who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men,
Parallel Translations
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who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men,
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Which as they kylled the lorde Iesus and their awne prophetes even so have they persecuted vs and God they please not and are contrary to all men
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Who both killed the Lord Iesus and their owne Prophets, and haue persecuted vs away, and God they please not, and are contrary to all men,
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to 1 Thessalonians 2:15 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Matthew 5:12 Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
- Luke 11:48-53 So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute, that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.’ Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn’t enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered.” As he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be terribly angry, and to draw many things out of him;
- Acts 7:52 Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.
- Acts 2:23 him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed;
- Luke 13:33-34 Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the next day, for it can’t be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem.’ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her own brood under her wings, and you refused!
- Matthew 23:31-35 Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna? Therefore behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city; that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.
- Matthew 23:37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
- Matthew 27:25 All the people answered, “May his blood be on us, and on our children!”
- Luke 24:20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him.
- Acts 3:15 and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, to which we are witnesses.
- Esther 3:8 Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different from other people’s. They don’t keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not for the king’s profit to allow them to remain.
- Acts 5:30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed, hanging him on a tree.
- Acts 12:3 When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This was during the days of unleavened bread.
- Acts 22:18-21 and saw him saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not receive testimony concerning me from you.’ I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue those who believed in you. When the blood of Stephen, your witness, was shed, I also was standing by, consenting to his death, and guarding the cloaks of those who killed him.’ “He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you out far from here to the Gentiles.’”
- 1 Corinthians 10:5 However with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
- Amos 7:12 Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
- Matthew 21:35-39 The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they treated them the same way. But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and seize his inheritance.’ So they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
- Acts 4:10 may it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, this man stands here before you whole in him.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (19 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 15 Who killed the Lord Jesus. As that people…
15 Who killed the Lord Jesus. As that people had been distinguished by so many benefits from God, in consequence of the glory of the ancient fathers, the very name was of great authority among many. Lest this disguise should dazzle the eyes of any one, he strips the Jews of all honor, so as to leave them nothing but odium and the utmost infamy.
“Behold,” says he, “the virtues for which they deserve praise among the good and pious! — they killed their own prophets and at last the Son of God, they have persecuted me his servant, they wage war with God, they are detested by the whole world, they are hostile to the salvation of the Gentiles; in fine, they are destined to everlasting destruction.”
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It is asked, why he says that Christ and the prophets were killed by the same persons? I answer, that this refers to the entire body, for Paul means that there is nothing new or unusual in their resisting God, but that, on the contrary, they are, in this manner, filling up the measure of their fathers, as Christ speaks. (Matthew 23:32)
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He foretelleth the utter destruction of the Jews, lest…
He foretelleth the utter destruction of the Jews, lest any man should be moved by their rebellion.
For the Jews would neither enter into the kingdom of God themselves, nor suffer others to enter in.
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He preventeth an offense which might be taken, for that the Jews especially above all others persecuted the Gospel. That is no new thing, sayeth he, seeing they slew Christ himself and his Prophets, and have banished me also.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 15 Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their…
15 Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
Ver. 15. Who both killed the Lord] And are therefore banished out of the world, as it were, by a common consent of nations, for their inexpiable guilt. Even in Jerusalem there be hardly to be found a hundred households of them. (Breerwood Inquir.) In Cyprus it is at present death for any Jew to set his foot upon the island. (Dio. Cass.) In Thessalonica and Constantinople there are many thousands of them, but at every Easter they are in danger of death, if they but stir out-of-doors, because at that time they crucified our Saviour. (Biddulph.) The Turks themselves so hate the Jews for crucifying Christ, that they use to say in detestation of a thing, "I would I might die a Jew." Neither will they permit a Jew to turn Turk, unless he be first baptized. The Romans permitted other nations to call themselves Romans after they had conquered them; but so they would not suffer the Jews to do, though they complied never so much, and were their servants (as August. in Psal. lviii. witnesseth), lest there should some blot stick to the glory of the Romans, by that odious and sordid people. O Marcomanni, O Quadi! said one emperor.
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And their own prophets] Whose slaughter (though long since done) is in recent remembrance with God, and is reckoned and registered together with the death of Christ himself.
And have persecuted us] They still curse the Christians in their daily prayers, which they close up with a Maledic, Domine, Nazaraeis. Curse, of God, Christians. Lopez at Tyburn affirmed, that he had loved Queen Elizabeth as he loved Jesus Christ. Which from a Jew was heard not without laughter. (Camden’s Elizabeth.)
And they please not God] Yet they challenged the title of God’s Church, as the Papists will needs be the only Catholics. They cried, ad ravim usque, The temple of the Lord, when they nothing regarded the Lord of the temple.
And are contrary to all men] Being herein rather Ishmaelites than Israelites, Gen 16:12. The trout delights to swim against stream. The herb alexander will agree with no other herb but itself. Such antipodes {a} are our Jesuits, so insufferably ambitious and impudent, that neither their doctrine nor their conversation pleaseth those of their own religion.
