Parainesis on ἁγιασ�ός (1 Th 4: 3-8) 139 composed of at least 100-150 members ought to contain all five categories of persons: married men, married women, unmarried men, unmarried women, and children. Therefore, the exhortation to sanctification through abstention from fornication ought to concern all of these groups except that of the children. d. Why Paul Addresses this Exhortation. Does Paul direct his exhor- tation against any occurrences of infringement of the moral code? Some commentators think that Paul must have received news through Timothy of cases of fornication or adultery.54 The text is, however, devoid of any such references or even hints. On the contrary, the whole discussion is carried on on the basis of principle55. It may be suspected that it is this mistaken presupposition that has to a certain extent vitiated the interpre- tation of the passage. It was different with 1 Corinthians (e.g. ch. 5). There Paul was addressing a concrete problem. A comparison of the handling of the Corinthian problem with how he writes in 1 Th shows unmistakably that he had no such case in mind. That such cases might one day come up was, naturally, possible, and present to his mind. Paul’s reason for writing is not corrective, but prophylactic. This puts the interpretation of the paraenesis in a different light. 2. The Train of Thought (Structure) Vv. 1-2 are a general introduction to the parenetic section of chs. 4-5. Λοιπὸν οὖν ... ἐρωτῶμεν ... καὶ παρακαλοῦμεν has the previous three chs. as its spring-board and extends forward to embrace the contents of the next two chs. The essence of Paul’s exhortation is “that you walk” etc. This was to be expressed by an ἵνα [περιπατῆτε] clause. Now to have expressed himself like that would have been rather flat, though correct. However, the conception he wishes to impart is more nuanced. Thus, he lets the ἵνα hanging as it were, in the air, while he brings together in one sentence their acceptance of the charge he had committed to them Best, 1 Thessalonians, 160; Bruce, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 85; Marshall, 1 and 2 Thes- 54 salonians, 107. In his instructive study “The Cults of Thessalonica and the Thessalonian Correspon- 55 dence” NTS 31 (1985), 336-56, K. P. Donfried argues that the pagan cults of Thessalonike, the most important of which was that of the Cabiri, with their phallic features seem to have created “a situation of grave immorality” (341). In the light of this he argues for genitalia as the meaning of σκεῦος. My own analysis of these verses, the use and meaning of σκεῦος, the fact that commentators have exaggerated the feature of pagan immorality, and finally, the fact that Paul addresses both unmarried and married men as well as unmarried and married women make the rendition of σκεῦος with genitalia unlikely, if not actually impossible.