1st Thessalonians Chapter 2 verse 17 Holy Bible
But we, brethren, being bereaved of you for a short season, in presence not in heart, endeavored the more exceedingly to see your face with great desire:
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But we, my brothers, being away from you for a short time, in body but not in heart, had all the more desire to see your face;
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But we, brethren, having been bereaved of you and separated for a little moment in person, not in heart, have used more abundant diligence to see your face with much desire;
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But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.
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But we, brothers, being bereaved of you for a short season, in presence, not in heart, tried even harder to see your face with great desire,
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And we, brethren, having been taken from you for the space of an hour -- in presence, not in heart -- did hasten the more abundantly to see your face in much desire,
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Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 17. - Here a new chapter ought to have commenced, passing on to another subject, the apostle's desire to visit the Thessalonians. But we, brethren, being taken from you; literally, being bereaved of you (R.V.). For a short time; literally, for the space of an hour. And yet it was several years before the apostle revisited Thessalonica; but he here speaks of the short period - a space of six months - which had already separated them; not, as some suppose, that his mind was so full of the ideas of eternity that he overlooked all divisions of time. In presence, not in heart. Similar expressions are common in Paul's Epistles, denoting his love for his converts; thus: "Though I be absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit" (Colossians 2:5). Endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire; because our separation has been so short. As has been well observed, "Universal experience testifies that the pain of separation from friends and the desire to return to them are more vivid, the more freshly the remembrance of the departure is on the mind" (Lunemann).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(17) But we, brethren.--Now comes a change of subject: no longer the memories of the time when St. Paul was among them, but his hopes and fears about them since he left."But while you were being persecuted by these reprobate Jews, we, who were driven away from you, were longing to come back to see whether your faith was such an effectual working faith as to support you through it all."Taken from you.--Literally, bereaved from you--i.e., bereaved by being torn from you; a return to the simile of the mother (1Thessalonians 2:7), or father (1Thessalonians 2:11).The more abundantly.--"So far were we from the proverb, 'out of sight, out of mind,' that our very absence gave us a greater yearning after your presence" (1Corinthians 5:3).
