1 thessalonians: introduction - the thessalonian situation and the pauline response (2)
The Death of Believers within the Christian Community
The second major situational factor that prompted 1 Thessalonians was the death of believers within the Christian community. This is most explicitly described in 4:13-18, but commentators have long recognized that this tragic experience was connected to a larger problem that is reflected elsewhere in the letter.
Nothing specific is known about the deaths themselves. We don't know how many believers had died, but the language in 4:13 indicates that it was more than one. Nor do we know how these believers died. It has been suggested that they died at the hands of their opponents in Thessalonica (i.e. martyrdom), and this is possible from the language of 4:14 (τοὺς κοιμηθέντας διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, "those who have fallen asleep through Jesus") combined with the parallel drawn in 2:14-16 between the death of Jesus and the prophets and the opposition faced by the Thessalonian believers. However, there is no way to say for sure what the precise circumstances were surrounding the death of these Thessalonian Christians.
It is clear, however, that these deaths shook the Thessalonian Christian community, such that they were in danger of grieving without hope, grieving in utter despair for the loved ones they had lost (4:13). Why this extreme degree of despair? The answer to this and other specific issues lies in the third situational factor: the Thessalonians' pre-Christian worldview.
The Thessalonians' Pre-Christian Worldview
It is impossible to pin down precisely what this pre-Christian worldview may have looked like, since one's worldview--one's fundamental conceptual framework through which one interprets one's life experiences--depends upon a host of social, religious, economic, and other variables. Within a city such as Thessalonica, situated on that important conduit of cosmopolitan ideas known as the Via Egnatia, the range of possible non-Jewish, non-Christian worldviews would have been immense. However, of one thing we can be fairly certain: the Thessalonian pre-Christian worldview was non-Jewish.
That this was so is evident from several facets of the letter. As noted previously, the fundamental "identity statement" in 1:9-10 indicates that the majority of the Thessalonian believers, if not all those that have remained, were non-Jewish: they had turned to the one living and true God from idolatrous worship of other gods. This fundamental statement is supported by other indications in the letter, such as the lack of direct interaction with the Jewish Scriptures either in terms of explicit citation or in terms of argumentation on the basis of the Scriptures. But more specifically, the fundamental identity statement of 1:9-10 makes sense of several specific problems addressed in the letter. The Thessalonian believers are Gentiles who have come to know the true God (1:9), so in the matter of sexual immorality they are not to act like those "Gentiles who do not know God" (4:5). They are Gentiles who now have hope for the future in the living God who raised Jesus from the dead (1:10), so in the matter of grief for their dead they are not to grieve "like the rest [of the Gentiles] who do not have hope" (4:13). The Thessalonian Christians are Gentiles who now have hope for the future in the God whose Son will rescue them from the coming wrath (1:10), so in the matter of the eschatological status of the community they should not confuse themselves with the Gentiles around them who have bought into the Roman propaganda of "peace and security" yet remain under the threat of divine wrath (5:3).
The nagging problem of a non-Jewish, pre-Christian worldview thus makes good sense of the eschatological sections and other problems addressed in the letter. Paul and his co-workers had taught eschatological, divine deliverance from sin and death based upon Jesus' death and resurrection and fulfilled at his future royal arrival. As necessary facets of this teaching, they called the Gentiles away from idolatry and sexual immorality to exclusive monotheism and sexual purity, and they described this future deliverance as involving the resurrection of those in Christ to participation in the kingdom of God (1:9-10; 2:11-12; 4:1-2). However, the predominantly (or even exclusively) Gentile Thessalonians did not fully understand or appreciate these teachings, and their pre-Christian worldview continued to shape their thinking and behaviour. Like their Corinthian Gentile counterparts, they struggled to adhere to marital monogamy in the face of the sexual temptations inherent in a large, Greco-Roman city on a significant trade route. And faced with the death of fellow believers in the midst of external opposition, they interpreted this opposition and these deaths as indications of divine disfavour and assumed that their dead would now miss out on the future royal arrival of Jesus and the divine deliverance associated with this event. The hope that they had initially professed and demonstrated had crumbled, turning to despair in the face of death and opposition.
