Table Of Contentl i b r a r y o f n e w t e s t a m e n t s t u d i e s
CONFLICT AT
THESSALONICA
A Pauline Church and its Neighbours
TODD D. STILL
JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
SUPPLEMENT SERIES
183
Executive Editor
Stanley E. Porter
Editorial Board
David Catchpole, R. Alan Culpepper, James D.G. Dunn,
Craig A. Evans, Stephen Fowl, Robert Fowler,
Robert Jewett, Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, Robert W. Wall
Sheffield Academic Press
Conflict at Thessalonica
A Pauline Church
and its Neighbours
Todd D. Still
Journal for the Study of the New Testament
Supplement Series 183
For Mom and Dad
(Betty and Willard Still)
Scripture quotations from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible are
copyright © 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of
the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA and are used by
permission.
Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version of the
Bible are copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the
National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA and are used by
permission.
Copyright © 1999 Sheffield Academic Press
Published by
Sheffield Academic Press Ltd
Mansion House
19 Kingfield Road
Sheffield SI 19AS
England
Typeset by Sheffield Academic Press
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
EISBN 9781841270036
CONTENTS
Preface 7
Abbreviations 9
INTRODUCTION 15
Parti
A TREATMENT OF DISPUTED TEXTS
Chapter 1
1 THESSALONIANS 2.13-16: A DEUTERO-PAULINE
INTERPOLATION? 24
Chapter 2
IS 2 THESSALONIANS AUTHENTICALLY PAULINE? 46
Chapter 3
ACTS' ACCOUNT OF THE CONFLICT AT THESSALONICA 61
Part II
THE SOCIAL-SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF DEVIANCE AND CONFLICT
Chapter 4
THE SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF DEVIANCE 84
Chapter 5
THE SOCIAL-SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF INTERGROUP CONFLICT 107
Conflict at Thessalonica
Part III
THE APOSTLE'S ATC2N
Chapter 6
NON-CHRISTIAN OPPOSITION TO PAUL AND HIS
THESSALONIAN MISSION 126
Chapter 7
WHY DID SOME JEWS OPPOSE PAUL? 150
Chapter 8
APOCALYPTIC AND POLEMIC: PAUL'S RESPONSE TO NON-
CHRISTIAN OPPOSITION IN l (AND 2) THESSALONIANS 191
Part IV
THE THESSALONIANS' GAI^IS
Chapter 9
THE NATURE AND SOURCE OF THE THESSALONIAN
CHRISTIANS' CONFLICT 208
Chapter 10
WHAT PROMPTED THE THESSALONIAN CHRISTIANS'
COMPATRIOTS TO OPPOSE THEM? 228
Chapter 11
THE IMPACT OF INTERGROUP CONFLICT ON
THE THESSALONIAN CONGREGATION 268
CONCLUSION 287
Bibliography 291
Index of References 318
Index of Authors 331
PREFACE
This volume is a thoroughgoing revision of a doctoral thesis accepted
by the University of Glasgow in June 1996. I conducted my research
under the careful and able supervision of Dr John M.G. Barclay. I
would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr Barclay for guiding me
through the always painstaking and sometimes painful process of PhD
work. He is truly a gentleman and a scholar, a man of immense erudi-
tion and remarkable goodwill. I am thankful for all that he has taught
me both in person and through his publications.
In revising my PhD thesis for publication I have not only sought to
make stylistic improvements, but I have also attempted to interact with
the most relevant secondary literature that has appeared since I sub-
mitted my work for examination in April 1996. Furthermore, I have
attempted to address the criticisms of my doctoral examiners, Professor
John K. Riches of the University of Glasgow (internal examiner) and
Professor Philip F. Esler of the University of St Andrews (external
examiner), especially the concerns of the latter who was more critical
than the former. To the extent that their critiques have sharpened my
thinking and writing, thereby strengthening this volume, I am grateful.
During the writing and rewriting of this book, I have accrued many /
debts. Institutions and individuals who have supported me and my fam- /
ily financially along the way include: the Overseas Research Scheme,
the University of Glasgow, Uddingston Baptist Church, Dallas Baptist
University, 'Supper Club F (the Holts, Middlebrooks, Moffatts and
Todds), Dennis and Radene Christian, J.P. and Carolyn Sims and
Willard and Betty Still.
A special word of thanks is also due to friends and colleagues who
have encouraged me as I have written this piece and its predecessor. Dr
Eddie Adams, Dr H. Alan Brehm, Dr Marion Carson, Dr Gary R. Cook,
Dr R. Bruce Corley, Dr David E. Garland, Paul and Cheryl Gahm, Dr
David and Mary Graham, Mark Nanos, Dr Davey Naugle, Dr Craig S.
de Vos, Dr Mike Williams, 'Supper Club F and 'Supper Club IF (the
8 Conflict at Thessalonica
Blackburns, Christophers and Plotts) merit special mention. I would
also like to thank Professors C.K. Barrett and Beverly Roberts Gaventa
as well as Drs David G. Horrell and Craig S. de Vos for allowing me
access to their work in a pre-published form.
Most of all, however, I want to express my deep love and apprecia-
tion to my wife Carolyn, a budding New Testament scholar in her own
right, for her cheerful and sacrificial support of me as I have turned
research into a thesis and a thesis into a book. She has been with me
every step of the journey, and her constant, encouraging companionship
has frequently lightened what I have often perceived to be a heavy load.
Now that this project is (finally) complete, I look forward to spending
much more time with Carolyn and with our sons Samuel and Andrew.
Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Willard and Betty Still, for
loving me, encouraging me and enabling me to pursue my dream of
being a student of the New Testament and its world. I am dedicating
this volume to them as a sincere token of my abiding appreciation for
all they are and for all they do.
Todd D. Still
Dallas Baptist University
Dallas, TX
All Saints' Day, 1998
ABBREVIATIONS
AB Anchor Bible
ABD David Noel Freedman (ed.), The Anchor Bible Dictionary
(New York: Doubleday, 1992)
ABRL The Anchor Bible Reference Library
AJS American Journal of Sociology
AJT American Journal of Theology
ANRW Hildegard Temporini and Wolfgang Haase (eds.), Aufstieg
und Niedergang der rbmischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur
Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung (Berlin: W. de
Gruyter, 1972-)
ASoc The American Sociologist
ASR American Sociological Review
ATR Anglican Theological Review
BAFCS Bruce W. Winter (ed.), The Book of Acts in its First Century
Setting
BAGD Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, F. William Gingrich and
Frederick W. Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2nd edn, 1958)
BARev Biblical Archaeology Review
BECNT Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament
BETL Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium
BFCT Beitrage zur FGrderung christlicher Theologie
Bib Biblica
BibLeb Bibel und Leben
BibRes Biblical Research
BIS Biblical Interpretation Series
BJRL Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester
BJS Brown Judaic Studies
BN Biblische Notizen
BNTC Black's New Testament Commentaries
BR Bible Review
BTB Biblical Theology Bulletin
CA Current Anthropology
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
CCS Continental Commentary Series
