Thessalonians, << `thehs` uh LOH nee uhnz, >> Epistles to the, are the 13th and 14th books of the New Testament. They are both letters from the apostle Paul to Christians in Thessaloniki, Greece. Paul wrote the first letter from Corinth about A.D. 50. He wrote to encourage the Thessalonians in the midst of their struggles and to explain why he had been unable to return to visit them. Paul also explained that Christians who had died before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would rise from the dead and be united with Jesus on the Coming. This letter is the earliest surviving letter of Paul and the earliest known Christian writing.
Some scholars doubt that Paul wrote the second letter. They believe it was written in his name by one of his followers. If Paul was the author, he wrote it shortly after writing the first letter. Its main purpose was to convince the Thessalonians that the Second Coming of Christ was not as near as they believed.
See also Bible (The New Testament); Paul, Saint.
