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Thessalonians, Letters to theAid to Bible Understanding
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bring vengeance upon those making tribulation for them (1:3-10)
III. Prayer that Thessalonians might be counted worthy of God’s calling (1:11, 12)
IV. Apostasy and revealing of man of lawlessness precedes coming of Jehovah’s day (2:1-12)
A. Thessalonians should not get excited about messages to the effect that Jehovah’s day is here (2:1, 2)
B. Man of lawlessness described (2:3-12)
V. Admonition on proper conduct (2:13–3:15)
A. Stand firm in things taught (2:13-17)
B. Paul’s request to pray for him and fellow workers and his confidence that Thessalonians will do things ordered (3:1-5)
C. Work, not meddling in other people’s affairs (3:6-12)
D. Direction on handling cases of those not complying with apostle’s admonition (3:13-15)
VI. Concluding pronouncement of blessing; Paul’s greeting (3:16-18)
See the book “All Scripture Is Inspired of God and Beneficial,” pp. 227-231.
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ThessalonicaAid to Bible Understanding
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THESSALONICA
(Thes·sa·lo·niʹca).
The principal seaport of Macedonia where Paul established a Christian congregation about the year 50 C.E.; now the city is called Salonika. Originally, a nearby town named Therme, meaning “hot spring,” was one of the some twenty-six towns destroyed by Cassander, who then built Thessalonica in 316 or 315 B.C.E. He named it after his wife, the sister of Alexander the Great. This new city was situated on the W side of the Chalcidice Peninsula, on the Thermaic Gulf (now called the Gulf of Salonika), at the junction between the road running N to the Danube and the main road (the paved Via Egnatia built by the Romans) that extended for hundreds of miles across Macedonia to the Adriatic Sea.
Macedonia was divided into four districts before the middle of the second century B.C.E., with Thessalonica the capital of the second. A few years later when Macedonia became a Roman province, Thessalonica was made the administrative seat of its provincial government. So, when the apostle Paul and Silas arrived there, some seventy-five miles (121 kilometers) W of Philippi, they found it to be a thriving metropolis of quite some importance.
For three sabbaths Paul preached in Thessalonica’s synagogue, and as a result some Jews and a great multitude of Greek proselytes became believers and associated themselves with Paul and Silas, and among them were “not a few of the principal women.” (Acts 17:1-4) How long Paul remained there is not disclosed, though it was long enough for him and his companion to get work toward their own support. Thereby Paul, although he had the authority, as an apostle, to receive material help from those to whom he ministered spiritual things, set the example that ‘one should eat food he himself earns.’ (1 Cor. 9:4-18; 1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:7-12) This was probably done partly because of the tendency toward idleness that some there had. During his stay there Paul received from the brothers in Philippi two different gifts supplying things he needed.—Phil. 4:16.
In time those Thessalonian Jews that rejected Paul’s message rounded up a mob of idlers from the marketplace and assaulted the house of Jason where Paul was staying. But when they learned that the object of their search was not there, they dragged Jason and other believers off to the city rulers, that is, the “politarchs,” according to the literal Greek. (Acts 17:5-9; Kingdom Interlinear Translation) It is of special interest that inscriptions from that period have been found in and about Thessalonica that refer to certain of their local officials as politarchs, a title not found in use elsewhere.
For safety’s sake, Paul and Silas were sent away at night to Beroea by the Thessalonian brothers. There Paul found the Beroeans ‘more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they not only received the word with great eagerness but also carefully examined the Scriptures daily as to whether what the apostle said was so.’ Soon, however, trouble developed when opposing Jews arrived from Thessalonica and stirred up a mob, making it again necessary for Paul to slip away secretly.—Acts 17:10-15.
In less than a year after leaving Thessalonica, Paul, by now down in Corinth, wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians. He had sent Timothy to comfort and encourage them and had received Timothy’s good report. In the letter he commended them for their fine example “to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia,” and urged them not to be discouraged because of the persecution. (1 Thess. 1:1-8; 3:1-13; 4:1) This letter, it appears, enjoys the distinction of being the first of Paul’s canonical writings and, with the probable exception of Matthew’s Gospel, the first book of the Christian Greek Scriptures to be put into writing. Shortly thereafter Paul wrote a second letter to the Thessalonians, that they might not be turned aside by false teachers.—2 Thess. 1:1; 2:1-3.
Over the years Paul no doubt revisited Thessalonica on occasions when passing through Macedonia in the course of his travels. (Acts 20:1-3; 1 Tim. 1:3) And certain Thessalonians who are mentioned by name, Aristarchus and Secundus, were traveling companions of Paul. (Acts 20:4; 27:2) Demas, who forsook Paul in Rome went to Thessalonica, possibly his hometown.—2 Tim. 4:10.
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ThetaAid to Bible Understanding
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THETA
[Θ, θ].
The eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding generally to the sound of “th” in the English “thin.”
Theʹta has a numerical value of nine when written with an acute accent (θ΄), and 9,000, with the subscript (,θ).
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TheudasAid to Bible Understanding
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THEUDAS
(Theuʹdas) [possibly a contraction for gift of God].
A rebel who started an insurrection with a following of about four hundred men sometime before 6 C.E. By using this Theudas as his first example of a movement that caused no more trouble after its leader was put to death, the Pharisee Gamaliel persuaded the Sanhedrin not to bother the youthful Christian congregation so soon after Jesus’ death.—Acts 5:34-40.
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ThiefAid to Bible Understanding
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THIEF
One who deliberately takes that which belongs to another without permission, especially one who practices fraud and deception or who steals secretly. The ways of thieves were much the same in the past as today. They came to steal usually at night (Job 24:14; Jer. 49:9; Matt. 24:43; Luke 12:39; John 10:10; 1 Thess. 5:2-5; 2 Pet. 3:10; Rev. 3:3; 16:15), and one of their common entrances was through a window. (Joel 2:9) On the other hand, robbers and highwaymen lay in wait and fell upon their victims in lonely areas, where it was virtually impossible to get help. Often they did not hesitate to use violence or to threaten and endanger the lives of those whose valuables they seized.—Judg. 9:25; Luke 10:30, 36; 2 Cor. 11:26.
The original-language terms rendered “rob” and “robber” can also refer to withholding from another what is rightfully his, or getting things from others by fraudulent means or by appropriating to one’s own use that which one was obligated to give to others. By failing to pay tithes for the support of true worship at the temple, the Jews of Malachi’s time were ‘robbing God.’ (Mal. 3:8, 9) Proverbs 28:24 speaks of one robbing his father or his mother, evidently meaning depriving his parents in some way of what was rightfully theirs. Jesus Christ condemned the money changers for having made the temple into a “cave of robbers.” This suggests that the money changers were charging exorbitant fees for their services.—Matt. 21:12, 13.
In his second letter to the Corinthians, the apostle
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