Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Thessalonian 3:11
For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
11. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly ] Rather, we hear of some walking, &c. It was not simply that the Apostle heard that there were such people at Thessalonica; he knew about them, who they were, and how they were behaving. Further news had come since he wrote the First Epistle, in which he touched briefly, in mild and general terms, upon the subject (1Th 4:11-12; 1Th 5:14). Now he is compelled to single out the offenders and to address them with pointed censure. For similar allusions to reports from a distant Church, comp. 1Co 1:11 ; 1Co 10:18.
He writes, “some which walk among you disorderly” (not “ some among you which walk,” &c.), which implies that their public conduct and relations with the rest of the Church were irregular.
On “walk disorderly,” see note to 2Th 3:6.
This disorder was not merely negative, consisting in refusal to work: mischief and idleness are proverbially companions; and we are not surprised to find the Apostle adding the further condemnation, that work not at all, but are busybodies (R.V.).
There is a play of words in the Greek, which gives to this reproach a keener edge, whose one business is to be busybodies; or rendered still more freely, minding everybody’s business but their own, idly busy with the concerns of others. These mischief-makers the Apostle had already bidden to “study to be quiet and to do their own work” (1Th 4:11); comp. the extended note on 2Th 3:8 above. For the same disposition St Paul in 1Ti 5:13 reproves certain “younger widows” “not only idlers, but tattlers also and busybodies.”
For similar examples of paronomasia in St Paul, see 2Th 3:2-3 (“faith faithful”), Rom 1:20 (“The unseen clearly seen”); Introd. p. 33.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For we hear – It is not known in what way this was made known to Paul, whether by Timothy, or by some other one. He had no doubt of its truth, and he seems to have been prepared to believe it the more readily from what he saw when he was among them.
Which walk disorderly – See the notes, 2Th 3:6.
But are busy-bodies – Compare the 1Ti 5:13 note; 1Pe 4:15 note. That is, they meddled with the affairs of others – a thing which they who have nothing of their own to busy themselves about will be very likely to do. The apostle had seen that there was a tendency to his when he was in Thessalonica, and hence he had commanded them to do their own business; 1Th 4:11. The injunction, it seems, had availed little, for there is no class of persons who will heed good counsel so little as those who have a propensity to intermeddle with the affairs of others. One of the indispensable things to check this is, that each one should have enough to do himself; and one of the most pestiferous of all persons is he who has nothing to do but to look after the affairs of his neighbors. In times of affliction and want, we should be ready to lend our aid. At other times, we should feel that he can manage his own affairs as well as we can do it for him; or if he cannot, it is his business, not ours. The Greek word used occurs only here, and in 1Ti 5:13; compare the notes on Phi 2:4.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Th 3:11-12
For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies
A busybody
Apelles, who flourished in the time of Alexander the Great, never permitted a day to pass without practice in his art.
He was accustomed, when he bad completed any one of his pieces, to expose it in some public place to the view of the passers-by, and seating himself behind it to hear the remarks which were made. On one of these occasions a shoemaker censured the painter for having given to the slippers a less number of ties than it ought to have. Apelles, knowing the man must be correct, at once rectified the mistake. The next day the shoemaker, emboldened, criticised one of the legs, when Apelles indignantly put forth his head and bid him keep to that line of criticism which he justly understood. Here we have the disorderliness of 2Th 3:6-7 defined. There is a scornful play of words here in the Greek which is lost sight of in the English: the word for busybodies being merely a compound form of the word working. Quite literally, the compound means working enough and to spare, being over busy, overdoing; then, as a man cannot possibly overdo what it is his own duty to do, it comes to signify–
I. Doing useless things, things which concern no one, and might as well be left alone: as, e.g., magic, which is described by this word (Act 19:19); or natural science, which is so described in the Athenians accusation of Socrates!
II. Meddling with matters which do not concern the doer, but do concern other people (1Ti 5:18). Bishop Lightfoot suggests, that the play can be kept up through the words business and busy; we might perhaps say, not being business men, but busy bodies. But which of the two notions mentioned above is to be considered most prominent here, we cannot tell for certain.
