The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (102 page)

5. The expression “now concerning” in 1 Thess 4:9; 5:1 appears to be a common formula introducing answers to questions raised previously by the readers (see 1 Cor 7:1). In each case, the subject introduced in 1 Thessalonians can be shown to arise from a question raised by the Thessalonians regarding a subject addressed in 2 Thessalonians.
²⁷
The construction “now concerning”
(peri de)
appears only twice in 1 Thessalonians. Although 1 Thess 5:1 introduces a topic that is discussed at length in 2 Thessalonians, 1 Thess 4:9 introduces the subject of brotherly love, which Paul does not specifically treat in 2 Thessalonians. This makes it doubtful that 1 Thessalonians was written to address questions raised by 2 Thessalonians.

The reasons listed by Wanamaker do not suggest the priority of 2 Thessalonians. To the contrary, several factors support the traditional order of the two letters. Most importantly, 2 Thess 2:15, “Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, either by our message or by our letter,” seems to refer to a prior letter from Paul to the Thessalonians.
²⁸
When Paul referred to such a tradition later in 2 Thess 3:6, it has parallels with 1 Thessalonians (4:11—12; 5:14) but not with earlier material in 2 Thessalonians. Also, Paul's references to a letter falsely ascribed to him (2 Thess 2:2) is most plausible if the Thessalonians had received an earlier letter from Paul that made a later written communication seem less suspicious. Paul's notice that his autograph marked “all” his authentic letters (2 Thess 3:17) likewise seems to imply that he had sent an earlier letter to the Thessalonians. If 2 Thessalonians were the first letter Paul had written to the church, he could have more easily dismissed the suspected forgery by indicating that he had not previously written the church. Paul's failure to deny previous written correspondence implies an earlier letter.

Also, Paul's lengthy description of his personal visit to Thessalonica in 1 Thess 1:4—2:12 makes more sense if 1 Thessalonians was Paul's first correspondence with the Thessalonians after his departure from Thessalonica.
²⁹
Admittedly, 2 Thessalonians also refers to this visit (2 Thess 2:5,15; 3:6—10) but not as extensively as 1 Thessalonians does.

Therefore, although the balance of internal evidence seems to favor the priority of 1 Thessalonians, M. Martin wisely reminded interpreters that the issue of the sequence of the Thessalonian letters remained unsettled and cautioned: “As long as this ambiguity
remains, the interpreter is wise to avoid leaning heavily on any interpretation that is dependent for its validity on a particular chronological sequence for the letters.”
³⁰

Date

First Thessalonians was written by Paul during his second missionary journey soon after he fled the city of Thessalonica in the face of severe persecution (Acts 17:5—10). If Paul wrote the letter from Corinth, he probably did so in the year 50. Paul's 18 months in Corinth can be dated in light of the Gallio Inscription that indicates Gallio served as proconsul from July 1, AD 51 to July 1, AD 52. Paul probably appeared before Gallio shortly after he assumed power. Most scholars suspect that Paul's opponents would have brought their charges to a new and untested proconsul in hopes that he might be influenced to rule in their favor. Thus Paul's appearance before Gallio probably occurred in the late summer or early fall of the year 51. Moreover, Paul seems to have appeared before Gallio toward the end of his 18 months in Corinth.
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Timothy remained in Berea while Paul was escorted to Athens (Acts 17:13—14). Paul apparently used these escorts, who returned to Berea as Paul was entering Athens, to deliver his instructions for Timothy to return to Thessalonica. The journey from Athens back to Berea probably took the couriers several weeks. One must then allow several weeks for Timothy's journey from Berea to Thessalonica and his stay in Thessalonica.
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His travel from Thessalonica back to Paul in Corinth probably took approximately one month. A period of two and a half to three months likely transpired between the time of Paul's entrance into Athens and Timothy's return to Paul. Paul probably wrote 1 Thessalonians soon after Timothy's arrival in Corinth. This suggests that Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians several months after arriving in Corinth. Thus, he could have composed the letter anytime between midspring and midsummer 50. If Paul appeared before Gallio later in his proconsulate, a date of composition up to one year later is possible. A date within this range or a few months later is also compatible with the theory of the priority of 2 Thessalonians.

