Acts 18:5

Maybe Paul was able to stop practicing his trade and give full time to teaching and evangelizing if Silas returned from Philippi with a monetary gift, as seems likely (cf. Philippians 4:14-16; 2 Corinthians 11:9). Timothy had returned from Thessalonica with encouraging news about the Christians’ progress there (cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:6-10), but they were also having problems (1 Thessalonians 2:3-6; 1 Thessalonians 4:13 to 1 Thessalonians 5:11). Paul evidently wrote 1 Thessalonians soon after Timothy’s return and 2 Thessalonians shortly thereafter also from Corinth, probably in the early A.D. 50s (cf. Acts 18:11).