PAULINE ESCHATOLOGY

JOSEPH OLA

ABSTRACT

This essay is a concise look into the OT (Jewish) Hope

(nationally and individually) and how that developed into the
NT Hope beginning from the Gospels, then to Acts and
ultimately to Paul.

INTRODUCTION

Eschatology is ‘the teaching concerning last things such as the resur-

rection of the dead, the last Judgement, the end of this world, and the
creation of a new one.’ 1 The term—first used in the nineteenth century
—is the label for the aspect of systematic theology that deals broadly
with the destiny of the individual (death, immortality, the intermediate
state, resurrection, judgment, eternal life, heaven and hell); the destiny
of the nation of Israel (the Day of the Lord, the coming of the Messiah,
the [temporary] Messianic kingdom) and the destiny of history at large
(the end of the world, final Judgment, the re-creation [restoration] of
the universe).
2 JOSEPH OLA

While the term came into existence in less than two centuries ago, the
concept it labels has been in existence for much longer. Paul’s presen-
tation of this doctrine with all the dynamics of its development in his
letters as we have them today is what this writer has termed Pauline
Eschatology. This Pauline perspective on eschatology (in its plurality
amongst theologians) has shaped the perspective of today’s Christian
Church albeit in different ways but chiefly concerning itself with all
the events aforementioned in a manner consummated in the hope of the
Parousia or second coming of Christ. 2 What follows is an attempt to
trace the Pauline Eschatology to its (Jewish) background considering
the OT Hope and the development of that into the NT Hope upon
which Pauline Eschatology is based.

BACKGROUND

‘The question of ultimate futures’ 3 for humans and the world they live
in found more prominence in Jewish writings than in non-Jewish writ-
ings. 4 Its origins can be traced to pre-exilic prophets whose eschatolog-
ical perspective was ‘the end of Israel.’ 5 This was further developed by
the influence of the unpleasant political circumstances in which the
Israelites found themselves in the post-exilic period (from 538 BC) 6 in
which period the Jewish community were subject to Persia, Greek
Seleucid and Roman empires respectively 7 besides the internal tension
within the community. This experience—a similitude of the Exodus
event—prompted their hope for deliverance and justice in an ‘age to
come’ in which Israel’s one true God will intervene (at last) and bring
about ‘the end of all nations and of the world as a whole’ 8 and a ‘new
creation’ where God’s creation and God’s justice will meet. This would
become Paul’s framework for the development of his eschatological
presentation which became central to his theology at large as this essay
will argue shortly.

What follows is a concise look into the OT (Jewish) Hope (nationally

and individually) and how that developed into the NT Hope beginning
from the Gospels then to Acts and ultimately to Paul.
 PAULINE ESCHATOLOGY 3

The OT (Jewish) Hope

There are two major dimensions to the OT Hope—the prophetic and

the eschatological. 9 The former centred on a kingdom to come in
which a Davidic king would lead the nation to absolute victory over his
enemies 10—a kingdom that never came to pass literally. The eschato-
logical dimension, however, centred on a transcendent kingdom
beyond history which will interrupt the present time as it is known,
bringing it to an end under the leadership of a heavenly messianic
figure. 11 This writer views these two dimensions as a continuum such
that ‘the God who will reveal Himself by a grandiose theophany in the
eschatological consummation has already manifested Himself and does
not cease manifesting Himself in the course of history’ 12 as Jacob
rightly argued. This sort of realised eschatology is what Pauline
theology is based on, that is, the fact that the death and resurrection of
Jesus had ushered in the messianic age in which the blessings of the
eschatological era were already being experienced 13 as posited by
Schweitzer and Schoeps. 14

The expression of this OT Hope however differs among the different

Jewish traditions (including primarily the Pharisees, Saducees, and
Essenes) with their plurality of ambiguous and obscure eschatological
beliefs. 15 Paul, being a Pharisee, has an eschatological background that
is deeply rooted in the Pharisaic understanding of the issues with which
eschatology is concerned.

