And having journeyed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was the synagogue of the Jews.
Paul and Silas leave Philippi still marked by a beating and walk about a hundred miles to Thessalonica. Two questions follow: why is no preaching recorded in the towns they pass, and why does Luke mention a synagogue here?
They set out straight after the rough treatment at Philippi. One writer finds power in that suffering, and purpose in where Paul stopped next.
To suffer with patience, to sing while under pressure — this is power. Then, with that same strength, once we are free, we can carry on the Lord's work with the same courage. The apostle says this about such circumstances in Thessalonians 2:2. Stoned and shamefully treated at Philippi, he keeps preaching the gospel at Thessalonica with boldness and energy. God leads through persecution just as by every other means. The Apostle picks places where there were synagogues. Passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, he stops at Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue. "To the Jew first and also to the Greek" marked his work.
The three place names are not decoration. They mark a real march along a great Roman road. They also set Thessalonica against the city just left behind.
From the capital of Macedonia Prima they went to Thessalonica, the capital of Macedonia Secunda. They passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, along the great Roman road, the Via Egnatia. The journey was about one hundred Roman miles. Thessalonica had a synagogue of the Jews; Philippi did not. At Thessalonica the Jews were prominent, and led the uproar.
Thessalonica was not a random halt. Its place on the map explains why Jews had settled there, and what happened when Paul preached.
A large and populous city on the sea coast of Macedonia... Under the Romans it was a city of note. In time it became a free city and the capital of Macedonia. It lay on one of the routes from Rome to the East, and became a great commercial centre. This naturally attracted Jews to the place, and they had a synagogue. When Paul had preached there, some Jews and many Greeks believed.
Ancient copies differ over one small word. The ESV reads "a synagogue," while other translations read "the synagogue." That difference is not trivial.
It is remarkable that the older manuscripts leave out the word "the" before "synagogue," and so do the Authorized and Revised Versions. But the evidence for its presence is ample and varied. On one hand, it is almost impossible to imagine anyone adding it unless it stood there from the start. On the other hand, its omission is easy to understand, because of its unusual construction. The word would be fully justified if there was only that one synagogue in the district. That would make it well known. At Philippi we saw that there was none; there was only the place of prayer by the river, where a few used to gather on the sabbath.
Luke says nothing about what happened in the two towns he names in passing. One writer ties that silence to a missing word in this chapter.
Luke gives us no details as to what happened in Amphipolis and Apollonia, but moves on to the events in Thessalonica. In this chapter, we notice, the pronoun "we" is not used. Luke was not as involved as Paul and Silas in the disturbances at Philippi, so he possibly stayed there to help the converts further.
In each city two things appear at once: people ready for God's word, and an enemy at work. Only the enemy's tools change.
Again we see that God had a company prepared to receive His word, and again we see the activity of the enemy. In Philippi Satan used the masters of the slave girl and the Gentile crowd to afflict the servants of the Lord; at Thessalonica he used the Jews who did not believe.
- Road. A hundred Roman miles along the Via Egnatia, through Amphipolis and Apollonia. Suffering did not stop the preaching.
- Reason. Paul picked cities with synagogues. "To the Jew first and also to the Greek" shaped his route.
- Contrast. Philippi had no synagogue, only a prayer place by the river. Thessalonica was a free city and a trade centre, so Jews had settled there and had one.
- Wording. Copies differ over the word "the" before "synagogue." It would fit if this was the only synagogue in the district.
- Result. God had people ready in the city. The same synagogue also gave the enemy his opening.
And according to Paul's custom he went in among them, and on three sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures,
In Thessalonica, Paul's first stop is the synagogue, the Jewish meeting place, and his first move is to open the Old Testament. The verse calls this his custom, which raises two questions: what did that method look like, and why the Scriptures?
In the synagogue any Jew with standing could read and explain the Scriptures, and Paul used that open door. One writer ties the habit to a principle Paul later stated: the good news went to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
We may notice the practice of the apostle, which matched the principle so familiar in his inspired words, "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." At Salamis they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. It was indeed the only religious place where any such liberty existed. And this was God's order until Jerusalem was destroyed, or at least until the letter to the Hebrews was written. Until then the door was open, and anyone with a Jewish standing was free there to read or explain the Scriptures.
The word behind "reasoned" covers a range: plain speaking, arguing a case, even disputing. Paul was in a room of people who already took the Old Testament as God's word.
The same word means "speaking" in general, or "reasoning" in particular, or even "disputing"... Context alone can decide. The synagogue was where he spoke, so we may be sure of this: the testimony of the Old Testament was the broad ground on which Paul appealed to his hearers.
In this synagogue Paul worked no miracle. He did not need one. What he needed was already in his hearers' own Bible.
Paul proved a suffering and risen Christ out of the Scriptures. He showed it not only as a truth in what they owned to be the word of God, but as an absolute necessity because of man's sin, and as the only adequate remedy in God's grace. Then came the clinching conclusion: "This is the Christ Jesus, Whom I announce to you." No miracle was needed here to catch attention. The Scriptures are a testimony beyond miracles, and the most permanent of all testimony.