{a} Diametrically opposite (to anything). ŒD
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Who both killed the Lord Jesus; no wonder then…
Who both killed the Lord Jesus; no wonder then though they have persecuted you, and the believing Jews their countrymen. They killed the Lord Jesus by the hands of Pilate, crying: Crucify him, crucify him. Though it was by God’s determinate counsel, and the Roman power, yet by the Jews’ malice they killed him; Mat 21:38; This is the heir; let us kill him.
And their own prophets; of their own nation, and directed and sent particularly to them of God; so that it was no new thing in them thus to do. Not that these individual Jews who persecuted Paul killed the prophets, but they were of the same nation, the same blood, and of the same spirit with them, and were the children of them, that killed the prophets, as our Saviour charged them, Mat 23:31. The spirit of persecution was natural to them, it descended from one generation to another; their kings were guilty of it, their priests, their false prophets, and the common people. And though better things might be expected of the Jews than any other people, yet thus they did. And it was not only because of the new doctrine or worship that the apostle preached, for they killed their own prophets before them; but it was their love to their lusts, hatred of reproof, enmity to holiness, &c., that was the cause. And Christ himself chargeth them with the same things, Mat 23:37; O Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, & c.; and foretells it as that which they would yet practise, Mat 23:34.
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And they please not God; by the figure called meiosis; it is meant they highly displeased God, and were haters of God, and hated, and now rejected, of him. Though they had the advantages and reasons to please God above all other people, having had the law and ordinances of his worship among them, yet they pleased not God, and particularly in their persecutions of the gospel and the apostles, though they might think that therein they did God good service, as Joh 16:2.
And are contrary to all men; contrary in their worship, laws, and customs. Or rather, contrary to all men, in hindering the course of the gospel appointed for men’s salvation. And despising all other nations in comparison of themselves, they were apt to be seditious, and raise tumults every where, and to disdain familiarity and common friendship with the Gentiles.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Our apostle’s design being to encourage the Thessalonians to…
Our apostle’s design being to encourage the Thessalonians to patience and constancy under their persecutions for Christianity, he acquaints them, that they did not walk alone in this thorny path, but that Jesus Christ, the prophets and apostles, went before them, and every step they took in it, was up to the knees in blood; They killed the Lord Jesus, &c.
Where observe, the bitter and bloody persecution which the Jews were guilty of,
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they killed the Lord Jesus, and before him their own prophets, called their own, because of their own nation, and sent with a peculiar message to them; and now they persecuted, banished, and drove away St. Paul, and the rest of the apostles;
they pleased not God, that is, they highly displeased him, dreadfully provoked him, they were haters of God, hateful to him, now hated of him, and, lastly,
rejected by him; contrary to all men, that is, to the common interest of all men, by endeavouring to obstruct the preaching of the gospel, which bringeth salvation to all men;
forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that is, to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, and consequently obstructing, what in them lay, the salvation almost of all the world;
filling up the measure of their sins, till at last the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost, in their judicial obduration, and the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans; after which the Jews have been no more a people, but scattered abroad through the face of the earth.
From the whole, learn 1. That it is a singular support to suffering saints to consider, that Christ and his apostles suffered before them; and by his sufferings, has sanctified a state of affliction and persecution to them.
Learn, 2. That a spirit of persecution seems oft-times to run in the blood, and passes from parent to child, through many generations. Persecution became, as it were, hereditary, and, in a sort, transient from one generation to another among the Jews; they killed Christ, stoned the prophets, and persecuted the apostles.
Note 3. How St. Paul ranks and reckons them that are enemies to the preaching of the gospel, with the obstinate shedders of Christ’s blood, they are enrolled amongst the capital enemies of mankind; They killed the Lord of life, forbidding us to preach to the Gentiles; such as are enemies to preaching are enemies to the souls of men.
Object. But what need so much preaching amongst us, who are converted from heathenism to Christianity?
Ans. It is one thing to be converted from heathenism to Christianity, and another thing to be converted from sin to God.
Object. But we have the Bible for that end, and can make use of that.
Ans. Observe it, and you will find that such as are no friends to the pulpit, are usually none of the best friends to the Bible; follow them to their families, how doth the Bible lie by as a neglected book amongst them; and it must be a large charity, that can judge it is conscientiously used in the closet, when it is carelessly neglected in the family.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Who both killed the Lord Jesus,.... For though Pilate…
Who both killed the Lord Jesus,.... For though Pilate condemned him to death, and the Roman soldiers executed the sentence, yet it was through the malice and envy of the Jews that he was delivered to him, who brought charges against him, and insisted upon the crucifixion of him; and who are therefore said to have taken him with wicked hands, and crucified and slain him; and to have killed the Prince of life, and to have been the betrayers and murderers of him; and therefore it is no wonder that such persons should persecute the followers of Christ, whether in Judea or elsewhere:
and their own prophets; whom God sent unto them; these they not only mocked and misused, and persecuted, but many of them they put to death, as Isaiah and others; and though this was done by their fathers, yet the present generation were the children of them that killed the prophets; and showed themselves to be of the same principles, and by their practices approved of what they had done: hence our Lord addresses the city of Jerusalem thus, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets", Mat 23:31. The Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions leave out the phrase "their own", and so does the Alexandrian copy; but it stands in the Syriac and Arabic versions, and is rightly retained, it having an emphasis in it; these prophets being of their own nation, born among them, and raised up in the midst of them, and sent unto them particularly, and yet were so used; and therefore it need not seem strange that they should treat in an ill manner persons of a lower character, that did not agree with them; the consideration of which serves to support under reproach and persecution; see Mat 5:12.
