A Fresh Look at First Thessalonians: The Amalgamation of Discourse Analysis and Epistolary Theory to Evaluate the Pauline Letter

Abstract

<p>There have been a number of attempts to evaluate Paul's letters with a variety of methodological approaches. This work attempts to view Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians in a new light by first applying epistolary theory to determine its letter divisions and is followed by an application of a linguistic theory to determine if the original unit divisions are supported by discourse analysis as well as provide a bottom-up interpretation to the letter, which is lacking in epistolary theory. My linguistic model is based on Halliday's systemic-functional linguistic model of language. Having been slightly adapted to evaluate a dead, non-English language, this model evaluates the hierarchy and co-text of language, followed by a tripartite field-tenor-mode register model and a discussion regarding the nature and implicature of cohesion and prominence in a text.</p>