Page "Second Epistle to the Thessalonians" Paragraph 5

Another scholar who argues for the authenticity of this letter is Jerome Murphy-O ' Connor.

Admitting that there are stylistic problems between Second Thessalonians and First Thessalonians, he argues that part of the problem is due to the composite nature of First Thessalonians ( Murphy-O ' Connor is only one of many scholars who argue that the current text of Second Thessalonians is the product of merging two or more authentic letters of Paul.

) Once the text of this interpolated letter is removed and the two letters compared, Murphy-O ' Connor asserts that this objection is " drastically weakened ", and concludes, " The arguments against the authenticity of 2 Thessalonians are so weak that it is preferable to accept the traditional ascription of the letter to Paul.