198 christina m. kreinecker
as this article will show, documentary papyri give us clues about the
personal and social background of their authors. every person has an
individual style of self-expression, a special preference for words and
phrases that are related to the profession of the sender, and numerous
other details. from these we can deduce background information about
the author. To make such evidence useful for statements about pseude-
pigraphy, we of course need a set of “uncontested” material against which
we can compare our “doubtful” material. In the case of this article, the
“doubtful” letter is 2 Thessalonians. The seven undisputed pauline epis-
tles (romans, 1 and 2 corinthians, galatians, philippians, 1 Thessalonians,
philemon), which I take here as such without further discussion, will serve
as the uncontested material.
among the many observations one can make when looking at documen-
tary papyri and 2 Thessalonians,2 I will focus here on a specific epistolary
observation, namely how the author of 2 Thessalonians brings forward
requests—in comparison to letters of private interest preserved among
documentary papyri and in comparison to requests in the undisputed
paulines. The author of 2 Thessalonians uses two verbs to address the
recipients of the letter with requests. The first, ἐρωτῶ (2 Thess 2:1), stands
at the beginning of chapter two, which deals with apocalyptic questions.
The second, παρακαλῶ (2 Thess 3:12), is at the end of chapter three within
the author’s practical advice for the community.3 The combination of
παρακαλῶ with παραγγέλλω is a special feature of this second occurrence.
The present study will first present the use of these three verbs in
request-formulae in documentary papyri. It will then discuss their use in
the undisputed pauline epistles (romans, 1 and 2 corinthians, galatians,
philippians, 1 Thessalonians, philemon) and, thirdly, compare 2 Thessalo-
nians to documentary papyri and the pauline epistles. I will conclude in
favour of the position that 2 Thessalonians reflects pauline imitation.
The Verb ἐρωτῶ as a Request Formula
In 2 Thess 2:1–2 we read: ἐρωτῶμεν δὲ ὑμᾶς, ἀδελφοί, ὑπὲρ τῆς παρουσίας
τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ ἡμῶν ἐπισυναγωγῆς ἐπ ̓ αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ μὴ
2 among those observations are, for example, the author’s choice of language or images
used in both the undisputed paulines and 2 Thessalonians. cf. kreinecker, 2.Thessaloniker,
61–74.
3 for further verbs used for requests see John l. white and keith a. kensinger,
“categories of greek papyrus letters,” in SBL 1976 Seminar Papers (missoula: scholars,
1976), 79–81, 85.