I Thessalonians 2:15
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who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
the Lord Jesus--rather as Greek, "Jesus THE LORD." This enhances the glaring enormity of their sin, that in killing Jesus they killed the LORD (Compare Act 3:14-15). their own--omitted in the oldest manuscripts. prophets-- (Mat 21:33-41; Mat 23:31-37; Luk 13:33). persecuted us--rather as Greek (see Margin), "By persecution drove us out" (Luk 11:49). please not God--that is, they do not make it their aim to please God. He implies that with all their boast of being God's peculiar people, they all the while are "no pleasers of God," as certainly as, by the universal voice of the world, which even they themselves cannot contradict, they are declared to be perversely "contrary to all men." JOSEPHUS [Against Apion, 2.14], represents one calling them "Atheists and Misanthropes, the dullest of barbarians"; and TACITUS [Histories, 5.5], "They have a hostile hatred of all other men." However, the contrariety to all men here meant is, in that they "forbid us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved" (Th1 2:16).
Open source ↗In this chapter the apostle puts the Thessalonians in mind of the manner of his preaching among them (Th1 2:1-6). Then of the manner of his conversation among them (Th1 2:7-12). Afterwards of the success of his ministry, with the effects both on himself and on them (Th1 2:13-16), and then apologizes for his absence (Th1 2:17-20).
Open source ↗2:15 Paul was not anti-Jewish; out of love for his own people, he prayed for their salvation (Rom 9:1-5; 10:1). But he was aware of the role some of the Jews had in the deaths of God’s messengers, including Jesus (1 Kgs 19:10; Acts 7:52). Now they had persecuted the apostolic messengers in Thessalonica (Acts 17:10; 2 Cor 11:26).
Open source ↗Cross-references
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Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.
Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—
He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!
You killed the Author of life, but God raised Him from the dead, and we are witnesses of the fact.
Our chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to the sentence of death, and they crucified Him.
All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging Him on a tree.
And seeing that this pleased the Jews, Herod proceeded to seize Peter during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Then Haman informed King Xerxes, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples of every province of your kingdom. Their laws are different from everyone else’s, and they do not obey the king’s laws. So it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them.