I was surprised by the result of my efforts. Could it be an interpolation? Sure. But I’m no longer prone to so readily dismiss the passage as an interpolation.
This post is a slightly revised version of my previous effort and draft from a year ago.
The entire passage in question (followed by thoughts on specific portions) ---
… the Jews, who having killed … the Lord Jesus
For those accepting some version of the NT Gospel stories, not much problem here. However, I think a different solution might better fit this claim.
Nowhere else did Paul write that the Jews had killed Jesus. However, I think that concept could be seen as inherent in Paul’s system constructed from the Jewish scriptures.
Paul presented his Jesus Christ as having “died for our sins according to the scriptures”. Paul’s Christ was “hung on wood” (Galatians 3:13) --- as derived from Deuteronomy 21:23 and 27:26 --- as a redemptive act in a Jewish tradition to set aside the Jewish law.
And Paul’s Jesus Christ was delivered-over unto death for our sins as derived from Isaiah 53 (especially verses 4-8), and then resurrected (Isaiah 53:10-12). I have elaborated on these concepts in relation to Paul in greater detail in numerous posts on this forum.
In Paul, it was ancient Jews that killed his Jesus Christ was killed in a Jewish context within the realm of his source material --- the Jewish scriptures. However, absent this passage in question, I am not aware of a way to clearly derive the culprits from Paul’s occasional letters.
ETA: Based on valuable push-back later in this Thread, statements above have been revised and supplemented.
… the Jews, who having killed … their own prophets
I don’t see a problem with this, and there is an explicit claim in Romans 11:3 which was derived from passages in the Jewish scriptures.
… the Jews … Now the wrath (ὀργὴ) has come upon them to the utmost
This is seen by many (if not most) critical investigators as a reference to the Roman-Jewish war, and added to the text after the war in the form of an interpolation --- along with all or part of the preceding portion of the passage. That’s a reasonable interpretation, after all, in Paul’s system the wrath to come was a future event that would accompany the parousia of Jesus. Paul’s Gentile believers would be spared the ordeal ---
But for the Jews, the wrath is also presented elsewhere as a current burden ---
Paul was certainly capable of extreme rants such as wishing his opponents in Galatia would castrate themselves (Galatians 5:12). So in an angry rant for the sake of the Thessalonians, for Paul to write that, “the wrath (ὀργὴ) has come upon them (Jews) to the utmost” is a bit extreme, but still within Pauline thought. And Paul reassured the congregation of their own future ---
… you also suffered from your own countrymen (συμφυλετῶν) as they also did from the Jews
The Thessalonians were badly hassled ----
Those hassling his converts in Thessalonica are identified in the passage in question as their own countrymen (συμφυλετῶν). They were locals. But were they Gentiles, or fully-converted Macedonian proselytes to Judaism, or local ethnic-Judeans?
For the passage in question to work for me as original to the letter, I think the opposition in Thessalonica needs to be those defending Jewish practices.
Paul identified his Thessalonian followers as former idol worshipers ---
I suspect that much of the local opposition that Paul’s followers faced came from Jews, perhaps including fully-converted proselytes to Judaism of non-Judean ethnicity. For Paul’s Thessalonian followers to be attracted to his system that offered full participation with the great and ancient God of Israel, they were likely already attracted to that ancient culture before Paul came along.
In Paul’s day, Gentiles in the Diaspora were encouraged to participate in many synagogue activities, and many Gentiles throughout the Greco-Roman world fully-converted to Judaism. 1/
And it was not at all uncommon for Gentiles participating --- to the extent permitted for the uncircumcised --- in local Jewish synagogues, while continuing to practice their own “pagan” rituals in other settings. 2/
While Paul filled their heads with his claim that they could be full-participants with the God of the Jews without being circumcised, I think local Jewish friends and neighbors and local Macedonian converts to Judaism that had endured the knife would have strenuously objected. After all, circumcision was the sign of the everlasting covenant between God and his people.
It seems Paul’s Thessalonians were not contemplating going full-monty like some among the Galatians. And with the most widely-accepted order for Paul’s letters (that I agree with in this specific case), 1 Thessalonians was written before Galatians. Paul had not yet heard about the problem among the Galatians, and apparently didn’t think the Thessalonians were attracted to the drastic action of full conversion.
But the Thessalonians may have clung to their claims of full participation, and it certainly may have been local Jews or fully-converted Macedonian proselytes that were hassling them.
Further thoughts ...
The kind of rebuke seen in this passage in question is just what one might expect from one giving some cold-comfort and encouragement to those experiencing outside opposition.
‘You’re not alone’
‘They’re just dirty rotten scoundrels’
‘They even drove us away, and are trying to prevent us from saving Gentiles’
‘They’ll get their comeuppance, and already have’
I think a vehement rant from Paul as a way to bolster the put-upon Thessalonians is certainly within the realm of possible solutions. If the passage was written by Paul, the message was some encouragement for a small group of hassled followers --- not something to be read from the pulpit in pre-war Germany to a congregation of Nazi sympathizers.
Did Paul write the passage? I think it’s possible.
robert j
1/ The Opponents of Paul in Second Corinthians, Georgi Dieter, 1986, see the second chapter titled, “Missionary Activity in New Testament Times".
2/ See the last several lines in this article in the Jewish Encyclopedia for the situation in Asia Minor ---
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/asia-minor
Other evidence might be seen in the work of Goodenough, and perhaps even in the mystical, Hellenized Philo.