This proposal has several advantages over others. First, it situates the problem comfortably within the predominantly or even exclusively Gentile background of the Thessalonian Christian community. It doesn't assume an anachronistic gnosticism, as in past scholarship. Nor does it necessitate an unlikely, detailed knowledge of distinctively Jewish concerns such as apocalyptic timelines, as in much current scholarship. Second, this proposal takes seriously the degree of grief in the face of death described by Paul (4:13), not relativizing it as many others do. The Thessalonians are in real danger of absolute hopelessness regarding their dead, if they have not crossed that line already. Paul's emphasis on the full participation of the dead in Christ's royal arrival is exactly the antidote that is needed. Third, this proposal makes sense of both 4:13-18 and 5:1-11 within a common problem: 4:13-18 focuses on reconstructing the Thessalonians' hope for their dead loved ones (the dead will be resurrected to a full experience of blessing at Christ's royal arrival), and 5:1-11 focuses on reconstructing their hope in regard to their community status before God (it is their opponents who will experience eschatological divine wrath, not the elect Thessalonian believers). Fourth, this proposal takes into account the reality of recent and potential external opposition, understanding Paul's "comfort" and "boundary" language throughout the letter in response to this, encouraging the Thessalonians that they are indeed among the elect people of God and that it is their opponents who are outside of divine favour. And fifth, as noted above, this proposal accounts for other specific problems and statements reflected in the letter, such as the matter of sexual immorality. In short, this proposal makes good sense of the whole letter as a calculated Pauline response to this particular set of circumstances (more on this in the next post).
As an "added bonus," this proposal also explains the existence of 2 Thessalonians, something that many proposals do not do well, whether arguing for or against 2 Thessalonians' authenticity. Although this commentary will only focus on 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians indicates how the situation had progressed. Soon after writing 1 Thessalonians, perhaps even before the letter had reached Thessalonica, Paul heard of further factors which exacerbated the despair of the Thessalonians: the opposition within Thessalonica had re-ignited (1:4-10), and a message of some sort had come to the Thessalonians declaring that the Day of the Lord had arrived (2:1-2). For the Thessalonians, this is the worst possible news: their tentative belief of being outside of divine favour has now been confirmed, for they have missed out on the promised deliverance at Jesus' royal arrival. From their perspective, not only were their dead without hope, now the living were as well. Paul heads off this exacerbated problem with the letter we know of as 2 Thessalonians.
The second major situational factor that prompted 1 Thessalonians was the death of believers within the Christian community. This is most explicitly described in 4:13-18, but commentators have long recognized that this tragic experience was connected to a larger problem that is reflected elsewhere in the letter.
Nothing specific is known about the deaths themselves. We don't know how many believers had died, but the language in 4:13 indicates that it was more than one. Nor do we know how these believers died. It has been suggested that they died at the hands of their opponents in Thessalonica (i.e. martyrdom), and this is possible from the language of 4:14 (τοὺς κοιμηθέντας διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, "those who have fallen asleep through Jesus") combined with the parallel drawn in 2:14-16 between the death of Jesus and the prophets and the opposition faced by the Thessalonian believers. However, there is no way to say for sure what the precise circumstances were surrounding the death of these Thessalonian Christians.
It is clear, however, that these deaths shook the Thessalonian Christian community, such that they were in danger of grieving without hope, grieving in utter despair for the loved ones they had lost (4:13). Why this extreme degree of despair? The answer to this and other specific issues lies in the third situational factor: the Thessalonians' pre-Christian worldview.
The Thessalonians' Pre-Christian Worldview
It is impossible to pin down precisely what this pre-Christian worldview may have looked like, since one's worldview--one's fundamental conceptual framework through which one interprets one's life experiences--depends upon a host of social, religious, economic, and other variables. Within a city such as Thessalonica, situated on that important conduit of cosmopolitan ideas known as the Via Egnatia, the range of possible non-Jewish, non-Christian worldviews would have been immense. However, of one thing we can be fairly certain: the Thessalonian pre-Christian worldview was non-Jewish.
That this was so is evident from several facets of the letter. As noted previously, the fundamental "identity statement" in 1:9-10 indicates that the majority of the Thessalonian believers, if not all those that have remained, were non-Jewish: they had turned to the one living and true God from idolatrous worship of other gods. This fundamental statement is supported by other indications in the letter, such as the lack of direct interaction with the Jewish Scriptures either in terms of explicit citation or in terms of argumentation on the basis of the Scriptures. But more specifically, the fundamental identity statement of 1:9-10 makes sense of several specific problems addressed in the letter. The Thessalonian believers are Gentiles who have come to know the true God (1:9), so in the matter of sexual immorality they are not to act like those "Gentiles who do not know God" (4:5). They are Gentiles who now have hope for the future in the living God who raised Jesus from the dead (1:10), so in the matter of grief for their dead they are not to grieve "like the rest [of the Gentiles] who do not have hope" (4:13). The Thessalonian Christians are Gentiles who now have hope for the future in the God whose Son will rescue them from the coming wrath (1:10), so in the matter of the eschatological status of the community they should not confuse themselves with the Gentiles around them who have bought into the Roman propaganda of "peace and security" yet remain under the threat of divine wrath (5:3).
