1 Thessalonians 3:4

καὶ γὰρ ὅτε πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἧμεν, προελέγομεν κ.τ.λ. In support of the rule just stated, the Apostles recall their own definite and repeated warnings. For εἰμὶ πρός—the “with” of personal converse—cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:5; 2 Thessalonians 3:1; 2 Thessalonians 3:10; also Galatians 1:18; John 1:1. The impf. προελέγομεν, like ἐλέγομεν in 2 Thessalonians 2:5, supposes reiterated warning; the language of the sequel, μέλλομεν κ.τ.λ., sustains the sense “fore-tell” for this verb—otherwise it might be rendered, “we told you openly (or plainly),” as in R.V. margin; cf. πρόκειμαι in 2 Corinthians 8:12. The same ambiguity attaches to προ-λέγω in 2 Corinthians 13:2; Galatians 5:21.

ὅτι μέλλομεν θλίβεσθαι, that we are to be afflicted (writers and readers; see note on κείμεθα, 1 Thessalonians 3:3). The persecution of the missionaries and their converts sprang from the same source (see 1 Thessalonians 2:14 f.; Acts 17:5), the malignity and persistence of which were patent from the first in Thessalonica.

Ὅτι μέλλομεν, not μέλλοιμεν: the moods of oratio recta are almost always in N.T. Greek taken over unchanged in the subordinate clause, whether the verbum dicendi be primary or historical in tense; see Winer-Moulton, p. 376.

καθὼς καὶ ἐγένετο καὶ οἴδατε, as indeed it proved, and you know: an appeal to the facts of the case and the experience of the readers. On the latter point, and the recurrence of this appeal (cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:3), see notes to 1 Thessalonians 1:5 and 1 Thessalonians 2:1. The reminder should help to prevent the Thessalonian believers from being “shaken amid these afflictions”: what had happened was natural and expected; it is “no strange thing” (1 Peter 4:12).