formal schematic of the explication has meaning only in the formal articulation, [for] it does not emerge in the enactment of phenomenological understanding. In its formal elevation what is authentic is lacking.
On 1:9–10: The turning-toward God is primary. The turning-away from the εἴδωλα [idol] first arises from out of it and with it. This turning-away is secondary. ἐπιστρέφειν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ἀπὸ τῶν εἰδώλων [you turned to God from idols] (εἴδωλον in classical Greek means “illusion,” in the Septuaginta “idol images,” where Paul has it from). For the explication, the task arises to determine the sense of the objecthood of God. It is a decrease of authentic understanding if God is grasped primarily as an object of speculation. That can be realized only if one carries out the explication of the conceptual connections. This, however, has never been attempted, because Greek philosophy penetrated into Christianity. Only Luther made an advance in this direction, and from this his hatred of Aristotle can be explained.
2:20: ὑμεῖς γάρ ἐστε ἡ χαρά. “You are my joy and my δόξα.” οὔτε ζητοῦντες ἐξ ἀνθρώπων δόξαν οὔτε ἀφ ὑμῶν [nor did we seek praise from mortals whether from you or from others] (2:6) seems to stand in absolute contradiction to 2:20. Paul wants to win his own security through his success with the Thessalonians. Here is meant the opposition to the Greek wandering preachers, whom Lucian accuses of δοξοκοπία (addiction to fame). 3:8: Paul’s life is dependent upon the Thessalonians’ standing firm in their belief. He hands himself over entirely to the fate of the Thessalonians. The concepts ἐλπίς, δόξα, χαρά [hope, glory, joy] have a special meaning, or else one arrives at contradictions. In order to gain the sense of these concepts, we are forced to go to the basic context of the life of Paul himself. The entire conceptual structure is otherwise than one at first thinks. We are compelled, by the force of the phenomena themselves, to go back to what is original.
δουλεύειν and άναμένειν determine every other reference as fundamental directions. The awaiting of the παρουσία of the Lord is decisive. The Thessalonians are hope for him not in a human sense, but rather in the sense of the experience of the παρουσία. The experience is an absolute distress (θλίπις) which belongs to the life of the Christian himself. The acceptance (δέχεσθαι) is an entering-oneself-into anguish. This distress is a fundamental characteristic, it is an absolute concern in the horizon of the παρουσία, of the second coming at the end of time. With that we are introduced into the self-world of Paul.
§ 26. The Expectation of the Parousia
Paul lives in a peculiar distress, one that is, as apostle, his own, in expectation of the second coming of the Lord. This distress articulates the authentic situation