Paul sent Timothy to Thessalonica, but before explaining Timothy’s mission he gives his readers a little more insight into his own circumstances at the time: they thought it best to be left behind at Athens alone. At this point it is difficult to correlate the account of Paul’s movements in Acts 17:1–34 with what is written here. Acts indicates that Silas and Timothy were still in Berea when Paul arrived in Athens (Acts 17:14–15). He did leave instructions for them to join him in Athens, but Acts contains no record of them doing so. Only after Paul has reached Corinth do we hear of Silas and Timothy rejoining Paul (Acts 18:5). What we see reflected here is that Luke (the author of Acts) may not have known the details of Silas and Timothy’s movements, or he may have judged those details unnecessary to the account he was writing. After all, he was limited by the space available to him and had to choose carefully what to include and what to exclude. From our perspective, however, we would have liked to know the details.
Piecing together the information we do have a suggestion that Silas and Timothy did in fact join Paul in Athens. From there, Paul sent Timothy to Thessalonica while Silas went to Philippi (both cities in Macedonia). Timothy’s mission was to encourage the new believers and Silas, in addition to providing pastoral encouragement. He was also entrusted with a gift from the Philippians in support of Paul’s mission (Philippians 4:14–15, cf. Acts 18:5). Paul meanwhile moved on to Corinth (Acts 18:1), approximately 80 kilometre by road to the west of Athens. When Silas and Timothy had completed their respective missions, they travelled from Macedonia to Corinth and rejoined Paul there (1 Thessalonians 3:6; Acts 18:5).1,2
The words translated left behind...alone
(καταλειφθῆναι . . . μόνοι) evoke the strong feelings of 1 Thessalonians 2:17–20 (especially the word orphaned
in that passage) and point to the sacrifice that being left alone entailed for Paul.3 As Green points out, Travel itself was hard and dangerous labor, so staying with the group that would give protection and help carry the stuff was always desirable.
4
1 Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone,