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Is First Thessalonians a Letter of Consolation?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Juan Chapa
Juan Chapa
Affiliation:
(Facultad de Teología, Universidad de Navarra, Apartado 170, 31080 Pamplona, Spain
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Type
Short Studies
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New Testament Studies , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , January 1994 , pp. 150 - 160
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

1 Donfried, K. P., ‘The Theology of 1 Thessalonians as a Reflection of Its Purpose’, To Touch the Text. Biblical and Related Studies in Honor of Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. (ed. Horgan, M. P. and Kobelski, P. J.; New York: Crossroad, 1989) 243–60.Google Scholar

2 Smith, A., The Social and Ethical Implications of the Pauline Rhetoric in 1 Thessalonians (Diss. Vanderbilt University; University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1989) 170.Google Scholar

3 Cf. for example Cicero Tusc. Disp. 3.34: ‘Haec igitur officia sunt consolantium, tollere aegritudinem funditus, aut sedare, aut detrahere quam plurimum, aut supprimere, nee pati manare longius, aut ad alia mentem traducere.’ Cf. also Plutarch De ex. 599B.

4 For a good summary of the different practices of consolation see Stählin, G., ‘παρα καλέω’, TWNT 5 (1954) 777–85.Google Scholar

5 The two basic works on literature of consolation are Buresch, K., ‘Consolationum a graecis romanisque scriptarum historia critica’, Leipziger Studien zur classischen Philologie 9 (1886) 1–170Google Scholar and especially Kassel, R., Untersuchungen zur griechischen und römischen Konsolationsliteratur (Zetemata 18; München: Beck, 1958).Google Scholar For further bibliography see Chapa, J., ‘Consolatory Patterns? 1 Thes 4,13.18; 5,11’, The Thessalonian Correspondence (ed. Collins, R. F.; BETL 87;Leuven: Leuven University, 1990) 221–2.Google Scholar

6 For consolatory decrees see Buresch, K., ‘Die griechischen Trostbeschlüsse’, Rh. Mus. NF 49 (1894) 424–60Google Scholar; Gottwald, O., ‘Zu den griechischen Trostbeschlüssen’, Commentationes Vindobonenses 3 (1937) 5–18Google Scholar; Robert, L., Hellenica 3 (1946) 23–4Google Scholar; Hellenica 8 (1956) 86Google Scholar; Robert, L. and Robert, J., La Carie. Histoire et géographie historique avec le recueil des inscriptions antiques 2: Le plateau de Tabai et ses environs (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1954)176–7.Google Scholar

7 For a list of letters of consolation see J. Chapa, ‘Consolatory Patterns?’, 222–3.

8 The exhortation to bear the misfortune ἀνθρωπίνως and γενναίως is most common in consolatory decrees (IG 12.7, 399.14–15; 394.22–3; 52.14; etc.) and letters (PSI 12.1248.11; SB 14.11646.11; Libanius Ep. 702; John Chrysostom Ep. 172; Theodoretus Ep. 12 and Epist. Sirm. 12, 65, etc.). Cf. Stobaeus, chap. 44, which has the following title: ὅτι δε γεναίως φέρειν τὰ προσπίπτοντα ὄντας ὰνθρώπους καὶ κατὰρετὴν ζῆν ὸφείλοντας. Ανθρωπίνως φέρειν (102A, 117P and 118C), besides τὰ κοινὰ κοινῶς φέρειν (118C), can be considered the leit-motif of the Consolatio ad Apollonium (cf. Hani, J., Plutarque. Consolation á Apollonios [Études & Commentaires 78; Paris: Klincksieck, 1972] 56)Google Scholar. On this question see also Dover, K. J., Greek Popular Morality in the Time of Plato and Aristotle (Berkeley: University of California, 1974) 167–8, 269–71Google Scholar. For the exhortation to take care of daily duties see R. Kassel, Konsolationsliteratur, 38.

9 See the criticism of Lucian in De Luctu 12 and 24; cf. Petronius Satiricon 111; Libanius Ep. 414 and 430. See also Stählin, G., ‘κοπετός’, TWNT 3 (1938) 832–5.Google Scholar

10 Crantor, whose lost work Περὶ πένθους was highly appreciated by the ancients (cf. Cicero Acad. 2.44.134), is the father of the consolation based on the μετριοπάθεια, opposed to the Stoic ἀπάθεια (cf. Cicero, Tusc. 3.12 and Ps.-Plutarch, Cons, ad Apol. 102B; cf. R. Kassel, Konsolationsliteratur, 35; J. Hani, Consolation à Apollonios, 50,157–8).

