THE RHETORICAL STRUCTURE

It is a major contention of this analysis that an awareness of the social situation in Thessalonica and a consideration of the structure of the letter itself will greatly assist the task of understanding the theology of 1 Thessalonians. The structure of a letter can be analysed by employing the methodologies commonly referred to as form and rhetorical criticism, analytical tools that can help determine Paul's intentions in writing this letter. The former, i.e., form-critical epistolography, explains how parts of letters are constructed; the latter, i.e., Graeco-Roman rhetorical criticism, allows us to see more vividly why the letter is constructed the way it is as well as giving us further insight into the lived situation of the letter.1 Nevertheless, we need to be careful not to impose existing form-critical and rhetorical categories on 1 Thessalonians, especially when we are alert to the fact that this letter is a first attempt in Christian letter writing.

Theology, structure and social situation are closely interwoven in 1 Thessalonians and other Pauline letters. Thus rhetorical criticism can, by using its analytical tools, alert us not only to distinct emphases in a given letter but also to certain dimensions in the rhetorical situation, which give suggestions about the larger social situation that might otherwise have been overlooked. To recognise, for example, which of the three types (genera) of rhetoric – deliberative, judicial or epideictic – a document is employing already gives important clues to its social situation as well as its intention.