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And have persecuted us; the apostles of Christ; have drove us out of our own country, and pursued us from place to place, and caused us to flee from one city to another:
and they please not God: though they reckoned themselves his chosen people, the favourites of heaven, and whom God delighted in; but neither their persons nor their actions were pleasing to him, their carnal minds being enmity to him, to his law and to his Gospel; and they in the flesh, or in an unregenerate estate, and without faith in Christ, without which it is impossible to please God, and their actions such as before described:
and are contrary to all men; not only Christians, but Heathens; to all the Gentiles, who are called all men, the nations of the world, the world, and the whole world; they were contrary to these, both in their religious and civil principles, and had an aversion to them, of which the following is a full instance.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Us - Apostles and preachers of the gospel. They…
Us - Apostles and preachers of the gospel. They please not God - Nor are they even careful to please him, notwithstanding their fair professions. And are contrary to all men - Are common enemies of mankind; not only by their continual seditions and insurrections, and by their utter contempt of all other nations; but in particular, by their endeavouring to hinder their hearing or receiving the gospel.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 15. 16. Who hath killed the Lord Jesus,…
Verse 15. 16. Who hath killed the Lord Jesus, c.] What a finished but just character is this of the Jews!
1. They slew the Lord Jesus, through the most unprincipled and fell malice.
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2. They killed their own prophets there was no time in which the seed of the serpent did not hate and oppose spiritual things, they slew even their own prophets who declared to them the will of God.
3. They persecuted the apostles showing the same spirit of enmity to the Gospel which they had shown to the law.
4. They did not please God, nor seek to please him; though they pretended that their opposition to the Gospel was through their zeal for God's glory, they were hypocrites of the worst kind.
5. They were contrary to all men; they hated the whole human race, and judged and wished them to perdition.
6. They forbade the apostles to preach to the Gentiles, lest they should be saved; this was an inveteracy of malice completely superhuman; they persecuted the body to death, and the soul to damnation! They were afraid that the Gentiles should get their souls saved if the Gospel was preached to them!
7. They filled up their sins always; they had no mere purposes or outlines of iniquity, all were filled up; every evil purpose was followed, as far as possible, with a wicked act! Is it any wonder, therefore, that wrath should come upon them to the uttermost? It is to be reckoned among the highest mercies of God that the whole nation was not pursued by the Divine justice to utter and final extinction.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Who both killed the Lord Jesus - see the…
Who both killed the Lord Jesus - see the notes on Act 2:23. The meaning here is, that it was characteristic of the Jews to be engaged in the work of persecution, and that they should not regard it as strange that they who had put their own Messiah to death, and slain the prophets, should now be found persecuting the true children of God.
And their own prophets - see the Mat 21:33-40; 23:29-37 notes; Act 7:52 note.
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And have persecuted us - As at Iconium Act 14:1, Derbe, and Lystra Act 14:6, and at Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. The meaning is, that it was characteristic of them to persecute, and they spared no one. If they had persecuted the apostles themselves, who were their own countrymen, it should not be considered strange that they should persecute those who were Gentiles.
And they please not God - Their conduct is not such as to please God, but such as to expose them to his wrath; 1Th 2:16. The meaning is not that they did not aim to please God - whatever may have been the truth about that - but that they had shown by all their history that their conduct could not meet with the divine approbation. They made extraordinary pretensions to being the special people of God, and it was important for the apostle to show that their conduct demonstrated that they had no such claims. Their opposition to the Thessalonians, therefore, was no proof that God was opposed to them, and they should not allow themselves to be troubled by such opposition. It was rather proof that they were the friends of God - since those who now persecuted them had been engaged in persecuting the most holy people that had lived.
And are contrary to all men - They do not merely differ from other people in customs and opinions - which might be harmless - but they keep up an active opposition to all other people. It was not opposition to one nation only, but to all; it was not to one form of religion only, but to all - even including God’s last revelation to mankind; it was not opposition evinced in their own country, but they carried it with them wherever they went. The truth of this statement is confirmed, not only by authority of the apostle and the uniform record in the New Testament, but by the testimony borne of them in the classic writers. This was universally regarded as their national characteristic, for they had so demeaned themselves as to leave this impression on the minds of those with whom they had contact. Thus Tacitus describes them as “cherishing hatred against all others” - adversus omnes alios hostile odium; Hist. v. 5. So Juvenal (Sat. xiv. 103, 104), describes them.
Non monstrare vias eadem nisi sacra colenti,
Quaesitum a.d. fontem solos deducere verpos.
