Thessalonians – The New Testament In Its World – Wright and Bird

THE NEW TESTAMENT IN ITS WORLD – WRIGHT AND BIRD, ZONDERVAN/SPCK
All of the following quotes are taken directly from “The New Testament In Its World,” by NT Wright and Michael Bird, Zondervan/SPCK

INTRODUCTION
The Thessalonian letters, among the earliest of Paul’s extant letters, are among the earliest writings of the whole New Testament, probably written within weeks of Paul’s first visit to Thessalonica. They reflect confusion in the early church about the ‘presence’ or ‘coming’ of Jesus, and what it means for the church in the meantime—perhaps because of things that Paul had stressed in his initial preaching and teaching.2
The first problem was anxiety: what will happen to believers who have died before the lord’s return? The second problem was a heightened sense of anticipation: should believers abandon ordinary life and work, relying on Christian generosity in the short time before Jesus came back? Paul addresses these issues—but this doesn’t mean that the letters constitute a ‘manual’ on the ‘end times’. The letters are short, sharp, and quick, small flashes of pastoral wisdom and theological teaching.

THESSALONICA

In Paul’s day, Thessalonica was a free city with tax exemptions. It was predominantly Greek, but with significant numbers of Italians, Thracians, and Jews. The city was in an important location along the Via Egnatia, connecting the Balkans to Asia Minor, facilitating Paul’s Macedonian travels. The Jewish community in the city was large enough (unlike the small numbers in Philippi) to support a synagogue building.

Paul and his co-workers left Troas for Macedonia, probably in early AD 50, travelling and working in Philippi. They left Philippi after hostility from the civic authorities, journeying south-west through Amphipolis and Apollonia before arriving in Thessalonica. According to Luke, Paul spent three weeks proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah in the Jewish synagogue (while also working among pagans in his tent-making business); he convinced some Jews, gentile God-fearers, and prominent women about Jesus (or rather, he insisted, it was God’s word doing its own work).4 Paul and the Thessalonian church soon experienced opposition from the Jewish quarter, culminating with an angry mob ransacking the house of Paul’s host, Jason.5 Jason and some other believers were hauled before the city officials; the substance of the complaint against them was that they were harbouring known troublemakers and political subversives.

The Messiah-devotees were seen as well-known religiously motivated social deviants opposed to the Roman imperium; they had now brought their brand of counter-imperial messianism to Thessalonica! Paul, Silas, and Timothy fled under cover of night and made their way to Berea where Paul had a brief successful ministry, cut short by some Thessalonian Jews arriving to stir up trouble.7 Paul then headed further south to Athens. While in Athens he felt ‘orphaned’ without the Thessalonians, and was anxious to hear how they were holding up, worried that they had been ‘unsettled’. He therefore dispatched Timothy to go and find out.8 Paul then continued to Corinth, where he remained for a time.

It was probably during his extended stay in Corinth in AD 50 that Timothy met up with Paul and reported to Paul that the Thessalonians were doing all right.10 While this alleviated Paul’s concerns somewhat, he remained mindful that although the church had started well (1 Thess. 1.3, 6–9; 2.13), it was still young and vulnerable like a newborn baby (1 Thess. 2.7). The new believers’ faith might falter through temptation or distress (1 Thess. 3.3, 5; 5.14); they needed constant encouraging (1 Thess. 2.12; 3.2, 7; 4.18; 5.11, 14; 2 Thess. 2.17) and strengthening (1 Thess. 3.2, 5, 10, 13; 2 Thess. 2.17).

Not long after writing 1 Thessalonians, perhaps only weeks or months later, Paul received news that the situation in Thessalonica had deteriorated. First, the persecution had intensified (2 Thess. 1.4–12). Second, a report was circulating that the ‘day of the lord’ had already arrived, leading to confusion and concern (2 Thess. 2.1–10). Third, the problem of people giving up work to wait for the lord’s return had escalated further (2 Thess. 3.6–14). Paul accordingly wrote again, addressing these matters, stressing the importance of remaining steadfast and strong in the face of persecution (2 Thess. 1.4, 11–12; 2.15–17; 3.5). The Thessalonians were to remember what they were taught (2 Thess. 2.5, 15; 3.7, 10), and were to live up to the standard implied by, and inherent in, God’s call (2 Thess. 1.5, 11). They were to rejoice, above all, in the hope of sharing in the glory of the lord Jesus (2 Thess. 2.14).