1. The Thessalonians do not seem to have been much carried away by the first class of dangers–idle speculations such as those of the Ephesian and Colossian churches. Yet we cannot altogether exclude this meaning here. St. Pauls readers had been overbusy in theorizing about the position of the departed at Christs coming (1Th 4:15), and had been so eager over their idle doctrines of the Advent as to falsify, if not actually to forge, communications from St. Paul (2Th 2:2). Such false inquisitiveness and gossiping discussions might well be described by the Greek word we are now considering.
2. Everything, however, points to a more practical form of the same disposition to mask idleness under cloak of work; feverish excitement, which leads men to meddle and interfere with others, perhaps to spend time in religious work which ought not to have been spared from everyday duties (1Th 4:11-12). There is nothing to shew definitely how this busy idleness arose, but it may very probably be the troubled and shaken condition of mind spoken of in 2Th 2:2. (Canon Mason.)
That with quietness they work—
The blessedness of work
1. There is probably no means of grace more strengthening against temptation, more healthful for the spirit, more uplifting towards God, than honest, earnest work. When God placed man in the Garden of Eden, He placed him there not for the sole purpose of contemplation, but to dress the garden and keep it. The Saviour is reputed to have worked at His foster fathers bench, and thus to have consecrated all human toil. Even His Sabbaths were spent in worship and in doing good. The most religious life is often thus a life of unremitting toil.
2. Upon the scroll of Nature is written the gospel of work. For Nature seldom supplies our necessities or meets our conveniences by provisions ready made for use. Nature furnishes the raw material: the Clay to be fashioned into bricks, the iron to be converted into machinery, the fertility of the soil to be husbanded by cultivation, the produce of distant lands to be first transferred by the seamans endurance and the merchants enterprise to the place of manufacture, and then to be spun and woven by the diligence of the artizan into cloth suitable for wear. Even Nature declines to satisfy our wants unless we work in her laboratories, and recognize the Divine obligation of earning our bread by the sweat of the brow. Nature thus exalts every labourer into a disciple of God, learning in the Book of Nature the dignity and value of toil.
3. History harmonizes with Nature in the pronouncement of this verdict upon the blessedness of work. The most forward nations of the world are those which have been compelled by the necessities of climate and geographical position to labour most diligently for their daily sustenance. The most backward races are those which dwell in sunny lands, where fruits grow without strenuous husbandry, and where the glow and inspiration of effort are only partial and weak.
4. The experience of the Church may be added in favour of the elevating influence of work. Where does infidelity most abound? Not among the busy and industrious classes, but among the luxurious, the leisurely, the indolent. Doubters may not be always drones, but drones are commonly doubters. The pests of the commonwealth and the poisons of society are its loungers, its idlers, its non-working element; those who simply eat the fruits of the earth and do no good and die; who neither work for their own private advantage, nor devote themselves to the public weal. The idle man is in the full glare of temptation, and upon the high road to iniquity.
5. Work is a great preservative for the soul. It drains off the evil humours of the flesh; it parries the thrusts of temptation; it yields the fruits of a peacable heart; it delights with the reflection of useful service to others; it gives to man the exalted sense of being a cooperator with God in Nature, in the world, and in the Church, (J. W. Diggle, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. For we hear that there are some] It is very likely that St. Paul kept up some sort of correspondence with the Thessalonian Church; for he had heard every thing that concerned their state, and it was from this information that he wrote his second epistle.
Disorderly] . Out of their rank-not keeping their own place.
Working not at all] Either lounging at home, or becoming religious gossips; , doing nothing.
Busybodies.] . Doing every thing they should not do-impertinent meddlers with other people’s business; prying into other people’s circumstances and domestic affairs; magnifying or minifying, mistaking or underrating, every thing; newsmongers and telltales; an abominable race, the curse of every neighbourhood where they live, and a pest to religious society. There is a fine paronomasia in the above words, and evidently intended by the apostle.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For we hear: the apostle gives the reason of this discourse he fell into about disorder, and commends, yea, commands, a remedy against it. He had heard of this disorderly walking, else his discourse might have been esteemed vain and needless. Reports are to obtain credit according to the quality of the person that makes them, his end therein, and probability of truth. He took notice of reports brought to him about the divisions that were at Corinth, 1Co 11:18.
