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,
Parallel translations
- WEB 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;
- 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:
- NKJV who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men,
- NASB who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all people,
- NLT For some of the Jews killed the prophets, and some even killed the Lord Jesus. Now they have persecuted us, too. They fail to please God and work against all humanity
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul recounts how some opposed the Lord Jesus, the prophets, and the apostles, displeasing God. He describes a pattern of resistance to God's messengers.
Overview
Paul refers to those among his own people who rejected Jesus and the prophets before him and drove out the apostles. This continues a long biblical pattern of persecuting God's spokesmen, climaxing in the rejection of Christ. The verse must be read not as a blanket condemnation of a people—Paul himself was a Jew who longed for their salvation (Romans 9-11)—but as a sober description of opposition to the gospel; Christians should guard against any misuse of such texts to justify hostility.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Matt 5:12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.
- Luke 11:48–53So you are witnesses consenting to the deeds of your fathers: They killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.
- Acts 7:52Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—
- Acts 2:23He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.
- Luke 13:33–34Nevertheless, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day, for it is not admissible for a prophet to perish outside of Jerusalem.
- Matt 23:31–35So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.
- Matt 27:25All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”
- Acts 3:15You killed the Author of life, but God raised Him from the dead, and we are witnesses of the fact.
- Luke 24:20Our chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to the sentence of death, and they crucified Him.
- Matt 23:37O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!
- Acts 5:30The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging Him on a tree.
- Acts 12:3And seeing that this pleased the Jews, Herod proceeded to seize Peter during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
- Esth 3:8Then Haman informed King Xerxes, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples of every province of your kingdom. Their laws are different from everyone else’s, and they do not obey the king’s laws. So it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them.
- 1 Cor 10:5Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness.
- Acts 22:18–21and saw the Lord saying to me, ‘Hurry! Leave Jerusalem quickly, because the people here will not accept your testimony about Me.’
- Amos 7:12And Amaziah said to Amos, “Go away, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah; earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.
- Matt 21:35–39But the tenants seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.
- Acts 4:10then let this be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.
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The believer waits for God's Son from heaven, Jesus who delivers from the wrath to come and who will return to gather his people to himself.
How 1 Thessalonians 2:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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