Papyrological Commentary on First and Second Thessalonians

The research project "Papyrological Commentary on First and Second Thessalonians" is aimed at investigating the use of papyri and ostraca to illumine the text, language, society, and thought of both New Testament writings. In private and official letters, deeds, contracts etc. we find formulas, phrases or single words which we find also in First and Second Thessalonians. We may ask if and how these may be compared with one another, how Paul as the author of First Thessalonians and - as assumed by modern biblibcal scholars - the anonymous author of Second Thessalonians were influenced by the language of everyday life, private and official. And that language is preserved most of all in documentary papyri and related material. We have to ask questions about a comparable date, society, social class, political circumstances etc. to identify the documentary texts that are comparable to the letters of the New Testament concerning genre, specific formulas, contents, and grammar. The objective of the project is a continuous and complete commentary to both letters based on documentary papyri and ostraca. This Papyrological Commentary will be an important supplement to traditional biblical commentaries. Furthermore, a specific aspect will be examined for each of the two letters: concerning First Thessalonians, commonly assumed to be the oldest letter written by Paul that has survived and thus the oldest text of the New Testament, the influence of Graeco-Roman guilds on the structures of early Christian communities has often been discussed, relying on epigraphic evidence. The project will be the first one to include all the papyrological material in the examination of this topic. Concerning Second Thessalonians, it will be examined for the first time on the basis of numerous papyrus archives, if we can determine certain criteria to ascribe a specific letter to a specific author or not (the question of pseudepigraphy).

The research project "Papyrological Commentary on First and Second Thessalonians" is aimed at investigating the use of papyri and ostraca to illumine the text, language, society, and thought of both New Testament writings. In private and official letters, deeds, contracts etc. we find formulas, phrases or single words which we find also in First and Second Thessalonians. We may ask if and how these may be compared with one another, how Paul as the author of First Thessalonians and - as assumed by modern biblibcal scholars - the anonymous author of Second Thessalonians were influenced by the language of everyday life, private and official. And that language is preserved most of all in documentary papyri and related material. We have to ask questions about a comparable date, society, social class, political circumstances etc. to identify the documentary texts that are comparable to the letters of the New Testament concerning genre, specific formulas, contents, and grammar. The objective of the project is a continuous and complete commentary to both letters based on documentary papyri and ostraca. This Papyrological Commentary will be an important supplement to traditional biblical commentaries. Furthermore, a specific aspect will be examined for each of the two letters: concerning First Thessalonians, commonly assumed to be the oldest letter written by Paul that has survived and thus the oldest text of the New Testament, the influence of Graeco-Roman guilds on the structures of early Christian communities has often been discussed, relying on epigraphic evidence. The project will be the first one to include all the papyrological material in the examination of this topic. Concerning Second Thessalonians, it will be examined.