1 Thessalonians 2:16 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.

Forbidding, х kooluontoon (G2967)] - 'hindering us from speaking,' etc.

To fill up their sins alway - tending thus 'to the х eis (G1519) to (G3588)] filling up (the full measure of, Genesis 15:16; Daniel 8:23; Matthew 23:32) their sins at all times' - i:e., as at all former times, so now also. The eternal purpose of God developed itself in their willful, and so judicially-permitted infatuation. Their hindrance of the gospel-preaching to the Gentiles was the last measure added to their continually accumulating iniquity, which made them fully ripe for vengeance.

For - Greek х de (G1161)], 'but' they shall proceed no further, for (2 Timothy 3:8) "the" (foreordered and due) divine 'wrath has come upon (overtaken unexpectedly; the past tense expressing the speedy certainty of the divinely-destined stroke) them to the uttermost;' not merely partial, but to its full extent, 'even to the finishing stroke' (Edmunds). ['Aleph (') A G, efthasen (G5348), completely past time. B, efthake, an act continuing down to the present: the perfect, which suits well the sense.] The fullest visitation of wrath has already begun. Already, in 48 AD, a tumult had occurred at the Passover in Jerusalem, when about 30,000 were killed: a foretaste of the whole vengeance which speedily followed in the destruction of Jerusalem within 15 years (Luke 19:43-44; Luke 21:24).

1 Thessalonians 2:16

16 Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.