Authorship of 2 Thessalonians

Many have doubted whether Paul himself wrote 2 Thessalonians. The reasons for this include:

1. Eschatology. There is a shift from an imminent expectation of Jesus’ parousia (1 Thessalonians) to a belief that the parousia is now more distant and will be preceded by signs performed by an antichrist figure (2 Thessalonians).
2. Literary features. It is often claimed that 2 Thessalonians woodenly mimics 1 Thessalonians through near-verbatim replication of the epistolary greeting and benediction, two thanksgiving sections, and double prayers. These similarities, some suggest, indicate a pseudepigrapher studiously copying his source, rather than Paul himself with his usual stylistic flexibility. (The two letters to Corinth show remarkable differences.) In other words, the two letters are so similar as to raise suspicion.
3. Authorial tone. The pastoral warmth of 1 Thessalonians recedes as the writer of 2 Thessalonians seems to adopt a more authoritarian persona.
4. Marks of authenticity. The warnings about a letter ‘supposedly from us’ (2 Thess. 2.2) and the large emphasis on the authenticity of Paul’s autograph (2 Thess. 3.17) are alleged to signal a pseudonymous author, in the way that a confidence trickster might attempt to win confidence by warning about confidence tricksters.
   These arguments can be countered on several grounds:
5. Eschatology. A comparison of 2 Thessalonians with the synoptic Olivet Discourses (Mk. 13; Mt. 24—25; Lk. 21) and the revelation of John demonstrates that belief that certain signs will precede the end is fully compatible with an expectation of the imminence of the end (whatever that ‘end’ might be). Furthermore, Paul himself seems to have oscillated in his expectation of precisely how near the end was: somewhere between imminent (1 Thess. 5.2; 1 Cor. 1.7; 7.29; 15.23, 51–52; Phil. 3.20–21; Rom. 13.11; 16.20) to impending (2 Cor 5.1–10; Gal. 5.5; Col. 3.4), to perhaps being delayed until at least after his own death (Phil. 1.20–25; 2 Tim. 4.6; perhaps 1 Cor. 6.14).
6. Literary features. While close literary similarities do exist between the two letters, if 1 and 2 Thessalonians were written close together these similarities are hardly surprising. Foster comments: ‘It is not impossible that Paul or his scribe retained a copy or a draft of 1 Thessalonians, or perhaps more plausibly that the two letters were written in a sufficiently close temporal span that key phrases were able to be recalled from memory.’12 The fact that 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians are so very different stylistically is much better explained in terms of the horrific experience Paul had just passed through before the second letter (2 Cor. 1.8–11). In any case, it seems something of a heads-I-win-tails-you-lose argument to say that (for instance) Ephesians and Colossians cannot be by Paul because the style is so different from the other letters, while 2 Thessalonians cannot be by Paul because the style is so similar.
7. Authorial tone. Whether 2 Thessalonians is in fact cold and authoritarian in contrast to the warm and personal 1 Thessalonians should be questioned in the light of Paul’s encouraging remarks in 2 Thessalonians (2 Thess. 1.3–5, 11–12; 2.13–17; 3.1–5, 16). But even granting the objection, the Corinthian correspondence shows that Paul can sharply change his tone from joyous, to exasperated, to furious, and back again, within a few paragraphs. If the pastoral circumstances had changed between 1 and 2 Thessalonians, then Paul could have quite reasonably altered his style of persuasion.
8. Marks of authenticity. There is no specific warning about a spurious Pauline letter, but a general warning to watch out for any teaching allegedly ‘from us’ that could take the form of a prophecy, a rumour, or a letter that might lead them astray (2 Thess. 2.2). So, rather than imagining this as a pseudepigrapher warning about pseudepigraphical writings, it looks more like Paul telling the Thessalonians not to believe reports or second-hand claims, purportedly from him and his associates, saying that the ‘end’ is already here. Also, if the mark of authenticity is the attempt to cover up a forgery by referring to ‘the distinguishing mark in all my other letters’ (2 Thess. 3.17), one would have to assume that the author is aware of a Pauline letter-collection where he offers his own signature in several other letters (1 Cor. 16.21; Gal. 6.11; Col. 4.18; Philem. 19). But if a pseudepigrapher, who knows the Pauline letter-collection, has appealed to the autograph as Paul’s mark of authenticity ‘in all my letters’, then he has forgotten that in most of Paul’s letters there is no signature of authenticity (1 Thessalonians, Romans, 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Ephesians), making it a very odd claim! What is more, dependence on a Pauline letter-collection is all the more unlikely when we remember that the only Pauline letter that 2 Thessalonians appears to presuppose or echo is 1 Thessalonians, which makes sense if these were two of Paul’s earliest letters. Finally, another problem is that we struggle to imagine a setting where the claims made in 2 Thessalonians would be relevant and compelling to a non-Thessalonian audience at a later time.
   In sum, it is not only plausible, but more probable, that 2 Thessalonians is an authentic Pauline letter.13

