FIRST THESSALONIANS
                    FROM CORINTH A.D. 50 TO 51

                      BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION

        We cannot say that this is Paul's first letter to a
church, for in  2Th 2:2  he speaks of some as palming off letters
as his and in  2Th 3:17  he says that he appends his own
signature to every letter after dictating it to an amanuensis
( Ro 16:22 ). We know of one lost letter ( 1Co 5:11 ) and perhaps
another ( 2Co 2:3 ). But this is the earliest one that has come
down to us and it may even be the earliest New Testament book,
unless the Epistle of James antedates it or even Mark's Gospel.
We know, as already shown, that Paul was in Corinth and that
Timothy and Silas had just arrived from Thessalonica ( 1Th 3:6  Ac 18:5 ). They had brought supplies from the Macedonian churches
to supply Paul's need ( 2Co 11:9 ), as the church in Philippi did
once and again while Paul was in Thessalonica ( Php 4:15f. ).
Before Timothy and Silas came to Corinth Paul had to work
steadily at his trade as tent-maker with Aquila and Priscilla
( Ac 18:3 ) and could only preach in the synagogue on sabbaths,
but the rich stores from Macedonia released his hands and "Paul
devoted himself to the word" (suneicheto t(9369) log(9369) Paulos). He
gave himself wholly to preaching now. But Timothy and Silas
brought news of serious trouble in the church in Thessalonica.
Some of the disciples there had misunderstood Paul's preaching
about the second coming of Christ and had quit work and were
making a decided disturbance on the subject. Undoubtedly Paul had
touched upon eschatological matters while in Thessalonica. The
Jewish leaders at Thessalonica charged it against Paul and Silas
to the politarchs that they had preached another king, Jesus, in
place of Caesar. Paul had preached Jesus as King of the spiritual
kingdom which the Jews misrepresented to the politarchs as
treason against Caesar as the Sanhedrin had done to Pilate about
Jesus. Clearly Paul had said also that Jesus was going to come
again according to his own promise before his ascension. Some
asserted that Paul said Jesus was going to come right away and
drew their own inferences for idleness and fanaticism as some do
today. Strange as it may seem, there are scholars today who say
that Paul did believe and say that Jesus was going to come back
right away. They say this in spite of  2Th 2:1f.  where Paul
denies having ever said it. Undoubtedly Paul hoped for the early
return of Jesus as most of the early Christians did, but that is
a very different thing from setting a time for his coming. It is
open to us all to hope for the speedy return of Christ, but times
and seasons are with God and not with us. It is not open to us to
excuse our negligence and idleness as Christians because of such
a hope. That hope should serve as a spur to increased activity
for Christ in order to hasten his coming. So Paul writes this
group of Epistles to correct gross misapprehension and
misrepresentation of his preaching about last things
(eschatology). It is a rare preacher who has never been
misunderstood or misrepresented.

        There are excellent commentaries on the Thessalonian
Epistles .

On the Greek text one may note those by

Dibelius, _Handbuch zum N.T. Zweite Auflage_ (1925);
Dobschutz, _Meyer-Kommentar_ (1909);
Ellicott, _Crit. and Grammat. Comm._ (1884);
Findlay, _Cambridge Gk. Test._ (1904);
Frame, _Intern. Critical Comm._ (1912);
Lightfoot, _Notes on Epistles of Paul_ (1895);
Mayer, _Die Thessalonischerbriefe_ (1908);
Milligan, _St. Paul's Epistles to the Thess._ (1908);
Moffatt, _Expos. Gk. Test._ (1910);
Plummer, _First Thess._ (1908), _Second Thess._ (1908);
Wohlenberg, _Zahn-Komm. 2 aufl._ (1908).

On the English text note those by

Adeney, _New Century Bible_ (1907);
Denney, _Expos. Bible_ (1892);
Findlay, _Cambridge Bible_ (1891);
Hutchinson, _Lectures on I & II Thess._ (1883).