1-thessalonians 2:15
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
American King James Version (AKJV)
Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
American Standard Version (ASV)
who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove out us, and pleased not God, and are contrary to all men;
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Who put to death the Lord Jesus and the prophets, violently driving us out; who are unpleasing to God and against all men;
Webster's Revision
Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
World English Bible
who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and didn't please God, and are contrary to all men;
English Revised Version (ERV)
who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drave out us, and please not God, and are contrary to all men;
Clarke's 1-thessalonians 2:15 Bible Commentary
Who hath killed the Lord Jesus, etc. - What a finished but just character is this of the Jews!
1. They slew the Lord Jesus, through the most unprincipled and fell malice.
2. They killed their own prophets; there was no time in which the seed of the serpent did not hate and oppose spiritual things, they slew even their own prophets who declared to them the will of God.
3. They persecuted the apostles; showing the same spirit of enmity to the Gospel which they had shown to the law.
4. They did not please God, nor seek to please him; though they pretended that their opposition to the Gospel was through their zeal for God's glory, they were hypocrites of the worst kind.
5. They were contrary to all men; they hated the whole human race, and judged and wished them to perdition.
6. They forbade the apostles to preach to the Gentiles, lest they should be saved; this was an inveteracy of malice completely superhuman; they persecuted the body to death, and the soul to damnation! They were afraid that the Gentiles should get their souls saved if the Gospel was preached to them!
7. They filled up their sins always; they had no mere purposes or outlines of iniquity, all were filled up; every evil purpose was followed, as far as possible, with a wicked act! Is it any wonder, therefore, that wrath should come upon them to the uttermost? It is to be reckoned among the highest mercies of God that the whole nation was not pursued by the Divine justice to utter and final extinction.
Barnes's 1-thessalonians 2:15 Bible Commentary
Who both killed the Lord Jesus - see the notes on Acts 2:23. The meaning here is, that it was characteristic of the Jews to be engaged in the work of persecution, and that they should not regard it as strange that they who had put their own Messiah to death, and slain the prophets, should now be found persecuting the true children of God.
And their own prophets - see the Matthew 21:33-40; Matthew 23:29-37 notes; Acts 7:52 note.
And have persecuted us - As at Iconium Acts 14:1, Derbe, and Lystra Acts 14:6, and at Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. The meaning is, that it was characteristic of them to persecute, and they spared no one. If they had persecuted the apostles themselves, who were their own countrymen, it should not be considered strange that they should persecute those who were Gentiles.
And they please not God - Their conduct is not such as to please God, but such as to expose them to his wrath; 1 Thessalonians 2:16. The meaning is not that they did not aim to please God - whatever may have been the truth about that - but that they had shown by all their history that their conduct could not meet with the divine approbation. They made extraordinary pretensions to being the special people of God, and it was important for the apostle to show that their conduct demonstrated that they had no such claims. Their opposition to the Thessalonians, therefore, was no proof that God was opposed to them, and they should not allow themselves to be troubled by such opposition. It was rather proof that they were the friends of God - since those who now persecuted them had been engaged in persecuting the most holy people that had lived.
And are contrary to all men - They do not merely differ from other people in customs and opinions - which might be harmless - but they keep up an active opposition to all other people. It was not opposition to one nation only, but to all; it was not to one form of religion only, but to all - even including God's last revelation to mankind; it was not opposition evinced in their own country, but they carried it with them wherever they went. The truth of this statement is confirmed, not only by authority of the apostle and the uniform record in the New Testament, but by the testimony borne of them in the classic writers. This was universally regarded as their national characteristic, for they had so demeaned themselves as to leave this impression on the minds of those with whom they had contact. Thus Tacitus describes them as "cherishing hatred against all others" - adversus omnes alios hostile odium; Hist. v. 5. So Juvenal (Sat. xiv. 103, 104), describes them.
Non monstrare vias eadem nisi sacra colenti,
Quaesitum a.d. fontem solos deducere verpos.
"They would not even point out the way to any one except of the same religion, nor, being asked, guide any to a fountain except the circumcised." So they are called by Appollonius "atheists and misanthropes, and the most uncultivated barbarians" - ἀθεοι καὶ μισανθρώποι καὶ ἀφεῦστατοι τῶν βάρβαρῶν atheoi kai misanthrōpoi kai apheustatoi tōn barbarōn; Josephus, Contra Apion ii. 14. So Diodorus Siculus (34:p. 524), describes them as "those alone among all the nations who were unwilling to have any contact (or intermingling - επιμιξιας) epimixias with any other nation, and who regarded all others as enemies" καὶ πολεμίους ὑπολαμβάνειν πάντας kai polemious hupolambanein pantas. Their history had given abundant occasion for these charges.
Wesley's 1-thessalonians 2:15 Bible Commentary
2:15 Us - Apostles and preachers of the gospel. They please not God - Nor are they even careful to please him, notwithstanding their fair professions. And are contrary to all men - Are common enemies of mankind; not only by their continual seditions and insurrections, and by their utter contempt of all other nations; but in particular, by their endeavouring to hinder their hearing or receiving the gospel.