1–2 Thessalonians. Nijay K. Gupta

See Trebilco 2012: 24–25; Horrell 2001: 299–303; Horrell 2005a: 406.

29. Marshall 1984: 4; in relation especially to gleaning from Acts 17:1–10a.

30. For methodology on historical reconstruction, see Barclay 1987; Gupta 2012.

31. Esler 2001: 1200; see also Barclay 1993: 512–30.

32. See Johnson 1999: 282.

33. So Barclay 1993: 514; cf. Witherington 2006: 37

34. On the meaning of symphyletēs in Paul’s time, see Taylor 2002: 784–801. Taylor explains that, while symphyletēs once carried the meaning of blood relation (i.e., ethnic association), it eventually expanded in meaning to cover administrative, military, and political connections. Those who work with a narrower (ethnic) meaning for symphyletēs, Taylor urges, are drawing from a very limited pool of occurrences.

35. See Donfried 2002: 200–206.

36. So Wanamaker: “Such a remark [in 1 Thess 1:9] would seem inappropriate if the majority of his Gentile converts had already turned their backs on pagan religious practices by affiliating with the Jewish synagogue” (1990: 7).

37. Fredriksen 2015: 183–84. Furthermore, Fredriksen notes: “this shifting synagogue population of interested outsiders would have provided Paul with the bulk of his target audience: active pagans who were nonetheless interested to some degree in the Jewish god, and who had some sort of familiarity, through listening, with the Bible” (again 184–85); see also Dunn 2009: 563.

38. Cohen 2006: 47; see also Cohen 1999: 171.

39. E.g., Witherington 2006: 49; cf. Wanamaker 1990: 7.

40. See E. Johnson 2012: 144–45.

41. F. Matera argues much the same for how Paul identifies the Philippian church; see Matera 1999: 122; cf. Cambell 2006: 59–60; cf. Richardson 1969: 200.

42. See Malina 2003: 359.

43. See esp LXX Neh 10:1; also Josephus Ant. Passim.

44. I believe the translation “faith” is best justified when Paul clearly appears to be using pistis in reference to trust that goes against natural senses, “believing the unbelievable,” so to speak; see 2 Cor 5:7. For similar argumentation regarding the best translation of pistis in 1–2 Thessalonians, see Andy Johnson 2016, forthcoming on pistis in 1:3.

45. See Pobee 1985: 114; Donfried 1997: 221–23; Witherington 2006: 139; L. T. Johnson 1999: 285, Donfried and Marshall 1993: 28, and Gorman 2004: 150 are open to this possibility as well; see also Gorman 2015.

46. For a discussion of the scholarly debate related to whether Paul was being defensive or not in 2:1–12, see 50–52.

47. Holmes 1998: 22.

48. See Williams 1999; Collins 2008; Gupta 2010.

49. It should go without saying that Paul used the rich imagery of the identity of Israel (beloved, chosen, etc.) to describe these Thessalonian Gentile believers; see above 12–13.

50. The Greek word adelphos (brother) appears almost twenty times in this one short letter (1:4; 2:1, 9, 14, 17; 2:14, 17; 3:2, 7; 4:1, 6, 10 [x2], 13; 5:1, 4, 12, 14, 25–27). Compare this to Galatians where adelphos appears only four times (Gal 5:11, 13; 6:1, 18, 21, 23).

51. Note how Joseph Hellerman explains that in the Roman world the sibling relationship was the strongest relationship in existence, even stronger than husband-wife or parent-child. Hellerman argues that one entailment of making this theological siblingship association would be that fellow believers would not fight for honor against each other, because siblings do not compete with each other for honor (see Hellerman 2009: 15–25).

52. Beattie 2005: 118.

53. On the motherly image of Paul in his letters, see Gaventa 2007: 3–78; specifically on 1 Thessalonians 2:7, see McNeel 2014: 123–74.

54. See Collins 2008: 18–19; cf. Burke 2003: 135.

55. See Banks 1994: 47–57.

56. See Gupta 2010: 40–42.

57. See Psalm 77.

58. See Goheen 2011: 193: “The lives of the people of Israel look backward to creation; they embody God’s original creational design for the whole of human life. Their lives look forward to the consummation: they are a sign of the goal to which God is taking redemptive history. . . . Their lives are to face outward to the nations; they are to be a contrast community, leading lives that differ from those of the peoples around them. Israel is to challenge the cultural idolatry of the surrounding nations while embracing the cultural gifts God has given it.” This is a nice vision of the fullness of what it meant for the people to be “holy” as a covenantal obligation.

59. Thompson 2011: 72; see also Harrington 2001: 197.

60. See Gupta 2010: 130–32, cf. 155–71.

61. See Krentz 2003: 344–83.

62. On the meaning of pistis in 1 Thessalonians, see above 10–13.

63. Collins 1996: 96.