In
January 2012, I began blogging a commentary on the Gospel of Mark, available at
the Bible Junkies
blog
and now at America Magazine, which I
completed in March 2013. From March to May 2013, I blogged a commentary on the
Letter of Jude and links to each entry are available here.
My somewhat ambitious goal is to write an online commentary on every New
Testament document, though I have given myself the equally ambitious time
period of 15-20 years to complete the task. I hope the internet is still with
us in 15 years as I do not know if I will be up to a shift in medium one more
time.
The
third online Bible Junkies Commentary, which begins with this post, will be a
study of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. Of the extant letters of
Paul, those to which we have access, 1 Thessalonians is the earliest. As the
earliest of Paul’s letters it is highly significant for setting the stage for Paul’s
entire corpus and for introducing us to his style and a number of theological
themes which will continue to pop up throughout all of his letters. In
addition, it is one of his warmest letters and his affection is made known to
his “children” in Thessalonica in a number of different ways in this letter.
As
with Jude, the study of 1 Thessalonians will be in the form of a more
traditional commentary, though the introductory questions of authorship, date
and the location are not as difficult as with the letter of Jude. We know who
wrote the letter, we know basically when it was written and we know to whom it
was written. The introductory matters in this case will involve more a breaking
down of the situation in Thessalonica, as we know it from Acts of the Apostles,
and that of Paul and his companions. The basic Greco-Roman form of the letter
will also be given, as with Jude, and then the bulk of the comments will center
on the meaning and the purpose of this letter. Finally, comments at the end will
concentrate on the message of the letter for the 21st century Church
and Christian. Since there are no questions regarding the Pauline authorship of
1 Thessalonians, these issues will be dealt with when we come to letters in the
Pauline corpus for which many scholars have raised issues of authorship. The problems
concerning whether a letter is written by Paul are all best dealt with
concretely and not abstractly. In the case of 1 Thessalonians, we can get right
down to business.
1.
Introductory Matters:
A
word should be said about the language of “epistle” and “letter.” This
distinction goes back to the work of Adolf Deissmann (see New Jerome Biblical Commentary, 769). A letter in this categorization is defined as
a private, non-literary correspondence, while an epistle is a communication
that is more literary in character, not necessarily occasioned by a particular
event or situation and intended for a public audience. I will be using the
terms interchangeably, since I consider that all of the letters in the New
Testament, including the Pastoral epistles, were intended for public, not just
private reading and that there is no definable difference between the literary
character of “letters” and “epistles” in the New Testament.
Letters
(or epistles) in the wider Greco-Roman world basically had four parts, though
these can be sub-divided in numerous ways. The four basic parts are as follows:
1)
Salutation (name(s) of writer(s) and
recipient(s); greeting)
2)
Thanksgiving
3)
Body of the Letter
4)
Closing: greeting.
Scholars of Paul often offer a
number of other subdivisions and I will give a couple of examples to make this
clear:
1)
Salutation (name(s) of writer(s) and
recipient(s); greeting)
2)
Thanksgiving
3)
Opening of the Body of the Letter
4)
Body of the Letter (usually in two
parts, theoretical and practical)
5)
Closing of the Body of the Letter
(often with the promise of a visit)
6)
Ethical Instructions (‘Paraenesis’)
7)
Closing: greetings; doxology;
benediction (John Ziesler, Pauline
Christianity, 7)
And:
1)
Salutation: a) sender; b) recipient;
c) greeting
2)
Thanksgiving: (Prayer)
3)
Body of the Letter (Paraenesis:
Ethical Instruction and Exhortation)
4)
Closing commands
5)
Conclusion: a) peace wish; b)
greetings; c) kiss; d) close (grace; benediction) (Calvin Roetzel, The Letters of Paul: Conversations in
Context, 53-54)
For the letters of Paul, I have
created a hybrid scheme based on the work of these scholars and my own
understanding of Paul’s letters:
1)
Salutation: a) sender; b) recipient; c) grace;
2)
Thanksgiving: This often contains intentions for
the entire letter and a prayer for the recipients;
3)
Body of the Letter:
often contains two parts, though not necessarily neatly divided: a) theological
teaching and instruction, especially regarding errors in belief and practice;
b) Paraenesis: Ethical Instruction and Exhortation;
4)
Closing of the Body of
the Letter: Closing commands, often with the promise of a visit
and greetings;
5)
Closing: Conclusion might contain some or
all of these elements: a) peace wish; b) greetings; c) kiss; d) close (grace; doxology;
benediction) (Roetzel, 53-54;Ziesler, 7)
2.