Paul did not invent this way of handling the Old Testament. One writer points to where he learned it.
He is doing the same as the Lord did in Luke 24 with the disciples from Emmaus. He is a Jewish Christian. He opens the Old Testament to his fellow Jews, who are not Christians yet, to present the Christ, the Messiah, to them. He explains that this Messiah must suffer — the same "must" we find in Luke 24... Paul had been in the school of God and so he followed his Master's example!
The result showed later in the converts themselves.
The Gospel also came to them "in much assurance." That matters. Turn back to Acts 17 and see the form Paul's preaching took in their city: he reasoned with them from the Scriptures... In other words, among these people he had built his gospel preaching and appeal especially on THE WORD OF GOD; so the MUCH ASSURANCE in the converts.
The same writer then turns it on us:
An apostle could speak inspired words himself. Yet he appealed to the Scriptures, and the result was solid and lasting. We have only the Scripture to appeal to, so we may well make it the basis of all we preach... A preacher may convince us that things are as he says, on the strength of his own confidence. Converts may tell us they have every assurance because of the happy feelings they experience. But there is as little real assurance in the one as in the other.
The visit was short. What those few weeks produced was soon being talked about by others.
Paul had spent at most three or four weeks in Thessalonica. He had only "on three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures" (Acts 17:2). All the teaching the believers had came from him in that short visit... Everywhere people were relating how these Thessalonian converts had "turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven."
- Custom — Paul went to the synagogue first every time: to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
- Method — He reasoned, discussed, even disputed — always from the Old Testament his hearers already accepted.
- Ground — He worked no miracle. Scripture is a testimony beyond miracles, and the most lasting testimony of all.
- Pattern — Jesus opened the Scriptures at Emmaus to show a suffering and risen Christ. Paul copied his Master.
- Fruit — The message rested on the written Word, so the converts had "much assurance." In three Sabbaths Paul left a church that was still waiting for God's Son.
opening and laying down that the Christ must have suffered and risen up from among the dead, and that this is the Christ, Jesus whom *I* announce to you.
Paul went into the synagogue at Thessalonica and spent three Sabbaths reasoning from the Old Testament. Two questions sit inside the verse. Why did the Christ have to suffer and rise? And how does a preacher move from an ancient promise to a named man?
Paul worked no miracle at Thessalonica. He used a book his hearers already owned as the word of God.
Paul proved a suffering and a risen Christ from the Scriptures. He showed it not just as a truth in what they owned to be the word of God. He showed it as the absolute necessity because of man's sin, and the only adequate remedy in God's grace. Then came the clinching conclusion: "This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ." He needed no miracle here to catch attention. The Scriptures are a testimony beyond miracles, and the most permanent of all testimony.
What did his hearers actually receive? Paul's own letter to them answers that.
In Acts 17 we find Paul preaching at Thessalonica in a Jewish synagogue, and as was his custom, he "reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." What Scriptures? The Old Testament... In his first letter to the Thessalonian believers, Paul writes by the Holy Spirit that he thanked God without ceasing, because they received his message "not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers" (1 Thess. 2:13). What testimony could prove the divine inspiration of the Old Testament Scriptures more fully?
One verse sums up three Sabbaths of preaching. It falls into three steps, and each rests on named passages.
In Acts 17:3 we have a short but very full summary of the apostle's talks during these three Sabbaths in the synagogue. First, that the Christ had to suffer. Psalm 22, Isaiah 53 and many other Scriptures prove clearly that the Messiah should suffer. Second, that He must rise again from the dead. Psalm 16:9–11 states this plainly, and both Peter and Paul use it that way in the earlier chapters of Acts. Third, both are true only of "this Jesus, whom I proclaim to you."
Why was the suffering "necessary"? One writer answers from the state of the people who needed saving.
"It was necessary for the Christ to suffer." It was a necessity, for all have sinned, and the wages of sin is death, and after this the judgment. If sinners were ever to escape the judgment to come, and to know the unspeakable blessing of sins forgiven, Christ had to suffer. And this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ. He is both Lord and Christ, and there is no salvation in any name but His. Suppose men could have cleansed their own souls, atoned for their own sins, and saved themselves from Satan's power and the just judgment of God. Would God then have sent His well-beloved Son to suffer?
The last words of the verse put two titles side by side. They do not mean the same thing.
Jesus is His personal name as a Man born in this world. Christ, meaning the Anointed One, describes an office He fills. But Jesus is the Christ (see Acts 17:3), and there is no other Christ but He.
Paul kept the name of Jesus back at first. The truth he pressed was one his hearers had forgotten.