For the fate of individuals, the picture painted in the OT is that of the
dead descending to Sheol for an experience of its ‘shadowy life’—a
weak and undesirable life desired (Job 26:5; Isaiah 14:9-17); a place
beneath (Psalm 86:13; Proverbs 15:24; Ezekiel 26:20), the abode of
righteous and evil men alike (1 Samuel 28:I9; Job 3:I7); a place of
darkness (Job 10:22), and a land of lack of memory (Job 14:12, 21;
Psalms 88:12; 94:17; 115:17) where the dead according to their tribes
as in life (Ezekiel 32:17-32) receive the dying (Isaiah 14:9). This ‘state
of the dead’ 16 expresses the conviction that human existence does not
end with death. The resurrection concept though not developed in the
4 JOSEPH OLA

OT seems logically in tandem with the Sheol concept since God

promised not to abandon His people to Sheol but to bring them into the
bliss of life in His presence (Psalms 16:9-11; 49:15; 73:24; Job 19:25).
Thus, the OT anticipates bodily resurrection (Isaiah 25:8; 26:19) and
final participation of God's people in His kingdom (Daniel 12:2). As
such, the major themes of Pauline Eschatology viz: life after death (or
life after life after death as Wright argues) and bodily resurrection are
not Pauline creation, rather they are rooted in his Jewish (Pharisaic)
background.

The NT Hope

The Synoptic Gospels and the Fourth Gospel

The NT further develops the OT eschatological hope in its redemptive

message with phrases that highlight an even sharper contrast: ‘this
(present) age’ and ‘the coming age’ (or ‘age to come’)—a contrast
arguably first made by Jesus. 17 The Synoptic Gospels usher in this
development by focusing on the themes of God’s Kingdom and Jesus’
messianic mission in a manner that brings the fulfilment of the OT
promises in the arrival of Jesus with a consummation post-dated to an
age to come. In other words, the OT Hope has found partial realisation
in Jesus and an ultimate realisation at the consummation of history. 18
Hence, the Synoptic Gospels speak of ‘entering the kingdom in the
present’ (Matthew 21:31; 23:15; Mark 12:34). The writer of the fourth
Gospel, while engaging in the tension between futuristic and realised
eschatology found in the Synoptic Gospels seemed to focus more on
the realised eschatological perspective having little to say about the
Parousia 19 while substituting the Olivet Discourse with the Upper
Room Discourse (chapters 14-17).

Acts

Acts continues upholding the tension between the already and the not-
yet except in the absence of the personage of Jesus and the in-dwelling
presence of the Holy Spirit. Contrary to Dodd’s submission that in
 PAULINE ESCHATOLOGY 5

Acts, the eschaton has come, Luke couldn’t be more obvious in his
account that Acts still looks forward to the ‘universal restoration’ in the
new order yet to come (see 3:21; cf. 1:11). However, by the Pentecost
experience, the blessings of the age to come that used to be personified
in Jesus is now let loose amongst believers in Christ corporately and
individually. Hence, I second Wright’s submission that Paul’s escha-
tology while being foundationally Jewish is doubtlessly shaped around
Jesus and the Spirit 20 as we will see below. What follows is a broader
treatment of Pauline Eschatological as a development of the afore-
mentioned.

PAULINE ESCHATOLOGY

Original Context

The original context of Pauline eschatology cannot be expressed inde-

pendent of the OT Hope and the NT Hope already discussed above for
it’s a development of those. Paul’s eschatology, him being a Jew (a
Pharisee), is rooted in his Jewish background, even though that Jewish
eschatological background is not without its Hellenistic influence 21 and
ambiguities. As Wood 22 pointed out in his classical introductory work
on Paul’s Eschatology, the religion in which Paul was raised, while
grounded in eschatology is laden with problematic ambiguities. From
the Jewish literature available prior to any of the known Pauline
letters 23, there are varieties of perspectives on what happens after
death, the events that will precede the end of the age, the resurrection
(if any), the judgement, the Messiah (if any), and the messianic
kingdom—sometimes, the incongruences occurring in the same book.

