1 Thessalonians 2:15

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 (Luke 11:47-52; Luke 13:31-33; Luke 20:9-16); St Stephen had said the same thing in Paul's hearing, with poignant force (Acts 7:52). Now the Apostle takes up the accusation.

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 LordWho bears a title that belongs to God, and "Him whom they were bound to serve" (Jowett); (comp. 1 Corinthians 2:8: They "crucified the Lord of glory"); that Lord being Jesustheir Saviour (comp. Acts 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. Acts 2:36 ("Him did God make both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified!"); also the parable of Luke 20:9-18; Mark 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 Luke 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" (Matthew 23:34) to avoid the like fate. Read the account of Paul's departure from Jerusalem in Acts 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 Acts 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. 2 Corinthians 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 meiosisor litotes, the studiously restrained and smooth expression covering intense feeling; as where the Apostle says, "I praise yon not," meaning severe blame (1 Corinthians 11:17; 1 Corinthians 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 Isaiah 65:5: "These are a smoke in My nostrils;" and Jeremiah 32:30. By contrast, the Apostle spoke of himself as "not pleasing men, but God" (1 Thessalonians 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. 1 Thessalonians 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 Judenhasseof 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.