Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers (De Gruyter) frei zugänglich.The prepositional phrase ἐν θεῷ πατρὶ καὶ κυρίῳ Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ in 1Thess 1,1 is usually interpreted as part of the address and therefore as a specification of the assembly addressed. In this essay a reading favoured by Ambrosiaster in the 4th and Johann Benjamin Koppe in the 19th century will be reconsidered: ἐν θεῷ κτλ. can be regarded as part of the greeting and understood instrumentally: by God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ grace and peace be with you. Thus the salutatio of 1Thess can be considered as Paul’s first attempt to express that in his prescripts God and Jesus Christ are the real source of χάρις καὶ εἰρήνη.Die präpositionale Wendung ἐν θεῷ πατ...