When Paul arrived in Thessalonica in A.D. 49, he was experienced in preaching the gospel. He began to carry out his commission to be an apostle to the Gentiles immediately after his call (Gal 1:17; cf. Rom 15:15–16). Information about his work preceding the founding of the churches in Philippi and Thessalonica is relatively meager, compared with his later activity, and the texts that have to do with the early period are much disputed (Becker 1993: 1–124; Riesner, 204–96; Murphy-O’Connor
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