That there are some among you: and the persons that he here chargeth the report upon, are not all, but some only, and he nameth none; for as to the body of the church, he had confidence they did, and would do, the things he commanded, 2Th 3:4. And he requires them to withdraw from the disorderly.
Which walk among you disorderly, working not at all: and the disorder he chargeth upon these some is:
1. , that they worked not at all, at least not the work of their own place, as it follows.
2. But are busybodies; busy, and yet idle, and not working; curieusement, French Bible; as the curious arts of sorcerers are called , Act 19:19. The word signifies working about, and denotes either vain curiosity, meddling in matters that they ought not, or going round their proper work, but not falling or fixing upon it. The same the apostle speaks of younger widows, 1Ti 5:13, who learnt to be idle, and yet were busybodies; and such are called , 1Pe 4:15. And the one follows from the other; for they that are idle and neglect their own business will be apt to intermeddle in anothers: and they that are not keepers at home, will be gadders abroad, and so not eat their own, but others bread, which the apostle here reproves, as dishonourable to the Christian profession; and, as a further remedy, doth with much earnestness address his speech particularly to them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. busy bodiesIn the Greekthe similarity of sound marks the antithesis, “Doing none oftheir own business, yet overdoing in the business of others.”Busy about everyone’s business but their own. “Nature abhors avacuum”; so if not doing one’s own business, one is apt tomeddle with his neighbor’s business. Idleness is the parent ofbusybodies (1Ti 5:13). Contrast1Th 4:11.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For we hear that there are some,…. This is the reason of the order or command given in 2Th 3:6 for withdrawing from disorderly persons. When the apostle was with them, he observed that there were idle persons among them, and therefore gave orders then, that if they would not work, they should not eat; and in his former epistle, having intelligence that there were still such persons among them, he exhorts them to their duty, and puts the church upon admonishing them; and still information is given him, that there were some such persons yet among them; for as the apostle had the care of all the churches upon him, so he kept a correspondence with them, and by one means or another, by sending messengers to them, or by receiving letters from those he corresponded with, he learned the state of them; and his information was generally good, and what might be depended upon; see 1Co 1:11 as it was in this case relating to some persons: which walk among you disorderly; and who they were, and which also explains 2Th 3:6, are immediately observed: working not at all; at their callings, trades, and businesses in which they were brought up, but lived an idle and lazy life: and this was walking disorderly indeed, even contrary to the order of things before the fall, when man was in a state of innocence; for before sin entered into the world, Adam was put into the garden of Eden to keep and dress it; man was created an active creature, and made for work and business; and to live without, is contrary to the order of creation, as well as to the order of civil societies, and of religious ones, or churches, and even what irrational creatures do not.
But are busy bodies; though they work not at all at their own business, yet are very busy in other men’s matters, and have the affairs of kingdoms, and cities, and towns, and neighbourhoods, and churches, and families, upon their hands; which they thrust themselves into, and intermeddle with, though they have no business at all with them: these wander from house to house, and curiously inquire into personal and family affairs, are tattlers, full of prate and talk, and, like the Athenians, spend all their time in telling or hearing new things; and they also speak things which they should not; they carry tales from one to another, and privately whisper things to the disadvantage of their fellow creatures and Christians, and backbite and slander them. These are the pests of nations and neighbourhoods, the plagues of churches, and the scandal of human nature; see 1Ti 5:13.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
For we hear ( ). Fresh news from Thessalonica evidently. For the present tense compare 1Co 11:18. The accusative and the participle is a regular idiom for indirect discourse with this verb (Robertson, Grammar, pp. 1040-2). Three picturesque present participles, the first a general description, , the other two specifying with a vivid word-play,
that work not at all, but are busy-bodies ( ). Literally,
doing nothing but doing around . Ellicott suggests,
doing no business but being busy bodies . “The first persecution at Thessalonica had been fostered by a number of fanatical loungers (Ac 17:5)” (Moffatt). These theological dead-beats were too pious to work, but perfectly willing to eat at the hands of their neighbours while they piddled and frittered away the time in idleness.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Working not at all – busybodies [ – ] . One of Paul ‘s frequent wordplays. See on reprobate mind, Rom 1:28. Not busy, but busybodies. Periergazesqai (N. T. o.) is to bustle about a thing : here, to be officious in others’ affairs. See on ta perierga curious arts, Act 19:19, and 1Ti 5:13.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For we hear that there are some” (akouomen gar tinas) “For we hear (of) some”; Paul had been told by word of mouth, or by letter, that some of the members of the Church in Thessalonica had fostered the first persecution, as fanatical loungers, Act 17:5.