These discrepancies, as Wood argues, may not have been disturbing to

Paul’s pre-Christian thought as the presuppositions of the various
school of thoughts is still the same in a number of ways, viz: God is
just but evil dominates the world; God will not allow evil to have the
final word; the faithful should wait patiently for the eventual interven-
tion of God that will even the score and vindicate them. As such, it
makes sense to envision the context of Pauline eschatology as having
6 JOSEPH OLA

developed in an era of a plurality of perspectives on eschatological

details and he being influenced by his way-to-Damascus experience in
which he came to acknowledge that the Jesus he thought was an
impostor was indeed the Messiah, in which case (according to his
Jewish eschatological background) signals an imminent end of the age
and enlivens the resurrection idea to him—having heard from the
resurrected Christ.

It could therefore be said that Paul began his Christian mission with
these basic eschatological perceptions:

1. Jesus is the Messiah.

2. The Messiah will soon return to inaugurate his kingdom.
(Parousia)
3. That kingdom will be of victory and glory for the Messiah and
his people.
4. The time preceding the parousia will grow worse and worse
till the end.
5. The final triumph of God will be the overthrow of evil in a
display of supernatural power.
6. The messianic age will be accompanied by a divine judgment
upon all.
7. The righteous dead will be raised to share in the messianic
triumph.

Significance

Understanding Pauline eschatology is central to understanding Pauline

theology as a whole. As Fee stated, Paul’s “perspective about end times
absolutely determines [his] theological outlook—how he thinks and
talks about Christ, salvation, the church, ethics, the present, future
—everything”. 24

Development in The Pauline Corpus

This writer aligns with Wolter 25 in taking the dominant higher critical
 PAULINE ESCHATOLOGY 7

position in reducing the Pauline corpus to only Romans, 1 and 2

Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and Philemon.

There are at least two ways to interpret a ‘development’ in Paul’s

thinking. One is to interpret it as ‘an increase in understanding’ as more
information becomes available and as life happens; another is to inter-
pret it as a ‘total departure from what he once thought.’ The latter view
was the argument of Dodd in his classic 1934 article, “The Mind of
Paul: Change and Development” in positing that Paul wrote his early
letters with a sort of ‘primitive’ eschatology and his latter letters
reflects a Paul that matured and shifted his eschatology to a more
realised position. This writer disagrees with this position as this essay
will counter-argue below. As such, what follows is an attempt to trace
the development of Paul’s eschatology through his end-time scenarios
in both his earlier letters (1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians) and later
letters (2 Corinthians, Philippians).

1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:10

This epistle is considered one of Paul’s earliest surviving letters. 26 The

context is such that the church in Thessalonica is having a major
concern: that some of their members who have died before Christ’s
return will miss out on the glorious parousia event. Paul responds to
their concern.

He begins by acknowledging “those who have died” (4:13); after which he

refers to death as sleep two times in the next two verses. He points them to
the common faith they share in Jesus’ resurrection as their hope and guar-
antee for the certainty of the resurrection of believers. (4:13-4). In
narrating the events of the day of the Lord, he emphasised that “the Lord
himself” will descend from heaven and resurrect all believers who had
slept (4:16). These believers, he calls the “dead in Christ” who, according
to Paul, will be resurrected and rise to meet Christ “in the clouds” before
those who are still alive—amongst whom he seems to include himself—
will “be with the Lord forever” (4:16-7). He proceeds with a reminder of
the unpredictability and suddenness of the day of the Lord which will come
8 JOSEPH OLA

“like a thief in the night” (5:1-2); he warns them to keep living such lives as
is becoming of “children of light” (5:3-9), and concludes with a reaffirma-
tion that believers in Christ—alive or asleep during the Parousia—will
not miss the event and they will cohabit with Christ forevermore (5:10).

