Family Matters: A Socio-Historical Study of Kinship Metaphors in 1 Thessalonians

· The Library of New Testament Studies Book 247 · Bloomsbury Publishing
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304
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About this ebook

Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians boasts a preponderance of fictive kinship terms (e.g. father, children, nursing mother, brother etc). In this book, Burke shows that Paul is drawing on the normal social expectations of family members in antiquity to regulate the affairs of the community. Family metaphors would have resonated immediately with Paul's readers and the author surveys a broad range of ancient texts to identify stock meanings of the father-child and brother-brother relations. These stereotypical attitudes are explored to understand Paul's paternal relations (2:10-12) with his Thessalonian children and in resolving sexual immorality (4:3-8) and the refusal by some brothers to work (4:9-12; 5:12-15). This study has implications for the structure of early Christian communities.

About the author

Trevor Burke is a lecturer in New Testament and Head of the Deparment of Biblical Studies at the Pacific Theological College, Suva, Fiji

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