μιμηταί, and soon helpers (Romans 15:26). The fact that they were exposed to persecution, and bore it manfully, proved that the gospel was a power in their lives, and also that they were in the legitimate succession of the churches. Such obstacles would as little thwart their course as they had thwarted that of Jesus or of his immediate followers. συμφ. might include Jews (Acts 17:6), but Gentiles predominate in the writer's mind. The καί after καθώς simply emphasises the comparison (as in 1 Thessalonians 4:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:13). As Calvin suggests, the Thessalonians may have wondered why, if this was the true religion, it should be persecuted by the Jews, who had been God's people. σ. is racial rather than local, but the local persecution may have still been due in part to Jews (cf. Zimmer, pp. 16 f.).

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Old Testament