2) “Which walk among you disorderly”, (peripatountas en humin ataktos) “who walk idly among you”, disorderly, not busy, but as busybodies, meddlers with affairs of others, sticking noses in other people’s business. Pro 20:3; Pro 26:17; Pro 26:20-22.
3) “Working not at all” (meden ergazomenos) not even working at all”; in violation of laws of creation, and Divine order, for a well directed family, social, and religious life, Gen 3:10; Eph 4:28.
4) “But are busybodies” (alla periergazomenos) “but are meanders, or busybodies”, meddlers in affairs of others, against the will and Word of the Lord, for indolence is the parent of mischief, 1Ti 5:13; 1Pe 4:15.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
11 We hear that there are some among you. It is probable that this kind of drones were, as it were, the seed of idle monkhood. For, from the very beginning, there were some who, under pretext of religion, either made free with the tables of others, or craftily drew to themselves the substance of the simple. They had also, even in the time of Augustine, come to prevail so much, that he was constrained to write a book expressly against idle monks, where he complains with good reason of their pride, because, despising the admonition of the Apostle, they not only excuse themselves on the ground of infirmity, but they wish to appear holier than all others, on the ground that they are exempt from labors. He inveighs, with good reason, against this unseemliness, that, while the senators are laborious, the workman, or person in humble life, does not merely live in idleness, (716) but would fain have his indolence pass for sanctity. Such are his views. (717) In the mean time, however, the evil has increased to such an extent, that idle bellies occupy nearly the tenth part of the world, whose only religion is to be well stuffed, and to have exemption from all annoyance (718) of labor. And this manner of life they dignify, sometimes with the name of the Order, sometimes with that of the Rule, of this or that personage. (719)
But what does the Spirit say, on the other hand, by the mouth of Paul? He pronounces them all to be irregular and disorderly, by whatever name of distinction they may be dignified. It is not necessary to relate here how much the idle life of monks has invariably displeased persons of sounder judgment. That is a memorable saying of an old monk, which is recorded by Socrates in the Eighth Book of the Tripartite History — that he who does not labor with his hands is like a plunderer. (720) I do not mention other instances, nor is it necessary. Let this statement of the Apostle suffice us, in which he declares that they are dissolute, and in a manner lawless.
Doing nothing. In the Greek participles there is, an elegant ( προσωνομασία) play upon words, which I have attempted in some manner to imitate, by rendering it as meaning that they do nothing, but have enough to do in the way of curiosity. (721) He censures, however, a fault with which idle persons are, for the most part, chargeable, that, by unseasonably bustling about, they give trouble to themselves and to others. For we see, that those who have nothing to do are much more fatigued by doing nothing, than if they were employing themselves in some very important work; they run hither and thither; wherever they go, they have the appearance of great fatigue; they gather all sorts of reports, and they put them in a confused way into circulation. You would say that they bore the weight of a kingdom upon their shoulders. Could there be a more remarkable exemplification of this than there is in the monks? For what class of men have less repose? Where does curiosity reign more extensively? Now, as this disease has a ruinous effect upon the public, Paul admonishes that it ought not to be encouraged by idleness.
(716) “ Les senateurs et les nobles ayent la main a la besogne, et cependant les manouuriers et mechaniques, non seulement viuront en oisiuete;” — “The senators and the nobles have their hand in the work, and in the mean time the workmen and mechanics will not only live in idleness.”