He opened the Scriptures, and he did this without mentioning the name of the Lord Jesus at all. He showed from the Old Testament that the Messiah promised to them must suffer and rise from the dead. The Jews had forgotten this great truth: the sufferings of the Messiah come first, and the glory follows. A crucified Christ was their stumbling block (1 Cor. 1:23). They looked only to the glory side, and to the national promises being fulfilled through Him.
One writer points out what Paul's preaching left out.
You will notice in his way of preaching that there was not one word about what man must do. Paul treated men as lost, and he had a message from God for them... Not a word about all men being under the law, or about Christ keeping it for them. The Jews of that synagogue were seeking to be justified by keeping the law. They needed an entire change of mind — repentance. And the facts Paul preached produced that repentance.
- Proof. Paul argued from writings his hearers already owned as God's word. That testimony outlasts miracles.
- Necessity. All have sinned, and the wages of sin is death. So the Christ had to suffer.
- Order. Sufferings first, glory after. The Jews forgot that order, so a crucified Christ became their stumbling block.
- Person. Jesus is the personal name; Christ is the office. Paul joins them: this Jesus is the Christ, and there is no other.
- Message. Paul gave facts about Christ, not demands on men — and those facts produced repentance.
And some of them believed, and joined themselves to Paul and Silas, and of the Greeks who worshipped, a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.
Paul preached in the synagogue at Thessalonica, reasoning from Scripture. This verse names the result: a mixed group believed and openly sided with the preachers — Jews, Greek worshippers of God, and women of standing. Its wording shows how they were won, and what that choice cost them.
Paul argued from writings his hearers already accepted. He pressed two things: that the Christ had to suffer and rise, and that this Christ is Jesus.
Paul proved from the Scriptures that the Christ must suffer and rise. He did not present this only as a truth in what they acknowledged to be the word of God. He showed it was absolutely necessary because of man's sin, and the only adequate remedy in God's grace. Then came the clinching conclusion: "This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ." No miracle was needed here to catch attention. The Scriptures are a testimony beyond miracles, and the most lasting testimony of all.
The verse says two things about the converts, and the second follows the first. The message persuaded them. Then they attached themselves to the men who preached it. Kelly links this to what Paul later wrote to the same people.
As the apostle wrote afterwards, "our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction" (1 Thess. 1:5). The harvest was large, not only among the Jews, but far more among the Gentiles, including not a few women of rank. No church in the apostles' day showed greater simplicity, freshness, and power of the truth than the Thessalonians.
"Devout" here names a known group of people, not a personal mood. The same word turns up in several scenes in Acts.
In Acts we often meet a Greek word used in the sense of "one who serves God." We point out this expression because it marks a class of people. They were not Jews, yet they avoided the emptiness and defilements of paganism, and took part in Jewish worship. See Acts 13:43, 50; 16:14; 17:4, 17; 18:7, 13.
Those Greeks made up most of the new church. The verse names three kinds of people who believed.
Some of the Jews became convinced that the Lord Jesus is the Christ, and they accepted Him as their Saviour and Lord. But most of the church were devout Greeks. These were not heathen. They were Greeks who had given up idols and had become converts to the Jewish faith. They were convinced that paganism was wrong. They wanted light, so they attended the synagogue services. Of this class a great multitude believed. The third class mentioned are women who held positions of distinction.
The word "joined" describes a visible attachment. That attachment split the city into two camps at once.
The decisive moment had come. The believers showed themselves openly. They identified themselves with Paul and Silas and joined them. It was like the two disciples who heard John the Baptist say, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" (John 1:36). They followed Jesus and stayed with Him that day. It is always so when Christ is preached. The unbelievers show themselves too. They besieged the house of Jason, where Paul and his companion were staying.
Coming out into the open had a price, and it came at once.
As a result of this preaching, "some" of the Jews and "a great many" of the Gentiles believed. They also proved their faith was real. They identified themselves in public with the Lord's servants, for we read that they joined Paul and Silas. They did not keep their faith to themselves. They did not try to escape shame by staying secret disciples. They believed in Jesus, and boldly confessed their faith. The result was that they had at once to face persecution.
Where this harvest falls in the story is part of its meaning.
Paul and his friends had just come from suffering and shameful treatment at Philippi. Far from being cowed by this, they had such confidence in God that again they spoke the Word with courage. Its power was such that even some of the Jews believed, along with a great many devout Greeks and not a few leading women. So God gave His faithful servants a time of much encouragement. It came after severe suffering, and before further troubles in Thessalonica itself.
- Persuaded — Scripture won them, not miracles. Paul proved from writings they already trusted that the Christ must suffer and rise.
- Joined — belief did not stay private. They attached themselves to Paul and Silas in public, and that was the proof their faith was real.
- Mixed — three groups believed: some Jews, a great many Greeks who had left idols for the synagogue, and not a few women of rank.
- Exposed — the same preaching that revealed the believers revealed their enemies. Standing with the preachers brought persecution at once.
- Timed — the harvest fell between the shame at Philippi and the riot at Thessalonica. It was God's encouragement to servants who kept preaching after being mistreated.