Second Thessalonians was probably composed several months after the earlier letter, perhaps in the winter of 50. Interpreters who accept the priority of 2 Thessalonians generally suggest that Timothy served as the courier for the letter and that it accompanied him on his trip from Athens to Thessalonica, in which case the letter was composed while Paul was in Athens early in the spring of 50.

Something to Think About: Radiant Faith

W
hen Paul came to Thessalonica and tried to establish a church there, he was faced with vehement opposition, so much so that he had to cut his time there short after a few weeks and leave town by night (see Acts 17:1—10). But a wonderful thing happened: the believers in Thessalonica imitated Paul's Christlike attitude in persecution and thus became examples to others in their entire region. This is the way Paul put it in his first letter to the Thessalonians:

You know what kind of men we were among you for our benefit, and you became imitators of us and of the Lord when, in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed the message with the joy from the Holy Spirit. As a result, you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. For the Lord's message rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place that your faith in God has gone out, so we don't need to say anything (1 Thess 1:5b—9).

This is truly remarkable. Because these new believers had embraced the gospel wholeheartedly and their faith radiated all around them, Paul, the missionary who had planted the church, didn't need to say anything! This shows that we should not leave sharing and spreading our faith to a few God-called evangelists or those with the gift of evangelism (though God certainly uses these individuals; see Eph 4:11; 2 Tim 4:5). Instead, biblical evangelism is first and foremost a corporate affair, something to be done by the entire church.

You're not convinced? Here is what Jesus said in his final prayer according to John:

I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in Me through their message. May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You.
May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me.
I have given them the glory You have given Me. May they be one as We are one. I am in them and You are in Me.
May they be made completely one, so the world may know You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me
(John 17:20—23, emphasis added).

Do we have radiant faith? Do we have faith that radiates beyond our local church to the world around us? Do we have the faith that inspires others to “love and good works” (Heb 10:24)? Many can attest to the fact that we were attracted to the gospel message at least in part by observing the love Christians had for one another. This is the biblical model: for the body of Christ to represent Christ to the world, in love and unity, “so the world may believe” and know God's love for them.

This is what they said about the first Christians: “See how they love one another!” (Tertullian
, Apology
39.7). Can they say the same about us?

Provenance

Two theories regarding the place of composition of the Thessalonian letters emerged in the ancient church. The Marcionite Prologues and introductions and subscriptions in some early manuscripts of the letter claim that 1 Thessalonians was written from Athens.
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A few later manuscripts claim that the letter was written from Corinth.
³⁴
Although the antiquity of the identification of Athens as the place of authorship must be appreciated, the internal evidence of the letter and the account of Paul's second missionary journey in Acts suggest that Corinth is a much more likely provenance. First Thessalonians 3:1—10 explains that Paul decided to remain in Athens alone and to send Timothy to Thessalonica to encourage the church and to find out how the church was faring in Paul's absence. A comparison of 1 Thessalonians 3 and Acts 17 suggests that although Paul was in Athens, he sent instructions through his escorts to Timothy in Berea. Timothy was to travel to Thessalonica and then reconnect with Paul in Athens. But by the time Timothy returned from Thessalonica, Paul had already moved on to Corinth (Acts 17:14—16; 18:5) where Timothy eventually rejoined Paul with his report of the situation in Thessalonica that prompted Paul to write 1 Thessalonians. It appears that Paul and Timothy were not in Athens at the same time.
³⁵
Even if Timothy were sent from Athens by Paul to the Thessalonians, Paul had almost certainly moved on to Corinth before they rejoined. Since 1 Thessalonians names Timothy as a coauthor of the letter, the letter was likely from Corinth.
³⁶

