1 Thessalonians 1:1

Greeting. As any trouble at Thessalonica had arisen over Paul's character more than his authority, or rather as his authority had been struck through his character, he does not introduce his own apostolic rank or that of his colleagues (1 Thessalonians 2:6) in the forefront of this letter, which is intimate and unofficial throughout. Silvanus is put before Timothy as an older man and colleague, and also as Paul's special coadjutor in the local mission. Acts never mentions Timothy in the Macedonian mission till Acts 17:14, where he appears beside Silvanus. This does not mean (Bleek) that Timothy took no part in the work at Thessalonica; his intimate relations with the church forbid this supposition. Probably he is left unnoticed as being a junior subordinate, till the time comes when he can act as an useful agent of his leaders. ἐκκλ. a pagan term appropriated by Christianity. An implicit contrast lies in the following words (so in 1 Thessalonians 2:14): there were ἐκκλησίαι at Thessalonica and elsewhere (cf. Chrysostom and Orig., Cels. III. xxix. xxx.) which had not their basis and being ἐν … Χριστῷ. The latter phrase is a suggestive and characteristic periphrasis for “Christian,” and the omission of the ἐν before κυρίῳ, as of τῇ before ἐν, is enough to show that the seven words form a unity instead of a double antithesis to “pagan” and “Jewish” respectively. κυρίῳ Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ, a new κύριος (= dominus) for people like the Thessalonians who were hitherto familiar with the title as applied to Claudius (cf. Wilcken's Griechische Ostraka, 1899, s.v.) the emperor, or to the God of the Jews (cf. Knowling's Witness of the Epistles, 260 f.). See the ample discussion in Kattenbusch, das Apost. Symbol, ii. 596 f., with his note (pp. 691 f.) on ἐκκλησία. The hope and help of God implied that Christians must hold together, under their κύριος. “No Christian could have fought his way through the great dark night of idolatry and immorality as an isolated unit; the community was here the necessary condition for all permanent life” (Wernle, Beginnings of Christianity, i. 189).