The study of Paul's Thessalonian letters is enjoying fresh interest today. These texts are considered by many to be amongst the earliest extant Christian documents. They are included in conversations about early Jewish and Christian apocalypticism. New insights are coming from examination of the religious, socio-cultural, and political contexts of Roman Thessalonica. And, looking back, these letters have played an important role in the development of Christian eschatology. This volumes serves as an up-to-date guide to these academic discussions and debates and much more.

This volume on 1 and 2 Thessalonians in the Zondervan Critical Introductions to the New Testament series offers a volume-length engagement with subjects that normally only receive short treatments in biblical commentaries or in New Testament Introductions. This volume addresses:

With this study--companion to the masterful two-volume The Gospel According to John--Raymond E. Brown completed his trilogy on the Johannine corpus. Meticulous in detail, exhaustive in analysis, persuasive in argument, it examines controversies that have long troubled both biblical scholars and lay readers. Questions of authorship, composition, and dating, as well as the debate over source theories, are discussed at length; but these are kept subordinate to the overall question of meaning.
What gives this commentary special interest and excitement is the bold, imaginative reconstruction of the setting of the Johannine work--in particular of the "opposition figures," who are only dimly sketched in the Epistles--so that we see clearly that the author is writing to his flock both about the dangers and difficulties confronting them, and about the eternal life that is theirs by the gift of God. In this way, the Epistles of John become intelligible as broadsides in a critical engagement between the forces of light and darkness.
In addition to his superb textual analysis of the letters, Raymond Brown has brought to life the community in which these works were formed and shaped. We are forcefully reminded that the Gospel and the Epistles were addressed to very real people living in the first century a.d., people with religious problems not unlike our own. In all respects, The Epistles of John stands out as a model of biblical scholarship and study.

John is known as 'the disciple whom Jesus loved'. He was under our Saviour's teaching and care for three years. He leaned against Christ's chest at the last supper and witnessed the crucifixion. Who better then to write about the love of Jesus than the one who had such first-hand experience of it? In these three letters, John is passing on the impact of these experiences to people he loves, tenderly encouraging them to see past their failings and focus on the promises available in Christ.
John Hannah opens up the letters of John to show the simple message of freedom from guilt contained within.