“They would not even point out the way to any one except of the same religion, nor, being asked, guide any to a fountain except the circumcised.” So they are called by Appollonius “atheists and misanthropes, and the most uncultivated barbarians” - ἀθεοι καὶ μισανθρώποι καὶ ἀφεῦστατοι τῶν βάρβαρῶν atheoi kai misanthrōpoi kai apheustatoi tōn barbarōn; Josephus, Contra Apion ii. 14. So Diodorus Siculus (34:p. 524), describes them as “those alone among all the nations who were unwilling to have any contact (or intermingling - επιμιξιας) epimixias with any other nation, and who regarded all others as enemies” καὶ πολεμίους ὑπολαμβάνειν πάντας kai polemious hupolambanein pantas. Their history had given abundant occasion for these charges.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain the Lord Jesus--rather as Greek, "Jesus THE LORD." This…
the Lord Jesus--rather as Greek, "Jesus THE LORD." This enhances the glaring enormity of their sin, that in killing Jesus they killed the LORD (Compare Act 3:14-15).
their own--omitted in the oldest manuscripts.
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prophets-- (Mat 21:33-41; Mat 23:31-37; Luk 13:33).
persecuted us--rather as Greek (see Margin), "By persecution drove us out" (Luk 11:49).
please not God--that is, they do not make it their aim to please God. He implies that with all their boast of being God's peculiar people, they all the while are "no pleasers of God," as certainly as, by the universal voice of the world, which even they themselves cannot contradict, they are declared to be perversely "contrary to all men." JOSEPHUS [Against Apion, 2.14], represents one calling them "Atheists and Misanthropes, the dullest of barbarians"; and TACITUS [Histories, 5.5], "They have a hostile hatred of all other men." However, the contrariety to all men here meant is, in that they "forbid us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved" (Th1 2:16).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 15. Who—After having mentioned Jews, Paul’s mind runs up…
15. Who—After having mentioned Jews, Paul’s mind runs up the line of Hebrew history and traces the persecutions which the good and holy have received at Hebrew hands. They killed Jesus, their own prophets, and finally Paul includes us in the line of virtual martyrs. And so even his Thessalonians are also in the sacred line of holy sufferers. Thence his thought runs down the line of Jewish sin.
Please not God—Though hereditary monotheists, worshipping with a divinely appointed ritual in the Holy Land, and resorted to by devout pagans, they nevertheless please not God, because they receive not his Messiah.
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Contrary to all men—Almost repeating the words of Tacitus, the Roman historian, adversus omnes alios hostile odium, “a hatred against all others.” The exclusiveness of their monotheism alone would not justify, though it probably occasioned, this charge. But to that the Jews added a fanatical contempt of others instead of a benevolence. It was this fanaticism that not only prevented their accepting Christ, but inspired them to persecute Paul for presenting Christ to either Jews or Gentiles.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 15. who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their…
15. who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets] Revised reading, simply the prophets.
Christ represented His death as the culmination of the murders of the ancient prophets (Luk_11:47-52; Luk_13:31-33; Luk_20:9-16); St Stephen had said the same thing in Paul’s hearing, with poignant force (Act_7:52). Now the Apostle takes up the accusation.
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More exactly, killed the Lord, (even) Jesus; or, changing the grammatical form but retaining the order of the Greek words, The Lord they slew, Jesus,—as well as the prophets. This sets the deed in an appalling light. To have killed the Lord—Who bears a title that belongs to God, and “Him whom they were bound to serve” (Jowett); (comp. 1Co_2:8 : They “crucified the Lord of glory”); that Lord being Jesus their Saviour (comp. Act_4:12), and such an one as Jesus was known to be! The double name, emphasized in each part, brings into striking relief at once the Divine authority and the human character of Christ. Comp. Act_2:36 (“Him did God make both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified!”); also the parable of Luk_20:9-18, Mar_12:1-11, “The husbandmen said, This is the heir; come, let us kill him!”
and have persecuted us] Better, and drave us out (R. V.), words which echo those of Christ in Luk_11:49 : “I will send them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute.” Already Christ, like the prophets, had been killed; and now His apostles were driven out, “fleeing from city to city” (Mat_23:34) to avoid the like fate. Read the account of Paul’s departure from Jerusalem in Act_9:28-30; and his later experience there, Acts 21-23; also the narrative of James’ death and Peter’s escape from Herod’s prison, in Act_12:1-9. Paul and Silas had now been hunted all the way from Philippi to Corinth by Jewish malignity, and it was only the authority and good sense of the Roman Governor, Gallio, that made it possible for him to remain in the latter city. Comp. 2Co_11:26 : “In perils from mine own countrymen.”
and they please not God] Omit they, and put a comma only before this clause, for it is immediately continuous with the last: more exactly, and are not pleasing to God. This is an instance of what the grammarians call meiosis or litotes, the studiously restrained and smooth expression covering intense feeling; as where the Apostle says, “I praise yon not,” meaning severe blame (1Co_11:17; 1Co_11:22). Their unpleasingness to God was due not to these wicked acts alone, but to their whole conduct. Comp., in the O.T., such sayings as Isa_65:5 : “These are a smoke in My nostrils;” and Jer_32:30. By contrast, the Apostle spoke of himself as “not pleasing men, but God” (1Th_2:4).
and are contrary to all men] At war both with God and men! The sense of God’s displeasure often shews itself in sourness and ill-temper towards one’s fellows. Unbelief and cynicism go together. The rancour of the Jews against other nations at this time was notorious. Tacitus, the Roman historian, writing in the next generation, remarks on their “adversus omnes alios hostile odium” (Histor. 1Th_2:5). This animosity culminated in the war against Rome (a.d. 66–70), and brought a fearful retribution.
