Papyrus 65

Date: Middle of the Third Century A.D.

Discovered: Probably Oxyrhynchus, Egypt

Location: Paris, France; Bibliotèque Nationale

Contents: 1 Thessalonians 1:3-2:1, 6-13

Notes: This is considered to be from the same codex as Papyrus 49. This papyrus is only a narrow portion that ran down the side of an original page.

 

1 Thessalonians 1

³ remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ Jesus, before our God and Father. ⁴ We know, brothers loved by God, that you are chosen, ⁵ and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake. ⁶ You became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, ⁷ so that you became an example to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia. ⁸ For from you the word of the Lord has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out, so that we need not to say anything. ⁹ For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, ¹⁰ and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead: Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

 

1 Thessalonians 2

For you yourselves know, brothers, our visit to you wasn’t in vain,

[..]

⁶ nor seeking glory from men (neither from you nor from others), when we might have claimed authority as apostles of Christ. ⁷  But we were gentle infants[1] among you, like a nursing mother cherishes her own children.

⁸ Even so, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not the Good News of God only, but also our own souls, because you had become very dear to us. ⁹ For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God. ¹⁰ You are witnesses with God how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe. ¹¹ As you know, we exhorted, comforted, and implored every one of you, as a father does his own children, ¹² to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory. ¹³ For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you who believe.[2]