First Thessalonians in the Light of Greco-Roman Epigraphy

This project studies the apostle Pauls First Epistle to the Thessalonians in the light of Greco-Roman epigraphy. Since the late 19th century the importance of epigraphical evidence for understanding the New Testament was emphasized frequently. Nevertheless, the challenge of studying inscriptions for this purpose has only been taken up sparsely or in pursuing very specific questions. This project will be the first to study a text of the New Testament in the context of epigraphical evidence so as to reveal the linguistic and cultural embeddedness of its author and intended recipients. Since inscriptions constituted an important aspect of life in antiquity, they represented language use and formed it. A study of the epigraphical data will therefore yield new and complementary insights into the meaning of 1 Thessalonians and its possible reception. To integrate the epigraphical material helpful to understanding the Epistle, it will be studied according to the words and socio-cultural themes of 1 Thessalonians. This investigation will follow the sequence of the New Testament text, using individual words or text passages as a foundation. The relevant evidence will be drawn from already existing databases. The results will be weighted according to temporal and spatial criteria: Inscriptions from the 1st century AD are particularly relevant, as are those from Macedonia and Achaea. The inscriptions will be studied according to current methods of epigraphical research, i.e. according to form, presentation, historical context and related evidence. Search results will be entered into a database. It will include the investigated editions, short summaries, the actual texts, images, location and dating. It will be made publicly available after conclusion of the project. The goal of the project is an epigraphical commentary on 1 Thessalonians, focusing on author intentions and reception conditions. The commentary will offer a succinct presentation of the current exegetic discussion and complement it with the epigraphical evidence pertinent to understanding the text. It will thus contribute a significant corpus of texts from Greco-Roman antiquity, which has not yet been considered in studying 1 Thessalonians, to the academic discussion and thereby constitute an indispensable foundation for future work on this text and other evidence from early Christianity.

Within the project it was shown that research into the inscriptional evidence leads to a better understanding of the New Testament. Within the project period, the epigraphical evidence for 270 lexemes was collected and evaluated for the understanding of Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians. The criteria used for the evaluation (especially time and place) proved to be practicable. On the one hand, the project produced a number of insights that shed new light on the text of 1 Thessalonians, both from the perspective of the author Paul and from the perspective of the intended recipients. On the other hand, this has opened up possibilities for research into other New Testament texts, suggesting even more intensive research into the epigraphic evidence. The project on 1 Thessalonians thus demonstrated both the usefulness and the feasibility of an Epigraphic Commentary on the New Testament.