3:2a

pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men: The Greek verb rhuomai, which the Berean Standard Bible translates as delivered, means “delivered/rescued from some sort of danger.” The tense of the verb suggests that Paul was thinking about a specific time when he was being persecuted, a time that the Thessalonians already knew about. There are two ways to understand what Paul was referring to in this part of the verse:

(1) Paul meant “prevent us(excl) from being restricted or harmed by evil people.”

(2) Paul meant “rescue us(excl) from the power of the evil people who have imprisoned us(excl).”

The first interpretation seems to be the most likely meaning, but the second interpretation is also possible. Most English versions are ambiguous. If you must make a choice in your translation, follow the first interpretation (1).

wicked and evil men: Paul used two adjectives with similar meanings (which the Berean Standard Bible translates as wicked and evil) to emphasize what he was saying.

wicked: This is the word atopos in Greek and it refers to something “unnatural, disgusting.”

evil: This is the Greek word ponēros, which is the usual word for something “wicked/evil.” It is the word used in 3:3b for Satan himself. If possible, try to use the same vocabulary here as in 3:3b.

If you do not have two terms in your language with similar meanings like “wicked” and evil, you can combine them into one expression, but you should try to keep the emphasis in some way, for example, “very wicked.”

men: Here the Greek word anthropoi, which is often translated as men in English, means human beings of both sexes, not just males.

3:2b

for not everyone holds to the faith: This is a reason clause that explains why Paul was asking people to pray that they would be rescued from evil people. See the Display for negative and positive ways of expressing this clause.

holds to the faith:

Here the Greek literally reads “faith [is] not of all.” Many English versions translate this as “not all have faith.” However, to “have faith” is not the same thing as to “belong to the faith.” “The faith” means “the teachings about Jesus” or “the gospel about Jesus.” However, in the context of this verse, what Paul was saying is that many people, when they hear the message about Jesus, will not believe it, and so will not join the group of people who hold to “the faith.”
) This means to accept what God has said about Jesus and to believe in Jesus. In some languages it may be necessary to use a verb such as “believe” rather than the noun faith. For example:

because many people do not believe in Jesus

© 2002 by SIL International®

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.