1 Thessalonians 2 · Verse 15

1 Thessalonians 2:15

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:

1 Thessalonians 2:15, King James Version

1 Thessalonians 2:15 in other translations

BSB	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,
WEB	who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men,
ASV	who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove out us, and please not God, and are contrary to all men;
YLT	who did both put to death the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and did persecute us, and God they are not pleasing, and to all men are contrary,
DARBY	who have both slain the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and have driven us out by persecution, and do not please God, and are against all men,
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	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:

What does 1 Thessalonians 2:15 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

15. 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 Ac 3:14, 15). their own--omitted in the oldest manuscripts. prophets--(Mt 21:33-41; 23:31-37; Lu 13:33). persecuted us--rather as Greek (see Margin), "By persecution drove us out" (Lu 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" (1Th 2:16).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Barnes' Notes

Verse 15. Who both killed the Lord Jesus. 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 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. Mt 21:33, and following; Mt 23:20-37, and following; Acts 7:52.

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 expose them to his wrath, 1Thes 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 peculiar 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 men that had lived.

And are contrary to all men. They do not merely differ from other men 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 intercourse. 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,
Quasitum ad 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"--αθεοικαι μισανθρωποικαιαφυεστατοιτωνβαρβαρων Josephus Con. Ap. ii, 15. So Diodorus Sicuhs, (xxxiv. p. 524,) describes them as "those alone among all the nations who were unwilling to have any intercourse [or intermingling--επιμιξιας] with any other nation, and who regarded all others as enemies"--καιπολεμιουςυπολαμβανεινπαντας-. Their history had given abundant occasion for these charges.

(a) "their own prophets" Acts 7:52 (1) "persecuted us" "chased us out" (+) "contrary to all men" "Against all men"

Albert Barnes, 1834 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 15 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.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 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…

Read the full comment on 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16 →

1 Thessalonians 2:15 in the original Greek

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

τῶνtōnwhoG3588

καὶkaibothG2532

τὸνtontheG3588

κύριονkurionLordG2962

ἀποκτεινάντωνapokteinantōnhaving killedG615

ἸησοῦνIēsounJesusG2424

καὶkaiandG2532

τοὺςtous<the>G3588

ἰδίουςidious[their] ownG2398

προφήταςprophētasprophetsG4396

καὶkaiandG2532

ἡμᾶςhēmasusG3165

ἐκδιωξάντωνekdiōxantōnhaving driven outG1559

καὶkaiandG2532

θεῷtheōGodG2316

μὴmēnotG3361

ἀρεσκόντωνareskontōnpleasingG700

καὶkaiandG2532

πᾶσινpasinto allG3956

ἀνθρώποιςanthrōpoismenG444

ἐναντίων,enantiōnopposed,G1727

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for 1 Thessalonians 2:15

Matthew 5:12
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Luke 11:48-53
Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. …
Acts 7:52
Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
Acts 2:23
Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
Luke 13:33-34
Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!
Matthew 23:31-35
Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: …
Acts 3:15
And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
Matthew 27:25
Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
Matthew 23:37
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Luke 24:20
And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
Acts 5:30
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.
Esther 3:8
And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king’s laws: therefore it is not for the king’s profit to suffer them.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

killed.
Mt 5:12; 21:35-39; 23:31-35,37; 27:25; Lu 11:48-51; 13:33,34
Ac 2:23; 3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 7:52
persecuted us. or, chased us out.
Am 7:12; Ac 22:18-21
please.
Ac 12:3; 1Co 10:5
contrary.
Es 3:8; Lu 11:52,53

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

1 Thessalonians 2:14
For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:
1 Thessalonians 2:15
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:
1 Thessalonians 2:16
Forbidding 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.

Read all of 1 Thessalonians 2

1 Thessalonians 2:15 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	Los cuales aun mataron al Señor Jesús y á sus propios profetas, y á nosotros nos han perseguido; y no agradan á Dios, y se oponen á todos los hombres;
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	qui ont mis à mort et le seigneur Jésus et les prophètes, et qui nous ont chassés par la persécution, et qui ne plaisent pas à Dieu, et qui sont opposés à tous les hommes,
German Elberfelder 1871	die sowohl den Herrn Jesus als auch die Propheten getötet und uns durch Verfolgung weggetrieben haben, und Gott nicht gefallen und allen Menschen entgegen sind,
Latin Clementine Vulgate	qui et Dominum occiderunt Jesum, et prophetas, et nos persecuti sunt, et Deo non placent, et omnibus hominibus adversantur,