The quarrel between Judaism and the world, alas, still continues, as the Judenhasse of Germany and Russia testifies. Jewish hatred has been more than repaid by Christian persecution. The antipathy is powerfully impersonated in Shakespeare’s Shylock. The Jew says of his debtor, “I hate him, for he is a Christian.” And Antonio in turn:
“You may as well use question with the wolf,
Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb;
You may as well do anything most hard,
As seek to soften that (than which what’s harder?)
His Jewish heart.”
But we may hope that better feelings will prevail in the future on both sides. St Paul is thinking, however, not of the Jewish sentiment in general, but of the opposition of his people to the rest of the world on that one point which concerned him so deeply, viz. the salvation of men through Christ.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (15) Who both killed.—A tremendous invective against the Jews,…
(15) Who both killed.—A tremendous invective against the Jews, the purpose of which is (1) to show the deep sympathy of St. Paul with the persecuted Thessalonians, and his indignation against the persecutors; (2) to make them see still more deeply the value of their faith by the efforts made to keep it from them. Objection is often made to St. John’s Gospel on the ground that no born Jew could have written of “the Jews” in the bitter way so common in that book, or viewed them so completely as a separate body from himself. This passage, in an indubitable epistle of “a Hebrew of the Hebrews.” seems a satisfactory answer. The memories of St. Stephen’s speech (Act_7:52) seem to be waking in the mind of him who was once a persecuting Jew himself.
Have persecuted.—Take the marginal version, “chased” (not “have chased”) “us violently out of Thessalonica.”
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They please not God—(though to serve and please Him was the special purpose for which the nation was set apart, ) “and are at cross purposes with all mankind.” The historian Tacitus gives, as a characteristic of the race, “an attitude of hostility and hatred towards all others.” Juvenal makes the same accusation.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Who both killed the Lord Jesus; emphatic, to point…
Who both killed the Lord Jesus; emphatic, to point out the greatness of their wickedness. And their own prophets; or, as some manuscripts read, and the prophets. This crime was often laid to the charge of the Jews: thus, by our Lord, "Ye are witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets"; (Mat_23:31) and by the protomartyr Stephen, "Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?" (Act_7:25) And have persecuted us; literally, driven us out, as Paul and Silos were expelled from Thessalonica. And they please not God, but are contrary to all men. The hatred and contempt which the Jews bore to other nations is noticed by Tacitus, Juvenal, and other heathen writers. Thus Tacitus writes of them: "They are faithful to obstinacy, and merciful toward themselves, but toward all others are actuated by the most irreconcilable hatred (odium humani generis)." And Juvenal says, "They will not show the road to one who was not of their religion, nor lead the thirsty person if uncircumcised to the common spring." Perhaps, however, the apostle refers here, not to the enmity of the Jews to the human race in general, though perfectly cognizant of their bigotry and intolerance; as this enmity was a perversion of their peculiar distinction as he people of God; but rather to their opposition to his preaching the gospel to the Gentiles to their extreme reluctance that the Gentiles along with themselves should be admitted into the kingdom of God.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own…
1Th_2:15-16
Who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets
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Pauls indictment of the Jews
The apostle goes off upon the word Jews to describe the evil deeds of his countrymen.
I. The explanation of the indictment. Various views have been offered.
1. That as the persecution of believers in Thessalonica, though from the heathen, was yet directly instigated by the Jews, it was natural that Paul should turn aside to speak of them and their wickedness.
2. That the apostle, at the very time of writing, was himself suffering at their hands (Act_18:5-6; Act_18:12). His mind, therefore, we can well conceive, was full of thoughts regarding these Jewish misdeeds, and hence he bursts forth into utterances of sorrowful indignation.
3. That the Thessalonians were converts from Polytheism to a monotheistic religion which was a growth out of Judaism, They could, consequently, hardly fail to stumble by seeing Jews everywhere its most violent opponents. Paul may have striven to meet this state of mind, by showing that the opposition of the Jews was in keeping with their whole character and conduct.
II. Its subject matter.
1. The culminating point in Jewish wickedness is the casting out and murder of their Messiah. In ignorance they did it, it is true. Yet that ignorance was no justification, for the prophets, whose testimony was to Christ, the Jews had also slain. This is the indictment of the Old Testament, and also of Christ (Mat_23:29-39). Pauls words are but an echo of his Masters.
2. Seeing, then, that such was their past conduct, Paul adds, as naturally following, and have persecuted us. What had been meted out to Gods servants in the past it was to be expected would be extended to the apostles and believers. Under new conditions the Jewish character would again assert itself.
3. Hence he declares They please not God and are contrary to all men. The more he came in contact with Gentile life, the more he must have observed the intense dislike with which the Jews were everywhere regarded. Despising other nations, they were themselves only loathed by these nations in return; and now that Pauls feelings had broadened into the love of all mankind, he could not but recognize them as showing what Tacitus called adversus omnes alios hostile odium. The mark of Gods anger had been set upon them, and the Divine judgment had been ratified by men. When God loathes aught, men presently loathe it too.
