other · 50 · Thessalonica
Paul had argued in the synagogue three sabbaths and some had been persuaded, including a good many leading women. The opposition gathered a crowd from the marketplace and attacked the house of Jason, who was putting the missionaries up; not finding them, they dragged Jason himself before the city authorities with the charge that these men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and that they act against the decrees of Caesar by saying there is another king, Jesus. Jason had to post security, and the brothers sent Paul and Silas away by night. Two things are worth noting. The bond is probably why Paul could not return, which is the situation the two letters to the Thessalonians are written into — he says twice that he wanted to come and was hindered. And Luke calls the magistrates politarchs, an unusual title that is not used elsewhere in Greek literature of the period but appears on inscriptions from Thessalonica itself, which is one of the better tests of how close he was to the ground.
To find Paul and bring him before the assembly.
A bond posted by his host, and a departure by night that shapes the Thessalonian letters.