I may have to wait until my post-debate commentary to talk more about that; but I have to say I’m seriously confused as to why you thought he made that good a case against it.
His whole rebuttal against the 2 Thess 1:9 OT allusion argument rested on the phraseology not being exactly equal, in disregard of the (indisputable) fact that the concepts were equivalent (and the language quite similar); the (indisputable) fact that Paul had just previously cited a different verse from Zechariah on exactly the same topic (the final advent of YHWH, applied to the return of Jesus); and the (indisputable) fact that the topic overlaps extremely well with Isaiah chapters 2 through 5. That’s a massive wad of weight for allusion to try to flick away with the observation that the precise wording isn’t the same.
Would TFan seriously attempt such a defense against claim of allusion if a non-trinitarian tried to use that defense to avoid having to acknowledge that Paul meant YHWH by the Greek term “kyrios”??–because, as I stressed, the two cases there are exactly proportionate to one another. In fact, I originally found the allusion by checking the argument for YHWH-reference there made in a trinitarian apologetic context (Richard Baukham’s God Crucified collection, if I recall correctly).
It’s true, as I acknowledged, that my direct contextual case for 2 Thess 1:9 wouldn’t hold up if Paul wasn’t referencing Isaiah 2 through 5. But I pointed out that I could make a general contextual case of the same sort based on the character of other OT prophecies; I just wouldn’t be able to use such a case in a debate focusing on local and referential contexts. And anyway, acknowledging this is not in the least the same as admitting the allusion case is untenable or even reasonably doubtful. An argument amounting to “Jason’s case would be more difficult if there isn’t an allusion here, therefore his case sucks the end NO DON’T LOOK AT THE DETAILS EXCEPT FOR ONE TRIVIAL DIFFERENCE I SAID THE END!!” is not, to me, very persuasive.
Again, TFan’s whole rebuttal against the Rom 9 citational context argument, rested on trying to argue that a superficially similar remark in Job was a superior probability for the reference–when there was barely any topical overlap at all (other than people being made from clay by God), and the phraseology wasn’t particularly similar. He admitted, when I pressed him on the topic, that he wasn’t familiar with the content of the other four options and couldn’t remember offhand what I had even said about them. So how was the Job reference supposed to be superior, if he had no recollection of the details to compare them as inferior!?
Literally the only (but unstated) reason the Job reference was supposed to be superior was that it was neutral (at worst) in referential context to the meaning of Rom 9, i.e. I couldn’t use it to argue that Paul was talking about a hopeful salvation of those who are currently set as opponents (whether Jews or Gentiles).
TFan didn’t argue that my OT citational comments on the Matt 18:8 texts were irrelevant, possibly because I affirmed them in a way that didn’t seem to immediately challenge his position (and didn’t hang much on them anyway); I didn’t base my main argument for Matt 25 on OT allusions–but he pretty much ignored my actual contextual argument there, too; and I didn’t actually make an argument for OT allusion regarding Jude v.6 (I only gave a hint how I would proceed in interpreting Jude v.6 in light of related OT material, but I didn’t treat that as being a direct reference by Jude). So I’m left wondering where he made any good counter-argument against my arguments about referential allusions for contextual interpretation purposes.
You’re welcome to supply details of where you thought he made good arguments against those allusions, of course.