1 Thessalonians 2:15 - Exposition

Who both killed the Lord Jesus ; emphatic, to point out the greatness of their wickedness. And their own prophets ; or, as some manuscripts read, and the prophets . This crime was often laid to the charge of the Jews: thus, by our Lord, "Ye are witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets" ( Matthew 23:31 ); and by the protomartyr Stephen, "Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?" ( Acts 7:25 .) And have persecuted us ; literally, driven us out, as Paul and Silos were expelled from Thessalonica. And they please not God, but are contrary to all men. The hatred and contempt which the Jews bore to other nations is noticed by Tacitus, Juvenal, and other heathen writers. Thus Tacitus writes of them: "They are faithful to obstinacy, and merciful toward themselves, but toward all others are actuated by the most irreconcilable hatred ( odium humani generis )." And Juvenal says, "They will not show the road to one who was not of their religion, nor lead the thirsty person if uncircumcised to the common spring." Perhaps, however, the apostle refers here, not to the enmity of the Jews to the human race in general, though perfectly cognizant of their bigotry and intolerance; as this enmity was a perversion of their peculiar distinction as he people of God; but rather to their opposition to his preaching the gospel to the Gentiles—to their extreme reluctance that the Gentiles along with themselves should be admitted into the kingdom of God.