My new article in Journal of Biblical & Theological Studies is now officially out. The paper is entitled, “Eschatological Emphases in 1 Thessalonians and Galatians: Distinct Argumentative Strategies Related to External Conflict and Audience Response.”
In this article I am addressing a couple of different issues at once. To begin, there is the issue of the chronological ordering of Paul’s letters. Most scholars tend to think that 1 Thessalonians is the earliest and most primitive example of Pauline thought due to it’s alleged imminent futuristic eschatology. A handful of scholars contend that Galatians is actually the earliest for various reasons, but one of the common objections to this idea is that Galatians ostensibly reflects a later development in Paul’s eschatology (among other things). In this article I contend that the idea of development doesn’t hold water, esp. when we attend to what was demanded of Paul rhetorically by the situations he was addressing. These rhetorical demands, I argue, are worth exploring together because of the similar situations of external conflict experienced by the Thessalonians and Galatians respectively. In my view, the distinct responses to the conflicts (i.e. faithfully by the Thessalonians and unfaithfully by the Galatians) better explains the eschatological emphases rather than an alleged development in thought.
That’s just a little snippet. If you’re curious to read the full argument, you can find the article here on my academia.edu page.
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