Explanation of the Text 1 Thess 2:16 The Jews have Heaped up their Sins

They displease God and are hostile to all men ;
1Th 2:16  for they still try to prevent our preaching to the Gentiles so that they may find salvation. They thus continually fill up the measure of their own sins, and God's anger in its severest form has overtaken them.   See Acts 17:5,13

Notes: The Jews did not want Paul and Silas to preach the Good News to the pagan Gentiles. 

Paul believed that now the Jew and the Gentile were on a level as regards Salvation; the Wall of Petition had been broken down. The Jews no longer had any advantage over the rest of mankind in regards to this, and that the pagans might be saved without becoming Jews or being Circumcised.

Rom 2:25  Circumcision does indeed profit, if you obey the Law; but if you are a Law-breaker, the fact that you have been circumcised counts for nothing. 

Rom 2:26  In the same way if an uncircumcised man pays attention to the just requirements of the Law, shall not his lack of circumcision be overlooked, and, 

Rom 2:27  although he is a Gentile by birth, if he scrupulously obeys the Law, shall he not sit in judgement upon you who, possessing, as you do, a written Law and circumcision, are yet a Law-breaker? 

Rom 2:28  For the true Jew is not the man who is simply a Jew outwardly, and true circumcision is not that which is outward and bodily. 

Rom 2:29  But the true Jew is one inwardly, and true circumcision is heart-circumcision--not literal, but spiritual; and such people receive praise not from men, but from God. 

- to the uncircumcised who pays attention to the just requirements of the law will he be overlooked v.26.

- He will sit in judgment on you Jews even though you possess the Written Law, and are circumcised, yet you are a law-breaker v.27

- A Jew in reality is not just one outwardly but True Circumcision is not just outward and bodily, but inwardly - a heart circumcision, not literal but spiritual.

- They are the Ones who receive Praise not from men but from God, Himself.

Compare Romans 3 :22-31 and Colossians 1 :24-28

1 Thess 2 :16b. They thus continually fill up the measure of their own sins,

 WNT   or in this way they heap up their sins to the limit.

Research Question: Was Paul Antisemitic?

For their sins were at all times such as warrant God's Wrath.

To heap up or fill up or make complete. They heap them up to the limit.

Illustration Genesis 15 :16 speaks of how the children of Abraham would live in Egypt until the fourth generation, for " the sins of the Amorites are not yet complete ( up until now) 

i.e They have not yet reach the point at which God will judge them.

Paul adapted the Genesis Text (for they always fill up the measure of their sins) NASB.

The Righteous Abraham had lived as a sojourner among those wicked Amorites but their sins had not yet reached their  limit. 

AD 70 Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans

Now the Christian Saints at at Thessaloniki lived surrounded by the children of Abraham and it is the Jewish Nation which deserves immediate wrath from God.  Did they receive it. Yes they did. In AD 70 the Romans completely destroyed their Temple and drove them out of their land. The Last Resistance was crushed at Masada.

Jesus said " Complete what you Ancestors started Matt 23:32 Daniel 8 23 condemns the Jewish Leadership which lead to the destruction of the temple.

- God's Wrath (anger) in its severest form has overtaken them 1 Thess 2:26c.

The Wrath of God 'has come'. What does this say? It was written in the Greek Aorist Tense meaning that it was completed in the Past. Paul was writing before AD 70 but was seeing into the near future Prophetically what was about to come upon them. What God promises will sure come to pass because He is faithful to His Word. They were scattered across the globe and the Global Return of the Jews has just begun in our lifetime. What a terrible time is ahead for them in the Great Tribulation.

All rebellious and wicked persons will experience the wrath of God as did Jerusalem and  Sodom and Gomorrah.