The Jewish antagonists charged the missionaries with revolutionary teaching, namely, that another king, Jesus, would rule and reign (cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10; 2 Thessalonians 2:14). [source][source][source]
""Those," they said, "who are upsetting the civilised world have arrived here." That is one of the greatest compliments which has ever been paid to Christianity.... When Christianity really goes into action it must cause a revolution both in the life of the individual and in the life of society." [1][source]
The Jews in Jesus" ministry made similar charges, namely, that He advocated overthrowing the emperor ( Luke 23:2; John 18:33-37). These Thessalonian Jews also claimed no king but Caesar (cf. John 19:15). Jason was guilty of harboring the fugitives. [source][source][source]
Several inscriptions found in Thessalonica describe the rulers of the city as politarchs, the very word Luke used to describe them here (cf. Acts 17:8). [2] This was a title used only in Macedonia to describe city officials. [source][source][source]
"Since the term was unknown elsewhere, the critics of Luke once dismissed it as a mark of ignorance. Sixteen epigraphical examples now exist in modern Salonica, and one is located in the British Museum on a stone which once formed part of an archway. It was evidently the Macedonian term. It was Luke"s general practice to use the term in commmonest use in educated circles. Hence he called the officials of Philippi "praetors", and an inscription has similarly established the fact that this was a courtesy title given to the magistrates of a Roman colony." [3][source]