1 Thessalonians 3:4

For verily, when we were with you, we told you before More precisely, used to tell you; this was no single warning, but one repeated and familiar. For other references to the apostles" previous instruction, see ch. 1Th 2:11-12; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-2; 2 Thessalonians 2:5; 2 Thessalonians 2:15; 2 Thessalonians 3:10.

that we should suffer tribulation So rendered again in 2Th 1:4; 2 Thessalonians 1:6, and elsewhere in the A.V.; but the word is the same as that used in 1 Thessalonians 3:3; 1 Thessalonians 3:7, and ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:6 affliction (R. V.). The A.V. too often breaks the connection of the sacred writer's thought by needless variations of this sort.

shouldis made clearer by the Revised are to suffer: this was matter of certainty in the future, being Divinely appointed (1 Thessalonians 3:3), a thing one might count upon. And so the event proved: even as it came to pass, and ye know.

All this is recalled to the minds of the readers and dwelt on with iteration, not to justify the Apostle's foresight for it needed no gift of prophecy to anticipate persecution at Thessalonica but to make them realise how well they had been prepared for what they are now experiencing, and so far to reconcile them to it; comp. John 14:29; 1 Peter 4:12, "Beloved, count it not strange." Dr Jowett gives an admirable analysis of the causes of persecution in the Apostolic times in his notes upon this Chapter (The Epp. of St Paul to the Thessalonians, &c., pp. 70 73, 2nd edition), from which we extract the following sentences: "The fanatic priest, led on by every personal and religious motive; the man of the world, caring for none of these things, but not the less resenting the intrusion on the peace of his home; the craftsman, fearing for his gains; the accursed multitude, knowing not the law, but irritated at the very notion of this mysterious society of such real, though hidden strength, would all work together towards the overthrow of those who seemed to them to be turning upside down the political, religious, and social order of the world.… The actual persecution of the Roman government was slight, but what may be termed social persecution and the illegal violence employed towards the first disciples unceasing."