What Does 1 Thessalonians 2:14 Mean in the King James?
For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The same suffering that separates you from your own people can reveal your kinship with assemblies you have never met.
THE MEANING
When your own people press against your belonging to Christ, this verse places what you undergo within a wider community facing the same kind of hostility. Your experience is not isolated; it echoes across assemblies joined in Christ Jesus.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that rejection by your own people means you are cut off from everyone who shares your life in Christ; the verse reveals a wider kinship through what you undergo.
THE ROOT
ἐπάθετε
epathete
GROWS FROM
πάσχω
paschō
to undergo, experience, or suffer
“suffered” in this verse is epathete. The verb names what is undergone, and the verse says these communities underwent the same things. Its word-family also names suffering-with and an experience undergone, keeping the focus on what joins otherwise distant assemblies.
ALSO GROWS
pathēma: an experience undergone; a suffering
πάθημα
It carries the same root into the experience itself, showing how the verse’s shared suffering links the communities.
sympaschō: to suffer with
συμπάσχω
This compound makes the shared dimension explicit: suffering can be undergone in common.
μιμηταί
mimētai
GROWS FROM
μιμ-
mim-
to imitate or reproduce a pattern
“followers” in this verse is mimētai. The word means imitators: the Thessalonians resemble the Judean assemblies through what they undergo. The connection is more than following from a distance; one community’s pattern becomes visible in another.
ALSO GROWS
mimeomai: to imitate, to take as a pattern
μιμέομαι
This verb names the action behind the verse’s description of one assembly resembling another.
mimēsis: imitation, representation
μίμησις
It names the pattern reproduced, illuminating how the Thessalonians’ experience echoes that of the Judean assemblies.
THE PATTERN
Belonging to God’s way can draw opposition from others while placing the sufferer in a shared pattern across scripture.
Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.THE THREAD
For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;Both verses use the same Greek word-family for suffering. Philippians names the relation to Christ directly, while this verse shows the same experience recurring among assemblies joined in him.
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