The book of 1 Thessalonians, explained simply

Who wrote it

Paul, an early Christian teacher and traveller, who names his companions Silas (also called Silvanus) and Timothy as co-senders. Almost all scholars, including those who doubt some other letters under Paul's name, agree that Paul wrote this one.

When

Around AD 50, only a few months after Paul had started the group in Thessalonica, a busy port city in what is now northern Greece. He had been forced to leave in a hurry because of local opposition. Many scholars think this is the oldest surviving writing in the New Testament, the second half of the Bible.

Who it was written to

A small, new community of believers in Thessalonica. Most seem to have been non-Jews who, in Paul's words, had turned to God from worshipping idols, and they were facing hostility from their neighbours.

Why it was written

Paul had left suddenly and worried that the new believers might give up, so he sent Timothy back to check on them. When Timothy returned with good news, Paul wrote to thank them, to answer suspicions about his own motives, and to guide them on how to live. He also comforted them about friends who had died before Jesus returned, which gives us one of the earliest glimpses of what the first Christians hoped for.

Big themes

Holding on to faith under pressure · Paul's care for a community he had to leave · Living a clean, loving and quiet life · Hope for the dead and the return of Jesus

How it is laid out

Thanks for a faith that spread (1)

How Paul lived among them (2:1-16)

Longing to see them and Timothy's good report (2:17-3:13)

How to live in a way that pleases God (4:1-12)

Those who have died and the coming of Jesus (4:13-5:11)

Final encouragements and goodbye (5:12-28)

A tip for reading it

This is a real letter, short enough to read in one sitting of about fifteen minutes, and the vivid picture of Jesus' return in 4:13-18 is understood in different ways by different Christians, though Paul says plainly that his aim is to comfort people who are grieving. In 2:14-16 Paul, who was himself Jewish, speaks very harshly of fellow Jews in Judea who opposed Jesus and his followers; these lines were later misused to justify hatred of Jewish people, and a minority of scholars think they were added by a later hand.