(717) “ Voyla que dit S. Augustin;” — “There you have what St. Augustine says.”
(718) “ Et solicitude;” — “And anxiety.”
(719) “ D’vn tel sainct, ou d’vn tel;” — “Of this saint, or that.”
(720) “ Vn vagabond qui va pillant;” — “A vagabond that goes a-plundering.”
(721) “ Nihil eos agere operis, sed curiose satagere .”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Text (2Th. 3:11)
11 For we hear of some that walk among you disorderly, that work not at all, but are busybodies.
Translation and Paraphrase
11.
(We repeat our command about working,) for we keep hearing that some (among you) are walking disorderly (like the out-of-rank soldiers we mentioned), not working (at all), but going around (the) work, (bustling, and piddling around with trifling, useless matters).
Notes (2Th. 3:11)
1.
It seems to be a pet notion of some Bible interpreters to think that these people in the Thessalonian church who were not working were the people who thought that the Lord had come (or was coming very soon). Their idleness is assumed to have been caused by their faulty ideas about the Lords coming.
The Scripture makes absolutely no connection between the fact that these people were loafing and their faulty notions about the Lords coming. The habit of idleness may have been part of their background, as many of the Greeks were not very ambitious about physical work. Compare Tit. 1:12, and the notes on 1Th. 4:11-12.
2.
Concerning this matter of walking disorderly, see the notes on 2Th. 3:6, paragraphs 2 and 6.
3.
Paul had no doubt received frequent reports from people coming in and out of Corinth about things that were happening in Thessalonica. He kept hearing (imperfect tense) that some of them were not working.
4.
There is a little play on words in this verse which is not apparent in English. We have tried to bring it out in our translation and paraphrase.
Paul said that he heard that some were not working (Gr., ergadzomai), but were busybodies (Gr., periergadzomai). Periergadzomai has the meaning of going around the work (as if dodging it), or bustling about uselessly, busying ones self with trifling, needless, useless matters. It is used to describe people who are meddlesome in the affairs of others. See 1Ti. 5:13.
Moffatt renders the phrase cleverly: Busybodies instead of being busy.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(11) For we hear.Explaining how St. Paul came to speak upon the topic at all. Hitherto he has only been giving directions, without saying why. News had been brought back, no doubt, by the bearers of the First Epistle.
Walk among you disorderly.A verbal repetition of 2Th. 3:6. It is not quite the same as some among you which walk disorderly, for the words among you represent the vague and various directions taken by those aimless feet, going about from house to house, workshop to workshop.
Working not at all, but are busybodies.This is what the disorderliness consists in, as we should have seen from 2Th. 3:10. There is a scornful play of words here in the Greek which is lost sight of in the English: the word for busybodies being merely a compound form of the word working. Quite literally, the compound means working enough and to spare, being overbusy, overdoing; then, as a man cannot possibly overdo what it is his own duty to do, it comes to signify (1) doing useless things, things which concern no one, and might as well be left alone: as, for instance, magic, which is described by this word in Act. 19:19; or natural science, which is so described in the Athenians accusation of Socrates! (2) Meddling with matters which do not concern the doer, but do concern other people: so used in 1Ti. 5:13. Prof Lightfoot suggests (On a Fresh Revision, p. 59; comp. p. xviii., 2nd ed.) that the play can be kept up through the words business and busy: we might perhaps say, not being business men, but busybodies. But which of the two notions mentioned above is to be considered most prominent here we cannot tell for certain. (a) The Thessalonians do not seem to have been much carried away by the first class of dangeridle speculations, such as those of the Colossian or Ephesian Churches. Yet we cannot altogether exclude this meaning here. St. Pauls readers had been overbusy in theorising about the position of the departed at Christs coming (1Th. 4:15, Note), and had been so eager over their idle doctrines of the Advent as to falsify, if not actually to forge, communications from St. Paul (2Th. 2:2). Such false inquisitiveness and gossiping discussions might well be described by the Greek word with which we are dealing. (b) Everything, however, points to a more practical form of the same disposition to mask idleness under cloak of work; feverish excitement, which leads men to meddle and interfere with others, perhaps to spend time in religious work which ought not to have been spared from every-day duties. (See 1Th. 4:11-12, and Notes.) There is nothing to show definitely how this busy idleness arose, but it may very probably be the shaken and troubled condition of mind spoken of in 2Th. 2:2.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. Not business men, but busybodies. For there is such a play upon words in the apostle’s Greek. He describes people who mind no business of their own, and so have time and fancy to “meddle and muddle” in the business of others. The parasites of Greece were a class that lived by dining out, flattering the patrons who fed them, sometimes being made heirs of estates by their rare skill in obsequiousness.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For we hear of some who walk among you disorderly, who do not work at all but are busybodies.’
