The new theme is introduced by a transitional which King James Version and Revised Standard Version (cf. Luther 1984) inappropriately translate as “but.” As we have just seen, no contrast with the previous section in involved, but rather a close parallel. The transition is made by some translators in a brief phrase: “as for love of the brethren” (Knox cf. La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale Jerusalem Bible) or “next, as regards brotherly love” (Phillips). The first word, translated about, is often used by Paul to introduce a new subject (e.g. 1 Corinthians 7.25; 8.1; 12.1; 16.1). It forms part of the title of many Greek writings, and has almost the function of a section heading here.
It may seen strange to say There is no need to write you about love for your fellow believers and then do just that. This was a common device in ancient times, and is characteristic of the way in which, at times, Paul implies the right kind of behavior in those to whom he writes, even while urging them on to greater effort and better behavior. This impersonal expression may be rendered in some languages as “I do not need to write about love,” or “To write to you about love for your fellow believers is really not necessary.”
Love for your fellow believers is one word in Greek. Most older translations (King James Version cf. Luther 1984 Zürcher Bibel La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale) and some more modern ones (Moffatt Phillips cf. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) have “brotherly love,” a phrase which has passed into current speech and thereby lost much of its specific original meaning. For the first Christians it meant, not figurative brother-like love, but the love of those who had become, in a very real sense, members of the Christian family. Outside Christian writings (e.g. 1 Maccabees 12.10, 17) the word is used only in speaking of men of common physical descent. In the Old Testament, “brother” meant “fellow Israelite,” but Jesus called his followers his own (Mark 3.33 ff.) and one another’s (Matthew 23.8) brothers, and this usage was carried over into the early church, regardless of differences of nationality and descent. Good News Translation‘s apparently loose paraphrase is thus much more precise than the literal equivalent “brotherly love” would be. Compare Revised Standard Version “love of the brethren” (cf. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch); Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “love between brothers”; Jerusalem Bible “loving our brothers”; Bible en français courant, more explicitly, “love between brothers in the faith”; Barclay “the love which should be characteristic of the Christian fellowship”; New English Bible “love for our brotherhood”; Translator’s New Testament “love for our fellow-Christians.” It is quite a different word from that used at the end of the verse in love one another, but the meaning in this context is the same. Here as in 3.12 Paul immediately balances a reference to the love of Christians for one another by a reminder of their responsibilities to those who are not believers (v. 12).
If love for your fellow believers is transformed into a verb expression, it may be necessary to say “about how you should love others who also believe in Christ,” or “… your brothers who believe in Christ.”
You yourselves is emphatic in Greek as in English. The implied contrast is “you do not need us to write to you, because you have been taught by God” (cf. Bible en français courant Bijbel in Gewone Taal). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch changes the focus a little by putting the sentence into the active voice: “God himself has taught you to love one another” (cf. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). The word translated taught by God is not used anywhere else in the Greek Bible; just as we speak of people being “self-taught,” so Paul says that the Thessalonians are “God-taught.” The means of teaching may be either through the guidance of the Holy Spirit or through experience.
It may be necessary in some languages to change the passive expression you yourselves have been taught by God into an active one, for example, “God himself has taught you how you should love one another.”
The exact relation between you … have been taught and you should love is uncertain. The Greek is general enough to convey either a relation of means and purpose (“you have been taught in order that you might love”) or a relation of means and result (“you have been taught, and as a result you love one another”). The former is much more likely. The Greek does not imply manner: “taught in what way you should love one another,” though the how of Good News Translation (cf. Bible en français courant) might be misunderstood in this sense. Moffatt cf. Jerusalem Bible Barclay Translator’s New Testament Luther 1984 Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale Jerusalem Bible Traduction œcuménique de la Bible Bijbel in Gewone Taal have simply “taught … to love one another,” with a possible slight loss of meaning. The past tense is not explicit, since “God-taught” is an adjective.
If loving one another is not understood as what God taught, but rather as the purpose of what he taught, then one may translate “God himself has taught you so that you should love one another.” If the meaning is taken as result, one may translate “God has taught you, and therefore you love one another.”
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 .