As pointed out earlier, it would seem that 4:15-17 indicates Paul’s

expectation of the parousia to occur before his death ‘we who are
alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord… Then we who are
alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them’.
But this is in fact, not necessarily the case. To arrive at the conclusion
that Paul was definitely expecting that he will be alive to witness the
parousia is to leave out 5:10 in which he indicates holding simultane-
ously both the possibility of his survival to witness the parousia (4:15,
17) or his death before the parousia event (5:10). Besides, in a making
a point juxtaposing those asleep and those alive, was it not a natural
thing for him to write in the first-person plural of himself and his
fellow believers since he was still alive at the time of writing? More so,
how can he be so certain of partaking in an event of which he had
made it clear that the date is neither calculatable nor predictable? In his
commentary on 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Marshall suggests the possibility
of taking the 'we' of 4:15, in a future sense. He writes, ‘Here in the
present passage (1 Thessalonians 4:15) there is really no difficulty in
taking his words to mean "those of us who are alive".’ 27

In effect, the centrality of his message in this passage is that death is

not a disadvantage as far as the parousia event is concerned. And while
Paul seems to focus on addressing the issue of the “dead in Christ”
amongst the Thessalonians, he is quiet about their current state as at the
time he was writing. What form were the dead in Christ? Where were
they at that moment? By likening death to sleep, is it justifiable to
conclude that Paul understands (as at the time of writing this letter) that
the dead in Christ are totally unconscious pending the time of the
parousia event? Bassler raises some dispute on this. 28 The fact remains
that Paul did not address these issues in the passage—may be because
he has achieved the primary aim of writing that part of the letter, that
is, to clarify the lot of the dead in Christ viz-a-viz the parousia event.
 PAULINE ESCHATOLOGY 9

1 Corinthians 15:1-58

In this letter, Paul discussed future resurrection in more detail in

response to rumours that some Corinthians question the notion of
bodily resurrection. Hence, he employed a different approach from his
approach in 1 Thessalonians. He gave a simplified overview of the
chronology of the events that will attend the parousia but argued more
on the nature of resurrected bodies.

In the first eleven verses, Paul reminds them of the foundational

doctrine of the resurrection of Christ and the tradition which he handed
on to them—a sort of an early Christian kerygma. He also gave a
summarised account of the narrative sequence known from the
Gospels, viz: that Jesus died, was buried, was raised and subsequently
appeared to various people acknowledging that some of such people
have died (15:6). 29

From 15:12-34, Paul then argues for the certainty of the resurrection
based on the resurrection of Christ which in turn necessitates the resur-
rection of all those who die in Christ the denial of which trumps the
whole agenda of the ‘Christian hope’ (15:12-19). He continued by
using Christ as a typology of Adam to reaffirm the certainty of bodily
resurrection after which he proceeds to give his chronology of eschato-
logical events summarily: first, Christ’s resurrection, then the Parousia
and the resurrection of those who belong to Christ (15:23), then
Christ’s victorious reign (15:24-5), culminating in the destruction of
Death (15:26), and a handing over of the kingdom to God the Father
(15:24), and His subjection to God the Father (15:28).

Paul culminates his discussion on the subject in an elaborate discussion

on the nature of resurrected bodies. Using the agricultural analogy of a
seed, he describes the pre-resurrection bodies in comparison with the
post-resurrection bodies. In 15:44, he says “… it is sown a physical
body, it is raised a spiritual body.” The exact meaning of “spiritual
body” is however open to debate. However, in 15:51, he introduces the
idea that what he is attempting to describe is in fact, a mystery. The
clear deduction from his agricultural analogy of the physical body
10 JOSEPH OLA

being planted (in death) to give rise to the spiritual body highlights
how he views the latter as a sort of extension of the former. He then
switches to a similar conclusion as in 1 Thessalonians (re)introducing
the trumpet sound and resurrection of the dead with their new, imper-
ishable bodies. Departing from his previous agricultural analogy, he
introduces the term “put on” describing how the physical (mortal) body
“clothes” itself with immortality (15:53-4).