The nagging problem of a non-Jewish, pre-Christian worldview thus makes good sense of the eschatological sections and other problems addressed in the letter. Paul and his co-workers had taught eschatological, divine deliverance from sin and death based upon Jesus' death and resurrection and fulfilled at his future royal arrival. As necessary facets of this teaching, they called the Gentiles away from idolatry and sexual immorality to exclusive monotheism and sexual purity, and they described this future deliverance as involving the resurrection of those in Christ to participation in the kingdom of God (1:9-10; 2:11-12; 4:1-2). However, the predominantly (or even exclusively) Gentile Thessalonians did not fully understand or appreciate these teachings, and their pre-Christian worldview continued to shape their thinking and behaviour. Like their Corinthian Gentile counterparts, they struggled to adhere to marital monogamy in the face of the sexual temptations inherent in a large, Greco-Roman city on a significant trade route. And faced with the death of fellow believers in the midst of external opposition, they interpreted this opposition and these deaths as indications of divine disfavour and assumed that their dead would now miss out on the future royal arrival of Jesus and the divine deliverance associated with this event. The hope that they had initially professed and demonstrated had crumbled, turning to despair in the face of death and opposition.
This proposal has several advantages over others. First, it situates the problem comfortably within the predominantly or even exclusively Gentile background of the Thessalonian Christian community. It doesn't assume an anachronistic gnosticism, as in past scholarship. Nor does it necessitate an unlikely, detailed knowledge of distinctively Jewish concerns such as apocalyptic timelines, as in much current scholarship. Second, this proposal takes seriously the degree of grief in the face of death described by Paul (4:13), not relativizing it as many others do. The Thessalonians are in real danger of absolute hopelessness regarding their dead, if they have not crossed that line already. Paul's emphasis on the full participation of the dead in Christ's royal arrival is exactly the antidote that is needed. Third, this proposal makes sense of both 4:13-18 and 5:1-11 within a common problem: 4:13-18 focuses on reconstructing the Thessalonians' hope for their dead loved ones (the dead will be resurrected to a full experience of blessing at Christ's royal arrival), and 5:1-11 focuses on reconstructing their hope in regard to their community status before God (it is their opponents who will experience eschatological divine wrath, not the elect Thessalonian believers). Fourth, this proposal takes into account the reality of recent and potential external opposition, understanding Paul's "comfort" and "boundary" language throughout the letter in response to this, encouraging the Thessalonians that they are indeed among the elect people of God and that it is their opponents who are outside of divine favour. And fifth, as noted above, this proposal accounts for other specific problems and statements reflected in the letter, such as the matter of sexual immorality. In short, this proposal makes good sense of the whole letter as a calculated Pauline response to this particular set of circumstances (more on this in the next post).
As an "added bonus," this proposal also explains the existence of 2 Thessalonians, something that many proposals do not do well, whether arguing for or against 2 Thessalonians' authenticity. Although this commentary will only focus on 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians indicates how the situation had progressed. Soon after writing 1 Thessalonians, perhaps even before the letter had reached Thessalonica, Paul heard of further factors which exacerbated the despair of the Thessalonians: the opposition within Thessalonica had re-ignited (1:4-10), and a message of some sort had come to the Thessalonians declaring that the Day of the Lord had arrived (2:1-2). For the Thessalonians, this is the worst possible news: their tentative belief of being outside of divine favour has now been confirmed, for they have missed out on the promised deliverance at Jesus' royal arrival. From their perspective, not only were their dead without hope, now the living were as well. Paul heads off this exacerbated problem with the letter we know of as 2 Thessalonians.
2 Comments:
'This fundamental statement is supported by other indications in the letter, such as the lack of direct interaction with the Jewish Scriptures either in terms of explicit citation or in terms of argumentation on the basis of the Scriptures.'
When arguing with Christians in Corinth who scoffed at the idea of God choosing to breathe life into a corpse, Paul uses the example of God creating Adam from dead matter (quoting from Gen 2:7) , apparently totally convinced that the Christians in Corinth accepted the Hebrew Scriptures.
Can we conclude that these people were not Gentiles, because Paul argues from the scriptures with them?
By Steven Carr, at 5:44 AM
Thanks for this, Steven. It is something that needs clarification.
The situation in Corinth is similar to that in Thessalonica in some respects, but quite different in others. Paul spent a good deal of time in Corinth establishing the church, certainly enough time for Gentiles in the congregation to become conversant in the Scriptures and claim them as their own (cf. 1 Cor 10:11). By contrast, as I've noted, Paul spent only a short time with the Thessalonians and felt "torn away" from them before they were ready.
By Michael Pahl, at 10:15 AM
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