OUTLINE OF FIRST THESSALONIANS

1. Greetings and gospel thanksgiving (1.1–10)
   Paul, thanking God for the Thessalonian Christians, remembers their work produced by faith, their labour prompted by love, and their endurance inspired by hope in the lord Jesus. The gospel has done its work, and they are an example to the whole region, especially in their turning from idols (a dangerously public demonstration of loyalty to the one true God).
2. Paul’s recollection of his ministry in Thessalonica (2.1–16)
   Paul notes (2.1) that his effective ministry sprang from pure motives (aware no doubt that scoffers could try to tell the new Jesus-followers that he was a charlatan after their money). The ancient world had its fair share of wandering tricksters out for cash. Paul insists—and his readers would know the truth of the claim—that he and his colleagues had conducted their service with the care of a nursing mother, sharing their very selves with the Thessalonians (2.7–8).

Paul’s further thanksgiving recognizes the suffering the Thessalonians have been enduring at the hands of their countrymen. This is the same, he says, as Jesus and his first followers experienced from ‘the Judeans who killed Jesus’, in other words, the Judean leaders complicit in Jesus’ crucifixion and the subsequent persecution of the church. This expresses Paul’s frustration with those who have tried to obstruct the gentile mission. Paul sees all this as a sign that a time of wrath—perhaps the time of wrath—has come upon Judea.

3. Paul’s desire to return to Thessalonica (2.17—3.13)
   Paul insists once more that he is eager to come back to see the Thessalonian believers, and explains why he had sent Timothy. Now Timothy has returned to Paul in Corinth with good news, and Paul is greatly encouraged.
4. The call to purity and holiness (4.1–12)
   Along with abandoning idolatry, one of the most obvious changes for any pagan embracing the gospel was the clear Jewish-style sexual morality, a feature of being ‘new creation’ people. Paul may have been specifically mindful of the sexual element in the mystery cults like Cabirus, popular in Thessalonica (4.1–3), but the point went wider: followers of Jesus were to be holy, honourable, and self-controlled with their bodies (4.4–6). Instead of mirroring the male-dominated pagan licentiousness (see ‘Portals and parallels: typical greco-roman male sexual attitudes’), Paul calls the Thessalonians to a counter-cultural holiness.

Paul then commends the Thessalonians for their love for God’s family, locally in Thessalonica and throughout all of Macedonia (4.9–10). ‘Love’ here has to do, not so much with feelings and emotions, but with mutual financial and practical support, living as a real family. Adding to that, he reminds them to lead a quiet life and to mind their own business, avoiding making trouble for themselves. They are to remain engaged in their vocations and trades, not giving up work as some had done—a point to which he returns in 2 Thessalonians 3.6–12. By living this way, they will win the respect of outsiders and require no benefactor to draw them into a social contract of material benefits in exchange for reciprocal loyalty (4.11–12).

