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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 continued (2:13-20):
13 We also
constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God
that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it
really is, God's word, which is also at work in you believers. 14 For you,
brothers and sisters, became imitators of the churches of God in
Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you suffered the same things from your own
compatriots as they did from the Jews, 15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and
the prophets, and drove us out; they displease God and oppose
everyone 16 by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be
saved. Thus they have constantly been filling up the measure of their sins; but
God's wrath has overtaken them at last. 17 As for us, brothers
and sisters, when, for a short time, we were made orphans by
being separated from you—in person, not in heart—we longed with great eagerness
to see you face to face. 18 For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul,
wanted to again and again—but Satan blocked our way. 19 For what is our hope or
joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? 20
Yes, you are our glory and joy! (NRSV)
Paul,
Silvanus and Timothy described themselves in vv.11-12 as fathers to the
Thessalonians, which means the Thessalonians are no longer infants in the faith,
as ancient fathers did little child care of babies. The word used to designate
them in 2:11, tekna, also indicates
children of any age group. In 2:13,
then, they define what this indicates in spiritual terms, and “constantly give
thanks to God for this”[1]
- a sort of second Thanksgiving within the body of the letter - “that when you
received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human
word but as what it really is, God's word, which is also at work in you
believers.” These Christian children have heard the word, accepted it as God’s word,
and allowed it to work in them, which makes them “believers.”
A
clear sign of the Gospel working in them is that they have become “imitators
of the
churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you suffered the same
things from your own compatriots as they did from the Jews” (2:14). I will
return to 2:14-16 as a whole shortly, but want to note immediately that “imitators”
(mimêtai) occurs in 1:6 (see entry 3)
and is there, too, connected to persecution as the mode of imitation. The note
of persecution here indicates a localized persecution of the Thessalonians
carried out by members of their city (“from your own compatriots;” hypo tôn idion symphyletôn). In this
case, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy do not use themselves as models of imitation,
as in 1:6, but the Judean churches which also suffered persecution.
Some
scholars have seen in this whole passage, 2:14-16, an interpolation, or
non-Pauline insertion into the letter, due to the negative portrayal of the
Jews. According to 2:15-16, the Jews
killed both the Lord Jesus and the
prophets, and drove us out; they displease God and oppose everyone by hindering
us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. Thus they have
constantly been filling up the measure of their sins; but God's wrath has
overtaken them at last.
It
is a harsh text, but I see no evidence of interpolation. The use of “imitators”
binds this passage thematically to the Thanksgiving (1:6) and the fact that
Paul and his co-workers had to leave Thessalonica due to persecution (Acts 17:1-14) gives
us context for an angry denunciation. It is true that Acts presents the
persecution in Thessalonica as emerging mainly from the Jewish community while
1 Thessalonians pins the blame on “your own compatriots,” but Acts 17:5 has the
trouble emerging from some members of the Jewish community “with the help of
some ruffians in the marketplaces.” It is always difficult to know how hard to
lean on the historical data in Acts, especially with respect to Paul’s own
letters, but I trust Paul’s information here and suggest that 17:5 gives us the
basic make-up of the mob, namely local “ruffians” (andras tinas ponêrous, “some evil men”) who were riled up by a few
Jewish members of the city.
So,
the comparison is between the Thessalonians experiencing persecution from local
mobs and the churches in Judea experiencing trouble from local mobs. Is this
too harsh for Paul, who we know from Romans 9:1-5 loved
his people? The context of Thessalonian persecution, and Paul and his
co-workers’ subsequent absence from the Thessalonians, raised their ire and
allowed a comparison to previous persecution of Christians in Judea, of which Paul
himself, frankly, had been a part. The
inability to continue to minister to their “children,” and the fact that
opposition to the early Christian message was always read in an apocalyptic
context, would have made the mob’s actions ripe for comparison to other acts of
persecution.
And
Paul did see Jewish opposition to the Christian message especially as a sign of
eschatological disobedience. Paul’s task was to bring as many Gentiles to
salvation as possible and anything that hindered that task would naturally be
seen by him as a sign of the end and of their disobedience to God’s will. As a
result, when Paul and the others write, “they have constantly been filling up
the measure of their sins; but God's wrath has overtaken them at last,” the
notion of “filling up one’s sins” is a Jewish apocalyptic concept found, for
instance in Daniel 8:23
(“when the transgressions have reached their full measure”) at which time God
will act decisively. While Daniel 8 might discuss a Gentile ruler, the theme
still stands and Daniel
9 speaks to the heart of 2:16 – “God's wrath has overtaken them at last” –
especially 9:13, “just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity
has come upon us. We did not entreat the favor of the Lord our God, turning
from our iniquities and reflecting on his fidelity.”
It
is true that we do not know the nature of “God’s wrath” of which Paul, Silvanus
and Timothy speak, some scholars have suggested Claudius exiling the Jews from
Rome in 49 CE, but the whole trope is not particularly anti-Jewish for Paul and
his friends who consider themselves still Jews; it is simply a part of Jewish
apocalyptic theological teaching. There are dangers, naturally, in reading
these verses out of context: they apply to a 1st century setting in
which the authors are all self-consciously Jews who follow Jesus, but it is our
task to read them well and consider them in the milieu of the 1st
century and of the letter itself. People who hold apocalyptic beliefs and who are persecuted will often see
their persecutors as participants in a cosmic play and that in itself is not
unusual for Jews or Christians in the 1st century.
Following
this short aside, Paul and his co-workers return to the basic theme of chapter
2, which is the spiritual parent-child relationship. The NRSV translation has
Paul and the others say “for a short time, we were made orphans by being
separated from you—in person, not in heart—we longed with great eagerness to
see you face to face” (2:17). The word for “we were made orphans” is the verb aporphanizô and one can see the word “orphan”
in it. The word can mean to be bereaved of parents, though it has the more
general sense of “taken away from” or “separated from.” Since Paul, Silvanus
and Timothy are the parents in this scenario, however, they are not made
orphans, the Thessalonians are made orphans. To my mind, the best rendering of
the verb here is “we were taken away from our children,” or “we were separated
from you, our children.” We have no specific word for this in English, but the
verb here means that Paul and friends are
parents bereft of their children and longing to see them again. The
Thessalonians are orphaned in their absence.
The
end of the chapter is a passionate appeal for the Thessalonians to know that
they wanted to come back to Thessalonica, and here Paul makes his first
personal claim – “certainly I, Paul, wanted to again and again” (2:18). Why did
they not? Again there is a note of apocalyptic thought in the reason: “Satan
blocked our way.” Since the ministry has cosmic implications, so too do the
forces arrayed against it. It is essential for them to overcome these spiritual
obstacles, manifested as mobs and persecution, because for Paul, Timothy and
Silvanus, the converts to the faith are “our hope or joy or crown of boasting
before our Lord Jesus at his coming” (2:19). Note that the hope of Paul and his co-workers is also apocalyptic! Having been given a task to bring
people into the faith, the ministers find their vocation fulfilled in their
converts remaining faithful to the message. Simply put, “you are our glory and
joy!” (2:20).
Next
entry, we continue with the passionate desire of Paul, Silvanus and Timothy to
be with the Thessalonians again.
John
W. Martens
I invite you to
follow me on Twitter @Biblejunkies
[1] The
adverb adialeiptôs which means ”constantly,”
“unceasingly,” or “continually” also appears in 1:2 (see entry 3 in the commentary) and there too it is connected to their prayers for the Church.
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