11 This type of consolation shares some of the views held by the Stoics, but it cannot be ascribed to any single philosophy. Rather, it is linked with a basic understanding of man and his attitude to suffering which was always present among the Greeks. Even welldefined philosophers, such as Cicero or Seneca, do not follow a single philosophical school when they deal with consolation, but gather consolatory arguments from the various sources. The pseudo-Plutarchean Consolatio ad Apollonium shows the same variety of sources in its collection of topics (cf. J. Hani, Consolation à Apollonios, 50–72).

12 The μετριοπάθεια finds its justification ultimate and religious and metaphysical foundation in traditional Greek views such as the Delphic maxims of γνθι σεαυτόν and μηδὲν ἅγαν. ‘Knowing oneself’ is recognition of one's own limitations (cf. K. J. Dover, Popular Morality, 269). Such knowledge and resignation sweeten one's suffering and allow the avoidance of excessive affliction. Μηδὲν ἅγαν appears quoted with γνῶθι σεαυτόν in Cons, ad Apol. 116C-D and such other consolatory works as Plato Menex. 247E; Seneca Ep. 94.43 (nil nimis) and 28 (te nosce); Marc. 2.1 and 3; Jerome Ep. 60.7; Stobaeus chap. 21 (cf. J. Hani, Consolation à Apollonios, 294 n. 2).

13 Sympathy was mainly shown by θρῆνος. See the advice of Theon in his progymnasmata (Spengel, L., Rhetores Graeci [2 vols.; Leipzig: Teubner, 1854]) 2.117Google Scholar.16–21: ό οΐκτος δὲ μεγάλην ἰσχὺν ἕχει πρὸς παραμυθίαν, μάλιστα ὅταν τις ἐπὶ κηδείᾳ τοὺς λόγους ποιήσηται οἱ γὰρ ἀνιώμενοι πρὸς μὲν τούτους τοὺς οἰομένους μηδέν τι δεινὸν αὐτοὺς πεπονθέναι πεφύκασιν ἀντιτείνειν καὶ πρὸς τῇ λυπῇ οΐον όργίζεσθαι τοῖς παραμυθουμένοις.. Cf. also Martin, H. and Phillips, J. E., ‘Consolatio ad Uxorem’, Plutarch's Ethical Writings and Early Christian Literature (ed. Betz, H. D.; SCH 4; Leiden: Brill, 1974) 402.Google Scholar

14 Cf. Theon, Progymnasmata 117.24 μετὰ τοὺς θρήνους ἐποιστέον τῶν λόγων τοὺς νουθετικούς..

15 Thus, the difficulty in distinguishing consolation from exhortation, as in Seneca's epistles, where consolation is said to belong to the category of the monitio: ‘consolationes … dissuasionesque et adhortationes et obiurgationes et laudationes. Omnia ista monitionum genera sunt. Per ista ad perfectum animi statum pervenitur’ (Ep. 94.39); ‘consolatio … quoque ex utroque est, et adhortatio et suasio et ipsa argumentatio’ (Ep. 94.49); cf. also Ep. 95.34, 65.

16 Cf. Euripides frg. 962N2 (Cons, ad Apol. 102B); Aristotle EN 9.11; cf. R. Kassel, Konsolationsliteratur, 5.

17 Cf. Cic. Tusc. 3.81: ‘sunt enim certa, quae de paupertate, certa quae de vita inhonorata et ingloria dici soleant; separatim certae scholae sunt de exilio, de interitu patriae, de servitute, de debilitate, de caecitate, de omni casu in quo nomen poni solet calamitatis’.

18 The consolatory power of the word, as the best of medicines, is one of the constant topoi in literature of consolation. See Cons, ad Apol. chap. 1–2; J. Hani, Consolation à Apollonios, 55–6,156 and D. Arnould, Le rire et les larmes dans la littérature grecque d'Homère à Platon (Collection d’études anciennes. Série grecque 119; Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1990) 207–11.

