Acts 17:1-9 – Paul and Silas Preach in Thessalonica

BIBLE TEXT

Acts 17:1-9

SUMMARY

Paul and Silas visit Thessalonica, where they encounter opposition to their preaching.

ANALYSIS

This passage describes Paul and Silas visiting Thessalonica for the first time. However, 1 Thessalonians offers differing details when it recalls the beginning of a Christian fellowship in Thessalonica. Acts describes the Christian missionaries persuading and facing hostility from Jewish audiences in the city, while 1 Thessalonians remembers Paul, Silas (Silvanus), and Timothy working with Gentile audiences. The “devout Greeks” that Acts mentions in 17:4 are Gentiles who attend the Jewish synagogue. Such people would not have been considered to have “turned to God from idols” (1 Thessalonians 1:9).

This passage, when compared to 1 Thessalonians, offers an example of how the story about Paul told in Acts often differs from the stories that Paul tells about himself in his letters.