138 Chrys C. Caragounis some five-six months after leaving Thessalonike. His teaching thus being cut short, was in important respects incomplete, and the letter comes to supply part of that need51. b. Size of the Church. How large the Church was is impossible to say with any certainty. Our only source here is Acts, and this may suggest that when Paul left Thessalonike there might have been around 100 Christians. At the time of his writing they may have grown by a few more dozens.52 c. Whom does the paraenesis address? The paraenesis opens with the words: Λοιπὸν οὖν ἀδελφοί (4:1). The introduction of this letter, which is sent to τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ Θεσσαλονικέων also addresses them as ἀδελφοί (1:4).53 There should be no doubt that the paraenesis of chs. 4-5 is directed to the entire Church, and not to any particular group within it. A Church E. Schürer, G. Vermes, F. Millar, M. Goodman, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, III.1, Edinburgh 1986, 64-67; I. Levinskaya, The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting, Vol. 5: Diaspora Setting, Grand Rapids,Carlisle 1996, 154-57. See also A. Malherbe, Paul and the Thessalonians, Philadelphia 1993, esp. 5-33. Acts 17:2 speaks of Paul’s addressing the Jewish synagogue of Thessalonike three con- 51 secutive sabbaths. However, Paul must have spent more than one month in this city. When the Jews come to seize Paul they go to the house of Jason, a well-to-do citizen (cf. he could give security, 17:9), in whose house the Church met after breaking with the synagogue. Paul may thus have been in Thessalonike for a period of up to two months before he was obliged to flee to Beroea (On the question of persecution, see K. P. Donfried, NTS (1985), 349 ff.). His stay in Beroea can hardly have lasted more than a few weeks when he is again compelled to flee, this time to Athens. It is doubtful whether he spent more than a month or two at Athens, from which he moved on to Corinth. There he was joined by Silas and Timothy, and the three of them addressed this letter to the Macedonian capital. From 1 Th 1:7-9 it appears that news of the faith of the Thessalonians had reached even Achaia and other places, which implies that at least a brief time had elapsed after Paul’s arrival in Corinth. All this leads to the conclusion that the letter was written about five-six months after Paul had left Thessalonike. This is in accord with Riesner’s finding, Die Frühzeit des Apostels Paulus (WUNT 71), Tübingen 1994, 301-25. Acts, which is often enthusiastic in its descriptions, speaks of τινες of the Jews, of 52 a πλῆθος πολύ of God-fearing Greeks, and of οὐκ ὀλίγαι of the prominent Thessalonian ladies joining Paul. But all this is quite relative. According to Riesner, Frühzeit, 301, Thes- salonike may at this time have had a population of c. 65.000 within the walls, or c. 100.000 including the outlying districts. Being the largest city of Macedonia (see Strabo vii.7,4), its Jewish population may have numbered at least one or two thousand. The figures of Acts may be translated as something like this: in a large synagogue τινες can hardly mean less than 10-15 persons; πλῆθος πολύ; not fewer than 50, probably more, and οὐκ ὀλίγαι perhaps some 20-25. In a very conservative estimate the initial group of Christians may thus have been about 100 persons. How much the Church grew during Paul’s absence, when they were subjected to persecution (1 Th 2:14-6), is impossible to say. We may then assume that Paul is writing to a congregation of 100-150 persons. This is important to bear in mind for the kind of problems that may be presupposed in the Church, e.g. actual occurrences of adultery with a brother’s wife, and that of the ἐπίκληρος daughter (see below). On the theme of “church” in general see R. F. Collins, Studies on the First Letter to 53 the Thessalonians, 285-98.