1 Thessalonians 2:14

For 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:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) For ye.—“The effectual power of this word upon you is shown in your joining the Church in spite of such difficulties.”

Followers.—Better, imitators. The churches of Judæa are probably selected for example, not only as being the oldest and best-organised churches, but the most afflicted, both by want (Acts 11:29; Acts 24:17; Romans 15:26), and (chiefly) by persecution from the “Jews.”

Your own countrymen.—See Acts 17:8-9. It was always the Jewish policy to persecute by means of others. Evidently the Thessalonian Church is almost entirely Gentile.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:13-16 We should receive the word of God with affections suitable to its holiness, wisdom, truth, and goodness. The words of men are frail and perishing, like themselves, and sometimes false, foolish, and fickle; but God's word is holy, wise, just, and faithful. Let us receive and regard it accordingly. The word wrought in them, to make them examples to others in faith and good works, and in patience under sufferings, and in trials for the sake of the gospel. Murder and persecution are hateful to God, and no zeal for any thing in religion can excuse it. Nothing tends more to any person or people's filling up the measure of their sins, than opposing the gospel, and hindering the salvation of souls. The pure gospel of Christ is abhorred by many, and the faithful preaching of it is hindered in many ways. But those who forbid the preaching it to sinners, to men dead in sin, do not by this please God. Those have cruel hearts, and are enemies to the glory of God, and to the salvation of his people, who deny them the Bible.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus - Which are united to the Lord Jesus, or which are founded on his truth: that is, which are true churches. Of those churches they became "imitators" - μιμηταὶ mimētai - to wit, in their sufferings. This does not mean that they were founded on the same model; or that they professed to be the followers of those churches, but that they had been treated in the same way, and thus were like them. They had been persecuted in the same manner, and by the same people - the Jews; and they had borne their persecutions with the same spirit. The object of this is to comfort and encourage them, by showing them that others had been treated in the same manner, and that it was to be expected that a true church would be persecuted by the Jews. They ought not, therefore, to consider it as any evidence that they were not a true church that they had been persecuted by those who claimed to be the people of God, and who made extraordinary pretensions to piety.

For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen - Literally, "of those who are of your fellow-tribe, or fellowclansmen " - συμφυλέτων sumphuletōn. The Greek word means "one of the same tribe," and then a fellow-citizen, or fellowcountryman. It is not elsewhere used in the New Testament. The particular reference here seems not to be to the pagan who were the agents or actors in the scenes of tumult and persecutions, but to the Jews by whom they were led on, or who were the prime movers in the persecutions which they had endured. It is necessary to suppose that they were principally Jews who were the cause of the persecution which had been excited against them, in order to make the parallelism between the church there and the churches in Palestine exact. At the same time there was a propriety in saying that, though the parallelism was exact, it was by the "hands of their own countrymen" that it was done; that is, they were the visible agents or actors by whom it was done - the instruments in the hands of others.

In Palestine. the Jews persecuted the churches directly; out of Palestine, they did it by means of others. They were the real authors of it, as they were in Judea, but they usually accomplished it by producing an excitement among the pagan, and by the plea that the apostles were making war on civil institutions. This was the case in Thessalonica. "The Jews which believed not, moved with envy, set all the city on an uproar." "They drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, 'Those that have turned the world up side down have come hither also;'" Acts 17:5-6. The same thing occurred a short time after at Berea. "When the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also and stirred up the people;" Acts 17:13; compare Acts 14:2. "The unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil-affected against the brethren." "The Epistle, therefore, represents the case accurately as the history states it. It was the Jews always who set on foot the persecutions against the apostles and their followers;" Paley, Hor. Paul. in loc. It was, therefore, strictly true, as the apostle here states it:

(1) that they were subjected to the same treatment from the Jews as the churches in Judea were, since they were the authors of the excitement against them; and,

(2) that it was carried on, as the apostle states, "by their own countrymen;" that is, that they were the agents or instruments by which it was done. This kind of undesigned coincidence between the Epistle and the history in the Acts of the Apostles, is one of the arguments from which Paley (Hor. Paul.) infers the genuineness of both.

As they have of the Jews - Directly. In Palestine there were no others but Jews who could be excited against Christians, and they were obliged to appear as the persecutors themselves.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. followers—Greek, "imitators." Divine working is most of all seen and felt in affliction.

in Judea—The churches of Judea were naturally the patterns to other churches, as having been the first founded, and that on the very scene of Christ's own ministry. Reference to them is specially appropriate here, as the Thessalonians, with Paul and Silas, had experienced from Jews in their city persecutions (Ac 17:5-9) similar to those which "the churches in Judea" experienced from Jews in that country.

in Christ Jesus—not merely "in God"; for the synagogues of the Jews (one of which the Thessalonians were familiar with, Ac 17:1) were also in God. But the Christian churches alone were not only in God, as the Jews in contrast to the Thessalonian idolaters were, but also in Christ, which the Jews were not.

of your own countrymen—including primarily the Jews settled at Thessalonica, from whom the persecution originated, and also the Gentiles there, instigated by the Jews; thus, "fellow countrymen" (the Greek term, according to Herodian, implies, not the enduring relation of fellow citizenship, but sameness of country for the time being), including naturalized Jews and native Thessalonians, stand in contrast to the pure "Jews" in Judea (Mt 10:36). It is an undesigned coincidence, that Paul at this time was suffering persecutions of the Jews at Corinth, whence he writes (Ac 18:5, 6, 12); naturally his letter would the more vividly dwell on Jewish bitterness against Christians.

even as they—(Heb 10:32-34). There was a likeness in respect to the nation from which both suffered, namely, Jews, and those their own countrymen; in the cause for which, and in the evils which, they suffered, and also in the steadfast manner in which they suffered them. Such sameness of fruits, afflictions, and experimental characteristics of believers, in all places and at all times, is a subsidiary evidence of the truth of the Gospel.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This proves the assertion of the foregoing verse, as the illative for doth show. They were

followers of the churches in Judea, which showed the word wrought in them effectually. Though the greatest part of the Jews believed not, yet many did, and hereupon we read of churches in Judea. Though there was before but one national church, yet now in gospel times the churches were many. And believing in Christ they are called churches in him, gathered together in his name, into his institutions, and by his Spirit; and these Thessalonians became followers or imitators of them, or in the same circumstances with them. The churches among the Jews were the first planted, and the Gentile churches followed them, conforming to the faith, worship, and order that was first in them, yea, and imitating their faith and patience in suffering.

For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen; the Jews that believed suffered from the unbelieving Jews of their own country; so did these Thessalonians. But whether the apostle means only the Gentiles of Thessalonica, or the Jews that dwelt there and were born among them, is uncertain; for the persecution mentioned Acts 17:1-34, was chiefly from the Jewish synagogue, though the Gentiles might also join with them therein.

Even as they have of the Jews: they suffered as the churches of Judea, namely, in the same kind, as Hebrews 10:32-34; and in the same cause, and with the same joy, constancy, and courage. And here Christ’s words are fulfilled, that a man’s enemies shall be those of his own house, Matthew 10:36.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God,.... As of the Lord and of the apostle, 1 Thessalonians 1:6 so of the churches of God that were before them, who were gathered out of the world by the grace of God; and who were united in the fear of God, and assembled together for his worship, to bear a testimony to his truth and ordinances, and for the glory of his name: these they followed in the faith and order of the Gospel, and "became like" them, as the Syriac and Ethiopic versions render the word; or "equal" to them, were upon an equal foot with them, as the Arabic; that is, in suffering reproach and persecution for the Gospel, as the latter part of the verse shows; and their bearing these with patience, courage, and constancy, was a proof that the word of God had a place, and wrought effectually in them; otherwise they would never have endured such things as they did, and as other churches did:

which in Judea are in Christ Jesus; for besides the church at Jerusalem, there were many churches in Judea and Galilee; see Acts 9:31 which shows that the primitive churches were not national, but congregational: and these were in Christ Jesus; "in the faith" of Jesus Christ, as the Arabic version renders it; which distinguishes them from the synagogues, or congregations of the Jews, which did not believe in Christ; See Gill on 1 Thessalonians 1:1.

