For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews;
In Palestine. the Jews persecuted the churches directly; out of Palestine, they did it by means of others. They were the real authors of it, as they were in Judea, but they usually accomplished it by producing an excitement among the pagan, and by the plea that the apostles were making war on civil institutions. This was the case in Thessalonica. “The Jews which believed not, moved with envy, set all the city on an uproar.” “They drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, ‘Those that have turned the world up side down have come hither also;’” Acts 17:5-6. The same thing occurred a short time after at Berea. “When the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also and stirred up the people;” Acts 17:13; compare Acts 14:2. “The unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil-affected against the brethren.” “The Epistle, therefore, represents the case accurately as the history states it. It was the Jews always who set on foot the persecutions against the apostles and their followers;” Paley, Hor. Paul. in loc. It was, therefore, strictly true, as the apostle here states it: