- Chapters
- 5
- Verses
- 0
- Where it sits
- The Letters of Paul
What it is
Written from Corinth around AD 50 or 51, only months after Paul had to leave Thessalonica in a hurry. Timothy had gone back to see how the young church was holding up and returned with good news and one anxious question: some of their members had died before Christ returned, and they were afraid those people had missed it.
Paul’s answer is chapter 4, and it is the reason this passage is read over Orthodox graves.
Known for
4:13–18. 5:16–18 — rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks.
A note for Orthodox readers
Pray without ceasing is the verse the whole hesychast tradition and the Jesus Prayer are built on. It is not a figure of speech in Orthodox usage; it is taken as an instruction.
Where it sits
Undisputed, and generally reckoned the earliest surviving Christian document.
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