For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen; the inhabitants of Thessalonica, the baser sort of them, who were stirred up by the unbelieving Jews of that place, to make an uproar in the city, and assault the house of Jason, in order to seize upon the apostles; see Acts 17:6.

Even as they have of the Jews; in like manner as the churches of Judea suffered by the Jews their countrymen; see Acts 8:1 Hebrews 10:32.

Geneva Study Bible

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

(12) He strengthens and encourages them in their afflictions which they suffered among their own people, because they were afflicted by their own countrymen. And this happened, he says, to the churches of the Jews, as well as to them: and therefore they ought to take it in good part.

(g) Which Christ has gathered together.

(h) Even from those who are from the same country and the same town that you are from.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 Thessalonians 2:14 is not designed, as Oecumenius, Calvin, and Pelt think, to prove the sincerity with which the Thessalonians received the gospel, but is a proof of ὃς καὶ ἐνεργεῖται, 1 Thessalonians 2:13. In not shunning to endure sufferings for the sake of the gospel, the Thessalonians had demonstrated that the word of God had already manifested its activity among them, had already become a life-power, a moving principle in them.

ὑμεῖς γάρ] an emphatic resumption of the previous ὑμῖν τοῖς πιστεύουσιν.

μιμηταί] imitators, certainly not in intention or design, but in actual fact or result.

ἀδελφοί] The frequent repetition of this address (comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:4, 1 Thessalonians 2:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 1 Thessalonians 2:17) is significant of the ardent love of Paul toward the church. That Paul compares the conduct of the Thessalonians with that of the Palestinian churches is, according to Calvin, whom Calixtus follows, designed to remove the objection which might easily arise to his readers. As the Jews were the only worshippers of the true God outside of Christianity, so the attack on Christianity by the Jews might give rise to a doubt whether it were actually the true religion. For the removal of this doubt, the apostle, in the first place, shows that the same fate which had at an earlier period befallen the Palestinian churches had happened to the Thessalonians; and then, that the Jews were the hardened enemies of God and of all sound doctrine. But evidently such a design of the apostle is indicated by nothing, and its supposition is entirely superfluous, as every Christian must with admiration recognise the heroism of Christian resistance to persecution with which the Palestinian churches had distinguished themselves. Accordingly, it was a great commendation of the Thessalonians if the same heroic Christian stedfastness could be predicated of them. This holds good against the much more arbitrary and visionary opinion of Hofmann, that Paul, by the mention of the Palestinian churches, and the expression concerning the Jews therewith connected, designed to meet the erroneous notion or representation of what happened to the readers. As the conversion of the Thessalonians might in an intelligible manner appear in the eyes of their countrymen as a capture of them in the net of a Jewish doctrine, and hence on that side the reproach might be raised that, on account of this strange matter, they had become hostile to their own people; so it was entirely in keeping to show that the apostolic doctrine was anything but an affair of the Jewish people, that, on the contrary, the Jews were its bitterest enemies! Grotius would understand the present participle τῶν σὐσῶν in the sense of the participle of the preterite; whilst, appealing to Acts 8:4; Acts 11:19, he thinks that the Palestinian churches had by persecutions ceased to exist as such, only a few members remaining. But neither do the Acts justify such an opinion, nor is it in accordance with the words of Paul in Galatians 1:22. The further supposition which Grotius adds is strange and unhistorical, that some Christians expelled from Palestine had betaken themselves to Thessalonica, and that to them mainly a reference in our passage is made.

ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ] Oecumenius: εὐφυῶς διεῖλεν· ἐπειδὴ γὰρ καὶ αἱ συναγωγαὶ τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἐν Θεῷ εἶναι δοκοῦσι, τὰς τῶν πιστῶν ἐκκλησίας καὶ ἐν τῷ Θεῷ καὶ ἐν τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ λέγει εἶναι.

ὅτι] for.

τὰ αὐτά] the like things, denotes the general similarity of the sufferings endured. Grotius precariously specifies them by res vestras amisistis, pars fuistis ejecti.

