1 Although often reference is made simply to ‘Paul’ as if he worked alone at Thessalonike and was the sole writer of the letter, this is patently not the case. The other common referent is ‘the missionaries’, a term I am deliberately attempting to avoid for reasons that I hope will become clear. Thus, I will refer to the group that arrived in Thessalonike and established the ἐκκλησία there as the ‘Paul party’, singling out Paul as their leader, but not as sole proprietor of the message.

2 Malherbe, A. J., The Letters to the Thessalonians: A New Translation and Commentary (AB 32B; New York and London: Doubleday, 2000)Google Scholar 117.

3 Malherbe, Thessalonians, 117.

4 Malherbe, Thessalonians, 108.

5 Frame, J. E., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul to the Thessalonians (ICC; Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1912)Google Scholar 76.

6 Best, E., The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians (BNTC; London: A. & C. Black, 1972)Google Scholar 80.

7 Bruce, F. F., 1 & 2 Thessalonians (WBC 45; Waco, TX: Word, 1982) 15-16Google Scholar.

8 Laub, F., ‘Paulus als Gemeindegründer (1 Thess)’, Kirche im Werden: Studien zum Thema Amt und Gemeinde im Neuen Testament (ed. Hainz, J.; Munich/Paderborn/Vienna: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1976)Google Scholar 31. Others who understand this text as referring to the Thessalonians undertaking missionary proclamation, both at home and abroad, include Henneken, B., Verkündigung und Prophetie im Ersten Thessalonicherbrief: Ein Beitrag zur Theologie des Wortes Gottes (SBS 29; Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1969)Google Scholar 63; Etcheverría, R. T., ‘La mision en Tesalonica (1 Tes 1, 1-2, 16)’, Salmanticensis 32 (1985)Google Scholar 279; Fee, G. D., The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians (NICNT; Grand Rapids and Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2009) 43-4Google Scholar; Lambrecht, J., ‘A Call to Witness by All: Evangelisation in 1 Thessalonians’, Teologie in Konteks (ed. Roberts, J. H. et al. ; Johannesburg: Orion, 1991) 324-5Google Scholar; Plummer, R. L., Paul's Understanding of the Church's Mission: Did the Apostle Paul Expect the Early Christian Communities to Evangelize? (Paternoster Biblical Monographs; Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2006) 59–64Google Scholar; Witherington, B., 1 and 2 Thessalonians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids and Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2006)Google Scholar 73.

9 Richard, E. J., First and Second Thessalonians (SP 11; Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 1995)Google Scholar 70, my emphasis.

10 Richard, Thessalonians, 71.

11 Ware, J., ‘The Thessalonians as a Missionary Congregation: 1 Thessalonians 1,5-8’, ZNW 83 (1992)Google Scholar 127.

12 Ware, ‘Missionary Congregation’, 128.

13 Ware, ‘Missionary Congregation’, 128.

14 Ware, ‘Missionary Congregation’, 130.

15 Dickson, J. P., Mission-Commitment in Ancient Judaism and in the Pauline Communities: The Shape, Extent and Background of Early Christian Mission (WUNT 2/159; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003)Google Scholar 97, his emphasis.

16 Dickson, Mission-Commitment, 97.

17 Dickson, Mission-Commitment, 99.

18 Dickson, Mission-Commitment, 102.

19 Dickson, Mission-Commitment, 103. So also Bowers, Paul, ‘Church and Mission in Paul’, JSNT 44 (1991)Google Scholar 99.

20 Reinmuth, E., ‘Der erste Brief an die Thessalonicher’, Die Briefe an die Philipper, Thessalonicher und an Philemon (Walter, N., Reinmuth, E., and Lampe, P.; NTD 8/2; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998)Google Scholar 121; cf. Holtz, T., Die erste Brief an die Thessalonicher (EKK 13; Zürich: Benziger and Neukirchener, 3d ed. 1998)Google Scholar 52, esp. n. 138.

21 Coulot, C., ‘Les Thessaloniciens accueillent l'évangile. Un premier bilan (1Th 1,2-10)’, Bulletin de Littérature Ecclésiastique 112 (2011) 38–9Google Scholar.

22 For general descriptions of associations see Harland, P. A., Associations, Synagogues and Congregations: Claiming a Place in Ancient Mediterranean Society (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003) 25–87Google Scholar.

