Thessalonians, Epistles to the

The two letters to the Thessalonians are generally considered the earliest surviving Pauline epistles, written from Corinth around AD 50-51, shortly after Paul's founding visit to Thessalonica during his second missionary journey (Acts 18:1-18). The First Epistle commends the young church's faith amid persecution, provides pastoral teaching on sexual ethics and brotherly love, and addresses concern about believers who had died before Christ's return (1 Thess. 4:13-18). It concludes with a vivid description of the parousia.

The Second Epistle corrects misunderstandings circulating in the church about the day of the Lord — some had apparently concluded it had already come. Paul responds by describing a prior apostasy and the revelation of the "man of lawlessness" that must precede the end (2 Thess. 2:1-12). Both letters reflect the eschatological urgency of the earliest church and Paul's concern for the practical holiness of his converts.