συμφυλέτης] of the same φυλή, belonging to the same natural stock, contribulis, then generally countryman, fellow-countryman, ὁμοεθνής (Hesychius). Comp. Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 172, 471. By συμφυλέται we are naturally not to understand the Jews (Cornelius a Lapide, Hammond, Joachim Lange); for that the expression is best suited to them, as Braun (with Wolf) thinks, whilst possibly Jews of a particular tribe (perhaps of the tribe of Juda or Benjamin) were resident in Thessalonica, only merits to be mentioned on account of its curiosity. Also συμφυλέται is not, with Calvin, Piscator, Bengel, and others, to be understood both of Jews and Gentiles, but can only be understood of Gentiles. To this we are forced—(1) by the sharp contrast of συμφυλετῶν and Ἰουδαίων, which must be considered as excluding each other; (2) by the addition of ἰδιών to συμφυλετῶν, as the great majority of the Thessalonian church consisted of Gentiles; comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:9. However, although Paul in the expression συμφυλετῶν speaks only of Gentiles as persecutors, yet the strong invective against the Jews which immediately follows (1 Thessalonians 2:15-16) constrains us to assume that the apostle in 1 Thessalonians 2:14 had more in his mind than he expressed in words. As we learn from the Acts, it was, indeed, the heathen magistrates by whose authority the persecutions against the Christian church at Thessalonica proceeded, but the proper originators and instigators were here also the Jews; only they could not excite the persecution of the Christians directly, as the Jews in Palestine, but, hemmed in by the existing laws, could only do so indirectly, namely, by stirring up the heathen mob. This circumstance, united with the repeated experience of the inveterate spirit of opposition of the Jews, which Paul had in Asia at a period directly preceding this Epistle (perhaps also shortly before its composition at Corinth), is the natural and easily psychologically explanatory occasion of the polemic in 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16. Erroneously Olshausen gives the reason; he thinks it added in order to turn the attention of the Christians in Thessalonica to the intrigues of those men with whom the Judaizing Christians stood on a level, as it was to be foreseen that they would not leave this church also undisturbed; against which view de Wette correctly remarks, that there is no trace of such a warning, and that the Thessalonians did not require it, as they had learned sufficiently to know the enmity of the Jews against the gospel.

καθώς] Instead of this, properly ἅ or ἅπερ should have been put, corresponding to τὰ αὐτά (comp. Php 1:30, τὸν αὐτὸν … οἷον). However, even in the classics such inexact connections are very frequently found. See Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 426 f.; Bremi, ad Demosth. adv. Phil. I. p. 137; Kühner, II. p. 571. The double καί (καὶ ὑμεῖς … καὶ αὐτοί) brings out the comparison.

αὐτοί] denotes not the apostle and his assistants (Erasmus, Musculus, Er. Schmid), as such a prominent incongruity in the comparison is inconceivable; but the masculine as a recognised free construction (comp. Galatians 1:22-23) refers to τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ, thus denotes the Palestinian Christians.

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 Thessalonians 2:14. 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.).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus] Followers should be imitators (R. V.), just as in ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:6 : imitators of the apostles and of their Lord, the Thessalonians were imitating the Judæan Churches, and in the same respect, viz. in the willing endurance of suffering for the word’s sake. Silas, be it remembered, had been an active member of the Church at Jerusalem (Acts 15:22; Acts 15:32), and through him especially the missionary band would be in communication and sympathy at this time with their brethren in Judæa.

More strictly, which are in Judæa in Christ Jesus (R. V.). “In Judæa” is the local, “in Christ Jesus” the spiritual habitat of these Churches. This latter phrase—an expression characteristic of St Paul and frequent in subsequent Epistles—signifies “in union and communion with Him, incorporated with Him who is the Head” of His Body the Church (Ellicott). It distinguishes the Christian from other Judæan communities which also claimed to be “Churches (assemblies) of God.” Comp. note on “Church … in God the Father,” &c., ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:1.

Observe the order Christ Jesus, a combination almost confined to St Paul, and which he employs when he thinks of Him in His actual Person and official character, as the present Head and Life of His people on earth; whereas Jesus Christ is the historical order, and points to His earthly course and exaltation to Messiahship (see Acts 2:36).

