Abstract
First Thessalonians was written within a few months, following the conversion of Paul’s Greek readers, and reflects how his ethical teaching was part of his proclamation. Paul’s preaching of the gospel, intimately connected with the kind of person he was, brought about a close personal relationship between him and his converts. Whilst he stood as a moral model for them, he nevertheless spoke for God, and thus, his ethical instruction was grounded theologically. His converts would have understood how moral dicta, with which they were familiar, were derived from philosophy, but not from religion, as Jews and Christians held. In the overtly paraenetic sections of the letter (ch. 4 and 5), Paul was at great pains to underline this connection, which was the main point he was making.
Highlights
First Thessalonians lends itself to what I understand the interest of this conference to be, for three reasons: firstly, the letter was written soon after Paul’s missionary activity amongst the recipients of the letter, and reflects that activity more clearly than is revealed in any of his other letters; secondly, the letter exhibits a pronounced interest in the recent converts’ relationship to the environment which had formed them before they became Christians, it exhibits interest in their neighbours and their thinking; thirdly, the letter is paraenetic in style and is largely so in content, and it is concerned with the moral formation of Paul’s converts
Http://www.hts.org.za this religious introduction, to a letter that is essentially ethical instruction, is remarkable for the connection between religion and morality. This connection, viewed as axiomatic by Jews and Christians, was not acknowledged as a matter by pagans, those people Paul describes as worshippers of idols, from amongst whom his recent converts came
As the pagan discussions of friendship included a consideration of self-sufficiency, so does Paul’s treatment of brotherly love. He probably writes on the subject because Timothy had informed him that Paul’s recent converts needed instruction on the matter
Summary
First Thessalonians lends itself to what I understand the interest of this conference to be, for three reasons: firstly, the letter was written soon after Paul’s missionary activity amongst the recipients of the letter, and reflects that activity more clearly than is revealed in any of his other letters; secondly, the letter exhibits a pronounced interest in the recent converts’ relationship to the environment which had formed them before they became Christians, it exhibits interest in their neighbours and their thinking; thirdly, the letter is paraenetic in style and is largely so in content, and it is concerned with the moral formation of Paul’s converts. In 1 Corinthians 4:14−21, at the end of the introductory section of the letter, before he gives explicit directions on how to behave in certain circumstances, he claims a special relationship with his readers: he is their spiritual father, having begotten them through his preaching of the gospel to them, not on the basis of his personal attainment of moral superiority His fatherhood in the gospel allows him to call on his children to http://www.hts.org.za become imitators of him. The letter reflects Paul’s concern about his converts’ faith, his uncertainty about their social relations, whether or not they fully understood the reasons for his moral demands, whether or not they questioned the adequacy of their knowledge, and whether or not they were doing the right things and were making sufficient progress in their new walk These are perennial problems experienced by recent converts to philosophy or religion, and to these the Thessalonians were no exception (see Malherbe 1987:36−52). What is apt is Harnack’s identifications of social as well as individual aspects of conversion
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