Inductive Exegesis Paper -- Religion, Bible, Paul

CONTEXT Most NT Scholars acknowledge 1 Thessalonians was written by Paul and dated around A.D. 50. The recipients were new converted Christians in Thessalonica where Paul newly built the infant church on the second missionary trip. To understand the reason why Paul wrote the letter, we need to explore into the situation of Thessalonians’ church has dealt with. Acts 17 describes the church of Thessalonica was being non-stop attacked since it was set up. The attacks reflected in Paul wrote some â€Å"bad word† against the oppressors (1 Thess 2:14b) and reminded the Thessalonians he had warned them in before (3:4). The oppositions and attacks became so severely that Paul and his companions had to leave Thessalonica suddenly. They were continually chased in Beroea until they furthered to Athens. Since Paul has not spent much time in this infant church, he was so worry about the newly converters faith. Paul tried to go back to Thessalonica but he was blocked. (2:17-18). Then, he sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to pasture them. Timothy finally brought back good news by reporting the church was standing firmly in faith (3:6), but might need â€Å"more teaching in certain area and of encouragement in trials.† Paul obviously could not go back at that time and in this context he wrote the letters of 1 and 2 Thessalonians. The 1 Thessalonians consists two halves: the first half (1:6-3:13) concerns Paul's original visit to Thessalonica and the converters responses to the Gospel. The second half (4:1-5:22) is Paul's teaching on the Thessalonian believers about the issues of conduct and beliefs. In Chapter 4, Paul begins with â€Å"Finally, brother† (v.1) obviously indicating he is turning to a new set of topics to advise. After making advice on mai... ...Thess 4:13-18 expressed how Paul interprets the relation of Jesus’ resurrection and the Parousia. Since 1 Cor 15 Paul has also discussed the issue of Jesus’ resurrection, this passage, written early than 1 Corinthians, provides good cross reference for further investigation of how Paul viewing Jesus’ resurrection. And Paul expresses different Christ’ works and identities in this passage which providing good resources in preaching and Bible study in the church. Question 1.Paul does not clearly explain about the status of resurrection, is same as Jesus’ resurrection, is body resurrection (Jesus showed his hands and wound ribs to ten disciples and Thomas) or in other form? 2. The apocalyptic depictions of â€Å"word of command†, â€Å"archangel figures† and â€Å"trumpet of God† have not been explored much in this paper for lack of space. I think we should ponder more in detail.