J.C. Hurd’s Nonexistent 1-2 Thess Commentary! (Gupta)

I was doing a bit of research on 1-2 Thess and came across an essay by J.C. Hurd called “Thoughts Preliminary to Writing a Commentary on 1 & 2 Thessalonians” (in The Earlier Letters of Paul – and Other Studies [Peter Lang, 1998]). I did not recall a commentary by Hurd, so this was a bit intriguing. The essay itself is from 1977. In the essay he mentions his ongoing work on the Anchor Bible commentary on 1-2 Thess. But in a 1998 footnote at the beginning of the essay (added when this essay was collected), Hurd offers this frank footnote comment: “Alas, this commentary does not exist. I was unable to complete the work in the assigned time, and Doubleday re-assigned the responsibility.” Well, Anchor eventually published Malherbe’s outstanding commentary in 2000, but sad not to have Hurd’s work available! Also, this ranks as one of my favorite footnotes of all time.