Quote:
Originally Posted by eddie gein
Even at that, it seems strange that Paul and Timothy would consider personal correspondence as "scripture".
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I agree with you on this, and I don't think that is what Paul was thinking - even if some Fundamentalists which to coopt the verse to their favor (though I must admit, this thread is the first time I have heard someone use it in favor of "Divine Inspiration of Scripture" - maybe they are just really bad at exegesis or really reaching?).
1st Thessalonians is the earliest New Testament literature we have technically, and it is a letter of encouragement to a young church that he helped establish, and to whom he has dispatched Timothy since he is too busy to come himself. In the letter he reviews their relationship, gives instruction and attempts to put to rest some fears that the Eschaton (that Jesus had preached as coming during some of his apostles lieftime, and which Paul had apparently also been preaching) had not come yet and some of the members of the Church of Thessalonica had died - making Paul look like a liar.
Regardless of the content of the letter itself and the extension of the Eschaton, it would be odd in the first place for him to be speaking of an authoritative group of letters that had somehow become "sacred" to them - letters that had not been written yet, really. Even so, the meaning of the verse in question appears to relate to when Paul preached to the Thessalonians the "word of God" (his mission concerning Christ, the "good news") and their favorable reception of it. That this is most likely the meaning can be seem from typical Paul-style in which he passes off his mission as having nothing whatsoever to do with himself, but as coming from God HIMSELF on High:
We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God's word, which is also at work in you believers.
(I Thessalonians, NRSV)
In this instance, he appears to have possibly adopted the language of the Hebrew Bible to apply the oracular phrase "word of God" to his act of bringing what he perceived, or wanted to convince others of, as the message - the "word of God" - to new converts. It had the desired object of portraying Paul as an official messenger of God bringing the Gospel, and helped establish authority for his message - whether that message had been the one delivered personally or later by letter.
To make a long story short, in this instance, it seems clear that he is referring to the initial reception of the Thessalonians to Paul and his message.
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