Epistles to the Thessalonians in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

FIRST EPISTLE. Authenticity. Ignatius, ad Polycarp 1, Ephesians 10, says "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17); so Polycarp, and Philippians 4. This epistle is in the Muratorian Canon, that of Marcion, and Laodicea, A.D. 364. Irenaeus (adv. Haer. 5:6, section 1) quotes 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Clement of Alexandria (Paed. 1:88) quotes 1 Thessalonians 2:7; Tertullian (de Resurr. Carnis 24) quotes 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10; 1 Thessalonians 5:1; Caius in Eusebius (Ecclesiastes Hist.) vi. 20, Origen (contra Celsus 3), also confirm it. Tertullian quotes this epistle 20 times. AIM. After imprisonment and scourging at Philippi, Paul (1 Thessalonians 2:2) passed on to Thessalonica. (See THESSALONICA.) With Silas (Acts 16:3; Acts 17:1-9; Acts 17:14) and Timotheus he founded the church there (1 Thessalonians 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 3:1-6; 2 Thessalonians 1:1). The Jews rejected the gospel when preached for three successive sabbaths; a few however "believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout (i.e. proselytes to Judaism) Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few." Amidst trials (1 Thessalonians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:13) from their own countrymen and from the Jews (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16) the converts "received the word with joy of the Holy Spirit." His stay at Thessalonica was probably longer than the three weeks recorded in Acts 17:2, for some time is implied in his labouring there for support (1 Thessalonians 2:9; 2 Thessalonians 3:8), in his receiving supplies there more than once from Philippi (Philemon 4:16), in his receiving many converts from the Gentiles (1 Thessalonians 1:9, and, according to the Alexandrinus manuscript of Acts 17:4, though not the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus manuscripts, "of the devout (and) of the Greeks a great multitude"), and in his appointing ministers. He probably (compare Acts 13:46; Acts 18:6-7; Acts 19:8-9) preached first to the Jews; then, when they rejected the message, to the Gentiles. Thenceforth he held the church assemblies in the house of Jason (Acts 17:5), his "kinsman" (Romans 16:21). His tender love and gentleness, like that of "a nurse cherishing children," disinterestedness, devotion even unto death, and zeal for individual souls, beautifully appear in 1 Thessalonians 1:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:1-11. He laboured here with his own hands to further the gospel by giving an example to the idle. Contributions from Philippi also helped him at, Thessalonica (Philemon 4:15- 16). Christ's coming and kingdom were his chief topic (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:12; 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24), that the Thessalonians should walk worthy of it (1 Thessalonians 4:1). It is an undesigned coincidence confirming the authenticity of the history and of the epistles that the very charge which Jason's assailants brought against the brethren was "these do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus" (Acts 17:5-9). So in Jesus' own case they perverted His doctrine of His coming kingdom into a charge of treason against Caesar. So also the doctrine of the resurrection is prominent both in Luke's history (Acts 17:3) and in Paul's independent epistle (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-16)...