Category:1 Thessalonians (text)

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The First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians (see Online Text) is a New Testament document.

< Paul of Tarsus -- Paul in Thessalonica and Beroea >

Overview

On his Second Missionary Journey, Paul (with Silas and Timothy) visited Thessalonica, which was an important Hellenistic city and the place of a large Jewish community. Paul and his companions preached in the local synagogue and laid the foundations of a Christian community (Acts 17:1-4; 1Thes. 1:9); see Paul in Thessalonica and Beroea.

The controversy Paul's preaching generated forced him to flee away to Beroea and then "as far as Athens." After being reunited with Timothy and Silas, who had been left behind, and having received reassuring news about the community in Thessalonica, Paul (together with Silas and Timothy) wrote them a letter. It is the first surviving writing by Paul.

Now in Corinth, Paul addresses to a community he knew personally.

The letter opens with a binitarian address to God the Father and Jesus the Son. Paul' message is that there are two Powers in Heaven: the Father [THEOS] and the Son [KURIOS]. As in all writing of Paul the term THEOS is never attributed to Jesus.

Paul repeats the central Christian message: Jesus was sent by the Father to announce the imminent coming of the end and justify the believers through forgiveness of sins. Those who have accepted Jesus as the Forgiver will be saved at the end of time if they keep intact their holiness and resist the devil.

Paul argues that the end of time and the second coming of Jesus are imminent, even though no one knows the exact time. Those Christians who have died before the end of times have not lost the opportunity to join Jesus in the world to come. They will be resurrected and will join those who are left alive until the Lord comes.

External links

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• Early Christian Writings