19 On the development of consolation and rhetoric, see R. Kassel, Konsolationsliteratur, 40–8.

20 See Russell, D. A. and Wilson, N. G., Menander Rhetor (Oxford: Oxford University, 1981)Google Scholar xiii and Soffel, J., Die Regeln Menanders für die Leichenrede (BKP 57; Meisenheim am Glan: Hain, 1974) 196–8.Google Scholar

21 Kennedy, G. A., New Testament Interpretation through Rhetorical Criticism (Chapel Hill/London: Chapel Hill University of North Carolina, 1984) 19.Google Scholar

22 This can be observed in a letter from Seneca and another from Gregory Nazianzen which suggest the existence of some norms for letters of consolation. Seneca Ep. 99.1: ‘epistulam, quam scripsi Marullo cum filium parvulum amisisset et diceretur molliter ferre, misi tibi, in qua non sum solitum morem secutus nee putavi leniter debere tractari, cum obiurgatione esset quam solacio dignior’; Gregory Nazianzen Ep. 165: Καὶ εἰ μὲν πρὸς ἄλλον τινὰ ἐπέστελον, ἴσως ἄν μοι καὶ μακρότερων ἐδέησε λόγων, καὶ τὰ μὲν συμπαθεῖν ἔδει, τὰ δὲ παραινέσαι, τὰ δὲ ἵσως ἐπιτιμῆσαι τό τε γὰρ συναλγεῖν ἱκανὸν εἰς παραμυθίαν καὶ δεῖται τὸ ἀρρωστοῦν τῆς ἐκ τοῦ ὑγιαίνοντος θεραπείας. ἐπεὶ δὲ πρὸς ἄνδρα πεπαιδευμένον ποιοῦμαι τοὺς λόγους, ἀρκεῖ τοσοῦτον εἰπεῖν … Cf. Guignet, M., Les procédés épistolaires de Saint Grégoire de Nazianze comparés à ceux de ses contemporains (Paris: Picard, 1911) 80Google Scholar; Mitchell, J. F., ‘Consolatory Letters in Basil and Gregory Nazianzen’, Hermes 96 (1968) 301.Google Scholar

23 Since it is possible to include under this heading a wide range of consolatory writings it is useful to be aware of the different types of letters. The classification of letters can be made according to different criteria (cf. Torre, E. Suárez de la, ‘Epistolografia’, Historia de la literatura griega [ed. Férez, J. A. López; Madrid: Cátedra, 1988] 1150).Google Scholar I would distinguish first between literary and non-literary letters. The literary letters would include those which have survived through the Middle Ages as part of ancient literature: some are simple private letters (those of Cicero), others private letters transformed by literary objectives (for example, homilies) and dressed in letter-form (those of Epicurus, or Seneca, and perhaps also St Paul). The non-literary category would include all the others, from the documentary private letters found in their original form to official, business and other letters (cf. Parsons, P. J., ‘Background: The Papyrus Letter’, Didactica Classica Gandensia 20 [1980] 1)Google Scholar. It is also useful to categorize the letters by the writer's intention and the relation between the writer and the recipient. This classification, which is found in ancient authors, distinguishes between private and public letters (cf. Cugusi, P., Evoluzione e forme dell' epistolografia latina [Roma: Herder, 1983] 30).Google Scholar Since the term ‘public’ may be confusing, for practical purposes I prefer to distinguish between private and non-private. A private letter is a letter which deals with personal matters based on a relation of friendship (or sometimes business), i.e., where the matters dealt with fall within the category of those pertaining to a personal relation between the two parties. There is no implicit or explicit desire of making known the content of the letter to others. Publication of their contents would be accidental and not intended at the time of writing. It is useful, therefore, when dealing with letters of consolation to distinguish between private and non-private and between literary and non-literary. Obviously, some letters escape any attempt at classification within a single category.

24 A recent interest in this topic can be seen in recent studies: Stowers, S. K., Letter Writing in Greco-Roman Antiquity (Library of Early Christianity 5; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986)Google Scholar; White, J. L., Light from Ancient Letters (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986)Google Scholar; Malherbe, A. J., Ancient Epistolary Theorists (SBL Sources for Biblical Study 19; Atlanta: Scholars, 1988)Google Scholar; Richards, E. R., The Secretary in the Letters of St Paul (WUNT 2/42; Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1991).Google Scholar

25 On progymnasmata see Marrou, H. I., A History of Education in Antiquity (trans, Lamb, G. R.; London: Sheed & Ward, 1956) 238–40Google Scholar; Bonner, S. F., Education in Ancient Rome (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1977) 250–76Google Scholar; Hock, R. F. and O'Neil, E. N., The Chreia in Ancient Rhetoric 1: The Progymnasmata (GRRS 9; Atlanta: Scholars, 1986)Google Scholar(non vidi).

