Passage

2 Thessalonians 1.8-9

Book: 2 Thessalonians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

6. if so be that it is righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you, 7. and to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire,

8. rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus: 9. who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed (because our testimony unto you was believed) in that day. 11. To which end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfil every desire of goodness and every work of faith, with power; (2 Thessalonians 1:6-11, ASV)

WEB

6. Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you, 7. and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,

8. giving vengeance to those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus, 9. who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

when he comes to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired among all those who have believed (because our testimony to you was believed) in that day. 11. To this end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and work of faith, with power; (2 Thessalonians 1:6-11, WEB)

KJV

6. Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; 7. And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, ^{his: Gr. the angels of his power}

8. In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: ^{taking: or, yielding} 9. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. 11. Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: ^{count: or, vouchsafe} (2 Thessalonians 1:6-11, KJV)

YLT

6. since [it is] a righteous thing with God to give back to those troubling you, trouble, 7. and to you who are troubled, rest with us in the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with messengers of his power,

8. in flaming fire, giving vengeance to those not knowing God, and to those not obeying the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ; 9. who shall suffer justice, destruction age-during, from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of his strength,

when He may come to be glorified in his saints, and to be wondered at in all those believing, because our testimony was believed among you, in that day; 11. for which also we do pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of the calling, and may fulfil all the good pleasure of goodness, and the work of the faith in power, (2 Thessalonians 1:6-11, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul the Apostle, writing with Silvanus and Timothy named as co-senders (1:1); Paul takes the pen himself for the closing greeting (3:17).
Audience: The church at Thessalonica, capital of the Roman province of Macedonia and a free city on the Via Egnatia. Paul had planted the congregation only months earlier (Acts 17:1-9) and left the city under duress; the believers were still under local pressure, and had been unsettled by a report that the day of the Lord had already arrived (2:2).
Location: Most probably Corinth, where Silvanus and Timothy were with Paul (Acts 18:5), written shortly after 1 Thessalonians.
Time period: c. AD 50-52. The date is anchored by the Gallio inscription at Delphi, which places the proconsulship of Achaia held by Gallio (Acts 18:12) at roughly AD 51-52.

Theological reading

The verse pair states an act and its content. Verse 8 gives the judicial act, the rendering of what is due; verse 9 gives what is due, described as olethros aionios, "eternal ruin."

Olethros, not annihilation by definition. The noun means ruin or destruction, and by itself it settles less than either side of the traditionalist and conditionalist debate usually assumes. Paul uses the same word at 1 Thessalonians 5:3 for sudden ruin overtaking the complacent, where the people in question are not thereby extinguished from the narrative. The adjective aionios attaches the ruin to the age to come; whether it specifies unending duration or the character of that age is precisely what the two readings dispute.

The preposition is the crux. "From the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might" turns on apo. As separation it means exclusion; as source it means that the ruin proceeds from that presence. Both are grammatically available and both have defenders, and the passage does not force a choice.

What the text does settle. Whatever the mechanism and duration, the outcome is described as a loss defined by relation to a person, and it falls on a refusal rather than on an accident. Any responsible use of these verses should be as careful as they are.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G5219 - hypakouo, hypakouo, Strong's G5219
G0166 - aionios, aionios, Strong's G0166
G2098 - euangelion, euangelion, Strong's G2098
G1391 - doxa, doxa, Strong's G1391
G5547 - christos, christos, Strong's G5547
G1492 - oida, oida, Strong's G1492

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

G0166 - aionios, via 2 Thessalonians 1.9
G0622 - apollymi, via 2 Thessalonians 1.9
G5219 - hypakouo, via 2 Thessalonians 1.8

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.