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Robin Griffith-Jones, The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians. By Gordon D. Fee., The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 62, Issue 1, April 2011, Pages 323–327, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flr038
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Extract
It is a pleasure to read the work of such an experienced commentator. Fee has written commentaries on 1 Corinthians, Galatians, and Philippians, and has a sure sense of the balance that such a book needs. As author of Pauline Christology (2007), he has as well a clear picture in mind of Paul’s theology overall, and can fit 1 and 2 Thessalonians, which he himself admits are not ‘the “highlights” of the Pauline corpus’ (p. x), convincingly into this broader landscape. Fee is writing primarily ‘for the proverbial “busy pastor”’ and keeps in mind the different skills and interests likely in his readers. The main commentary expounds Today’s New International Version; the notes explore the Greek text. Fee does justice to a wide range of translations; and it is a mark of his graciousness that so many questions raised by the letters remain ‘moot’. At the end of each section is a reflection on the verses’ significance for modern theology and preaching. Fee acknowledges and responds at length to the—sometimes feverish—attention that the rapture, the parousia, and the ‘restrainer’ have attracted (pp. 175, 178–82, 288, 296–7; and for the wrath seen in some Dispensationalism, p. 50). The fullness of the index will raise the book’s value for those who do not have at their fingertips the details of the letters’ texts.