5. Clarifications about the lord’s return (4.13—5.11)
   Paul now comes to his clarifications about the lord’s return. He consoles his readers by saying that, although believers should genuinely grieve for the departed, they do not grieve in the same way that everyone else does. The pagan world offered no real hope; pagan grief contrasted sharply with Christian grief.
   Paul’s explanation of Jesus’ return combines scriptural, political, and apocalyptic images, describing Jesus like a king who visits a city and is met by a delegation of people who greet him and then accompany him back into the city itself. Paul is not talking about people being taken away from earth (see ‘Emails from the edge: rapture theology’), but is using Daniel’s exaltation-imagery (‘caught up on the clouds’), in combination with the idea of royal arrival, to say what he says in, for example, Philippians 3.20–21: the lord will return to transform this world and his people along with it. The dead will rise first, and then believers will join them in God’s new world (4.16–17). This is a vivid way of saying what we find in 1 Corinthians 15.51–52.
   So how soon would it be? Paul echoes Jesus: like a thief in the night (5.1–2). The only sign of his imminent return is—that there will be no sign! The Romans will go on with their imperial propaganda-slogan of ‘peace and security’, unaware of imminent catastrophe. Like labour-pains, however, the coming ordeal is inescapable (5.3). In his accompanying exhortation, Paul uses the metaphor of light and darkness to urge the Thessalonians to live appropriately in the light of Jesus’ impending return. They are not children of darkness, characterized by depraved nocturnal behaviour. Rather, they are children of the light, who should be prepared, alert, and sober (5.6). And—as though a piece of Ephesians 6.11–18 had fallen out of the sky—they should be equipped like a soldier attired with the triple virtues of faith, love, and hope (1 Thess. 5.8). What is more, Paul adds that their assurance is not in knowing when Jesus will return, but knowing what Jesus has in store for them, which is not suffering wrath, but receiving salvation (5.9). The gospel, after all, declares to them that Jesus died and rose; therefore, whether they are dead or alive at his return, they will assuredly live with him (5.10). These are words that should comfort and assure them that they will not miss out on the glory to be revealed (5.11).
6. Exhortation to the congregation and final greetings (5.12–28)
   1 Thessalonians closes with a dense compilation of exhortations, prayer, and benediction.
   THE ARGUMENT OF 2 THESSALONIANS
   As we saw earlier, Paul wrote a second letter to the Thessalonians only weeks, or at most perhaps months, after the first one. The reason for writing was now to encourage them in continued persecution, to address concerns that the ‘day of the lord’ had already happened, and to rebuke persistent idleness (see box: ‘Outline of 2 Thessalonians’).
7. Greetings and thanksgiving amid trials (1.1–4)
   The second letter opens similarly to the first, and Paul immediately launches into thanksgiving for the Thessalonians’ perseverance in their faith despite grave adversity (1.3–4).
8. Coming judgment and future glory (1.5–12)
   The believers’ continued suffering is proof that God’s judgment against their adversaries is fully warranted and they themselves are indeed worthy of the kingdom (1.5). Precisely because God is just, he will not allow this situation to continue indefinitely. He will give them relief from their troubles, and pay back those who agitated against them (1.6–7a). This is one of Paul’s fullest descriptions of the final condemnation of those who have opposed God, replete with rich biblical imagery. It leads Paul to pray that God would make the faithful worthy of his calling, desiring and performing what is good and faithful (1.11).
9. The turmoil and travail of the lawless one (2.1–12)
   Paul then insists that the Thessalonians should not be rattled by any report that the climactic ‘day’ had already come and that they had missed out on it (2.2). (This means, obviously, that ‘the day of the lord’ cannot have meant ‘the end of the world’.) They will not be distressed as long as they are not deceived (2.3a). They can know that the day of Jesus’ parousia has not occurred, because it will only take place after a time of apostasy, and when ‘the man of lawlessness is revealed’ (2.3b). This figure will ‘exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God’ (2.3c–4).

