1 Thessalonians

Date Written - A.D. 50-51
Paul wrote the letter of 1 Thessalonians from Corinth with the help of Silas and Timothy. 1 Thessalonians 3:6-7 The three were all together in this one location according to Acts 18:5; 2 Corinthians 1:19.

Acts 18:12 states that Gallio was proconsul of Achaia. The date that Paul wrote first Thessalonians can be determined if the date that Gallio was proconsul at Corinth can be determined. In 1909 a mutilated inscription was discovered at Delphi which named Gallio as proconsul and associated him with the twenty-sixth acclamation of the Emperor Claudius. On the basis of this data the office of Gallio has been generally set at A.D. July 51 to July 52. And since Paul had already been at Corinth a year and a half when Gallio arrived, Paul must have come to Corinth near the end of the year A.D. 49 or 50. Paul wrote the letter soon after he began his work there. This would date the letter around A.D. 50-51 making it the earliest letter of Paul.

The subscription in the KJV reads, 'The First Epistle to the Thessalonians was written from Athens.' Though this note is found in some old Manuscripts, it is evidently a mistake. It records a tradition that evidently arose out of a misunderstanding of Paul's words in 3:1. These subscriptions were not written by Paul and are not authoritative.