THESSALO'NIANS, FIRST EPISTLE TO THE, one of the earliest epistles of St. Paul— perhaps the very earliest—was probably written at Corinth about the close of the year 52 A.D., and seems to have been occasioned by the " good tidings" which Timothy brought him of the " faith and charity" displayed by his Macedonian 'converts. It may be divided into two portions, a narrative, and a 'hortatory; the former embracing the first three chapters, and terminating with a prayer for the Thessalonians, the latter the remaining two. From the narrative portion we derive much important and deeply inter esting information regarding the " church of the Thessalonians;" but perhaps its great value consists in the picture it presents to us of the apostle himself—" bold in God, yet "gentle, even as a nurse cherisheth her children;" scorning to use "flattering words," or to " seek glory" from an assertion of his apostolic dignity; nay, in the excess of a noble pride, "laboring night and day because he would not be chargeable unto any."
The epistle is conspicuous for the absence of the ordinary doctrinal element; even the word " justification," it has been remarked, does not once occur: on the other hand, it is penetrated with a deep conviction of the nearness of the second coming of Christ, and with an undefined fear lest, in spite of all his labors, the " tempter" (probably, in this case, the Hellenistic Jews of Thessalonica) should seduce the Thessalonian Christians from the_" faith." Schrader (Apostel Paulus) was the first to impugn the genuineness of the epistle. He was followed in the same line by Baur; but their opinions have met with little favor among scholars of any party.—See Lfinemann in Meyer's Commentary; Jowett's (2d ed. 1859) and Ellicott's (3d ed. 1866) Commentaries.