Who did Paul have in mind? What type of person is this ‘man of lawlessness’? This ‘antichrist’ figure is probably built up from various ancient, scriptural, and contemporary figures who set themselves up against God.15 We think of Antiochus Epiphanes, who desecrated the Temple and is probably the original ‘boastful horn’ in Daniel’s vision; the Roman general Pompey who entered the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple; and the emperor Caligula who wanted to have his statue put up in the Temple. Later, some Christians would see the emperor Nero as the archetype of the antichrist who was yet to come. The ‘man of lawlessness’ here is probably Paul’s way of referring to this theme, supposing that some new figure would arise to do what Caligula wanted, bringing evil to its height and so precipitating divine judgment. Great evil was afoot, and would come to a head. Paul claims that this should not be news to the Thessalonians; he had taught them as much (2.5). What is perhaps new is that Paul says that ‘the restrainer’ is holding back the antichrist figure until the time when the restrainer himself is taken out of the way (2.6–7 NTE/KNT).
Who then is this ‘restrainer’, holding back the tide of evil? Suggestions include the holy spirit, the church, the preaching of the gospel, an angel, the Jewish people, God’s decree, or even the Roman empire itself (see ‘Blast from the past: Tertullian on the restrainer’). But it is hard now to say for sure. Even Augustine wisely admitted, ‘I frankly confess that I do not know what [Paul] means.’20 What Paul stresses is that the lawless one will be revealed and defeated, and those who believed the lie will perish (2.8–12). Paul would have his hearers hang on to the fact that God remains sovereign over all, and will one day put all wrongs to rights, bringing all human empires under the rule and judgment of his own saving kingdom.

4. Exhortation to steadfastness (2.13–17)
   Paul provides an additional thanksgiving and further encouragement.
5. Prayer request (3.1–5)
   Paul asks for prayer for him, his co-workers, and their ongoing labours, confident in God’s faithfulness.
6. Warning against idleness (3.6–15)
   The tone of the letter abruptly shifts to a warning against idleness. We should not miss the fact that this problem arose, not only because of a mistaken idea about the imminence of the parousia, but also because of the correct idea about the church’s call to live as ‘family’. Such a stunning social experiment was bound to generate teething troubles.
7. Final greetings and benediction (3.16–18)
   Second Thessalonians finishes with a prayer for peace (3.16). Paul adds his autograph to authenticate the letter (3.17), and ends with a benediction of grace from the lord Jesus (3.18). 1 AND 2 THESSALONIANS AND THE BIG PICTURE
   Several major themes stand out from the Thessalonian correspondence, inviting multiple applications.
   First, the Thessalonian letters call the church to (what we might call) a kingdom-perspective: looking ahead to the end, but recognizing that after Jesus’ death and resurrection the kingdom had already broken in, shaping the way his followers would live in the present. Amid all the exhortations on sexual behaviour, love, and idleness that Paul makes, nearly every chapter of these letters mentions Jesus’ return.21 The kingdom, the royal rule of God, which began with the death and resurrection of Jesus (1 Thess. 4.14), would be fully established on the ‘day of the lord’ (1 Thess. 5.3; 2 Thess. 2.2). This ‘hope of glory’ for the future means that the church was exhorted in the present to live out the dramatic, world-changing story of how God’s purposes for his people would finally triumph over evil.
   That is why the church is called to be an exemplary alternative to imperial rule. Believers must not be seduced into an unholy alliance with political masters as a shortcut to power and influence. Instead, they are to put their trust in God and God’s purposes, meaning that they will probably, more often than not, resist the dominant culture rather than making common cause with it. Jesus’ followers must live according to the code of holiness driven by the vision of new creation under Jesus’ lordship. The call of the gospel is not an invitation for people to try ‘Jesus’ in the way they might try the latest fashionable food or drink. It is more like a firefighter dashing around a public square warning people that a wildfire is about to engulf the city, and summoning everybody to take the last bus out of town while they still can—coupled with the image of a brilliant architect putting up a great public new building and inviting all and sundry to come and live in it, assisting with its development.
   Of course, in ancient, medieval, and modern times, various teachers and cults have claimed to have worked it all out, knowing precisely when Jesus was going to return—and that the great day was just around the corner! A glance at the Left Behind series of books and movies, websites like the Rapture Index (which tries every day to measure the nearness of Jesus’ return), or indeed the plethora of commentaries and charts on the book of Revelation will show what a fanatical end-of-the-world fixation looks like. Paul gives instructions so that the Thessalonians will not be ignorant about the lord’s return (see 1 Thess. 4.13; 5.1–4; 2 Thess. 2.1–12), but he doesn’t want them to be paralysed with anxiety over it, nor does he want them to speculate or prognosticate on dates. Instead, they are to show by the virtues of love, faith, and hope that they are prepared for the lord’s return.

