Again, Paul follows the negative statement of verse 1 with a positive one, marking the contrast with an emphatic “but.” In this case, however, the form of the sentence does not correspond to its content. The reader may expect some statement about the success of Paul’s visit to Thessalonica, and Paul may have intended to say something of this kind when he began dictating the sentence; but a new idea now occurs to him, and he abruptly changes the subject. Not until verse 13 does Paul come back to the theme of his visit and its results. In these circumstances, Good News Translation rightly leaves the misleading “but” untranslated. Phillips Jerusalem Bible Bible de Jérusalem Barclay Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch Bible en français courant Knox Moffatt Translator’s New Testament do the same, New English Bible (cf. Bijbel in Gewone Taal) emphasizes the misleading conjunction by rendering it as “far from it,” and so gives the impression that Paul is illogical (since he could have preached “frankly and fearlessly” and still have had a “fruitless” visit). Bible de Jérusalem and Jerusalem Bible, on the other hand, somewhat overemphasize the change of theme by beginning a new paragraph at verse 2.
The repetition of you know, so soon after you yourselves know in verse 1, shows that Paul is conscious of the change of theme; his readers know both that the visit to Thessalonica was not a failure and that the previous visit to Philippi had not been easy.
Two statements are included in this verse: (1) “we were illtreated and insulted in Philippi”; and (2) “God gave us courage to tell you the Good News.” The relation between these statements is not explicit in the Greek, and the Revised Version translates the sentence with such slavish faithfulness to the form that the content could easily be misunderstood: “having suffered before … at Philippi, we waxed bold….” The reader is likely to misunderstand the first statement as a reason and the second as a result (that is, “we had suffered so much in Philippi that nothing could frighten us in Thessalonica”), but that is not what Paul means. The courage of the evangelists did not come from their previous experience but from a new strengthening by God. Virtually all commentators and translators, therefore, take the first statement as meaning “although we suffered before in Philippi.” Good News Translation divides the sentence.
What happened to the evangelists in Philippi is described in Acts 16.12-40. Mistreated in Greek is the normal word for “suffer,” with a prefix meaning “before.” A pluperfect is clearly needed in English, since there is a double backward reference from Paul’s present situation in Corinth to his visit to Thessalonica, and the further back to Philippi. Before we came to you in Thessalonica (cf. Bible en français courant Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch Bijbel in Gewone Taal etc., but not Biblia Dios Habla Hoy) is implicit. Paul is mainly thinking, no doubt, of the attack by the crowds (Acts 16.22), the official whipping, and the discomfort of being fastened in the stocks. Insulted includes also the nonphysical aspects of the bad treatment Paul and Silas had received, something which, according to Acts 16.37, Paul had resented as deeply as the physical mistreatment.
There is, however, considerable overlap between the two terms. The Greek word which Good News Translation translates insulted in this verse is translated mistreat in Acts 14.5. It refers generally to insolent and outrageous behavior. In many languages mistreated can be translated as “caused us to suffer” or “caused us pain,” while insulted may be rendered as “spoke to us with bad words” or “spoke to humiliate us.” In some languages it may be necessary to indicate the agents of the mistreatment and insults, and therefore one can say “how the authorities had mistreated us and insulted us.” “The authorities” would be “the government officials” or “the local rulers.”
It is always possible to identify Philippi in this context by a classifier, for example, “in the city of Philippi.”
Opposition represents a Greek word which can refer either to the effort of one individual or (more often) to a struggle between two or more people, as, for example, in an athletic contest. Revised Standard Version Phillips Bible en français courant etc., like Good News Translation, take the latter meaning, and this seems to fit the context better. Moffatt comes down firmly for the first meaning and translates “in spite of all the strain.” Even if this interpretation is correct, Paul would still be thinking of his need for courage. Good News Translation‘s translation links verse 2b with 2a and verses 8-9. The idea of opposition may be expressed as a verb, for example, “even though many people were opposed to us, yet our God gave us courage to tell you the Good News that comes from him.” The opposition may be stated even more specifically, for example, “even though many people tried to make us stop talking,” or “… tried to prevent us from telling the Good News.”
There is some overlap of meaning between the verbs translated gave us courage and tell, since each of them refers to speaking. The first word, with its related noun, refers in nonbiblical Greek to democratic freedom of speech and to the openness of close friends in speaking to one another. In the Greek Old Testament, this verb describes the frankness of Job’s protests to God. In the New Testament, it indicates both the Christians’ confidence in approaching God and the confident and outspoken way in which the apostles preached (cf. Ephesians 6.19 f.; Philippians 1.20; and often on Acts). The second edition of Bible de Jérusalem changes “confidence” to the stronger term “boldness.” Barclay translates here “freely and fearlessly,” New English Bible “frankly and fearlessly.” The context suggests that our God probably still means the God of Paul, Silas, and Timothy, though a wider reference is not impossible.
The concept of courage is frequently rendered by a idiomatic expression, for example, “to have a strong heart,” “to be brave in our insides,” “to not fear anyone,” In some instances, our God gave us courage may thus be rendered as “our God took fear out of our hearts.”
The Good News that comes from him is literally “the gospel of God.” The form is similar to “word of the Lord” (Revised Standard Version) in 1.8, but the meaning is different (see the comments on that verse). The message is about the Lord Jesus Christ, but it comes from, God. Taking the two expressions together, Christ is the content of the Christian message, but God the Father is its source. The latter should be specified in translation, as Good News Translation and Bible en français courant do here and also in verses 8 and 9 (cf. Romans 15.16). “From God” should certainly not be omitted, as Phillips does here and in verse 9, and as Moffatt and Jerusalem Bible do in verse 8. (On the Good News, see the comments on 1.5.)
While it is most important to indicate the source of the Good News, it may not be possible in some languages to speak of it as “coming,” since only agents that are able to move about may be said to come. Accordingly, that God is the source may be indicated by such an expression as “the Good News that God caused us to hear,” or “… caused us to know.”
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .