Paul
communicated the gospel, announced the goods news of God’s saving act in Christ
and the call to respond, while supporting himself by manual labor.
Such
labor, generally disdained by the sophisticated Greco-Roman world, located Paul
among the lower social class. In Paul’s Jewish background, such work was
typically evaluated more highly, but not always. The later rabbinic tradition
will insist that even scholars, scribes, and rabbis must learn a trade and not
be dependent on their teaching for their livelihood (‘Abot 2;2; 4:5). In
the second century B.C.E. the worldly-wise Ben Sirach is already leaning in the
Hellenistic direction, arguing that only the man of leisure can be a teacher,
not—almost using Paul’s exact words—“the artisan, who labors by night as well
as by day” (Sir 38:24-39:11, esp. 38:27). Here Paul speaks within the Hellenistic
framework, considers his work a hardship that must be endured for the sake of
the gospel, and reminds his readers that he has done this as part of his
self-giving for the beloved community.
Paul
worked so as not to burden his new converts by asking them for support, though
he could legitimately have done so; “burden (epibareō) echoes baros in
v. 7. Paul did not ask his converts for money, though while he was in
Thessalonica he did, more than once, receive money from the new converts in
Philippi (Phil 4:16). (M. Eugene Boring, I & II Thessalonians: A
Commentary [The New Testament Library; Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John
Knox Press, 2015], 88)
Rabban
Gamaliel the son of Rabbi Judah Hanasi said: excellent is the study of the
Torah when combined with a worldly occupation, for toil in them both keeps sin
out of one’s mind; But [study of the] Torah which is not combined with a
worldly occupation, in the end comes to be neglected and becomes the cause of
sin. And all who labor with the community, should labor with them for the sake
of Heaven, for the merit of their forefathers sustains them (the community),
and their (the forefather’s) righteousness endures for ever; And as for you,
[God in such case says] I credit you with a rich reward, as if you [yourselves]
had [actually] accomplished [it all].
Rabbi
Ishmael his son said: He who learns in order to teach, it is granted to him to
study and to teach; But he who learns in order to practice, it is granted to
him to learn and to teach and to practice. Rabbi Zadok said: do not make them a
crown for self-exaltation, nor a spade with which to dig. So too Hillel used to
say, “And he that puts the crown to his own use shall perish.” Thus you have
learned, anyone who derives worldly benefit from the words of the Torah,
removes his life from the world.