PROVENANCE
PROVENANCE
These letters appear to be quite early and to have been written from Athens or Corinth. After founding the church in Thessalonica and fleeing from the city when the Jews started a riot (Acts 17:1-9), Paul had a somewhat similar experience in Berea that resulted in his being sent on to Athens (Acts 17:10-15). In that city he preached but apparently with little result, after which he went on to Corinth (Acts 18:1). He must have been a very discouraged man. After good beginnings in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, his work had been disrupted by fanatic opponents and then had been followed by little success in Athens. Small wonder that he could say to the Corinthians, "I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3). But then Silas and Timothy came to him (Acts 18:5) with news that the believers in Thessalonica were standing firm. That meant that despite the setbacks he had experienced, God was truly blessing his work.
Paul refers to Timothy as having "just now come to us from you” (1 Thess. 3:6). It is possible to understand this to mean that Timothy had just joined him in Athens, for when he arrived in that city, he sent a request for Silas and Timothy to come to him (Acts 17:15), and they may have reached him there. If so, he sent them back, for when he was in Corinth, they came to him from Macedonia (Acts 18:5). But the most likely understanding of all this is that Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians shortly after Timothy reached him in Corinth. The longer period seems needed for the situation to develop to the position we discern in 1 Thessalonians and for the faith of the believers to become known "everywhere” (1 Thess. 1:8). 12 As 2 Thessalonians seems to have been written not long after the first letter, it will also have originated in Corinth.