Chapter 2 - 1 THESSALONIANS: THE PLACE TO BEGIN

Summary

1 Thessalonians, Paul's earliest letter, provides the clues for understanding both his theology and moral teachings. By beginning with it we gain crucial insight into how Paul's primary God-centered theological conviction, his beliefs about Jesus, and especially his concern for the moral probity of converts shaped his message to every church.

Polytheism, Antithesis of Paul's Theology and Moral Teachings

Most people in the Roman world of Paul's time were polytheistic. They believed in the existence of many gods and goddesses, and images of the deities as objects of worship were present everywhere, even in Palestine. Polytheism, more than anything else, sharply set Greco-Roman religions apart from Judaism and the religion that later became known as Christianity.

Josephus, Jewish historian (c. 38–100 CE), reflects the typical attitude of religious Jews toward polytheism. He criticizes Greek literary figures and lawgivers because they present the gods to be ‘as many as they want, even born from one another and in all kinds of ways, and they assign them to different places and various ways of living, just like the species of animals, some under the earth and some in the sea’ (Against Apion 2.33). Josephus goes on to say how terrible it is that pagans attribute illicit sexual relationships and erotic unions to both sexes of the deities. Even the chief of the gods, Zeus, has seduced women, made them pregnant, and abandoned them imprisoned or drowned in the sea.