2.26 Christianity's Earliest Witness: Paul Writes to the Thessalonians
History in the Bible
Garry Stevens
4.4 • 711 Ratings
🗓️ 26 August 2018
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians is the earliest surviving document of Christianity. I drop in on the Thessalonian Jesus-club to discover how a pagan newcomer would have reacted to the club and the letter. The newcomer is befuddled by the strange words used by club members, and confused about Paul. I also dissect the letter, and discover that Paul knew almost nothing about the life of Jesus.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Gide. I'm Gary Stevens. |
| 0:08.0 | And welcome to the second series of the History in the Bible podcast. |
| 0:13.1 | More of the history in more of the books in all the Bibles. |
| 0:19.7 | Episode 2.26, Christianity's earliest witness. |
| 0:25.9 | In the last episode of the history in the Bible, I explored the modern state of New Testament scholarship. |
| 0:34.7 | In this episode, I tell the tale of the very first document that attests to Christianity, |
| 0:43.1 | Paul's first letter to the Thessalonian Jesus Club. |
| 0:47.3 | In this vignette, I am going to use unusual English translations of some of the Greek words used by Paul. |
| 0:56.8 | According to scholarship I have consulted, my translations better render the understanding |
| 1:02.5 | of a pagan Greek of Paul's time. |
| 1:06.0 | Now, I don't actually know any ancient Greek and am relying on academic sources. If I have it wrong, |
| 1:13.6 | email them, not me. |
| 1:16.6 | The scene is the city of Thessalonica. Today it is the second largest city in Greece. |
| 1:24.6 | Thessalonica was the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia and a prosperous trading hub, |
| 1:32.7 | bestriding a major east-west highway. |
| 1:36.4 | About four days journey from Corinth or Athens, 10 days from Jerusalem, and 17 days from Rome. |
| 1:45.0 | The city is a favourite of the Romans, |
| 1:48.0 | enjoying freedom from taxation and unfettered self-governance. |
| 1:54.0 | The only Roman troops in the city are the governor's dozen or so bodyguards. |
| 2:00.0 | You could not ask for a better place to live in the early Roman Union. are the governor's dozen or so bodyguards. |
| 2:07.0 | You could not ask for a better place to live in the early Roman Empire than Thessaloniga. |
| 2:10.0 | The year is 52. |
... |
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