Passage

2 Thessalonians 2.13

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

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

11. And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie: 12. that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

13. But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, for that God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:

whereunto he called you through our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15. So then, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye were taught, whether by word, or by epistle of ours. (2 Thessalonians 2:11-15, ASV)

WEB

11. Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie; 12. that they all might be judged who didn’t believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

13. But we are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth;

to which he called you through our Good News, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15. So then, brothers, stand firm, and hold the traditions which you were taught by us, whether by word, or by letter. (2 Thessalonians 2:11-15, WEB)

KJV

11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

13. But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:

Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. (2 Thessalonians 2:11-15, KJV)

YLT

11. and because of this shall God send to them a working of delusion, for their believing the lie, 12. that they may be judged, all who did not believe the truth, but were well pleased in the unrighteousness.

13. And we, we ought to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, that God did choose you from the beginning to salvation, in sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth,

to which He did call you through our good news, to the acquiring of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ; 15. so, then, brethren, stand ye fast, and hold the deliverances that ye were taught, whether through word, whether through our letter; (2 Thessalonians 2:11-15, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul the Apostle, turning from the fate of the deceived to thanksgiving for the church.
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

"But we ought always to give thanks." The adversative is doing real work. Paul has just described people given over to a lie; he turns immediately to the readers and gives thanks. The pairing is deliberate and pastoral, and it is why verses 11 and 12 should never be read as a description of the audience.

A textual crux worth naming. The manuscripts divide between aparchen, "as firstfruits," and ap' arches, "from the beginning." The two are nearly identical in Greek and the evidence is genuinely split. "Firstfruits" would mark the Thessalonians as an early harvest in Macedonia; "from the beginning" would speak of election before time. Editions differ, and the verse should be used with that noted.

Three elements in one clause. God chose them; the Spirit sanctifies; they believe the truth. Divine choice, divine work, and human faith appear in one sentence without any attempt to separate their contributions, which is Paul's normal practice.

"Belief of the truth." The phrase answers verse 10 exactly. Those who perish did not love the truth; these are being saved through belief in it. The chapter is built on that contrast.

"Sanctification by the Spirit." The genitive most naturally names the Spirit as the agent who sanctifies rather than the human spirit as the sphere. The parallel at 1 Peter 1:2 uses the same construction in the same sense.

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.

G4991 - soteria, soteria, Strong's G4991
G0746 - arche, arche, Strong's G0746
G0225 - aletheia, aletheia, Strong's G0225
G0025 - agapao, agapao, Strong's G0025
G4102 - pistis, pistis, Strong's G4102
G4151 - pneuma, pneuma, Strong's G4151

Quoted in

Concepts:

Pneumatology

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.