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| English: The map of First Epistle to the Thessalonians Polski: Mapa miejsc związanych z 1 Listem do Tesaloniczan (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The
study of 1 Thessalonians offered here is in the form of a traditional
commentary, although secondary scholarship is engaged more intermittently than
would be the case in a commentary published in a regular print series. This is
the fourth entry in the online commentary on 1 Thessalonians. In the first
entry
I began by looking at introductory matters, which are comprised of comments on
the nature of a Greco-Roman letter and the background of Paul’s activity in
Thessalonica, that we know primarily from Acts of the Apostles and partially
from Paul’s letters. In the second entry, I gave a basic
overview of the content found in the whole letter and then discussed the very
short salutation. In the third entry, I discussed
the Thanksgiving for the letter. In this, the fourth post, I will begin to
discuss the Body of the Letter. Please do follow the links above to see my
definition of a Greco-Roman letter, how I have divided this letter in
particular and to catch up on the previous entries in general.
4.
Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians:
c) Body of the Letter: Paul’s Affection for the Community (2:1-12):
1 You yourselves
know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in
vain, 2 but though we had already suffered and been shamefully mistreated at
Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel
of God in spite of great opposition. 3 For our appeal does not spring from
deceit or impure motives or trickery, 4 but just as we have been approved by
God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please
mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts. 5 As you know and as God is
our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed;
6 nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, 7
though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. 8 So
deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the
gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.
9 You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we
worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we
proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and God also, how
pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was toward you believers. 11 As you
know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, 12 urging
and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls
you into his own kingdom and glory.(NRSV)
The
body of an ancient letter, just as a letter today, could take on numerous
forms, depending on the issues which were to be discussed. It is, therefore,
impossible to generalize about the form of the body of one of Paul’s letters,
beyond the fact that one will find teaching on theological themes and various
sorts of ethical exhortation. The body of 1 Thessalonians begins with an
outpouring of Paul’s affection for the Church in Thessalonica and a focus on
the relationships between Paul, Silvanus and Timothy and the people of the
Church. Embedded in this warm relationship, though, is Paul’s defense of their
behavior while in Thessalonica. Why does Paul feel it necessary to defend
himself and his co-workers?
As we know from Acts of the Apostles 17:1-0,
and as will be confirmed later in this section of the body and elsewhere in the
letter (2:14-20; 3:1-10), Paul and his companions had to leave Thessalonica
quickly due to localized persecution. Paul stresses, though, that their coming
to the city was “not in vain” (2:1) and though they had “already suffered and
been shamefully mistreated at Philippi,” they still “had courage in our God to
declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition” (2:2). The word
which is translated as “opposition” here is agôn,
from which we derive the word “agony.” Its original meaning, however, relates
to athletic contests, in the first order literally and in the second order
figuratively as a great struggle or battle.
Paul uses the word figuratively, of course, and it is these events, these
battles and struggles, which are the background for Paul’s defense of their
behavior in the city and in leaving Thessalonica.
Yet,
the broader context for the defense of the Christian ministers is a social
reality found in the Roman Empire in general. In 2:3, Paul argues that “our
appeal (paraklêsis) does not spring
from deceit or impure motives or trickery.” The word paraklêsis here could mean “request, exhortation, encouragement,
consolation,” as well as “appeal,” so it is best to keep this range of meanings
in mind when considering this verse, but also the fact that paraklêsis could refer to the Christian
message itself. Their appeal, or message, did not depend upon “deceit or impure
motives or trickery.” Had someone accused them of deceit or trickery? The context
for this defense is not just the behavior of Paul, Silvanus and Timothy,
though, but the fact that at this period of history there were rhetorical
teachers and speakers known together as the Second Sophistic, who would
attend cities in order to praise them with glowing oratory and rhetoric, for a
fee, only to leave the city shortly after. [1]
Paul’s claim is either a response to an actual charge, or a potential
charge, that they have behaved no better than Sophists in coming to a city,
winning over an audience and then abandoning them to leave for another city and
opportunity.
Paul,
Silvanus and Timothy write that their activity in Thessalonica was not intended
to “please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts” (2:4). That is,
they reject the premise that their preaching was rhetoric intended to flatter
humans, but instead it was a task “approved by God” who “entrusted” them “with
the message of the gospel” (2:4). More than that, they offer evidence that ought
to separate them from Sophists since they “never came with words of flattery or
with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you
or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ” (2:5-7a).
All of the things which mark itinerant speakers as Sophists do not define their
ministry. They argue, in fact, that as apostles they could have demanded
support from the Church, but that they never did, something that will define
Paul’s ministry elsewhere too (1 Corinthians 9).
It
is at this point that the ministers of the Gospel turn to describe positively
and with genuine emotion how they did in fact behave among the Thessalonians.
The language Paul turns to is familial, what scholars today often call “fictive
kinship” language, but I would argue that the spiritual family described by Paul,
Silvanus and Timothy is not considered by them as “fictive” simply not
according to physical ties of kinship. Paul believes that the family of God is
the family that transcends all others, making all of us brothers and sisters in
Christ. At the same time, those with authority in the community, such as Paul
and other apostles and ministers, have roles of guidance which are parental.
This is why, earlier
in the letter, they could ask the Thessalonians to imitate them, as a child
would imitate a father or mother.
In
2:7b, the first image they offer is that they “were gentle among you, like a
nurse tenderly caring for her own children.”[2]
The nurse here, trophos, is a wet
nurse, whose task of course is to breastfeed the infants in her care. Since
many children in ancient Rome were breastfed by women who were not their
mothers, either slave women or hired women, the claim that Paul, Silvanus and
Timothy nursed them like their own children gives us a sense of the emotional
ties and the love they feel for the Thessalonians. It also gives us a sense of
the genuine depth of familial relationships experienced by the earliest
Christians. These first Thessalonians Christians were babies in the faith, so
they had to be mothered by Paul and his co-workers. The love they feel for the
Church has lead them to share not just the Gospel, but “also our own selves,
because you have become very dear (agapêtoi)
to us” (2:8).
This
call to remember the maternal relationship among them leads them also to call
on the Thessalonians to “remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we
worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we
proclaimed to you the gospel of God” (2:9), as noted also earlier in 2:5-7a.
Their defense continues by stating that they were “pure, upright, and blameless”
amongst the Thessalonian believers (2:10). It is at this point that they define
themselves as “a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and
pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom
and glory” (2:11-12). In presenting themselves as fathers to the Thessalonians,
they not only call upon the authority of the ancient father to his household,
but the responsibility for their care and upbringing. Mothers tended to care
for children up until about seven years of age and then fathers would step in
to guide the education and development of the children, specifically the boys. What
this means for this image also, however, and what is often overlooked, is that
this indicates that even in the short time Paul, Silvanus and Timothy were in
Thessalonica there was genuine spiritual development among the Thessalonians. They
were children now, urged on by their fathers, not babies being fed milk by
their loving mothers.
Next
entry, we continue to study the body of the letter.
John
W. Martens
I invite you to
follow me on Twitter @Biblejunkies
[1] Bruce
W. Winter, Philo
and Paul Among the Sophists. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans,
2002.
[2]
Some manuscripts have nêpioi, “infants,”
here instead of êpioi, “gentle,” that
is, “we were like infants among you.” I prefer “gentle” here as I think this
best explains the next clause, but it is possible that amid all this imagery of
childhood, they have placed a word which
describes their innocence and lack of guile.
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