Modern readers often approach the New Testament as if it contains multiple theological “schools.” Paul is cast as the theologian of grace, Peter the theologian of suffering, John the theologian of love. But the earliest churches didn’t hear the faith in separate voices like that. They received one gospel carried through many hands.
And when we pay attention to how apostolic teaching was actually formed and transmitted, one figure emerges as a crucial link: Silas (also called Silvanus).
Silas doesn’t just appear beside Paul in Acts. He stands at the crossroads of Jerusalem authority, missionary expansion, and the shaping and delivery of apostolic teaching across the early Christian world. And when we compare 1 Peter 4:1–11 and 1 Thessalonians 4:1–12, the continuity becomes unmistakable.
This isn’t coincidence.
This is the same teaching traveling through the same man to different communities.
The Shared Teaching in 1 Peter 4 and 1 Thessalonians 4
The similarity between the two letters is not just thematic. It reflects a shared ethical and pastoral framework — the apostolic way of life taught across the early church.
Before we look at the parallels, here’s the lens to hold:
The earliest Christian teaching was not individual interpretation. It was transmitted memory.
Now, watch the shape:
| Shared Theme | 1 Peter 4 | 1 Thessalonians 4 | Note |
| Turning away from Gentile passions | 4:2–3 | 4:3–5 | Conversion involves a break with former identity. |
| God’s judgment on persistent sin | 4:5 | 4:6 | Judgment is treated as real and imminent. |
| Concern for believers who have died | 4:6 | 4:13–14 | Both speak to grief within the community. |
| Ethical life shaped by the end | 4:7 | 4:15–17 | Eschatology produces endurance, not speculation. |
| Love expressed through service | 4:8–10 | 4:9–10 | Love is enacted, not merely felt. |
Both letters say, in essence:
• Take on the mind of Christ.
• Turn away from what once defined you.
• Live in light of the coming judgment and resurrection.
• Serve one another with love.
This is not literary imitation or theological overlap by accident.
This is shared apostolic teaching.
Silas: The Link Between Peter and Paul
Both letters name Silas directly:
• 1 Thessalonians 1:1 — “Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy…”
• 1 Peter 5:12 — “Through Silvanus, our faithful brother, I have written to you…”
Silas is:
• A leading figure in the Jerusalem church (Acts 15:22)
• A prophetic teacher who strengthened believers (Acts 15:32)
• Paul’s missionary partner across Greece and Asia Minor (Acts 15–18)
• A Roman citizen, comfortable in Jewish and Greek worlds (Acts 16:37)
Silas was not a courier with a sealed envelope.
He co-authored, interpreted, explained, and guarded the teaching.
When Silas delivered a letter, he did four things:
1. Read it aloud
2. Explained its meaning
3. Answered questions
4. Ensured it was understood in the apostolic voice intended
He was living continuity — a theological and relational bridge between communities.
How Apostolic Letters Were Actually Written
We often imagine the apostles as solitary writers with quill in hand. But first-century letter writing was collaborative:
• Dictated aloud
• Shaped in conversation
• Polished by a trained scribe (grammateus)
• Approved by the group
• Delivered with an interpreter (like Silas)
This means:
Authorship was communal, not isolated.
The apostles weren’t developing competing viewpoints.
They were guarding the same paradosis (παράδοσις) — the teaching handed down.
As Paul puts it:
“I delivered to you what I also received…”
(1 Corinthians 15:3)
He is describing transmission, not originality.
Why This Changes How We Read the New Testament
We often ask:
• What does Paul teach?
• What does Peter teach?
• What does John teach?
But the earliest church didn’t experience the gospel that way.
They asked:
What have the apostles together handed on to us?
Even when correction happened (Galatians 2), it was not because the apostles disagreed on doctrine. Peter already affirmed Gentile inclusion at the Jerusalem Council. The correction was about living out the doctrine consistently.
The unity was already there.
The correction was to preserve it.
Conclusion
Harmony Was the Starting Point
The similarity between 1 Peter and 1 Thessalonians is not accidental and not derivative. It is evidence of a unified apostolic proclamation carried into different cities by a coworker who ensured continuity of meaning.
Silas did not invent this teaching.
He guarded it.
He carried it.
He spoke it.
He reinforced it.
The earliest church did not have multiple Christianities.
It had one gospel, taught through many voices,
held together by shared memory, shared labor, and shared allegiance to the risen Christ.
The harmony is not something we impose on the text.
It is something we recover by reading it the way it was lived:
Communal.
Collaborative.
Unified.
One gospel, carried by many hands.
Endnotes
1. Acts 15:22, 32; Acts 16:37; Acts 15–18; 1 Thess 1:1; 1 Pet 5:12. Silas appears as leader, prophet, missionary, Roman citizen, and coauthor.
2. Harry Gamble, Books and Readers in the Early Church (Yale University Press, 1995), 102–130; E. Randolph Richards, Paul and First-Century Letter Writing (IVP Academic, 2004), chs. 2–4.
3. On paradosis as transmitted teaching: 1 Cor 11:23; 15:3. See Larry Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ (Eerdmans, 2003), 129–148.
4. Conflict in Galatians 2 concerns behavior, not doctrine; cf. Acts 15. See Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles (Eerdmans, 1998), 448–455.
5. On letter carriers as interpreters: Richards, Paul and First-Century Letter Writing, 172–187.
6. On catechetical ethical patterns: Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (Eerdmans, 2006), 300–321.
7. On unified apostolic mission: Martin Hengel, The Earliest Christian Mission (Wipf & Stock, 2004), 35–62.
Restoring Apostolic Faith 
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