What is signified here is described in 1Ti 5:13. ‘They learn to be idle, going abroad from house to house, and not only idle but tittle-tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.’ They were idle, they gossiped and passed on rumours, they talked of people behind their backs, they criticised those in authority and generally made a nuisance of themselves.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
2Th 3:11. Working not at all, but are busy-bodies. The original is, Not working, but going about as busy-bodies: not only idle, but officious; vices, which frequently accompany each other.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Th 3:11 . The reason for reminding them of this saying, 2Th 3:10 . Arbitrarily, Hofmann: refers to the whole section 2Th 3:6-10 . The verb is only found here in the N. T. (but comp. , 1Ti 5:13 , and , Act 19:19 ). It denotes a bustling disposition, busy in useless and superfluous things, about which one should not trouble himself. Paul thinks on the fanatical excitement, on account of which one busied himself about everything except the fulfilment of the duties of his earthly calling. forms a paronomasia with . [71] Comp. Quintilian, inst. orat. vi. 3. 54: Afer enim venuste Mallium Suram, multum in agendo discursantem, salientem, manus jactantem, togam dejicientem et reponentem, non agere dixit sed satagere .
[71] Ewald translates it: “nicht Arbeit treibend, sondern sich herumtreibend.”
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
Ver. 11. Working not at all ] But making religion a mask for idleness; whose whole life is to eat, and drink, and sleep, and sport, and sit, and talk and laugh themselves fat. These are an odious sort of Christians; a kind of vagrant people that, having little to do, are set to work by the devil; for idleness is the hour of temptation. Standing pools are full of vermin. Behemoth lieth in the fens, Job 40:21 .
But are busybodles ] Nihil agentes, sed curiose satagentes: Not working at home, but over working abroad, though to no purpose or profit.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
11 .] Ground for reminding them of this his saying .
] being busybodies; or, being active about trifles; ‘busy only with what is not their own business’ (Jowett: who refers to Quintilian’s ‘non agere sed satagere’): see reff. So in the charge against Socrates, Plato, Apol. 3, . . , . , . .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
2Th 3:11 . The goes back to 2Th 3:6 . “Whereas I am told that some of your number are behaving in a disorderly fashion, not busy but busybodies,” fussy and officious, doing anything but attending to their daily trade. “Ab otio ualde procliue est hominum ingenium ad curiositatem” (Bengel). The first persecution at Thessalonica had been fostered by a number of fanatical loungers (Act 17:5 ). On the sensible attitude of the primitive church to labour, see Harnack’s Expansion , i. 215 f. M. Aurelius (iii. 4) warns people against idle, fussy habits, but especially against , and an apt parallel to this use of lies in Dem. Olynth. , iii. 34: (funds or food) ( i.e. , takes without rendering personal service in the field) , .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
some. App-124.
not at all = (in) nothing. Greek. medeis.
are busybodies. Greek. periergazomai, to be busy about useless matters.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
11.] Ground for reminding them of this his saying.
] being busybodies; or, being active about trifles; busy only with what is not their own business (Jowett: who refers to Quintilians non agere sed satagere): see reff. So in the charge against Socrates, Plato, Apol. 3, . . , . , . .
Fuente: The Greek Testament
2Th 3:11. , but) From a state of idleness, the disposition of men is naturally prone to pass to the indulgence of curiosity. For nature always seeks something to do.[28]-, busybodies [curiously-inquisitive]) Opposed to doing ones own business,[29] 1Th 4:11.
