1 THESSALONIANS 1 — A MODEL CHURCH AND THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL

Thessalonica was the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia and a major port and commercial center on the Via Egnatia, the great Roman road that linked the Adriatic with the East. Paul founded the church there on his second missionary journey, around AD 49–50, with Silas and Timothy (Acts 17:1–9). He spent about three weeks reasoning in the synagogue, and some Jews, a large number of devout Greeks, and several prominent women believed. Jealous opponents then stirred up a mob, dragged Jason, who had hosted the missionaries, before the city authorities, and accused the group of defying Caesar's decrees by proclaiming another king, Jesus. Paul was forced to leave in haste and traveled to Berea and then Athens, and eventually to Corinth, where Silas and Timothy rejoined him with news from Thessalonica (Acts 18:5; 1 Thessalonians 3:6). He wrote this letter from Corinth around AD 50–51, which makes it one of the earliest, and perhaps the earliest, of the New Testament writings. The church was young, suffering persecution, and confused about several matters, particularly the fate of believers who had died before Christ's return. The letter is warm, pastoral, and strongly oriented to the future return of Christ, which is mentioned in every chapter.

First Thessalonians is probably the earliest surviving Christian document, written about AD 50–51, only about twenty years after the crucifixion. Its date is anchored by the Gallio inscription at Delphi, which places Paul's time in Corinth, where the letter was written, around AD 51 (Acts 18:12). Yet already in this letter we find the core beliefs of the Christian faith: the deity of Jesus, His resurrection from the dead, His coming return, and the expectation of deliverance from judgment. This is not a later development, because it appears at the very beginning of the documentary record. The short summary in verses 9–10 may well be a formula that Paul used in his preaching to Gentiles, and it shows that the resurrection was the central claim of the earliest message. Luke's account in Acts 17 is also supported by external evidence. Luke uses the title "politarchs" for the city officials of Thessalonica (Acts 17:6, 8), a term that does not appear in classical Greek literature but has been confirmed by inscriptions from Thessalonica, including one from the Vardar Gate, now in the British Museum. This is a small detail, but it shows that Luke was familiar with the local government of the city. A movement that was only twenty years old could not have invented the resurrection, since the witnesses were still alive.