although the traditional religions had lost their vitality. Several mystery religions had made significant inroads into the community. For example, some of the Thessalonian converts might have been previously involved in the cult of Dionysus with its sensual orgies (cf. 1 Thess. 4:3–8). Other converts probably had a previous history in a cult of the Cabiri, which identified with the working class but had increasingly been drawn into the civic cult of the Roman establishment. [Religions in the Greco-Roman