“Church of God” is an O.T. expression, found in the Greek rendering of Nehemiah 13:1; Deuteronomy 23:1-3 (church of the Lord: congregation, A.V.); it denotes that the Church belongs to God, while it suggests, according to the derivation of ek-klesia, that its members are called out (of the world) by God (comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:12). In Galatians 1:22 the Apostle writes, more simply, “the Churches of Judæa which are in Christ.”

This reference to the Home Churches creates a link between far-off Thessalonica and Judæa. The Thessalonians are not alone in their troubles; they are fighting the same battle as the mother Church and the first disciples of the Lord. Comp. Php 1:30, “having the same conflict which ye saw in me.” Their union with Christ’s persecuted flock in Its native land shewed that the Gospel was working in them to purpose (1 Thessalonians 2:13), and working everywhere in the same way.

for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews] St Paul says the same, not like things. And this “for” represents a different word from the previous “for;” it is rather in that, not accounting for the Thessalonians imitating Judean example, but explaining wherein the imitation consisted.

The hostility of their fellow-townsmen formed a bitter ingredient in their afflictions (Acts 17:5-9). The Apostle tells them that it was the same with the primitive Churches in Judæa—that, indeed, the murder of the Lord Jesus and of the old prophets, and the expulsion of the apostles, were due to feelings precisely similar to those aroused in their own city against themselves. This was a proof that they were in the true succession. Christ had said, “A man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” Such comfort has often to be given to young missionary churches.

But the Apostle has now to add words of awful severity respecting those whom his readers knew to be the prime instigators of persecution, both against themselves and him—the Jews:—

Bengel's Gnomen

1 Thessalonians 2:14. Γὰρ, for) Divine working is most of all seen and felt in affliction.—ἐν τῇ Ἰονδαίᾳ, in Judea) The Jewish churches were distinguished examples to all the others.—τὰ αὐτὰ, the same things) So, αὐτὸν, the same [conflict], Php 1:30. The sameness of the fruit, the sameness of the afflictions, the sameness of the experimental proofs and characteristics of believers, in all places and at all times, afford an excellent criterion of the truth of the Gospel.—ἰδίων, your own) Matthew 10:36; Luke 13:33, at the end.—συμφυλετῶν, fellow-countrymen) [liter. “persons of the same tribe.”] These were Thessalonians, Jews and Gentiles. Acts 17:5.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - For ye, brethren, became followers; or rather, imitators, namely, in the endurance of suffering for the sake of the gospel, not in intention only, but in reality. Of the Churches Of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus. These Churches arc mentioned as being at this early period the most prominent. The special mention of persecution by the Jews has its origin in the fact that it was by the unbelieving Jews that Paul was persecuted at Thessalonica. For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen. One of the proofs that the Church of Thessalonica was Gentile in its origin; as these countrymen were evidently Gentiles, being here distinguished from the Jews. From this it would seem that, after Paul and his companions had left Thessalonica, the persecution which arose against the Christians continued, and the Gentiles combined with the Jews in opposing the gospel. Even as they - the Churches of God in Judaea - have of the Jews. We learn from the Acts of the Apostles that the Jewish Christians in Judaea were exposed to severe persecution from their unbelieving countrymen: Stephen was put to death, and Paul himself, in his unconverted state, was a chief among the persecutors. 1 Thessalonians 2:14

Vincent's Word Studies

In Christ Jesus

Seems to be added to distinguish the Christian churches in Judaea from the synagogues of the Jews, which would claim to be churches of God. Comp. Galatians 1:22, and see on 1 Thessalonians 1:1. In Christ Jesus, in Christ, in Jesus, in the Lord, in him, are common Pauline formulas to denote the most intimate communion with the living Christ. These phrases are not found in the Synoptic Gospels. Ἑν ἐμοί in me (Christ) is frequent in the Fourth Gospel. The conception is that of a sphere or environment in which a Christian or a church lives, as a bird in the air, or the roots of a tree in the soil.

Countrymen (συμφυλετῶν)

N.T.o. olxx. Not in pre-Christian Greek writers. Lit. belonging to the same tribe or clan. The reference is to the Gentile persecutors who were instigated by the Jews.