HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Thessalonica was originally an ancient town named Thermai, meaning "Hot Springs."
The town gave its name to the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea on whose shore it stood.
In time it became an important city because of its strategic location. Cassander, the
Macedonian king, founded the more modern city in 315 B.C. and named it for his wife,
who was a half-sister of Alexander the Great. It was the capital of the Roman province of
Macedonia, and it stood on the Via Egnatia, the Roman highway to the East. In Paul's day
it was a self-governing community with enough Jews in residence to warrant a synagogue
(Acts 17:1).
Paul first visited Thessalonica during his
second missionary journey with Silas and
Timothy. They had just left prison in
Philippi and made their way southward to
Thessalonica. For at least three Sabbath
days Paul reasoned in the synagogue with
those present, and many believed the
gospel (Acts 17:2). However, he probably
ministered in Thessalonica for a longer
time than just three weeks in view of
what he wrote that he had done there
(e.g., 1 Thess. 2:9; cf. Phil. 4:15-16).1 Those who responded to the message of Christ's
sufferings and resurrection (Acts 17:3, 7) were Jews (Acts 17:4) and God-fearing
proselytes to Judaism. There were also some leading women of the city and many idolworshipping
pagans (Acts 17:4-5).

Paul and Silas in Berea Acts 17
10 The brothers [1] immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. 14 Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

"If Macedonia produced perhaps the most competent group of men the
world had yet seen, the women were in all respects the men's counterparts;
they played a large part in affairs, received envoys and obtained
concessions from them for their husbands, built temples, founded cities,
engaged mercenaries, commanded armies, held fortresses, and acted on
occasion as regents or even co-rulers."2

When the unbelieving Jews heard of the conversion of the proselytes, whom they were
discipling, they stirred up a gang of roughnecks who attacked the house of Jason. Paul
had been staying with him. Unable to find the missionaries, the mob dragged Jason
before the magistrates who simply commanded him to keep the peace. Convinced of the
danger for Paul and Jason, the Christians sent Paul and Silas away from the city by night
to Berea (Acts 17:10).

Paul and his party began their evangelistic work in Berea in the synagogue, as was their
custom. However when many Jews there believed, the Thessalonian Jews came down to
Berea and stirred up more trouble (Acts 17:10-13). The Berean Christians sent Paul away
to Athens, but Silas and Timothy remained in Berea (Acts 17:14). Having been sent for
by Paul, Silas and Timothy joined Paul in Athens, but he soon sent Silas back to Philippi
and or Berea, and Timothy back to Thessalonica (1 Thess. 3:1-3; Acts 17:15). Later both
men returned to Paul while he was practicing his trade in Corinth (Acts 18:3, 5) with a
gift from the Christians in those Macedonian towns (2 Cor. 11:9; cf. Phil. 4:15).
Timothy's report of conditions in the Thessalonian church led Paul to write this epistle.
Some of the Thessalonians apparently believed that Jesus Christ was about to return
momentarily and had consequently given up their jobs and had become disorderly (cf. 1
Thess. 4:11; 5:14). Some worried about what had happened to their loved ones who had
died before the Lord had returned (4:13, 18). Persecution from the Gentiles as well as the
Jews still oppressed the believers (2:17—3:10) who were nevertheless holding fast to the
truth and eager to see Paul again (3:6-8). Some outside the church, however, remained
hostile to Paul (2:1-12). There appears to have been some misuse of spiritual gifts in the
assembly as well as an unfortunate tendency on the part of some to return to their former
habits involving sexual impurity (4:1-8; 5:19-21).
It seems clear that Paul wrote this epistle shortly after he arrived in Corinth (1:7-9; 2:17;
3:1, 6; Acts 18:5, 12), about A.D. 51. If one follows the early dating of Galatians, as I
have suggested, this epistle would have been Paul's second inspired writing. If Paul
penned Galatians after the second missionary journey, 1 Thessalonians could have been
his first inspired epistle.3 However the first option seems more probable.4