Paul’s Letter to Free(d) Casual Workers: Profiling the Thessalonians in Light of the Roman Economy

Abstract

There is a long history of dissonance between the (so-called) Old and New Consensuses with regard to the early Christians’ socio-economic status. The composition of the Thessalonian congregation, however, has been barely explored. Not only has some valuable evidence in 1 Thessalonians been neglected or underplayed, but also the Thessalonians’ socio-economic status has been deemed the same as that of the Corinthians or other Pauline Christians. In this regard, this article explores clues in the Pauline letters for the membership of the Thessalonian church in light of the Roman economy, while keeping open the possibility of its difference from other Pauline communities. It concludes that the Thessalonian church was a fairly homogeneous community of free/freed casual workers who lived around subsistence level (mostly PS6 and partly PS5 or PS7).