NT Text: 2 Thessalonians 1:8b
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Analogy + Longitudinal Theme
Significance: Paul identifies the objects of divine vengeance as "those who do not know God" (tois mē eidosin theon), echoing Jeremiah 10:25 where the prophet prays: "Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you" (al-haggoyim asher lo yedaucha). Jeremiah's prayer distinguishes between Israel, who was given the knowledge of God through covenant revelation, and the pagan nations who neither acknowledged nor worshiped Yahweh. Paul applies this same category — those who do not "know" God — to the eschatological judgment, but with a significant development: the judgment now falls not along ethnic lines (Israel vs. nations) but along lines of response to the gospel. In Paul's framework, "not knowing God" is culpable ignorance because the gospel has been proclaimed. The connection reveals the continuity of the divine judicial principle: from Jeremiah's day to the eschaton, willful ignorance of God results in judgment. Yet Paul adds "and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus" as a parallel clause, showing that in the new-covenant era, knowledge of God is mediated specifically through the gospel, and rejection of that gospel constitutes the same God-denying posture Jeremiah described among the nations.