When compared with the 1 Thessalonians account earlier considered,

while the central focus of Paul shifted from the portion of the dead in
Christ in lieu of the parousia event to the details about resurrected
bodies, the eschatology presented in both passages are still closely
related. Both passages have something to say about death as ‘sleep’,
the ‘trumpet call’, the resurrection of dead believers in Christ, the
transformation of believers who are alive at the eschaton, an eternity
with God, a silence on the consciousness of the deceased in Christ and
‘we’ verses that could indicate Paul’s personal desire to be alive to
witness the parousia event. However, the 1 Corinthians account is
more detailed with a more elaborate agenda including a more detailed
description of being with Christ forever, how Christ will rule, and how
He finally hands all things over to God the Father. Besides the argu-
ment already made regarding the ‘we’ verses in 1 Thessalonians (4:15,
17) another point can be added here in 1 Corinthians (15:51f). Wood-
bridge rightly points out that when Paul used ‘the first person plural’ in
referring to believers in Christ, ‘this does not necessarily mean he
included himself.’ 30 He cited a similar word usage in the same letter
(6:14, 15 and 10:22) where Paul classed himself with those he was
describing without necessarily implying that he was one of them.

What follows is a comparison of Paul’s eschatology in the above (ear-

lier) letters with his eschatology in his later letters.

2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10

Paul here introduces an imagery that seems confusing when compared

to his earlier eschatological treaties, the main difference being an intro-
duction of a body-soul dualism that was not apparent in his earlier
 PAULINE ESCHATOLOGY 11

letters. Besides, for those who read Paul through the primitive vs
mature eschatological lenses, this passage introduces Paul’s acknowl-
edgement of the possibility of his dying before the parousia event
(4:12; 5:1,8in addition to a curious soul’s interim bodiless existence.

Beginning with a distinction of outer and inner natures—the latter

being renewed each day and the former wasting away (4:16), Paul reit-
erates his theme of the physical body being perishable as in 1 Corinthi-
ans. He continues his dualistic introduction in 5:1 comparing “the
earthly tent we live in” with a house “eternal in the heavens” without
specifically making the allusion that believers that die in Christ receive
their eternal bodies instantly when they die.

Continuing, in a language similar to that of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul rein-

troduces the idea of ‘putting on’ and ‘swallowing up’ (5:2-4). This had
brought about such arguments as Bassler’s that Paul here suggests that
those who are dead are ‘unclothed’—which being an anathema to the
Jews 31 would suggest that Paul understands that to die before Christ’s
return will be something very undesirable. This argument is highly
unlikely as it is inconsistent with other Pauline affirmations in the
previous epistles considered. Paul both in the earlier (1 Thessalonians
and 1 Corinthians) and later letters (Philippians) emphasises the prefer-
ence of the dead in Christ in the chronology of the events that attend
the parousia. More likely is Bassler’s alternative argument that this
language of dualism in Paul (including that being ‘unclothed’), is part
of his attack on the “false apostles” he is refuting (11.13). 32

In 5:6-8, ('away from the body and at home with the Lord'), these
verses seem to indicate that when believers die, they go instantly into
Christ’s presence skipping any state of unconsciousness or 'sleep'
mentioned in the earlier letters. While this is in fact, the most likely
scenario, it doesn’t contradict what Paul had said in the earlier letters.
He was simply silent about the intermediate state both in 1 Thessalo-
nians and 1 Corinthians and here bridges that gap with an under-
standing of an instantaneous presence with the Lord upon a departure
from the physical body. N.T. Wright 33 addressed this sufficiently in his
12 JOSEPH OLA

argument that there is such a thing as ‘Life after death’ which this
verses suggest and yet another dimension which he referred to as ‘life
after life after death’ which would be what will happen at the parousia
when bodily resurrection sets in.

