1 Thessalonians 2

Brothers and sisters, you yourselves know that our visit to you was not wasted.

1For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain:

Note"Brethren" translates the Greek *adelphoi*, literally "brothers," but used as the ordinary address to all the members of a congregation, women included. Paul uses it fourteen times in this short letter, which is why the rendering has "brothers and sisters." The King James "in vain" means empty or without result, not foolish.

2As you know, we had already been hurt and shamefully treated in Philippi. Even so, God gave us the courage to tell you his good news, though people fought us hard about it.

2But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention.

NotePhilippi was a Roman colony in Macedonia, about a hundred miles west of Thessalonica along the main road. According to Acts 16 Paul and Silas were stripped, beaten with rods and jailed there without trial, which is what "suffered before" points back to. "Shamefully entreated" is not about begging: in 1611 "entreat" meant to treat or handle someone, so the phrase means they were treated with insult and violence. "Much contention" translates *agon*, a word from the athletic arena meaning a contest or hard struggle, here the opposition the preachers met.

3The appeal we made to you did not come from lies, or from impure motives, or from any trick.

3For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile:

Note"Exhortation" here means the appeal or preaching itself, not a scolding. "Uncleanness" in modern English suggests sexual impurity, but the Greek word covers any corrupt or impure motive. "Guile" is an old word for trickery or bait, originally the deception used to catch fish or game. The three terms together are the standard charges laid against traveling preachers and philosophers in the ancient world: they lied, they were in it for sex or money, they worked by manipulation.

4Instead, God tested us and approved us, and trusted us with the good news, so that is how we speak. We are not trying to please people, but God, who examines our hearts.

4But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.

Note"Allowed of God" does not mean merely permitted. The Greek verb means tested and found fit, the way metal or a coin was assayed before being accepted, and the same word family produces "trieth" at the end of the verse. "Put in trust with" is the language of a steward handed property belonging to someone else.

5You know we never used flattering words. We never used our work as a cover for greed. God is our witness.

5For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness:

NoteA "cloke" is a cover or pretext, something thrown over an activity to disguise what it really is. "Covetousness" means greed for money or gain. "God is witness" is an oath formula: calling God to testify to something no human observer could verify, in this case the speakers' inward motives.

6We were not looking for praise from people, not from you and not from anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have expected you to support us.

6Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.

Note"Glory" here means praise and public honor from other people. "When we might have been burdensome" is deliberately double edged in Greek: the word means to throw one's weight around, and it can point both to claiming the status of an apostle and to claiming the material support an apostle could expect a congregation to provide. "Apostle" means one sent out as an authorized representative; the "we" of this letter is Paul together with Silvanus and Timothy.

7Instead, we were gentle with you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.

7But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children:

NoteA "nurse" in 1611 English is a wet nurse, a woman who suckles a child. The Greek adds "her own children," so the picture is not a hired nurse but a mother feeding her own baby, the tenderest image available. There is also a genuine dispute about the text here. The Greek manuscripts differ by a single letter between *epioi*, "gentle," which the King James follows, and *nepioi*, "infants," which would read "we became infants among you." The earliest copies favor "infants," most translations print "gentle," and either can be defended.

8We cared for you so much that we were glad to share with you not only God's good news but our own lives as well, because you had become dear to us.

8So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.

Note"Our own souls" translates a word meaning lives or selves rather than the immortal part of a person. The sense is that they handed over not only a message but themselves.

9Brothers and sisters, you remember our hard work and struggle. We worked night and day so we would not be a cost to any of you while we told you God's good news.

9For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.

Note"Travail" means exhausting toil, not childbirth. "Chargeable" means financially burdensome, a cost laid on someone. Paid teachers and philosophers in Greek cities either charged fees or attached themselves to a wealthy patron; Paul refused both and supported himself at a trade, which Acts identifies as tentmaking or leatherwork. "Night and day" is the ancient way round of saying it, since the working day of an artisan began before dawn.

10You are witnesses, and so is God, that our conduct toward you believers was holy, fair, and free from blame.

10Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:

Note"Holily and justly and unblameably" are three adverbs describing conduct: devout toward God, fair in dealings with people, and giving no one grounds for a complaint.

11You know that we dealt with each one of you the way a father deals with his own children. We urged you, we comforted you, and we told you plainly

11As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children,

12to live in a way worthy of God, who has called you into his own kingdom and glory.

12That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.

13This is also why we thank God all the time. When you received the message from God that you heard from us, you did not take it as a human message. You took it as what it truly is, God's message, which is at work in you who believe.

13For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

Note"Effectually worketh" translates a verb meaning to be at work and producing an effect, the root behind the English word energy. It describes something active and ongoing, not a single past event.

14Brothers and sisters, you came to be like God's churches in Judea that belong to Christ Jesus. You suffered the same things from your own countrymen that they suffered from the Jews there,

14For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:

Note"Followers" in 1611 English means imitators, people whose experience came to look like someone else's, not disciples of those churches. "Church" translates *ekklesia*, an assembly or gathered group of people; there were no church buildings for another two centuries. Judaea is the region around Jerusalem. "The Jews" here translates a phrase that in this context means the particular Judean opponents of the mission just described, set in parallel with the Thessalonians' own pagan "countrymen"; Paul, Silvanus and the Judean congregations he is praising were themselves Jews.

15who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and who drove us out. They do not please God, and they are against everyone.

15Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:

Note"Contrary to all men" means hostile to everyone. The charge of hostility to the rest of the human race was a stock accusation made against Jews by Greek and Roman writers of the period, and Paul is using the language his Greek readers would have recognized.

16They try to stop us from speaking to people who are not Jews, so that those people may be saved. In this way they keep adding to their sins until the measure is full. But the anger of God has now come upon them to the fullest.

16Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.

Note"To fill up their sins alway" uses the image of a measuring vessel being filled to the brim, a common way of speaking about wrongdoing reaching a fixed limit. The last clause is genuinely ambiguous in Greek. The phrase rendered "to the uttermost" can mean completely, or finally, or at last, or until the end, and the verb can be read as "has come" or "has come at last"; translations divide on whether a past event, a present state, or a certain future is in view.

17Brothers and sisters, we were torn away from you for a short time, though only in person, not in heart. That made us want to see your faces even more, and we tried hard to do it.

17But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.

Note"Being taken from you" translates a verb built on the word for orphan. It is the language of bereavement, of a child torn away from parents or parents from a child, much stronger than the English suggests. "Presence" and "heart" are set against each other: absent in body, present in affection.

18So we wanted to come to you. I, Paul, tried more than once. But Satan blocked our way.

18Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.

Note"Satan" is a Hebrew word meaning adversary or accuser, carried over untranslated into Greek as a name. "Once and again" is an idiom for repeatedly, not exactly twice.

19After all, what is our hope, our joy, or the crown we are proud of? Is it not you yourselves, when we stand before our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?

19For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?

NoteThe "crown" is a *stephanos*, the wreath of leaves placed on the head of the winner at athletic games or on a guest of honor at a banquet, not a royal crown of metal. "Rejoicing" here carries the sense of boasting, the thing one can point to with pride. "His coming" translates *parousia*, the ordinary word for an arrival or a visit, used in that period for the ceremonial entry of a king or emperor into a city, when the citizens would go out to meet him and escort him in.

20Yes, you are our glory and our joy.

20For ye are our glory and joy.