4. But here it is not the dislike felt by others towards the Jews as the animosity of the Jews towards all others. Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, etc. Like their own Pharisees they would neither enter in themselves nor allow others to enter.
5. In thus standing in the way of the Gentiles salvation they were acting so as to fill up their own sins alway with fearful perseverance; alike before Christ had come, when He came, and now that He had gone, they had been filling up the measure of their guilt.
6. And now retribution was approaching. Wrath had already fallen, and was falling upon them; but in a short fourteen years it came upon them to the utmost in the destruction of their city and the dispersion of their race. (J. Hutchison, D. D.)
The fury of the old religion against the new
The transition from the old to a new order of things in the progress of religion is not always accomplished without opposition. Age is naturally and increasingly tenacious: and the old religion looks upon the new with suspicion, jealousy, fear, anger. The Jews had resisted the attempts of their own Divinely commissioned prophets to rouse them to a purer faith and life; but their fury reached its climax in their opposition to Christianity. Observe--
I. The fury of the Jews in their inhuman treatment of the great leaders of religious thought.
1. They plotted against the life of the worlds Redeemer; and, in spite of insufficient evidence to convict, and the endeavours of the Roman Procurator to release, they clamoured for His crucifixion, exclaiming, His blood be on us and on our children--a self-invoked imprecation that fell on them with terrible and desolating vengeance!
2. The sin of murder already darkly stained their race--the best and noblest of their prophets being the unoffending victims. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and Zechariah met with violent deaths. The charge of Stephen was unanswerable (Act_7:52).
3. The apostles were subjected to similar treatment--Have chased and driven us out. They drove them out of Thessalonica, afterwards out of Berea, and were at that moment engaged in instigating an insurrection to drive the apostle out of Corinth. The spirit of persecution is unchanged. Wherever the attempt is made to raise the Church, it is met with a jealous, angry opposition. And yet what a wretched, short-sighted policy does persecution reveal! It is the idolized weapon of the tyrant and the coward, the sport of the brutal, the sanguinary carnival of devils.
II. The fury of the Jews was displeasing to God. They fondly imagined that they were the favourites of heaven, and that all others were excluded from the Divine complacency. They could quote the words of their law, such as Deu_14:2, with the utmost facility, to support their assumption of superiority and exclusiveness, wilfully shutting their eyes to the difference between the holy intention of Jehovah, and their miserable failure to realize that intention. In all their opposition to Christianity they thought they were doing God service. How fatally blinding is sin--goading the soul to the commission of the most horrible crimes under the guise of virtue.
III. The fury of the Jews was hostile to man.
1. Their hostility was directed against the world of mankind. Are contrary to all men. The Jews of that period were the adversaries and despisers of all. Tacitus brands them as the enemies of all men: and Apion, the Egyptian, calls them Atheists and misanthropes, in fact, the most witless and dullest of barbarians.
2. Their hostility was embittered by a despicable religious jealousy. Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, etc. Here the fury of the old religion against the new reached its climax. It is the perfection of bigotry and cruelty to deny to our fellow men the only means of salvation! Into what monsters of barbarity will persecution convert men! Pharaoh persisted to such a degree of unreasonableness as to chastise the Hebrews for not accomplishing impossibilities! Julian the Apostate, carried his vengeful spirit to his deathbed.
IV. The fury of the Jews hurried them into irretrievable ruin.
1. Their wickedness was wilfully persistent. To fill up their sins alway--at all times, now as much as ever. So much so, the time is now come when the cup of their iniquity is filled to the brim, and nothing can prevent the consequent punishment. The desire to sin grows with its commission. St. Gregory says, Sinners would live forever that they might sin forever--a powerful argument for the endlessness of future punishment--the desire to sin is endless!
2. Their punishment was inevitable and complete. For the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost--is even now upon them. The process has begun. Their fury to destroy others will accelerate their own destruction. Punishment descended upon the wicked, unbelieving, and resisting Jews; and utter destruction upon their national status and religious supremacy.
Lessons:--
1. There is a fearful possibility of sinking into a lifeless formality, and a blind, infatuate opposition to the good.
2. The rage of man against the truth defeats its own ends and recoils in vengeance on himself. (G. Barlow.)
Guilty of the death of Christ
Bridaine was one of the most celebrated of the French preachers. Marmontel relates that in his sermons he sometimes had recourse to the interesting method of parables, with a view the more forcibly to impress important truths on the minds of his hearers. Preaching on the passion of Jesus Christ, he expressed himself thus:--A man, accused of a crime of which he was innocent, was condemned to death by the iniquity of his judges. He was led to punishment, but no gibbet was prepared, nor was there any executioner to perform the sentence. The people, moved with compassion, hoped that this sufferer would escape death. But one man raised his voice, and said, I am going to prepare a gibbet, and I will be the executioner. You groan with indignation! Well, my brethren, in each of you I behold this cruel man. Here are no Jews today, to crucify Jesus Christ: but you dare to rise up, and say, I will crucify Him. Marmontel adds, that he heard these words pronounced by the preacher, though very young, with all the dignity of an apostle, and with the most powerful emotion; and that such was the effect, that nothing was heard but the sobs of the auditory. For the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost--
The Jews under the wrath of God
Bishop Patrick quotes the following affecting inquiry addressed by Rabbi Samuel Moraccanus to a friend in the eleventh century:--I would fain learn from thee, out of the testimonies of the law, and the prophets, and other Scriptures, why the Jews are thus smitten in this captivity wherein we are, which may be properly termed the perpetual anger of God, because it hath no end. For it is now above a thousand years since we were carried captive by Titus; and yet our fathers, who worshipped idols, killed the prophets, and cast the law behind their back, were only punished with a seventy years captivity, and then brought home again; but now there is no end of our calamities, nor do the prophets promise any. If, says Bishop Patrick, this argument was hard to be answered then, in his days, it is much harder in ours, who still see them pursued by Gods vengeance, which can be for nothing else but rejecting and crucifying the Messiah, the Saviour of the world.