26 Theon, Progymnasmata 116.25; 117.6–24. These exercises are the background to fictitious letters of consolation written by or addressed to famous characters: Phalaris to Lacritus Ep. 10 (Hercher, R., Epistolographi Graeci [Paris: Didot, 1873] 410)Google Scholar; Xenophon to Soteria Ep. 3 (Hercher, 789); Aeschines to Xanthippe Ep. 21 (Köhler, L., ‘Die Briefe des Sokrates und der Sokratiker’, Philologus Suppl. 20/11 [1928] 36–7)Google Scholar; perhaps Julian to Himerius Ep. 201 (Bidez, J., L'Empereur Julien. Oeuvres Complétes[Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1924] 1/2, 221).Google Scholar

27 Cf. J. Chapa, ‘Consolatory Patterns?’, 224; A. J. Malherbe, Epistolary Theorists, 4–6; E. R. Richards, The Secretary, 59–61.

28 The exhortation to the mourners is present in Menander's theory of private epitaphioi (cf. D. A. Russell and N. G. Wilson, Menander, 331–2; L. Spengel, Rhetores, 3.421.25–422.2), but not explicitly mentioned in the παραμυθητικὸς λόγος. Exhortation, however, is not described in detail as are lamentation and consolation in the sections devoted to them (413.6–414.30). For the structure of Menander's speech see also Bauer, J., Die Trostreden des Gregorius von Nyssa in ihrem Verhältnis zur antiken Rhetorik (Marburg, 1892) 26.Google Scholar

29 Cf. Ps. Demetrius' example of παραμυθητικὸς λόγος in W. Weichert, Demetrii et Libanii qui feruntur ‘τύποι ἐπιστολικοί et ἐπιστολιμαῖοι χαρακτῆρες(Leipzig: Teubner, 1910) no. 5 (trad. A. J. Malherbe, Epistolary Theorists, 35): ‘When I heard of the terrible things that you met at the hands of thankless fate, I felt the deepest grief, considering that what had happened had not happened to you more than to me. When I saw all the things that assail life, all that day long I cried over them. But then I considered that such things are the common lot of all, with nature establishing neither a particular time or age in which one must suffer anything, but often confronting us secretly, awkwardly and undeservedly. Since I happened not to be present to comfort you, I decided to do so by letter. Bear, then what has happened as lightly as you can, and exhort yourself just as you would exhort someone else. For you know that reason will make it easier for you to be relieved of your grief with the passage of time.’ For a partial description of letters of consolation see J. F. Mitchell, ‘Letters of Consolation’.

30 On this see E. R. Richards, The Secretary, 57–61.

31 For a discussion on persecution and death in the Thessalonian church see K. P. Donfried, ‘The Theology of 1 Thessalonians’, esp. 244–56; for further details Donfried, K. P., ‘The Cults of Thessalonica and the Thessalonian Correspondence’, NTS 31 (1985) 336–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Pobee, J. S., Persecution and Martyrdom in the Theology of Paul (JSNT 6; Sheffield: JSOT 1985)Google Scholar; Frend, W. H. C., Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (Oxford: Blackwell, 1965).Google Scholar

32 See for example Ps.-Demetrius Τύποι no. 5; P.Princ. 2.102.3–10; Basil Ep. 28.269; Theodoretus Ep. 14.

33 In private papyrus letters there are references to this comforting presence of the relative or friend in the moment of misfortune. See for example P.Oxy. 1.120; P.Giss.Univ. 3.19. Cf. also Winter, J. G., Life and Letters in the Papyri (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1933) 102.Google Scholar

34 Cf. Youtie, H. C., Scriptiunculae Posteriores (Bonn: Habelt, 1981) 332Google Scholar; Karlsson, G., Idéologie et cérémonial dans I'épistolographie byzantine (SGU 3; Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1962) 34–48.Google Scholar

35 Cf. n. 13 above.

36 Cf. Ps.-Demetrius νομίσας οὐ σοὶ μᾶλλον ῆ ἐμοὶ συμβεβηκέναι τὸ γεγονός. Ps.-Phalaris Ep. 10: ἀχθομένῳ σοι βαρέως ἐπὶ τῇ τοῦ παιδὸς τελευτῇ πᾶσα συγγνώμη, κάγὼ δὲ σφόδρα συμπαθῶν, ὡσεὶ τῶν οἰκείων τὸ συμβεβηκὸς ἡγούμενος. P.Oxy. 1.115.3.5: οὕτως ἐλυπήθην καὶ ἕκλαυσα ἐπὶ τῷ εὐμοίρῳ ώς ἐπὶ Διδυμᾶτος ἕκλαυσα.

