Summary of the situation underlying 1 Thessalonians

In our analysis of the situation underlying 1 Thessalonians in Part 2, we concluded that the Thessalonian community had been deeply perturbed by the deaths of fellow-community members on account of their failure to think in terms of a resurrection of saints, probably because of ignorance concerning it (4:13–18). Without such a hope for their dead, they seem to have inferred that the deceased would not be able to participate in the salvation of the parousia.

With regard to 5:1–11, we proposed that the unexpected deaths may have raised doubts about the status and destiny of the whole community before God, for if some of their number had by their deaths proved to be non-elect, the foundation of the others' hope became suspect. Indeed, we suggested that the deaths may ultimately have been perceived to be a prodigium, causing the Thessalonians to wonder whether the Day of the Lord qua judgment was about to come upon them.

The rest of 1 Thessalonians confirmed and developed our hypothesis about the eschatological aspect of the situation underlying 4:13–5:11. The readers needed to be reassured regarding their destiny (1:10c; 2:12; 5:24), were without hope (3:6), were lacking in some fundamentals of their faith (3:10) and could be described as ‘faint-hearted’ and ‘weak’ (5:14).