Meet the Apostle Paul—Part Fifteen
We left the Apostle Paul around the time he wrote the letter to the churches in Galatia around (48-49 AD). It is helpful to take a look at a possible timeline again as we push on into 1-2 Thessalonians.
Andreas Köstenberger, Scott Kellum and Charles Quarles argue for the following chronology:
Paul’s Birth (ca. AD 1)
Jesus’s Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost (Spring 33) (Acts 1–2)
Paul’s Conversion (34) (Acts 9:1–19)
First Missionary Journey (47–48) (Acts 13–14)
Authorship of Galatians (48)
Jerusalem Conference (49) (Acts 15)
Second Missionary Journey (49-51) (Acts 16-18)
Antioch to Corinth
Thessalonian Letters from Corinth (Acts 18:11)
Appearance Before Gallio (Acts 18:12)
Third Missionary Journey (51-54) (Acts 19-21)
Stay in Ephesus (Acts 20:31)
Corinthians A (1 Cor 5:9, 11)
1 Corinthians (Acts 19:10)
Corinthians C (2 Cor 2:4; 7:8)
2 Corinthians (Acts 20:1-2)
Stay in Corinth (2 Cor 13:1-2)
Romans (Rom 16:1-2, 23)
Jerusalem Arrest (55) (Acts 21–23) (Acts 21:27–40)
Imprisonment in Caesarea (55–57) (Acts 24–27)
Journey to Rome (57-58) (Acts 27)
Voyage and Shipwreck (Acts 27:27-40)
Winter in Malta
First Roman Imprisonment (58-60) (Acts 28)
Prison Epistles: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon
Paul’s Release (60)
Fourth Missionary Journey (60-66)
Titus
1 Timothy
Great Fire in Rome (64)
Paul’s Arrest and Second Roman Imprisonment (66)
2 Timothy
Paul’s Death (66 or 67)[1]
Precisely nailing down when Paul was where is a tricky business. It is likely, however, that Paul established the churches in Thessalonica during his second missionary journey around 50AD.
God preserved two of Paul’s letters to these churches. Unlike his writings to the churches in Galatia and Corinth, the Apostle has great praise for the Thessalonians. The members of the church had “turned to God from idols” (1 Thess 1:9)[2]. Köstenberger, Kellum and Quarles write, “Thessalonica was a cosmopolitan city inhabited by both Greeks and Romans, and a significant Jewish population lived there (Acts 17). Most of Paul’s readers had been pagan idolaters before their conversion to Christianity (1 Thess 1:9). They may have worshipped a number of the various gods of Thessalonica, including Dionysius, Sarapis, Kabiros, and Caesar. The congregation in Thessalonica was a mixed one that included new believers from both Jewish and pagan backgrounds.”[3]
The letters are mainly recalled by contemporary Christians for what they say about the “end times.” Köstenberger and the boys state,
Both 1 and 2 Thessalonians are letters by the apostle who planted the church of Thessalonica written to address the specific needs of this particular congregation. First Thessalonians was written to (1) encourage the church during a time of persecution; (2) defend the purity of Paul’s motives behind his mission to the Thessalonians; (3) urge the church to live holy lives characterized by sexual purity; (4) define a Christian work ethic; (5) correct confusion about the return of Christ; and (6) prompt the church to respect its leaders.
Second Thessalonians was written to address issues in the church about which Paul appears to have learned through an oral report (2 Thess 3:11). He wrote the letter to (1) encourage a persecuted church with the promise of final vindication; (2) correct confused views about the end time caused by misrepresentations of Paul’s teaching; and (3) give the church more extensive directions for dealing with the “idle.”[4]
1-2 Thessalonians are a quick read but Paul’s teachings on “last things” have been so misunderstood and twisted that we will turn to that next time.
[1] Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kellum, and Charles L. Quarles, The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2016), 474. Personally, I think Nero executed Paul in 65 but…
[2] An interesting statement considering the churches were almost certainly a mixed bag of Jews and Gentiles but more on that later.
[3] Köstenberger, et al. 520.
[4] Ibid, 521.