37 For commonplaces of consolation see Lier, B., ‘Topica carminorum sepulcralium latinorum’, in Philologus N.F. 17 (1904) 54–65Google Scholar; Moran, E., The Consolations of Death in Ancient Greek Literature (Washington: Washington University, 1917)Google Scholar; Schaeffer, W., Argumenta consolatoria, quae apud veteres Graecorum scriptores inveniuntur (Diss. Göttingen, 1921)Google Scholar; Lattimore, R., Themes in Greek and Latin Epitaphs (ISLL 28/1–2; Urbana, Illinois: The University of Illinois, 1942) 215–64Google Scholar; H. Martin and J. E. Phillips, ‘Consolatio ad Uxorem’, 401–10 and the commentaries to Cons, ad Apol. by R. Kassel, Konsolationsliteratur, 50–98 and J. Hani, Consolation à Apollonios.

38 The verbs κεῖμαι and ἀπόκειμαι, which are used to express the idea of something which is laid up, in store, reserved for, are applied on occasions to death (cf. Menander Comp. 1.67: ἅπασιν ἀνθρώποισ<iv> ἁπόκειται θανεῖν (cf. also Longinus De subl. 9.7; 4 Mace 8.11; Heb 9.27). Cf. also a papyrus letter of condolence: τοῦτο γἁρ καὶ τοῖς θεοῖς ἀπόκειται (referring to death) (PSI 12.1248.11–12) and R. Lattimore, Themes, 250.

39 The author of the Cons, ad Apol. condemns the indulging of grief with the excuse that the calamity was sudden and unexpected (112D). On the other hand, untimely death was considered the greatest misfortune (Cons, ad Apol. chaps. 16–19; J. Hani, Consolation à Apollonios, 172; E. Moran, Consolation of Death, 41; R. Lattimore, Themes, 184–7).

40 Cf. E. Moran, Consolation of Death, 28; cf. J. Hani, Consolation à Apollonios, 160–1.

41 Cf. Libanius Ep. 405, 414; John Chrysostom Ep. 192, 197; Gregory Nazianzen Ep. 76, 197, 222, 223; Theodoretus Ep. 17, 65. Cf. Seneca Ep. 99 and Gregory Nazianzen Ep. 165 (see n. 21 above), where, probably due to its epideictic nature, praise or blame seemed to be expected in a letter of consolation.

42 It is not only that other men have had to die, but that even better men have died. For this topos see especially Cons, ad Apol. chaps. 10, 15, 33 (cf. W. Schaeffer, Argumenta, 27; B. Lier, ‘Topica’, 575; E. Moran, Consolation of Death, 19–20).

43 For the consolatory aspects of 4.13–18; 5.11 see J. Chapa, ‘Consolatory Patterns?’, 224–8.

44 A. Smith, The Social and Ethical Implications, 170.

45 It is true that in his παραμυθητικὸς λόγος Menander mentions, as a source of consolation for bereaved relatives, the fact that the dead are enjoying a new life with the gods (413.21–3). I do not think, however, that this consolation can be compared to the consolatory content and meaning of Christian hope. On this topic and on the continuity and discontinuity of pagan and Christian consolation see Ch. Favez, , La consolation latine chrétienne (Paris: Vrin, 1937) 85–167,Google Scholar esp. 163–7; Beyenka, M. M., Consolation in St Augustine (Patristic Studies 83; Washington: Catholic University of America, 1950) 15–30Google Scholar; Gregg, R. C., Consolation Philosophy, Greek and Christian Paideia in Basil and in the Two Gregories (Patristic Monographs 3; Cambridge, Mass.: The Philadelphia Patristic Foundation, 1975) 125–217.Google Scholar

46 Cf. K. P. Donfried, ‘The Theology of 1 Thessalonians’, 259.