Jan 30 2008
Notes on 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10
In previous posts I have, for the most part, given my own translation of the text being examined. This, needless to say, is quite time consumming and, for this reason, I have decided to cease from doing so, at least for the time being. Beginning with this post, I will provide a link to a literal translation of the text I intend to comment on. I will then make my way through individual portions of the text, providing links to more popular translations, such as the RSV, RSVCE (i.e. Catholic edition), NAB, Douay-Rheims. These links will appear in the same window you are viewing, you merely have to press the back (or backspace) button on your keyboard once to return to this blog.
A Literal Translation of 1 Th. 1:2-10. (I have already provided a brief overview of this passage in my previous post. See under the heading “Summary”)
Read Verses 2-3
- RSV
- Douay-Rheims (hereafter DRB)
Notes:
As he usually does in his letters, Paul opens the body with a prayer for his readers. Anyone wishing to study his letters would do well to pay special attention to these prayers, for Paul often uses them to bring up key themes he will treat of latter. Prayer was extremely important to St Paul. At the end of the letter (5:17) he will tell the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing, using the very same word he uses in verse 3; he insists that they give thanks in everything since this is God’s will in Christ Jesus. (see 5:17-18) . He also will request their prayers for him (5:25).
The missionaries prayer is one of thanksgiving (eucharisteo, see vs 2 and 2:13), Eucharisteo, when used with the dative to Theo (to God), implies that thanks is being give for some unmerited gift. Paul and his companions give thanks to God for the Thessalonians, for they are the missionaries unmerited gift from God: “Our hope, joy, and crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming” (2:19).
What motivates their prayer, and is indeed part of its subject, is expressed in a threefold pattern : “Calling to mind (1) your work of faith, and (2) your labor of love, and (3) your steadfastness (endurance, constancy) of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the presence of our God and Father.”
Work of faith means acting in accord with what one believes on the basis of God’s revealed will. The idea seems to be similar to the Pauline idea of “the obedience of faith. Faith is a total surrender and commitment to God (on which, see here).
Labor of love- Love, or charity, is the expression of faith, and without it faith is dead:”If I have faith strong enough to move mountains, yet have not love, I am nothing” (1 Cor 13:3). “in Christ Jesus” writes Paul, only faith working through love counts for anything (Gal 5:17). Kopos (labor) expresses hard, strenuous activity, and Paul will use the word in 2:19 and 3:5 to describe his apostolic labors in Thessalonica. Recall that those labors were done in the face of oppression (see Act 16:16-17:10). Paul will focus on his own apostolic kopos in 2:1-12 in order to encourage his readers in their kopos of faith as they too face oppression because of the Gospel (2:13-14). He will also exhort them to respect and show special love to those who labor among them and are over then in the Lord and who admonish them (5:12-13) Part of the work of faith is not to be a burden on others, in imitation of the missionaries who were no burden on the Thessalonians (see 2:9). Latter in the letter, the recipients will be exhorted to work with their own hands so as not to burden others; this comes in the context of brotherly love (see 9-12).
Endurance of hope- The Greek word hypomone means patiently enduring all circumstances. Like the phrase work of faith it seems to relate in this letter to the suffering of the Thessalonians. They patiently bear oppression and opposition caused by their adherence to the Gospel. This they do in hope of the coming of Christ who will judge their work of faith and labor of love.
At the very beginning of this letter we find the three theological virtues in what Stanley B Morrow calls their “salvation history sequence” (see Col 1:4-5; for a different sequence see 1 Cor 13:13). At the end of this letter, and in the context of Christ’s second coming, Paul will once again mention the three virtues, portraying them as defenses against an unfavorable judgment that will come upon many on that day (5:8).
Read Verse 4
Earl J Richard describes this as the ultimate reason for the prayer. The word “knowing” (DRB) or the phrase “for we know” (RSV) are not adequate translations of the word oida as it is used here, for the word is in this context a perfect participle active, denoting not simply knowledge, but certainty as well. This certainty is based upon what will be said in the verses that follow (5-7). The circumstances of the letter are important here, for the missionaries were not sure their new converts were holding up under persecution (3:5). Timothy’s return from Thessalonica with a good report (3:6-8) must have given Paul and Silvanus a great relief, and one can feel that relief as he reads the letter.
Read Verses 5-6
Note how verse 5 focuses on the divine action in the work of the human missionaries. Without God’s power through Christ, in the Holy Spirit, the Church would have no real mission.
The fact that power and the Holy Spirit were at work in the missionary endeavor to evangelize the city (Vs 5) is a prime reason for Paul’s certainty that the Thessaloninas were chosen by God. No doubt Paul has in mind here the fact that the Holy Spirit prevented him and his companions from preaching in the Roman province of Asia and the city of Bithynia (Acts 16:6-7), yet they received a vision to evangelize the province of Macedonia, of which, Thessalonica was the cheif city (Acts 16:9-10). Verse 6 is further reason for Paul’s certainty: the good response of the Thesaalonians to his preaching, even in the face of much opposition (Acts 17:1-9).
Read Verses 7-10
The results of God’s action and the Thessalonians response is that they have become “imitators” of Paul and his companions. As already seen, they too, like like the missionaries, received the word in great affliction, but with the Spirit inspired joy of faith (vs 6). Not only that, but they have in some sense become evangelists themselves, for the word has sounded forth from them, as has their example of faith, defined as turning from idols to the living God and awaiting Christ’s return.
