(1) In the first epistle, St. Paul had resolved a question for the Thessalonians about the last day, how it will come quickly as a thief in the night. As it happens that always one question gives birth to another, out of wrong understanding, the Thessalonians understood that the last day would already be there. Thereupon he writes this epistle and explains himself.
In the first chapter he comforts them with the eternal reward of their faith and patience in all kinds of suffering, and with the punishment of their persecutors in eternal torment.
In the second he teaches how before the last day the Roman empire must first fall, and the end-Christ must rise up for God in Christendom, and with false doctrines and signs deceive the unbelieving race, until Christ comes and destroys it with his glorious future, and with a spiritual sermon kills it first.
In the third, he gives several admonitions, especially that they should punish the idle who do not support themselves with their own hands, and if they do not improve, they should avoid them.
*) This preface is found in the Leipzig edition, vol. XII, p. 66 and in the Erlangen edition, vol. 63, p. 146.
**) This preface is found in the Leipzig edition, vol. XII, p. 66 and in the Erlangen edition, vol. 63, p. 147.