Severity consistent with benevolence
Take the case of an earthly parent. Suppose him to be endowed with all the tenderest sensibilities of nature, conceive of him as delighting in the health and welfare of his children, and, in the exercise of every benevolent affection, lavishing on them all the riches of a fathers kindness and a fathers care. You say, on looking at his benignant countenance and his smiling family, this is an affectionate father. But a secret canker of ingratitude seizes one or more of his children, they shun his presence, or dislike his society, and at length venture on acts of positive disobedience; he warns them, he expostulates with them, but in vain, they revolt more and more; and at length, in the exercise of deliberate thought, he lifts the rod and chastens them; and he who once was the author of all their happiness has become also their calm but firm reprover. And who that knows the tenderness of a fathers love will not acknowledge that, severe as may be the suffering inflicted, such a man doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of his love? Again, conceive of a man of benevolent feelings invested with the office of magistrate or judge--conceive that Howard, the unwearied friend of his race, who visited the prisons of Europe to alleviate the miseries of the worst and most destitute of men--conceive of such a man sitting in judgment over the life or liberty of another, and can you not suppose, that while every feeling within him inclined him to the side of mercy, and his every sensibility would be gratified, were it possible to make the felon virtuous and happy, he might, notwithstanding, have such a deep moral persuasion of the importance of virtue and order to the well-being of the state, that he could consign the prisoner to a dungeon or the gallows, and that, too, with the perfect conviction that it was right and good to do so; while still, every sentiment of the heart within him, if it could be disclosed, would bear witness, that he afflicted not willingly, and that he had no pleasure in the death of the criminal? Such a father, and such a judge is God; and the sufferings which he inflicts, whether they be viewed as corrective or penal, are compatible with the loftiest benevolence in the Divine mind. (Dr. J. Buchanan.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 15. Who both killed. The Jews in Thessalonica had…
15. Who both killed. The Jews in Thessalonica had incited the persecution there. Their hostility to righteousness elsewhere is cited. They not only slew the Savior, but had killed their own prophets (Matt. 23:31). Persecuted us. The apostles and evangelists, and especially Paul. Their hatred pursued them everywhere.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain 1Th_2:15. Who both killed.—The New Testament form of the…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1Th_2:15. Who both killed.—The New Testament form of the verb is always compound—as we should say, “killed off.” A tragic contrast to what might have been expected is set forth in our Lord’s parable. “It may be they will reverence My Son.” … They cast Him out and killed Him off (Luk_20:13-15). Have persecuted us.—A.V. margin, “chased us out.” R.V. text, “drave.” How deeply humbling was the thought to St. Paul, that he had at one time taken part in this hounding! The A.V. margin gives us a most vivid picture. They please not God.—This expression is thought by some to be a meiosis, a softening down of the hard reality by the negative form of the language. Is not the best comment found in Joh_16:2, “Whosoever killeth you shall think that he offereth service unto God”? The sophistry that makes “killing no murder” and sanctions an auto da fé is something quite other than pleasing to God. Are contrary to all men.—“The sense of God’s displeasure often shows itself in sourness and ill temper towards one’s fellows. Unbelief and cynicism go together. The rancour of the Jews against other nations at this time was notorious.… The quarrel between Judaism and the world, alas, still continues, as the Judenhasse of Germany and Russia testifies” (Findlay).
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1Th_2:16. Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles.—The very spirit of the dog in the manger! They would not even have left the “uncovenanted mercies” to the Gentiles. To fill up their sins alway.—The phrase signifies ripeness for judgment, and is used in Gen_15:16 of the Amorites in Abraham’s time—an ominous parallel (Ibid.). For the wrath.—R.V, “but the wrath.” As though he said, “But the end comes at last; they have always been sowing this harvest; now it has to be reaped” (Ibid.).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Th_2:15-16
The Fury of the Old Religion against the New.
It is the natural order of things that the old must give place to the new. The inexorable operation of the law of progress is seen in a thousand different forms. In the world of vegetation the old life is continually yielding supremacy to the new. The leaves, buds, and blossoms of the tree, as they force their way to the light, fling their shadows on the grave where their predecessors lie decayed and buried—life blooming amid the ghastly emblems of death. And, in the world of religious thought and opinion, while divine truth remains in its essence unchangeably the same, old forms and old definitions are ever giving place to the new. The transition from the old to a new order of things in the progress of religion is not always accomplished without opposition. Age is naturally and increasingly tenacious; and the old religion looks upon the new with suspicion, with jealousy, with fear, with anger. The Jews had resisted the attempts of their own divinely commissioned prophets to rouse the nation to a purer faith and more vigorous religious life; but their fury reached its climax in their blind, unreasonable, and fiendish opposition to Christianity. The text describes the fury of the old religion against the new.
