1 Thessalonians 1
1. Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians that is in God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ.
2. May grace be with you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
3. So as we may confess to God our responsibility over you in every season, brethren, as it is our duty, so that your faithfulness may grow more and that your love may increase for all of you, and the love of every human being for their friends,
4. Just as we are also proud of you, those of us who are in the churches of God, proud over your faithfulness and your Hope, that despite all your rejections and persecutions that you nevertheless continue to preach [the Kingdom,]
5. So as to demonstrate the righteous judgment of God, that you may be worthy of His Kingdom, on behalf of which you sorrow,
6. And if thus righteous before God, that He purges your persecutions,*
7. And to you who are being persecuted, He shall grant you eternal life with us, through the Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven, together with the power of His angels,
8. When He brings into obedience by the forging fire some of those* who did not know God and some of those that did not proclaim the Hope of our Lord Jesus Christ,
9. That they may be judged to repay by being eternally separated* from the glory of His power,
10. When He comes to be glorified by His saints, and to demonstrate the wonders of their beliefs, so that our testimony is confirmed in you on that Day.
11. Because of that we pray over you in every season, so that God may make you worthy of your calling and fill you with complete desire for blessings, and the performance of the works of faith with Power,
12. So that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ is glorified through you, and likewise you through Him according to the grace of our God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
*1:6 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "Repays by constraining your consternations."
*1:8 Lit. Ar. idiomatic figure of speech: "From those."
*1:9 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "By oblivionation to the [end of the] universe."
2 Thessalonians 2
1. We beg you, brethren, regarding the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and His gathering us to Him,
2. That you may not be shaken in your convictions, and not be disturbed in your minds, neither through manifestation, nor spirit, nor by a letter as though from us, that, behold, the Day of our Lord is never going to come.
3. Let no human being mislead you with one of these schemes, because the desolation has to come first, when the man of sin is revealed by the son of perdition,
4. He who will become the opposition and the pretender against everyone who is called by God and by the Power, whereas he will even sit in the temple of God as God and show himself like he were God.
5. Do you not remember when I was with you, that I told you these things?
6. And now you know who is the one who will be revealed in his season.
7. The sermon of abomination henceforth shall be set upon, but only if the one is in control is taken out of the balance.
8. And then the worker of abomination will be revealed who betrayed our Lord Jesus by the spirit of his mouth and who will be nullified upon his coming.
9. For his coming is through the enslavement of Satan, in all power, signs and wonders of falsehood,
10. And through all the desolating abomination performed by the enslaved, as a result of their not accepting the wholesome love by which they would live the everlasting life.
11. Because of that God will send them the slavery of desolation, as they shall commit themselves to bondage,*
12. And they shall all be judged, those who do not believe in the earnest truth, except be satisfied by the abominable.
13. We are, however, responsible for confessing on your behalf to God in every season, my dear brethren in our Lord, whom God has chosen from the beginning for everlasting life, through the holiness of spirit and the faith in truth.
14. For God has called you to the purpose through our preaching of the Hope [in the Kingdom,] to be the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15. Therefore, brethren, stand firm in the commandments that you have learned and uphold them, whether by manifestation or through our Letter.
16. Then He, our Lord Jesus Christ and Father God, He who loves us and uplifts our hearts to the end of the universe, and who granted us the good Hope through His grace,
17. He shall make your hearts a well of prophesy and he shall support you in every word and in every good deed.
*2:11 I believe this was the prophesy about the coming of a leader of the false church and the False Prophet, through whose conflict with each other early Christianity, made up of Jewish converts and Aramaic speaking peoples, was wiped out from the Holy Lands for centuries.
2 Thessalonians 3
1. Henceforth, brethren, pray over us, that the manifestation of our Lord should proceed and be glorified in every place like it is with you,
2. And that you may be delivered from evil and spiteful people. For not every human being is of this Faith.
3. Faithful is, however, the Lord, who guards and protects you from the evil one.
4. We rely on you, then, through our Lord regarding what we command you to do, that you do it.
5. And our Lord shall induce your hearts toward the love of God and the Hope of Christ's [Kingdom.]
6. We command you, then, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you end your relationship with any brother who persists in his evil ways,* and goes not according to the commandments he received from us.
7. For you know how it is your duty to imitate us, as we did not subject you to evil ways.*
8. Neither did we eat the bread gratis from you, except through work and service by night and day, so as we may not be a burden on any of you.
9. It was not because we were not authorized, except that we wanted to present ourselves as an example that you may imitate us.
10. For even when I was with you, this is what I commanded you to do, that whoever did not wish to work, neither should they eat.
11. For we have heard that there are people among you who follow evil ways, and they do nothing useful,* except idle work.
12. This then is what we command them to do, and we pray for them through our Lord Jesus Christ that they should work and eat their own bread quietly.*
13. You, however, brethren, do not despair from doing what is beautiful.
14. And if a human being does not listen to the words of this Letter, they shall depart from you, and you will not be at fault with them in their shame.
15. And do not consider them like enemies, except treat them like a brother.
16. For then the Lord of Peace shall grant you peace in every season through everything. Our Lord be with you all.
17. I am writing shalom in my own handwriting, I, Paul, write you, this being my signature in all my Letter, this is how I write it.
18. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, my brethren, amen.(The end of the Second Letter to the Thessalonians that was written from Laodicea/Pisidian.)
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*3:6 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "Evil evil he walks."
*3:7 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "That we did not walk evil evil between you."
*3:11 Lit. Ar. expression: "Nothing they work."
*3:12 Lit. Ar. expression retained: "Leave the others alone."
Translated by Victor Alexander © 2000