Woodbridge couldn’t have said it any better,

If Paul had contemplated being unconscious and inactive during the

interval between his death and the parousia, how are we to explain his
preference (2 Cor. 5:8) or desire (Phil. 1:23) to depart to Christ's pres-
ence? Even with all its difficulties, active conscious life on earth would
doubtless have seemed preferable to a state of unconsciousness after
death. It appears unlikely that Paul would have believed that Christians
could have their union with Christ interrupted, even temporarily, by
bodily death. Thus the apostle's knowledge that life in the immediate
presence of Christ is far superior to earthly existence formed the
ground of his preference for departure in 2 Corinthians 5:8 and of his
desire for departure in Philippians 1:23. So the alleged inconsistency
on the intermediate state is best resolved by an alternative exegesis of
the verb 'to sleep' in 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians which argues
that it does not refer to any intermediate state of unconsciousness, but
rather is simply a euphemism for death. Thus Paul intends to make no
statement on the intermediate state by the use of this term.

Philippians 1:21-25

Here we can see Paul in eager expectation to be with Christ in heaven

immediately upon his death. While followers of Dodd’s perspective of
a matured eschatology here manifested in the light of Paul’s imprison-
ment and possible execution in mind, this writer has argued earlier in
this essay that this is in fact, not the case. Woodbridge’s comments
with which the previous section was ended has given sufficient expla-
nation for this.
 PAULINE ESCHATOLOGY 13

Conclusion

Pauline Eschatology, while heavily rooted in his Jewish background

has taken the Jewish perspective and developed it further in line with
the ‘Christ event’ and the ‘Spirit event’ as Wright rightly argues. 34
Admittedly, there seems to be some conflicts in the development of
Paul’s eschatology in his earlier and later letters. In the former, he
describes a scenario whereby at some imminent but indefinite and
uncalculatable time in the (nearest) future, there will be a parousia
event that will usher in a bodily resurrection of the dead while the latter
describes a scenario whereby the dead in Christ departs instantly into
the presence of the Lord. The ‘intermediate state’ seems to be the
dividing factor of both perspectives in Paul’s eschatology. The argu-
ment of this essay however is that Dodd’s conclusion 35 that Paul
changed his mind and came up with a ‘more mature’ eschatological
view in his latter letters as opposed to his earlier letters is not the case.
Instead, this essay has traced a coherence in the development of Paul’s
eschatology reaching the same conclusion as Wright’s position 36 that
‘Paul’s eschatology describes both a ‘life after death’ which happens
immediately at the moment of death such that the [dead in Christ] is
instantly present with the Lord and a ‘life after life after death’ which
will be ushered in with the parousia event described in 1 Thessalonians
and 1 Corinthians at an unknown time in the imminent future when the
bodily resurrection of the ‘dead’ will take place.’ 37

This conclusion has been reached bearing these points in mind:

1. That Paul was not a ‘theologian’ in the twenty-first century sense of

the word. Sobanaraj rightly describes Paul as "a pastor who is more
concerned about the unity, stability and theological integrity of his
congregations than a consistent theoretician" 38

2. That Paul doesn’t ‘say it all’ in any one letter. Like modern day
authors, Paul did not set out to write just one book that says everything
he has in mind about eschatology (for instance). Piecing his works
together will give a fuller picture as this essay had attempted.
14 JOSEPH OLA

3. And that Paul had exclusive access to some mysteries. 39 Amongst

his end-time scenarios (1 Corinthians 15:51), he indicated that his
attempt at addressing the concerns of his readers is the task of
unveiling a mystery.