Second, it is often forgotten that these two letters have a remarkable emphasis on holiness, particularly in the area of sexual conduct. Again, we can relate this to the kingdom-theme: God has called the Thessalonians into his kingdom through the gospel, and now they are to live lives worthy of that kingdom (1 Thess. 2.12; 2 Thess. 1.5). In the modern west, sex is arguably the biggest idol.

Our consumerist and entertainment culture saturates us with sexual imagery, urging us to worship all things sexual, insisting that we can have and must experience whatever turns us on. We regularly receive the implicit message that celibacy is a fate worse than death, or that God doesn’t mind what consenting adults do in private. But this has never been what Christians have believed. Bodies matter; maleness and femaleness matter; they are central parts of God’s good creation, not disposable toys. Our bodies are temples, as Paul stresses in the Corinthian letters, and we are to worship God with them, whether in singleness or in marriage. When Paul exhorts the Thessalonians not to live ‘in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God’ (1 Thess. 4.5), he implies that knowing the true God and living in chastity belong together, no doubt because the true God is indeed the creator, whose image is the male-plus-female human life. Our goal, then, should not be gratification on demand, but sanctification through the spirit; placing sex in the context, not of uncontrollable desire, but of discipleship.

Paul saw sex as a gift to be enjoyed with a spouse, rather than a craving to be satisfied, no matter with whom. The church is never more counter-cultural than in its refusal to worship the god of sex, which means (among other things) taking especial care of those who may be vulnerable to predators. The church has often failed in its duty of care, and its reputation has rightly suffered as a result. We regularly need Paul’s warning: ‘That in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before’ (1 Thess. 4.6).

A third interesting facet of the Thessalonian letters is the remarkable emphasis on the church as family. As Nijay Gupta comments on these letters: ‘The community of Messiah Jesus is more than a club of like-minded religious people. They belong together in the most intimate kind of relationship that can be conceived.’22 Paul’s constant use of the word adelphoi, literally ‘brothers’, calls up in his world the shared working and family life of a close kinship-group. The premise behind much of Paul’s exhortation is that if God has created a new Messiah-family in Thessalonica, and if that family is based on and characterized by nothing less than the self-giving love of Jesus himself, then there are certain ways of acting that are necessary, and other ways that are inappropriate (see 1 Thess. 4.9–12).

For a start, as a family, it means that each Christian within that church family has the responsibility to look out for the needs of the others, to give comfort, warning, strengthening, and example wherever necessary. It isn’t enough to avoid trouble and hope for the best. One must actively pursue what will be good for other Christians, and indeed for everybody. Also, precisely like a tight-knit family, there were certain inappropriate behaviours, like idleness, laziness, being a busybody, and sexual immorality, and where such behaviours occur there are appropriate styles of discipline within that family, ways of making it known to a child or a sibling that a particular kind of behaviour is unacceptable. In our own hyper-individualistic culture, the temptation is to try to opt out of the church family, especially if it means chores, responsibility, and the prospect of discipline.

But the Thessalonians didn’t have that option. There were only a few of them, and there were no other ‘churches’ to belong to. They had to deal with the problem head on, just as in a family or a small village. Unless the whole family remained loyal to the gospel, pretty soon they would cease to exist altogether. It would not be an overstatement to say that when the church sees itself as a family, and acts like a family towards its members, it will not only succeed in caring for its own but also flourish in its mission in the world.