Gospel as Letter - by Ulrich Mell (Hardcover)

About the Book

This reading of 1 Thessalonians--quite possibly the earliest text in the Christian canon--tracks the "media revolution" when the gospel moved from oral to written form. The commentary pays careful attention to ethics (how the gospel translates into Christian living) and theology (how the gospel resolves some of the basic fears of life).

Book Synopsis

Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians enacts a historical paradigm shift by unfolding in written form that which was previously only performed orally in early Christianity. This media revolution in Christianity begins about 50 CE and will lead successively to the collection of twenty-seven writings in the New Testament. Beginning and ending characteristics of the epistle show that it is a semi-official letter from the church founders to the confessional church in Thessalonica. Since Paul stipulates that his letter should be read out in a general assembly of the congregation, artificial speech is mixed with a calculated rhetorical form--that is, narratio, propositio, argumentatio, and peroratio. The rhetorical genre of 1 Thessalonians is deliberative eulogy that seeks to encourage the community eagerly awaiting the return of Christ in their practice of the virtues of faith, love, and hope. The goal is complete holiness to prepare a befitting reception for the Parousia Christ descending from heaven.

Mell pays special attention to the ethical instructions on marriage, business relationships, sibling love, and household management made in the letter's argumentatio. Paul resolves the difficult question of how deceased church members can participate in the future, earthly salvation by inferring from the gospel itself that the resurrection of Christ ensures the resurrection of all. In this way, for the first time in early Christianity, the meaning of Christ as a mediator of salvation is unfolded so that the congregation, consisting of those who are alive and those who will become alive again, participates in the future victory of God's rule over the end-time power.

Review Quotes

The commentary on 1 Thessalonians is at the highest level and can hardly be surpassed in terms of precision and detail as well as intensity in its dialogue with the exegetical literature on the oldest letter of Paul. --Martin Stowasser, University of Vienna

With meticulous and lucid focus on history and grammar, Mell thoroughly explores 1 Thessalonians as a literary letter that participates in the educated Greek, Roman, and Jewish cultures of its time. Mell masterfully guides the reader through the imminent Parousia of 1 Thessalonians and its radical nature in light of later Pauline Christian circles. This commentary will benefit both the most casual and the most scholarly reader immensely. --Janelle Peters, Loyola Marymount University

Ulrich Mell inductively operates in the conviction that vigorous and patient engagement with the texts brings the reader into hearing distance of Paul's voice, which in the course of study may become transparent to the word of God. Though not directly concerned with preaching and teaching in the church, this commentary models what such preaching and teaching can be if grounded in historical and rhetorical study of the earliest extant Christian text, which continues to be an expression of the gospel in a rhetorical letter. --Eugene Boring, Texas Christian University