Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, Turned to God from idols
Paul, Silas and Timothy thank God for a young church that received the message in the middle of suffering, whose story is now told everywhere: they turned to God from idols to serve him and to wait for his Son from heaven.
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul, Silas and Timothy thank God for a young church that took hold of the message with joy even while suffering for it. Their faith, love and hope have become an example across Macedonia and Achaia. Everyone is talking about how they left their idols to serve the true God and now wait for his Son, raised from the dead, to come from heaven and rescue them.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/pagan-gods-and-idols\/","n":"Many gods and their images","s":"The Greek and Roman world was full of gods, each with temples, statues, priests and local stories. Jews and Christians called the images things made with hands, while holding that there were real powers behind them.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/imperial-cult\/","n":"Caesar worshiped as savior and lord","s":"Augustus and the emperors after him were hailed as savior, lord and son of a god, and in the eastern provinces they were worshiped. The titles the Gospels give Jesus were already being used for Caesar.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/following-a-teacher\/","n":"Following a teacher","s":"A disciple walked behind his teacher, lived with him, learned his ways and carried his reputation. Jesus chose his own, which only radical teachers did.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/resurrection-of-the-dead\/","n":"The resurrection of the dead","s":"Most Jews, with the Pharisees, expected God to raise the dead to bodily life at the end of the age. The Sadducees denied it. Nobody expected one man to rise ahead of everyone else.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/day-of-the-lord\/","n":"The day of the Lord","s":"The prophets spoke of a coming day when God would judge the world and rescue his people. Paul calls it the day of Christ, giving Jesus the place the prophets gave to God.","r":""}
No serious objection has been raised to Paul's authorship, and Carson, Moo and Morris place the letter at Corinth soon after Timothy arrived, probably in AD 50, among Paul's earliest letters, since Gallio, before whom Paul later stood there, came in about 51 (also the Zondervan dictionary and the atlas). Some read 3:6 as Timothy reaching Paul at Athens, but the spread of the church's fame "everywhere" (1:8) suggests more time (Carson, Moo and Morris). Thessalonica, founded in 315 BC by Cassander and named for his wife, was Macedonia's chief port and the province's capital, on the Via Egnatia, prosperous, with a large Roman element and a Jewish colony (the atlas; the Zondervan dictionary). Keener lists its cults, Serapis and Isis, Dionysus, and the Cabirus cult from Samothrace, and the cultural backgrounds notes add a significant temple for the emperor. Turning from idols cost family and civic ties, and Tacitus faulted Judaism for teaching converts to despise the gods (Keener and his notes). Acts names Jews and God-fearing Greeks, while 1:9 implies Gentiles; Carson, Moo and Morris think there were converts from both.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Thessalonians 1:1, 1:9 and 1:10
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Thessalonians 1:1 and 1:9
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 14, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Author, Provenance and Date
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entries Thessalonica and Thessalonians, Letters to the
- Carl G. Rasmussen, Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, Paul's Second Missionary Journey, and Corinth