23 On Christ groups and associations see particularly Kloppenborg, J. S., ‘Edwin Hatch, Churches and Collegia’, Origins and Method: Towards a New Understanding of Judaism and Christianity: Essays in Honour of John C. Hurd (ed. McLean, B. H.; JSNTSup 86; Sheffield: JSOT, 1993) 212-38Google Scholar; Ascough, R. S., ‘Voluntary Associations and the Formation of Pauline Churches: Addressing the Objections’, Vereine, Synagogen und Gemeinden im kaiserzeitlichen Kleinasien (ed. Gutsfeld, A. and Koch, D.-A.; STAC 25; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006) 149-83Google Scholar; Harland, P. A., Dynamics of Identity in the World of the Early Christians: Associations, Judeans, and Cultural Minorities (New York and London: Continuum/T&T Clark, 2009) esp. 25-46Google Scholar. Wayne Meeks has retracted his earlier suggestion that the associations are not a useful analogy for understanding early Christ groups (‘Taking Stock and Moving On’, After the First Urban Christians: The Social-Scientific Study of Pauline Christianity Twenty-five Years Later [ed. Still, T. D. and Horrell, D. G.; London and New York: T&T Clark, 2009] 141Google Scholar).

24 See particularly Ascough, R. S., ‘The Thessalonian Christian Community as a Professional Voluntary Association’, JBL 19 (2000) 311-28Google Scholar; Ascough, , Paul's Macedonian Associations: The Social Context of Philippians and 1 Thessalonians (WUNT 2/161; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003) 162-90Google Scholar; Ascough, , ‘Of Memories and Meals: Greco-Roman Associations and the Early Jesus-group at Thessalonikē’, From Roman to Early Christian Thessalonikē: Studies in Religion and Archaeology (ed. Nasrallah, L., Bakirtzis, C., and Friesen, S. J.; HTS 64; Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University, 2010) 49-72Google Scholar; Ascough, , ‘A Question of Death: Paul's Community Building Language in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18’, JBL 123 (2004) 509-30Google Scholar; Ascough, , ‘Paul's “Apocalypticism” and the Jesus-Associations at Thessalonica and Corinth’, Redescribing Paul and the Corinthians (ed. Cameron, R. and Miller, M. P.; ECL 5; Atlanta: Scholars, 2011) 151-86Google Scholar; cf. Hardin, J. K., ‘Decrees and Drachmas at Thessalonica: An Illegal Assembly in Jason's House (Acts 17.1-10a)’, NTS 52 (2006) 29-49CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Inscriptions and papyri are referenced by their entry number in two new collections of association texts. AGRW = Ascough, R. S., Harland, P. A. and Kloppenborg, J. S., Associations in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook (Waco, TX: Baylor University, 2012)Google Scholar and GRA I = Kloppenborg, J. S. and Ascough, R. S., Greco-Roman Associations: Texts, Translations, and Commentary. Vol. 1, Attica, Central Greece, Macedonia, Thrace (BZNW 181; Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The Greek and Latin texts and select translations are also available online at http://philipharland.com/greco-roman-associations.

26 The invocation ‘ΘΕΟΙ’ is particularly frequent in Athenian inscriptions (see AGRW 2, 10, 12, 18, 20, 21) and indicates that the matter related in the following inscribed text has been discussed after the proper religious rites had been completed; see Kloppenborg and Ascough, Greco-Roman Associations, 28.

27 Fee, Thessalonians, 48–9; Ascough, Paul's Macedonian Associations, 202.

28 Some commentators have suggested that the expressions in 1.9-10 come from a pre-Pauline creedal formulation of some sort; see Best, Thessalonians, 81-7. Others find that this is not at all clear; see the discussion in Holtz, Thessalonicher, 54–64; Wanamaker, Thessalonians, 84–6; Malherbe, Thessalonians, 118–19, all of whom find arguments for some kind of creedal formulation behind the text to be weak, while Fee sees the issue as not particularly relevant to understanding the text (Thessalonians, 50).

29 Such claims for preeminence, rather than attempts to recruit new members, are more likely to draw negative responses from other groups at Thessalonike, which might lie behind the thlipsis the Thessalonians are experiencing. In 1.10, the promise to Christ-adherents is two-fold: salvation from wrath, but also wrath on those not ‘inside’ the group (Fee, Thessalonians, 50). The Thessalonians cannot have missed the implications here that whoever is behind the thlipsis is destined to suffer the wrath of God.

30 See also AGRW 285 (Kanopus [Nile Delta, Lower Egypt], 29/28 BCE); AGRW 310 (Lanuvium [Campania, Italy], 136 CE).

31 Nigdelis, P. M., ‘Voluntary Associations in Roman Thessalonikē: In Search of Identity and Support in a Cosmopolitan Society’, Early Christian Thessalonikē (ed. Nasrallah, , Bakirtzis, , and Friesen, ) 28Google Scholar.

