellenizes dominical tradition and Christianizes Jewish tradition in order to make his corrections and rein-force his exhortation.

Writing more than fifty years ago Ernst Lohmeyer said of Phil 2. 5–11, ‘Dieser Abschnitt gehört zu den schwierigsten Abschnitten der paulinischen Briefe.’ The passing years have only served to confirm his judgment, and in fact Lohmeyer himself did much to shape the terms of reference for the subsequent investigation of this complex passage by his emphasis on its poetic structure, its traditional character, and its conceptual background. Perhaps the most important trend to emerge in the scholarly research of this passage in the last two decades has been the attention given to whether Phil 2. 6–1 1, the supposed poetic piece in the passage, presupposes or contains a reference to the pre-existence of Christ. Up until the 1960s it was generally assumed that the passage referred to Christ's heavenly pre-existence, and thus R. H. Fuller writing in 1965 could declare the occasional attempts at eliminating the idea of pre-existence from the passage a failure. In light of a series of important investigations which have appeared since then, Fuller's pronouncement can no longer be affirmed unreservedly. The momentum of research may in fact be in the opposite direction. J. Murphy-O'Connor, for example, claims that ‘the notion of pre-existence is only part of the Vorverständnis with which exegetes approach the hymn’ rather than a conclusion derived from the careful investigation of the passage and its backgrounds.

This is still an unresolved problem. Our aim is to investigate the question to see whether Paul's opponents are one group or more than one, and to ascertain the nature of their views.

Five assumptions are made; they are taken as axiomatic, so a case for them in detail is not argued. First, the integrity of Phil. has been successfully defended against attempts to analyse it as containing three originally separate letters to the Philippians, especially by P. Schubert, V. Furnish, R. Jewett and T. E. Pollard, and supported by R. P. Martin. This does make it somewhat easier to maintain a single-front hypothesis, but only marginally makes it more probable. The principle of Occam's razor (entia non sint multiplicanda praeter necessitatem), tends to favour the assumption of a uniform view, but only if evidence for multiple opponents appears weak.

Als Lukas in Apg 6 die beiden Gruppen hellenistai und hebraioi einführt, beginnt er eine neue Phase in seiner Schilderung der Geschichte der Urgemeinde. Das relativ friedliche Dasein im Schutze des Tempels und des jüdischen Kultes ist zu Ende. Die Dramatik nimmt ihren Anfang. Die umwälzenden Geschehnisse führen zu Massenflucht der Christen aus Jerusalem, was seinerseits wiederum eine Ausweitung des Verbreitungsgebietes der christlichen Botschaft bewirkt – sowohl geographisch als auch religiössoziologisch. Das Christentum fasst nun definitiver auf ausserpalästinenzischem Boden Fuss, und die Christusverkündigung wird auch an nichtjüdische Gruppen und Völker gerichtet. Im Zentrum dieser umwälzenden Geschehnisse stehen die Hellenisten.

In this article I shall discuss a subject which, to my knowledge, has never been considered before – namely, whether Jude 5–7 presents Jesus as the Angel of the Lord. A final solution to the vexed problem of the varia lectio (or variae lectiones) in v. 5 is not of paramount importance in the following pages, for even if it could be agreed that (ò) κύρως was the original reading, it would have to be explained why a copyist could feel able to substitute ΊησοṺς for ‘Kyrios’. Some see ‘Jesus’ as the result of a mere ‘transcriptional oversight (―KC being taken for ―IC)’, but text-critical conjectures are to be dismissed if a reading can be given a reasonable meaning, and the same principle would have to apply to an assumed substitution.

My task is twofold. First, I want to uncover some puzzles and ambiguities in the notion of conscience. Reflection upon the history of words associated with this notion, and upon our current usage, will help us bring some useful distinctions to Paul's text. Second, I wish to examine two passages in Paul, 1 Corinthians 8 and 10. 23–11. 1, in order to determine how we are best to understand Paul's appeal to what is commonly translated as ‘conscience’. The result should be not only a clearer appreciation of Paul's meaning but also the resolution of a puzzle about his ethical advice.