15, 16. This attack is so different from St Paul’ s general attitude to his fellow-countrymen (e.g. Romans 10:1 ff.) that the whole passage has been pronounced an interpolation but without any sufficient warrant (Intr. p. 76). The sharp judgment expressed is due rather to the Apostle’ s keen sense of the manner in which the Jews had opposed God’ s will, both in thwarting his own missionary work, and afterwards in seeking to shake the faith of his Thessalonian converts. It is however deserving of notice that this is the only passage in the Pauline writings in which the designation ‘ the Jews’ is used in direct contrast to Christian believers in the sense which St John afterwards made so familiar in his Gospel (1:19, 2:18 &c.). For a somewhat similar digression cf. Philippians 3:2 ff., and for the light in which the Jews are here regarded see Stephen’ s charge Acts 7:51 ff. 15, 16. ‘ Did we speak of the Jews as persecutors? Why, are they not the men at whose door lies the guilt of the death of Jesus, and who in the past drove out the prophets, even as they are now driving out us? The least that can be said of them is that they do not please God, while their well-known hostility to all mankind is shown in the present instance by their deliberately standing in the way of the Gentiles’ salvation. But in so doing they are only “ filling up the measure of their iniquity” with the result that “ the Wrath of God” which they have so fully deserved has reached its final stage.’ 15. τῶνκαὶτὸνκύριονκτλ.] The words are skilfully arranged so as to lay emphasis on both κύριον and Ἰησοῦν: it was ‘ the Lord’ whom the Jews slew, ‘ even Jesus’ : cf. Acts 2:36 and see Add. Note D. For the guilt of the crucifixion as lying at the door of the Jewish people cf. such passages as Luke 24:20, John 19:11, Acts 2:23, and Gosp. Pet. 7, and for the general thought see our Lord’ s own parable Mark 12:1 ff., which may have suggested his language here to the Apostle. If this latter connexion can be established, it is natural to follow the usual order and place τ. προφήτας also under the government of ἀποκτεινάντων. On the other hand, to avoid the slight anticlimax that is thereby occasioned by the prophets following the Lord Jesus, various modern editors prefer to connect τ. προφήτας with ἡμᾶς under the direct government of ἐκδιωξάντων, an arrangement which has the further advantage of combining closely the prophets and the Apostles as the Divine messengers in the past and the present: cf. Matthew 5:12 οὕτωςγὰρἐδίωξαντ. προφήταςτ. πρὸὑμῶν, and see also Matthew 23:31, Luke 11:47. The reading ἰδίους, which is found in certain mss. (DbcKL) before προφήτας, is due not to any doctrinal bias , but to a desire for precision of statement: cf. 4:11, Ephesians 4:28. καὶἡμᾶςἐκδιωξάντων] ‘ and drove us out’ . For the fact cf. Ac. 17:5 ff., 17:13 ff., and for the force of ἐκδιώκειν (ἅπ. λεγ. N.T.: v.l. Luke 11:49) cf. such passages in the LXX. as Deuteronomy 6:19 ἐκδιῶξαιπάνταςποὺςἐχθρούςσουπρὸπροσώπουσου, Joe 2:20 καὶτὸνἀπὸβορρᾶἐκδιώξωἀφʼ ὑμῶν: see also Thuc. 1:24 ὁδῆμοςαὐτῶνἐξεδίωξετοὺςδυνατούς, οἱδὲἀπελθόντεςκτλ., Dem. Or. 32, p. 883 ἐκδιωκόμενος [scil. e navi] ῥίπτειἑαυτὸνεἰςτὴνθάλασσαν. καὶθεῷμὴἀρεσκόντων] a notable instance of meiosis, cf. 2 Thessalonians 3:2; 2 Thessalonians 3:7. For the expression which is a favourite one in the Pauline writings cf. v. 4, 4:1, Romans 8:8, 2 Corinthians 5:9, Colossians 1:10. καὶπᾶσινἀνθρώποιςἐναντίων] the only passage in the N.T. where ἐναντίος is used of persons. The words naturally recall the ‘ hostile odium’ (Tac. Hist. 5:5) towards all men with which the Jews have often been charged: cf. Diod. Sic. 34, 1 τοὺςἸουδαίουςμόνουςἁπάντωνἐθνῶνἀκοινωνήτουςεἶναι, Philostr. Apoll. 5:33, Jos. c. Apion. 11. 121 (10), and the collection of passages in T. Reinach’ s Textes … relatifs au Judaïsme (1895) under the heading ‘ Misoxénie’ in the Index. The reference here however, as the following clause shows, is more limited.