32 In a second-century BCE inscription from Delos members resolve to honour a benefactor in order to prompt future benefactions and engender admiration and competition from outsiders, who will likewise seek to benefact the association (AGRW 223; 153/152 BCE). See also AGRW 255 (Rhodes, II BCE); AGRW 98 (Bithynia, late Hellenistic or early imperial period); AGRW 8 (Liopesi [Attica], II BCE). For examples of association inscriptions from Athens and Piraeus, both in Achaia, recognizing the φιλοτιμία (‘zeal’, ‘ambition’) of members see GRA I 2, 5, 9, 12, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, 27, 28, 29, 32, 35, 37, 39, 45; AGRW 7.

33 Alongside the role of the Holy Spirit, the writers draw attention to ‘power’ and ‘conviction’ (1.5), suggesting that the writers' understanding of ‘mission’ (to use the modern term) is not at all restricted to verbal proclamation of the message about Christ—it also entails embodiment. In the case of the Thessalonians, they are embodying it by carrying out the usual practices of associations in honouring founders/patrons—viz. Paul and company—but in so doing, they draw attention to Paul's God and Paul's message.

34 Burke, T. J., ‘The Holy Spirit as the Controlling Dynamic in Paul's Role as Missionary to the Thessalonians’, Paul as Missionary: Identity, Activity, Theology, and Practice (ed. Burke, T. J. and Rosner, B. S.; LNTS 420. London and New York: T&T Clark, 2011) 145-6Google Scholar.

35 Kim, S., ‘Paul's Entry (εἴσοδος) and the Thessalonians' Faith (1 Thessalonians 1–3)’, NTS 51 (2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar 523, his emphasis. Although Paul only uses εἴσοδος twice in 1 Thessalonians (and in no other letter), he directly connects his success among them to this ‘entrance’.

36 Winter draws on the εἴσοδος conventions of orators to explain the background of Paul's self-presentation in 1 Thess 2, arguing that Paul is denying that he embodied the vices usually associated with sophists while at the same time claiming virtues for himself (Winter, B. W., ‘The Entries and Ethics of the Orators and Paul [1 Thessalonians 2.1-12]’, TynB 44 [1993] 57-64Google Scholar; see also vom Brocke, C., Thessaloniki—Stadt des Kassander und Gemeinde des Paulus [WUNT 2/125; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001] 143-51)Google Scholar. Winter rightly links the spread of Paul's reputation noted in 1.8-9a to the Thessalonians honouring Paul, but his examples involve citizens of cities honouring orators for speeches they delivered. The writers of 1 Thessalonians, however, place emphasis on the Paul party's conduct among a small group of co-workers rather than words delivered in public. In this regard, the honours bestowed by small associations seem the better analogy than civic honours for understanding how the Thessalonians acted to promote the Paul party's εἴσοδος.

37 As B. Bollmann notes, informal networking was probably a primary concern of associations (Römische Vereinshäuser: Untersuchungen zu den Scholae der römischen Berufs-, Kult- und Augustalen-Kollegien in Italien [Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1998]Google Scholar 38).

38 Although the authenticity of the next few verses is disputed, we can note that they recount how the Thessalonians received the message through action (2.13), manifest in their imitation of believers elsewhere (2.14).

39 Kim, ‘Paul's Entry’, 522.

40 See also GRA I 24 (Athens, 236/5 BCE); GRA I 29 (Piraeus, 211/10 BCE); AGRW 251 (Lindos, Rhodes, c. 125–100 BCE). Associations did not limit their public demonstrations to the erection of inscriptions and proclaiming of honours, however. Some associations also took part in processions; see, for example, AGRW 18 (Piraeus, 240/239 BCE).

41 For evidence that associations were involved in recruitment see Ascough, R. S., ‘“A Place to Stand, a Place to Grow”: Architectural and Epigraphic Evidence for Expansion in Graeco-Roman Associations’, Identity and Interaction in the Ancient Mediterranean: Jews, Christians and Others: Festschrift for Stephen G. Wilson (ed. Crook, Z. A. and Harland, P. A.; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2007) 76–98Google Scholar. For some indication of their recruitment rhetoric in which they promoted their own group as more desirable in terms of membership see Ascough, R. S., ‘Defining Community-Ethos in Light of the “Other”: Recruitment Rhetoric among Graeco-Roman Religious Groups’, Annali di storia dell'esegesi 24 (2007) 59–75Google Scholar. For examples of inscriptions addressing issues of adding new members see AGRW 3, 6, 41, 310.

