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§ 4. 1Th 2:13-16. Fellowship in Persecution with the Judæan Churches
The rich fruits of the Gospel in the Thessalonian Church, for which the writers thank God (§ 2), led them to dwell, in the tone of self-defence, on their own signal and devoted work (§ 3), which had this happy result. (a) The recital brings them back, in renewed thanksgiving, to the thought of the full acceptance on the readers’ part of the message of God (1Th 2:13, resuming 1Th 1:2-10). (b) In this acceptance, the Epistle goes on to say, the Thessalonian believers identify themselves with the mother Churches in Judœa (1Th 2:14 a). (c) This fact is evidenced by the persecution undergone at the hands of their fellow-countrymen (1Th 2:14 b). (d) At this point the Letter breaks out into a stern denunciation of the Jews, who have been persecutors of God’s servants all along (1Th 2:15), (e) and by obstructing the salvation of the Gentiles have made themselves the objects of a settled wrath, that is bringing upon them a conclusive judgement (1Th 2:16).
The passionate note of 1Th 2:15-16 is singular in St Paul’s Letters; nowhere else does he assail the Jewish nation in this way (see the Introd. pp. xviii. f.). In Rom 9:1-5 the Apostle writes of his “kindred” in quite another mood. On this ground, and since 1Th 2:15-16 form a parenthesis and might be removed without injury to the context, Schmiedel, with a few other critics, regards the passage as an interpolation due to some anti-Jewish editor, dating from a time subsequent to the fall of Jerusalem, to which the supposes 1Th 2:16 c to refer as a fait accompli (see note below); A. Ritschl would excise the last clause only. It must be borne in mind, however, that St Paul was pursued from the beginning of his work in Thessalonica up to the time of writing with peculiar virulence by the Jews (Acts 17, 18), that the troubles of the Thessalonian Christians had their origin in Jewish envy and intrigue (Act 17:5), and that the slanderous insinuations brought against the missionaries at the present time in Thessalonica almost certainly proceeded from the same quarter; there was cause enough for severe resentment and condemnation. Moreover, Silvanus, who had a share in the Epistle (see note on 1Th 1:1), was a Judæan Christian; some recent news of persecution suffered by his brethren at home may have added fuel to the flame of righteous anger and awakened his prophetic spirit (Act 15:32).