Quoting this verse, in his On the Holy Spirit, Basil the Great writes, "These [traditions] have been passed on by word of mouth from Paul or from the other apostles, without necessarily being written down," and mentions the Trinitarian confession of faith as an example of "unwritten tradition". Cyril of Jerusalem shares a similar view in his Catechetical Lectures, argues that the traditions stated by Paul should be preserved and memorized, at a minimum in the form of the Creed. In his homily on this verse, John Chrysostom differentiates oral tradition from written tradition. At that time, the oral tradition has been defined as the "tradition" and the written tradition as "Scripture", united together in "the authenticity of their apostolic origin". Everett Ferguson says Paul's reference to tradition implicates that "what was delivered was from the Lord", and John Stott calls the tradition () "apostolic 'tradition. The letter continues by encouraging the Thessalonian church to stand firm in their faith, and to "keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us[...] do not associate with him, so that he will be put to shame. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother" (2 Thessalonians 3:6–7, 14–15). Paul ends this letter by saying, "I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, and this is a distinguishing mark in every letter; this is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all" (2 Thessalonians 3:17–18). Macarthur writes, "Paul added an identifying signature (cf. 1 Corinthians 16:21; Colossians 4:18) so his readers could be sure he was truly the author." A passage from this book reading "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat", (3:10), was later adapted by Vladimir Lenin as an adage of the Soviet Union: "he who does not work, neither shall he eat". Surviving early manuscripts Some early manuscripts containing the text of this book are: Papyrus 30 (3rd century) Codex Vaticanus (325–350) Codex Sinaiticus (330–360) Codex Alexandrinus (400–440) Codex Freerianus (~450; partial) Codex Claromontanus (~550) See also 2 Thessalonians 2 2 Thessalonians 3 Textual variants in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians Authorship of the Pauline epistles Thessaloniki Silas Notes References External links Online translations of the Second Epistle to