ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

1 Thessalonians 1.1

Book: 1 Thessalonians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

1. Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

  1. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; 3. remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father; (1 Thessalonians 1:1-3, ASV)
WEB

1. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

  1. We always give thanks to God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers, 3. remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father. (1 Thessalonians 1:1-3, WEB)
KJV

1. Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

  1. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; 3. Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; (1 Thessalonians 1:1-3, KJV)
YLT

1. Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, to the assembly of Thessalonians in God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ!

  1. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, 3. unceasingly remembering of you the work of the faith, and the labour of the love, and the endurance of the hope, of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the presence of our God and Father, (1 Thessalonians 1:1-3, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Paul, writing with Silvanus (Silas) and Timothy, who are named as co-senders in the opening (1 Thess 1:1).
  • Audience: The church in Thessalonica, capital of the Roman province of Macedonia; a largely Gentile congregation of recent converts (1 Thess 1:9) founded on the second missionary journey (Acts 17:1-9).
  • Location: Written from Corinth, shortly after Timothy returned with news of the young church (1 Thess 3:6).
  • Time period: c. AD 50-51. The Gallio inscription from Delphi fixes Paul in Corinth around AD 51-52 (Acts 18:12), which makes this letter either the earliest or one of the two earliest surviving Pauline writings, roughly twenty years after the crucifixion.

Theological reading

"Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace."

No apostolic title. Paul does not call himself an apostle here, or in Philippians 1:1 and Philemon 1. Where he does assert the title, it is generally where his authority is under challenge (Galatians 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:1). Its absence here is a small sign of an untroubled relationship, which the rest of the letter bears out.

The three names. Silvanus is the Silas of Acts, Paul's companion through the Macedonian mission (Acts 16:19-25; Acts 17:4), and Timothy has just returned from Thessalonica with his report (1 Thess 3:6). The letter uses the first person plural throughout, and the co-senders are probably more than a courtesy.

"In God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." The church is located in both, under one preposition, with no distinction drawn in how it belongs to each. Statements of this kind, made in passing rather than argued, are among the strongest evidence for how early the highest Christology was in place: this is roughly twenty years after the crucifixion, in the earliest surviving Christian document, addressed to converts from paganism.

"Grace to you and peace." Paul's characteristic greeting fuses the Greek charis (a play on the ordinary epistolary chairein) with the Hebrew shalom (H7965 - shalom), which is a small formal picture of the mission the letter comes out of.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.