This he had done in a coherent manner if an interpreter is willing to not

read into the texts considered what the author had not written.
 NOTES

Pauline Eschatology
1. Michael D. Coogan and Bruce M. Metzger, The Oxford Companion To The Bible
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 192.
2. David Aune, "Understanding Jewish And Christian Apocalyptic", Apocalypse
Then And Now, 25.3 (2005), p. 237.
3. As N.T. Wright loosely described eschatology in: "How Greek Was Paul's Escha-
tology?", New Testament Studies, 61.02 (2015), 239-253
<https://doi.org/10.1017/s0028688514000368>.
4. How Greek was Paul’s Eschatology?, 249
5. Ibid, 247
6. See Ezra 1-2
7. Aune, 238.
8. How Greek was Paul’s Eschatology?, 247
9. See Mowinckel; Bousset; Volz; Bultmann.
S. Mowinckel, He That Cometh (Eng. tr. 1956); W. Bousset, Religion des
Judenturns im spathellenistischen Zeitalter (2nd ed. 1934); P. Volz, Eschatologie
der judischen Gemeinde im NT Zeitatter (2nd ed. 1934) and R. Bultmann, NTS, 1
(1954), 5-16.
10. As presented by Ezekiel according to who Israel will be restored to the land
(34:11-16) led by a Davidic ruler (37:24) and transformed (36:26) in order to
partake of the blessings of a covenant of Shalom (34:25), with God's sanctuary
situated therein for all time (37:28). He postdates a final ‘eschatological war’ (38-
39) after the restoration to be followed by the final state of perpetual blessedness
(40-48).
11. Geoffrey William Bromiley and others, The International Standard Bible Ency-
clopedia, 1st edn (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,
1995), p. 132.
12. Jacob, Theology of the OT, p. 318
13. A. Schweitzer, Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, 1931. p.
14. H. J. Schoeps, Paul [Eng. tr. 1961]
15. S. Sobanaraj, Diversity in Paul's Eschatology: Paul's View on the Parousia and
Bodily Resurrection (Delhi: Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
[ISPCK], 2007), p. 132.
16. Jacob, 304
17. Geoffrey William Bromiley and others, The International Standard Bible Encyclo-
pedia, 1st edn (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995),
p. 134.
18. Ibid.
16 NOTES

19. According to Ladd, he substituted the Olivet Discourse with the Upper Room
Discourse (14-17)
20. "How Greek Was Paul's Eschatology?", p. 253.
21. "How Greek Was Paul's Eschatology?",p. 249
22. Irving F. Wood, "Paul's Eschatology", The Biblical World, 38.2 (1911), 79-91
<https://doi.org/10.1086/474474>.
23. These include Ethiopic Enoch, Slavonic Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, the
Assumption of Moses, amongst others.
24. Gordon D Fee, Paul, The Spirit, And The People Of God, (Peabody, Mass:
Hendrickson Publ, 2001), p. 51.
25. See Jan G. van der Watt, Eschatology Of The New Testament And Some Related
Documents, 1st edn (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011). His article entitled "The
Distinctiveness of Paul’s Eschatology" appears on pages 416-26.
26. C.L. Mearns, "Early Eschatological Development in Paul,"New Testament Studies,
27 (1981): 137-57.
27. l.H. Marshall, 1 &2 Thessalonians (London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott,
1983), 127
28. Jouette Bassler, Navigating Paul: An Introduction to Key Theological Concepts,
(Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2007), 88.
29. While this detail “though some have died” indicates Paul’s inclination to his
understanding of a supposedly imminent parousia, It is not significant enough to
argue that he was originally certain that he (or any believer at that) should not (or
would not) dies before the Parousia.
30. Paul Woodbridge, "Did Paul Change His Mind? - An Examination Of Some
Aspects Of Pauline Eschatology", Biblicalstudies.Org.Uk, 2017, p. 11.
<https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/article_paul_woodbridge.html#5> [accessed 5 May
2017].
31. Bassler, pg. 92.
32. Ibid. pg, 93.
33. Extensively discussed in Wright, N. T., The Resurrection Of The Son Of God, 1st
edn (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2004)
34. "How Greek Was Paul's Eschatology?", New Testament Studies, 61.02 (2015),
239-253 <https://doi.org/10.1017/s0028688514000368>.
35. See C.H. Dodd, "The Mind of Paul: I"; and "The Mind of Paul: II" in New Testa-
ment Studies (Manchester: University Press, 1953), 67-82 and 83-128. Available
from https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/uk-ac-man-scw:1m1334 and
https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/uk-ac-man-scw:1m1391 respectively.
36. Extensively discussed in Wright, N. T., The Resurrection Of The Son Of God, 1st
edn (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2004)
37. This is the same conclusion this writer reached in his Portfolio of Questions and
Answers for this same module earlier submitted via Turnitin.
38. Sobanaraj, 373
39. See 2 Corinthians 12