[28] And if not doing ones own business, a man for want of something to do meddles with his neighbours business. For Nature abhors a vacuum.-ED.
[29] The antithesis is conveyed by the very sound of the words in the original, , , doing none of their own business, and yet over-officious in the business of others.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
2Th 3:11
For we hear of some that walk among you disorderly,-[This explains how he came to speak upon the topic. Hitherto he has only been giving directions without assigning any reason for so doing. It was not simply that he heard that there were such persons at Thessalonica; he knew about them, who they were and how they were deporting themselves. Further word had reached him since the first Epistle was written. (1Th 4:11; 1Th 5:14.) Now he singles out the offenders and severely censures them.]
that work not at all, but are busybodies.-Busybodies are busy only with what is not their own business. This is, as a matter of fact, the moral danger of idleness in those who are not otherwise vicious. And withal they learn also to be idle, going about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. (1Ti 5:13.) [Where men are naturally bad, it multiplies temptations and opportunities for sin; Satan finds some mischief for idle hands to do. But even where it is the good who are concerned, as in the passage before us, idleness has its perils. The busybody is a real character, who, having no steady work to do, which must be done whether liked or disliked, and is therefore lonesome, is very apt to meddle with other peoples affairs; and meddle, too, without thinking it is meddling. One who is not disciplined and made wise by regular work has no idea of its moral worth and opportunities nor has he, as a rule, any idea of the moral worthlessness and vanity of such an existence as his own.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
walk: 2Th 3:6
working: 1Th 4:11, 1Ti 5:13, 1Pe 4:15
Reciprocal: Exo 5:17 – General Mar 7:5 – General Mar 8:34 – take Luk 16:3 – I cannot Act 17:21 – spent Eph 4:28 – labour Phi 3:18 – many 1Th 5:14 – unruly
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Th 3:11. In this verse Paul makes it plain whom he especially means by the ones walking disorderly in verse 6, namely, the idlers. One might wonder why Paul would call an idler a busybody. The term is from a Greek word that Thayer defines as follows: “To bustle about uselessly, to busy one’s self about trifling, needless, useless matters.” Our own observation will verify this definition. Men who will not work, are often seen intruding into the affairs of those who are willing to work, even to the extent of trying to interfere to prevent them from working.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2Th 3:11. For. Paul gives his reason for introducing this subject at all. And he further defines walking disorderly. He leaves no doubt as to the persons about whom he speaks. They were those who were excitedly busy, but doing no useful work; running hither and thither, meddling with every ones business but their own, striving to bring others into the same state of excitement as themselves, and declining all ordinary, steady, profitable, obscure labour.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
For we hear [probably by the returning messenger who carried his first epistle] of some that walk among you disorderly, that work not at all, but are busybodies. [A paranomasia, or play on words; “work” and “busybodies” being cognate; so it may be translated, “who have no business, and yet are busy with everybody’s business”–such as lead a lounging, gadding, gossiping, meddlesome life.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 11
Busybodies; busy with other people’s affairs, instead of attending to their own duties.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
3:11 For we hear that there are some which walk among {7} you disorderly, working not at all, {8} but are busybodies.
(7) How great a fault idleness is, he declares in that God created no man in vain or to no purpose, neither is there any to whom he has not allotted as it were a certain position and place. From which it follows, that the order which God has appointed is troubled by the idle, indeed broken, which is great sin and wickedness.
(8) He reprehends a vice, which is joined with the former, upon which follows an infinite sort of mischiefs: that is, that there are none more busy in other men’s matters, than they who neglect their own.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. Specific instructions concerning the idle 3:11-13
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The teaching that Christ could return at any moment had led some of the believers into idleness. They had quit their jobs and were simply waiting for the Lord to return. This interpretation seems justified and is certainly consistent with life. Clearly they believed in the imminent return of Christ for them. Such deductions have led other Christians to do the same thing at various other times throughout church history. When people are not busy with their own work they may tend to meddle in the business of others. They may become busybodies rather than busy, neglecting their own business to mind other people’s, even minding everybody’s business but their own.