42 Wanamaker, C. A., The Epistles to the Thessalonians: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids and Carlisle: Eerdmans, 1990)Google Scholar 83. Although a similar sentiment occurs in Rom 1.8, it is more clearly tied to the act of oral proclamation (ἡ πίστις ὑμῶν καταγγέλλεται ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ κόσμῳ).

43 Fee, Thessalonians, 43.

44 Fee, Thessalonians, 44.

45 Understanding the phrase here as an objective genitive that references the message about what Christ is doing for the Thessalonians rather than a subjective genitive indicating a message originating with Christ himself (Fee, Thessalonians, 43-4).

46 Wannamaker, Thessalonians, 82.

47 Fee, Thessalonians, 26.

48 Other than indications of travel plans (1 Cor 16.5; 2 Cor 1.16; 2.13; 7.5; 1 Tim 1.3), Paul's only references to believers in Macedonia highlight their financial contributions, not their preaching or their morality (2 Cor 8.1-7; 9.1-5; 11.9; Rom 15.26), suggesting that it is for internal community behaviours that the Thessalonians are known at Corinth and elsewhere.

49 Despite their otherwise rather idiosyncratic reading of the text, B. J. Malina and J. J. Plich are likely correct to limit the audience in Macedonia and Achaia to ‘members of Christ groups who are attuned to the gossip network following Paul's activity. The information is ingroup information that ingroup members share, as opposed to outgroups who know little, if anything, about the honorable behavior of the Thessalonian Christ group members’ (Social-Science Commentary on the Letters of Paul [Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006] 38)Google Scholar.

50 Rathbone, D., ‘Merchant Networks in the Greek World: The Impact of Rome’, Greek and Roman Networks in the Mediterranean (ed. Malkin, I., Constantakopoulou, C., and Panagopoulou, K.; London and New York: Routledge, 2009) 299-10Google Scholar.

51 See Ascough, Paul's Macedonian Associations, 169-76; Hock, R. F., The Social Context of Paul's Ministry: Tentmaking and Apostleship (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1980) 42-7Google Scholar.

52 Lolos, Y., ‘Via Egnatia After Egnatius: Imperial Policy and Inter-regional Contacts’, Greek and Roman Networks (ed. Malkin, , Constantakopoulou, , and Panagopoulou, ) 277Google Scholar. For a broader description but with a focus on Thessalonike see vom Brocke, Thessaloniki, 108-12, who presents good evidence for the routes in which the ‘word of the Lord’ ‘sounded forth’ from Thessalonike but gives no indication as to the content or the means.

53 Malkin, I., Constantakopoulou, C., and Panagopoulou, K., ‘Introduction’, Greek and Roman Networks (ed. Malkin, , Constantakopoulou, , and Panagopoulou, ) 4Google Scholar.

54 Cf. Malkin, Constantakopoulou, and Panagopoulou, ‘Introduction’, 6. V. Gabrielsen demonstrates that network theory is applicable to non-public associations in the Greek world, particularly during Hellenistic times (‘Brotherhoods of Faith and Provident Planning: The Non-public Associations of the Greek World’, Greek and Roman Networks [ed. Malkin, , Constantakopoulou, , and Panagopoulou, ] 176-203)Google Scholar. A. Bendlin demonstrates that a large number of the aristocratic and non-aristocratic male population of Roman society was part of collegia, sodalitates, or other communities, which had their own ‘internal public space’ (innere Öffentlichkeit) that provided for alternative political, social and religious networking to the networks forged in public spaces (‘Gemeinschaft, Öffentlichkeit und Identität: Forschungsgeschichtliche Anmerkungen zu den Mustern sozialer Ordnung in Rom’, Religiöse Vereine in der römischen Antike: Untersuchungen zu Organisation, Ritual und Raumordung [ed. U. Egelhaaf-Gaiser and A. Schäfer; STAC 13; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. 2002] 28-34). Networks of associations of Dionysos artists eventually forged translocal connections that transcended local civic boundaries, as can be seen in their issuing of their own coinage that they used within their own network (Psoma, S., ‘Profitable Networks: Coinages, Panegyris and Dionysiac Artists’, Greek and Roman Networks [ed. Malkin, , Constantakopoulou, , and Panagopoulou, ] 230-48Google Scholar).

55 Cf. Ascough, R. S., ‘The Completion of a Religious Duty: The Background of 2 Cor 8.1-15’, NTS 42 (1996) 584-99CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Harland, P. A., ‘Spheres of Contention, Claims of Pre-Eminence: Rivalries among Associations in Sardis and Smyrna’, Religious Rivalries and the Struggle for Success in Sardis and Smyrna (ed. Ascough, R. S.; ESCJ 14; Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University, 2005) 53-63Google Scholar.

56 So Frame, Thessalonians, 84.