SUMMARY
PaulA Christian missionary who once persecuted the church More and SilasChristian missionary who was imprisoned with Paul at Philippi More 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 TimothyThe companion on Paul's later journeys for whom two pastoral epistles are named More working with GentileA gentile is anyone who is not Jewish. The term, which is derived from words that the Bible uses to denote the "nations" of the world, reflects beliefs that God had designated Israel as a nation that would be distinct from others, and a blessing... More audiences. The “devout Greeks” that Acts mentions in 17:4 are Gentiles who attend the Jewish synagogueA synagogue is a Jewish house of worship. Jesus often taught in synagogues where he sometimes ran afoul of Jewish leaders. In the book of Acts, Paul and others attend synagogues and teach in them. More. 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.
