Texts in Conversation
The image of the “armor of God” in 1 Thessalonians is similar to the Wisdom of Solomon, which itself reshaped the language of Isaiah. This shows that early Christian traditions used the Hebrew Bible and Septuagint and also on later Jewish interpretations of those texts.
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Wisdom of Solomon 5:18
Deuterocanon
17 The Lord will take his zeal as his whole armor, and will arm all creation to repel his enemies; 18 he will put on righteousness as a breastplate, and wear impartial justice as a helmet; 19 he will take holiness as an invincible shield, 20 and sharpen stern wrath for a sword, and creation will join with him to fight against his frenzied foes. 21 Shafts of lightning will fly with true aim, and will leap from the clouds to the target, as from a well-drawn bow, 22 and hailstones full of wrath will be hurled as from a catapult; the water of the sea will rage against them, and rivers will relentlessly overwhelm them;
Date: 100-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
1 Thessalonians 5:8
New Testament
6 So then we must not sleep as the rest, but must stay alert and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But since we are of the day, we must stay sober by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet our hope for salvation. 9 For God did not destine us for wrath but for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that whether we are alert or asleep, we will come to life together with him.
Date: 41-51 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The clothing metaphor itself is, of course, not Hermas’s creation. It became particularly prominent among the philosophers, mystery cults, gnostic sources, and Jewish and other Christian literature of our period. In fact, the metaphor’s ubiquity makes it virtually impossible to determine its origins. It appeared, for example, among the earliest Greek authors and even before that in Sumerian sources too. We find it scattered throughout Jewish scripture; (E.g., LXX 2 Chronicles 6:41, Isaiah 51:9, 59:17, Job 29:14, 40:10, Psalm 132:9, Proverbs 31:25, Wisdom of Solomon 5:18, Baruch 5:1–2, 4 Esdras 2:45, 4 Maccabees 13:16.) non-Pauline literature ultimately included in the New Testament also attests it. Other so-called Apostolic Fathers roughly contemporaneous with Hermas use the metaphor as well: Clement exhorts his audience with him to “put on harmony” (ἐνδυσώμεθα τὴν ὁμόνοιαν, 1 Clem 30.3), and Ignatius refers to Polycarp as “being clothed with grace” (ἐν χάριτι, ᾗ ἐνδέδυσαι, Poly. 1.2). One can only assume, given the wide attestation of the clothing metaphor, that it was employed extensively in non-literary second-century Roman culture as well ..."
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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