Subscriptions in some early manuscripts state that 2 Thessalonians was written from Athens;
³⁷
subscriptions in some later manuscripts indicate that it was written from Rome.
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But the large majority of contemporary scholars who affirm Paul's authorship of the letter argue that 2 Thessalonians was written from Corinth several months after the first letter. Second Thessalonians 1:1 identifies Paul, Timothy, and Silas as coauthors. According to the testimony of Acts, these three men traveled together only during the second missionary journey. Second Corinthians 1:9 confirms that Paul and Timothy resided together in Corinth, and Silas is probably also among the “brothers from Macedonia” mentioned in 2 Cor 11:7—11. Paul was probably not in Athens long enough to have written 1 Thessalonians there. It is even less likely that he composed his second letter in Athens. So 2 Thessalonians was probably written within a few months of the first letter, and Paul's 18 months in Corinth affords more than enough time for the letter to have been written there.

Destination

Both 1 and 2 Thessalonians were addressed to believers in the recently planted church in Thessalonica. Thessalonica, modern Thessaloniki or Salonica, was strategically located. It was situated at the head of the Gulf of Therme on the finest natural harbor on the Aegean Sea and became the chief port city for Macedonia. It also lay on the Via Egnatia, the main Roman road between Asia Minor and Dyrrachium, a port on the coast of the Adriatic Sea from which one could sail across the Adriatic to the port at Brundisium and then follow the Via Appia directly to Rome. Thessalonica was thus the largest and most important city in Macedonia during the time of the apostle Paul.
³⁹

Thessalonica was a cosmopolitan city inhabited by both Greeks and Romans, and a significant Jewish population lived there (Acts 17). Most of Paul's readers had been pagan idolaters before their conversion to Christianity (1 Thess 1:9). They may have worshipped a number of the various gods of Thessalonica including Dionysius, Sarapis, Kabiros, and Caesar.
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The congregation in Thessalonica was a mixed one that included new believers from both Jewish and pagan backgrounds.

Occasion

Acts 17:1—10 records Paul's founding of the church at Thessalonica. After Paul was expelled from Philippi, he continued westward on the Via Egnatia to Thessalonica.
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There, for three consecutive Sabbaths, he spoke in the Jewish synagogue and sought to convince the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah and that he “had to suffer and rise from the dead” (Acts 17:3). Some of the hearers embraced the gospel not because of the persuasiveness of Paul's arguments but because of God's own mysterious activity among the Thessalonians. Paul had no doubt that God had chosen them because his gospel “did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance” (1 Thess 1:5). Although Paul's ministry in the synagogue only lasted a few weeks, evidence from the Thessalonian letters suggests that he may have continued his ministry in his workshop (1 Thess 2:9). Paul mentioned receiving financial support from the Philippians at least twice during his stay in Thessalonica (Phil 4:16), thus implying a longer stay in the city than a superficial reading of Acts 17 might suggest. While Paul was in Thessalonica, persecution against the missionary team and the new believers erupted. Some interpreters pit Acts and the Thessalonian letters against one another by claiming that Acts describes the Jews as persecutors while 1 Thess 2:14 identifies the persecutors as Gentiles. A careful reading of Acts 17:5, however, suggests that Jews incited the persecution but that the entire city was quickly caught up with anti-Christian sentiments. The Jews stirred the anger of “scoundrels from the marketplace” who formed a mob and “set the city in an uproar.” Their complaints against the Christians were brought to the city magistrates and invoked
Caesar's decrees. The magistrates viewed the matter as serious enough to require them to take a security bond from some of the new believers.

Recognizing that Paul's presence would only continue to inflame the animosity against Christians in the city, the Thessalonians urged Paul and Silas to depart for Berea. Paul later departed for Athens where he preached his famous sermon before the Areopagus. While Paul was in Athens, he sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to inspect the state of the church there. Timothy met up with Paul again in Corinth. He gave Paul a report concerning the church and may have even delivered a letter from the Thessalonians to Paul. The phrase “now concerning”
(peri de)
may imply that Paul was answering questions raised by the Thessalonians in their correspondence to him.
⁴²
Paul wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians in response to Timothy's report and, possibly, correspondence from the Thessalonians that Timothy delivered.