Page "Second Epistle to the Thessalonians" Paragraph 4

G. Milligan observed that a church which possessed an authentic letter of Paul would be unlikely to accept a fake addressed to them.

So also Colin Nicholl who has put forward a substantial argument for the authenticity of Second Thessalonians.

He points out that ' the pseudonymous view is ... more vulnerable than most of its advocates conceded.

...

The lack of consensus regarding a date and destination ... reflects a dilemma for this position: on the one hand, the date needs to be early enough for the letter to be have been accepted as Pauline ... the other hand, the date and destination need to be such that the author could be confident that no contemporary of 1 Thessalonians ... could have exposed 2 Thessalonians as a ...

forgery.

'.