1 Thessalonians 2:13-16

section iii

Jewish Persecutors of the Church. Ch. 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16

This short paragraph is of peculiar interest. The Apostle was at the time exposed in his Gentile mission to the bitterest persecution from the unbelieving Jews, as we gather from the contemporary narrative of Acts 16-18. And he employs against them in 1 Thessalonians 2:15 language more severe than is found in any other of his writings. Evidently he regarded the Jews as being now, in the counsels of God, a doomed nation (1 Thessalonians 2:16). Accordingly, we find him in Romans 9-11, a few years later, arguing upon the reprobation of "Israel after the flesh" as a settled thing. We observe, too, his desire (1 Thessalonians 2:14) to draw the Jewish and Gentile sections of the Church nearer to each other in sympathy under the stress of persecution. As to the bearing of this passage on the date of the Epistle, see Introd.p. 23, foot-not[7].

[7] foot-noteIt is necessary to observe that the opponents St Paul has in view in 1 Thessalonians 2 (see esp. 1 Thessalonians 2:15) are unconverted Jews, altogether hostile to the gospel Paul preached. The Jews of Thessalonica drove him from this city, and following him to Berœa attacked him there; and their compatriots at Corinth imitated their example, though happily not with the same success (Acts 17:5; Acts 17:13; Acts 18:12-17). Of the Jewish Christiansopposed to Paul and his Gentile mission, the "false brethren" who afterwards "troubled" him at Corinth and in Galatia, we find in these Epistles no trace whatever.

Analysis: The Apostle (1) again thanks God for the reception given to the Gospelby his readers, 1 Thessalonians 2:13; (2) he sees in their union with the Judean Churches in persecutiona proof of its efficacy in them, 1 Thessalonians 2:14; and (3) this gives him occasion to denounce Jewish violenceagainst the Gospel, whose punishment is now decreed and impending, 1 Thessalonians 2:15.