1 Thessalonians: Our Earliest Evidence for Paul?

While reading 1 Thessalonians, I read on the side comments that Philippians is the inferred first book that was written by Paul. Speaking personally, the whole chronological order of the bible is very confusing for me. For me, I believe you either have to know every part of one story in order to know where that fits. Having only some knowledge of a small story and trying to piece it together will not work too well. So, finding that out helps me, so that I may start piecing Paul’s story together, but knowing more will help. While reading 1 Thessalonians, I could see that Paul structured his letter in a straight forward manner. In the first chapter, he stated who he was and his scribes as well, he thanked God for them and let them know that they were chosen by God. He then proceeded to praise them for continuing to keep the faith. In chapter three, he states the prosecution that Christians were going through. He told them that he was proud of them for not giving in. In the final chapter, Paul shows concern and tells the Thessalonians to keep the faith and not give in to the tempter, which was also mentioned in previous chapters.

In reading Afterlife and Resurrection, we learn the specifics of how the afterlife idea started off and how it has become to what we know today. On the bottom of page 693 we read about the translations of “then sang Moses.” The factbthat we overlook such breakdowns while we read the bible is definitely something that probably causes churches to misunderstand what the bible is actually saying. There’s been plenty of time while at church that people spread what they think the bible is saying, when in reality it is not what they say. I believe this causes a ripple effect on a congregation. Since people at the church are all taught the same way, they study the same way, they share the same belief style. Those people then go and preach what they know and gain more followers and that will then cause more people to follow their steps and the group of people will continue to grow larger. IF they were taught correctly, with some substance and not just something made up, it works well. Most of the time, that is not the case. “We must therefore understand the verb in Ex 15.1 as a future: “Then will Moses sing,” namely, at the time of the resurrection.” i found this to be very interesting. This happens in Exodus, but is foreshadowing until the resurrection. It caused a mini mind-blowing effect on me.