I. The fury of the Jews is seen in their inhuman treatment of the great leaders of religious thought.—“Who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us” (1Th_2:15).
1. They plotted against the life of the world’s Redeemer; and in spite of insufficient evidence to convict, and the endeavours of the Roman procurator to release, they clamoured for the immediate crucifixion of their innocent Victim, exclaiming in the wild intoxication of malignant passion, “His blood be on us and on our children”—a self-invoked imprecation that fell on them with terrible and desolating vengeance.
2. The sin of murder already darkly stained their race.—The best and noblest of their prophets were unoffending victims: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Zechariah, met with violent deaths. The charge of the proto-martyr Stephen was unanswerable (Act_7:52).
3. The apostles were subjected to similar treatment.—“And have persecuted us”—have chased and driven us out. They drove them out of Thessalonica, afterwards out of Berœa, and were at that moment engaged in instigating an insurrection to drive the apostle out of Corinth. The spirit of persecution is unchanged. Wherever the attempt is made to raise the Church from the grave of spiritual death and reanimate her creed and ritual with intenser reality and life, it is met with a jealous, angry opposition. What a wretched, short-sighted policy does persecution reveal! It is the idolised weapon of the tyrant and the coward, the sport of the brutal, the sanguinary carnival of demons!
II. The fury of the Jews was displeasing to God.—“They please not God” (1Th_2:15). They fondly imagined they were the favourites of heaven, and that all others were excluded from the divine complacency. They had the words of the law carefully committed to memory, and could quote them with the utmost facility to serve their own purpose. They would support their proud assumption of superiority and exclusiveness by quoting Deu_14:2, wilfully shutting their eyes to the vital difference between the holy intention of Jehovah and their miserably defective realisation of that intention. In their opposition to Christianity they thought they were doing God service; yet all the time they were displeasing to Him. How fatally blinding is sin, goading the soul to the commission of the most horrible crimes under the sacred guise of virtue!
III. The fury of the Jews was hostile to man.—
1. Their hostility was directed against the world of mankind. “Are contrary to all men” (1Th_2:15). The Jews of that period delighted in hatching all kinds of “sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion.” They were the adversaries of all, the despisers of all. Tacitus, the Roman historian, brands them as “the enemies of all men”; and Apion, the Egyptian, according to the admission of Josephus, calls them “atheists and misanthropes—in fact, the most witless and dullest of barbarians.”
2. Their hostility was embittered by a despicable religious jealousy.—“Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved” (1Th_2:16). Here the fury of the old religion against the new reached its climax. It is the perfection of bigotry and cruelty to deny to our fellow-men the only means of salvation. Into what monsters of barbarity will persecution turn men! Pharaoh persisted to such a degree of unreasonableness as to chastise the Hebrews for not accomplishing impossibilities! Julian, the apostate from Christianity, carried his vengeful spirit to his deathbed, and died cursing the Nazarene!
IV. The fury of the Jews hurried them into irretrievable ruin.—
1. Their wickedness was wilfully persistent. “To fill up their sins always” (1Th_2:16)—at all times, now as much as ever. So much so, the time is now come when the cup of their iniquity is filled to the brim, and nothing can prevent the consequent punishment. The desire to sin grows with its commission. “Sinners,” says St. Gregory, “would live for ever that they might sin for ever”—a powerful argument for the endlessness of future punishment. The desire to sin is endless.
2. Their punishment was inevitable and complete.—“For the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost” (1Th_2:16)—is even now upon them. The process has begun; their fury to destroy others will accelerate their own destruction. Punishment fell upon the wicked, unbelieving, and resisting Jews, and utter destruction upon their national status and religious supremacy (vide Josephus, Wars, Books v., vi.).
Lessons.—
1. There is a fearful possibility of sinking into a lifeless formality, and blind, infatuate opposition to the good.
2. The rage of man against the truth defeats its own ends, and recoils in vengeance on himself.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Th_2:15-16. The Persecuting Jews—
I. Often misled by professed zeal for truth.
II. Tortured and murdered the noblest men of their own race.
III. Opposed the gospel with violent and unreasoning severity.
IV. Have themselves been persecuted by all the nations among whom they sojourned.
V. Furnish an unanswerable argument for the truth of Christianity.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets,…
who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove out us, and please not God, and are contrary to all men ;
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 2:15 Paul was not anti-Jewish; out of love for…
2:15 Paul was not anti-Jewish; out of love for his own people, he prayed for their salvation (Rom 9:1-5; 10:1). But he was aware of the role some of the Jews had in the deaths of God’s messengers, including Jesus (1 Kgs 19:10; Acts 7:52). Now they had persecuted the apostolic messengers in Thessalonica (Acts 17:10; 2 Cor 11:26).
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