1 & 2 Thessalonians by Douglas Farrow

Abstract

Reviewed by: 1 & 2 Thessalonians by Douglas Farrow Andrew R. Talbert douglas farrow, 1 & 2 Thessalonians (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible; Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2020). Pp. xx + 316. $35. Farrow's work on 1–2 Thessalonians is a masterly representation of the possibilities of a biblical commentary focused on the "realities engaged or implied by the text" (p. 16). It is exegetical—without getting lost in "grammatical constructions and semantic or historical possibilities" (p. 16)—and expository—operating under a participatory ontology that seeks to avoid the inadvertent manipulation of the text by the preacher who might forget that the Word is the subject of Scripture and not the congregation (p. 2). The preamble opens by situating the discussion within Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Pentad of Operative Christianity, which, though reading like the work of a Hegelian convert to Christianity, ultimately assists F. in framing the question of the responsibility of the theologian-commentator to the preacher of the Word and in considering the purpose of the commentary. This leads F. unashamedly to offer his commentary, concluding that the theologian is well primed to comment because of the overtly theological subject matter of 1 and 2 Thessalonians and the letters' honesty regarding their hermeneutical presuppositions. Stylistically, the work is canonical, articulating the epistles' meaning from the breadth of Scripture; it is magisterial by its location within the Catholic history of interpretation; and it is modern in its articulation of the ongoing meaning of 1 and 2 Thessalonians, for example, as it confronts both the church and the various empires in conflict with God's Word, from Xi Jinping's Three-Self Church to Western political atheism (p. 224), as well as its attention to rhetorical structure and grammatical constructions. Lastly, it is personal, as F.'s ongoing feud with David Hart over universalism appears with some frequency. Several selections from the commentary will give a general picture of F.'s theological reading of the epistles, but his opening emphasis sets the tone. Taking "grace" as his starting point, the commentator turns to the pronouncement of the angel Gabriel over Mary (Luke 1:28) as the powerful antitype that gives fullness to this term and the experience of the Thessalonians, who are themselves "being filled" with Christ via his eucharistic presence. F. likewise ends the commentary by pronouncing the Magnificat as something of an eschatological benediction over the reader. Farrow's pastoral/expository and magisterial reading materializes especially in his attention to the term πορνεία, which he defines as "any sexual violation of love [which is] the fundamental vocation and determining feature of image-bearing creatures" (p. 95), and to which he dedicates twenty pages because the issue is of utmost pastoral concern. In many ways, F.'s reading is of a single term through the lens of Vatican II in light of the modern West's conjoined sexual obsession(s) and shamelessness. On the controversial "rapture" text, he situates the impulse of 1 Thess 4:13–18 within the perennial interest in the nature of the resurrection and the second coming of Christ. He reads this (rightly) as a pericope blending Danielic and imperial imagery to communicate [End Page 497] the victory of God's chosen who have endured tribulation for God's sake, recognizing that Daniel's "being caught up" to receive a heavenly vision foreshadows the consummation of all things spoken of in 1 Thessalonians, the union of heaven and earth, and the complete victory of Christ over the "prince of the power of the air" (Eph 1:15)—no longer a vision but a reality. From the Second Epistle, Farrow sees the difficult material in 2 Thess 2:1–10 as Paul providing a warning against an overly imminent eschatology through a Danielic framework for the parousia of Christ. While guiding the reader through OT and historical background to this apocalyptic "man of lawlessness," he outlines this character's features in nine points drawn from the text and the more sober readings of the historical church. Yet his identification of the man of lawlessness with the beast of the sea in Rev 13:1–6 is problematic in that it seems to read Revelation as a simple...