The Background to Paul’s Activity in Thessalonica
A) The History of the Mission to Thessalonica: Paul and
Barnabas launched the “first missionary journey” at the instigation and
guidance of the Holy Spirit according to Acts 13:1-3.[1]
We have no letters which survive from this mission, which dates to the late
30’s and early 40’s. The second missionary journey (Acts 15:40 –18:22) begins
with the “sharp disagreement” between Paul and Barnabas in Antioch concerning the
role of John Mark based on some past actions. Paul traveled on with Silas (Silvanus)
and later connected with Timothy when they were traveling in Derbe and Lystra.
They then went to Philippi, Thessalonica, Beroea, Athens and Corinth. This is
when we first start to get letters from Paul’s hand, and those of his
co-workers. 1 Thessalonians is the first of these letters and Paul’s mission to
Thessalonica is described in Acts.17
B) The Founding of the Church: Paul, along with Barnabas and Timothy,
went to Thessalonica on the second missionary journey, departing from Philippi. They stayed in Thessalonica, which was a
predominantly pagan community, but with a Jewish population, for a period of
time which is undisclosed. The time period is certainly not the three weeks
some scholars attribute to them on the basis of Acts 17: 3, which simply
indicates the length of time Paul spent debating with the Jews in the
Synagogue. Paul himself founded the church at this point (see 1 Thess. 1:4-10).
C) The Situation in Thessalonica:
Paul
and Silas left Thessalonica according to Acts of the Apostles when some of the
Jewish population became disturbed by his preaching and joined with a pagan mob
to seek out Paul. They did not find Paul or his companions, but they “attacked
Jason's house” and then “they dragged Jason and some believers before
the city authorities” (Acts 17:5-6). Paul, Timothy and Silas all arrived in
Beroea, to the west of Thessalonica, and found a warm welcome from the Jewish
community there. Some of the mob from Thessalonica followed them to Beroea,
however, and according to Acts Paul was taken from the city to the coast and then escorted to Athens.
Timothy and Silas followed Paul and left Beroea a short time later and met up
with Paul in Corinth, to which he had traveled after a lukewarm reception by
the Greek philosophers in Athens.
The
first letter to the Thessalonians is sent from somewhere in Greece, probably
Corinth, as Paul went there after his time in Athens. We can actually date this
period with some certainty: 1 Thess. 2:17-3:13 shows that Paul was not long
removed from the Thessalonians when he sent Timothy back to check on them from
Athens. A sojourn in Athens is only accounted for in Acts 17 between Beroea and
Corinth. Timothy and Silas had arrived from Macedonia some time earlier, prior
to Gallio becoming proconsul in Corinth, which he was from the Autumn of 50 to
51 CE. Since Paul writes to the Thessalonians soon after Timothy and Silas left
Thessalonica, and before Gallio was proconsul of Corinth, we can date this
letter to the year 49 or early 50.
Next
entry, we begin to look at the content of the letter.
John
W. Martens
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This
entry is cross-posted at America Magazine The Good Word
[1] On
the basis of Acts of the Apostles, scholars often speak of “three missionary
journeys.” Paul himself never uses this language, but it is a commonplace way
to divide up Paul’s travels in Acts.
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