1 Thessalonians 2:18 For we wanted to come to you--certainly I, Paul, did, again and again--but Satan blocked our way.

◄ 1 Thessalonians 2:18 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
For we wanted to come to you--certainly I, Paul, did, again and again--but Satan blocked our way.

English Standard Version
because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us.

New American Standard Bible
For we wanted to come to you-- I, Paul, more than once-- and yet Satan hindered us.

King James Bible
Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
So we wanted to come to you--even I, Paul, time and again--but Satan hindered us.

International Standard Version
That is why we wanted to come to you. Certainly I, Paul, wanted to come time and again, but Satan blocked our way.

American Standard Version
because we would fain have come unto you, I Paul once and again; and Satan hindered us.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For we would have come unto you, I Paul indeed, once and again: but Satan hath hindered us.

Darby Bible Translation
wherefore we have desired to come to you, even I Paul, both once and twice, and Satan has hindered us.

Young's Literal Translation
wherefore we wished to come unto you, (I indeed Paul,) both once and again, and the Adversary did hinder us;

Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

2:17-20 This world is not a place where we are to be always, or long together. In heaven holy souls shall meet, and never part more. And though the apostle could not come to them yet, and thought he might never be able to come, yet our Lord Jesus Christ will come; nothing shall hinder that. May God give faithful ministers to all who serve him with their spirit in the gospel of his Son, and send them to all who are in darkness

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

18. Wherefore—The oldest manuscripts read, "Because," or "Inasmuch as."

we would—Greek, "we wished to come"; we intended to come.

even I Paul—My fellow missionaries as well as myself wished to come; I can answer for myself that I intended it more than once. His slightly distinguishing himself here from his fellow missionaries, whom throughout this Epistle he associates with himself in the plural, accords with the fact that Silvanus and Timothy stayed at Berea when Paul went on to Athens; where subsequently Timothy joined him, and was thence sent by Paul alone to Thessalonica (1Th 3:1).

Satan hindered us—On a different occasion "the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Jesus" (so the oldest manuscripts read), Ac 16:6, 7, forbad or hindered them in a missionary design; here it is Satan, acting perhaps by wicked men, some of whom had already driven him out of Thessalonica (Ac 17:13, 14; compare Joh 13:27), or else by some more direct "messenger of Satan—a thorn in the flesh" (2Co 12:7; compare 2Co 11:14). In any event, the Holy Ghost and the providence of God overruled Satan's opposition to further His own purpose. We cannot, in each case, define whence hindrances in good undertakings arise; Paul in this case, by inspiration, was enabled to say; the hindrance was from Satan. Grotius thinks Satan's mode of hindering Paul's journey to Thessalonica was by instigating the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers to cavil, which entailed on Paul the necessity of replying, and so detained him; but he seems to have left Athens leisurely (Ac 17:33, 34; 18:1). The Greek for "hindered" is literally, "to cut a trench between one's self and an advancing foe, to prevent his progress"; so Satan opposing the progress of the missionaries.