The First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians - Introduction

First Thessalonians is Paul's earliest known letter. It is friendly and encouraging, filled with praise, affection, and expressions of family feeling. Paul commends the Thessalonians' stead-fastness ( 1.3 ) and their mutual support and comfort ( 4.1, 9; 5.11 ). He remembers them with fondness ( 1.3; 3.6 ); he and they long for each other ( 2.17; 3.6 ). Images of kinship—father ( 1.1, 3; 2.11–12; 3.11, 13 ); sons ( 1.10; 5.5 ); children ( 2.7–8 ); and “brothers” (fourteen times)—are evoked throughout. Along with affection comes exhortation ^* : Chapters 4 and 5 , and to an extent 1–3, urge the Thessalonians to act virtuously.

Thessalonica, the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia, was founded in 316 BCE by Cassander, one of Alexander's generals, and later annexed by Rome. It was a free city with a Greek, not Roman, legal system. Since it was on a major trade route, it flourished commercially, and the largely Greek population worked hard to keep its freedom, accommodating its Roman benefactors and including their deities in its religious life. Paul had formed the Thessalonian church after leaving Philippi, where he and others were “shamefully mistreated” ( 2.2; see Acts 17.1–4 ). His stay at Thessalonica was also difficult ( 2.2 ) and resulted in a painful separation ( 2.17 ), perhaps because his focus on the approaching end times directed the Thessalonians away from concerns about conventional prestige to the expectation of the end. Even worse, he was unable to return to the young congregation ( 2.18 ). After sending Timothy from Athens ( 3.1 ) to strengthen the community, Paul went to Corinth, where Timothy came with favorable news about the church's fidelity to his teachings and from which Paul probably wrote. Acts 18.11–17 suggests he arrived in Corinth before Gallio became proconsul, so he probably wrote around 50 or 51 CE (an inscription dates Gallio's arrival in Corinth between January and August of 51 CE).