1 Thessalonians

This letter is from Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy. We are writing to the church of the Thessalonians, which belongs to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be yours from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1Paul, 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.

NoteSilvanus is the same companion Acts calls Silas; Silvanus is the fuller Latin form of the name. Thessalonica was the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia, a busy port on the main highway running east from Rome, so news traveled through it quickly. The word translated "church" never means a building in this period: it is the everyday Greek word for an assembly of people summoned together, here the body of believers in that city. Ancient letters opened with a fixed formula, "A to B, greetings"; this one keeps the shape but replaces the usual greeting word with "Grace be unto you, and peace," pairing a Greek word for undeserved favor with the ordinary Jewish greeting shalom.

2We always thank God for all of you, and we mention you when we pray.

2We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;

3In the presence of God, our Father, we never stop remembering how your faith leads you to work, how your love makes you labor hard, and how your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ keeps you steady.

3Remembering 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;

Note"Patience" in 1611 English meant staying under a weight without giving way, endurance rather than a calm temperament; and "labour" here translates a word for exhausting toil, the kind that leaves you spent. The three phrases are compressed in the Greek and can be read either as work that faith produces or as work that consists of faith, and the same for love and hope; the original leaves the relationship open.

4Brothers and sisters, God loves you, and we know that he has chosen you.

4Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.

Note"Your election of God" reads backward to a modern ear, as though the Thessalonians had elected God. In 1611 the phrase meant God's choosing of them. "Election" here is simply the noun for being picked out, with no connection to voting. "Brethren" was the standard address to a whole congregation, men and women together.

5We know this because the good news we brought you did not come only as words. It came with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with deep certainty. You yourselves know how we lived among you, and we lived that way for your sake.

5For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.

Note"Holy Ghost" is not eerie: in 1611 "ghost" was an ordinary English word for spirit, and it translates the same word later Bibles render "Holy Spirit." "Assurance" here means full conviction on the speakers' part, not a guarantee offered to the hearers. "Gospel" is itself an old English word meaning good news, a public announcement of something that has happened.

6And you began to copy us, and to copy the Lord. You welcomed the message even while you were suffering greatly, and you welcomed it with the joy the Holy Spirit gives.

6And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost:

Note"Followers" translates a word meaning imitators, people deliberately copying a pattern set before them; the English word has since drifted toward the weaker sense of someone who tags along. "Affliction" means pressure applied from outside, the squeeze of hostility or persecution, rather than illness or private distress.

7Because of this, you became an example to everyone who believes in Macedonia and Achaia.

7So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.

Note"Ensamples" is an older spelling of examples. Macedonia and Achaia were the two Roman provinces that between them covered Greece: Macedonia the north, including Thessalonica and Philippi, and Achaia the south, including Athens and Corinth. Naming both is a way of saying the whole country.

8The message of the Lord rang out from you, and not only in Macedonia and Achaia. News of your faith in God has reached every place, so we do not need to say anything more about it.

8For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.

Note"Sounded out" renders a verb used of a trumpet or a loud ringing peal, a sound that carries. "To God-ward" is old English for toward God, and "spread abroad" means spread widely; neither phrase has anything to do with foreign travel.

9People everywhere tell of us themselves, how you welcomed us when we came to you. They tell how you turned to God away from idols, to serve the God who is alive and real,

9For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;

Note"Shew" is the old spelling of show, used here in the sense of report or tell. "What manner of entering in we had unto you" asks what kind of reception the visitors were given, not how they got into the city. Idols were not a marginal matter in a Greek city: images of household and civic gods were part of ordinary life, and festivals, trade guilds and public business were bound up with them, so abandoning them was a visible social break.

10and to wait for his Son to come from heaven. God raised him from the dead. He is Jesus, the one who rescues us from the anger that is coming.

10And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.