Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
But we were gentle in the midst of you (alla egenhqhmen nhpioi en mesw umwn). Note egenhqhmen (became), not hmeqa (were). This rendering follows hpioi instead of nhpioi (Aleph B D C Vulg. Boh.) which is clearly correct, though Dibelius, Moffatt, Ellicott, Weiss prefer hpioi as making better sense. Dibelius terms nhpioi unmoglich (impossible), but surely that is too strong. Paul is fond of the word nhpioi (babes). Lightfoot admits that he here works the metaphor to the limit in his passion, but does not mar it as Ellicott holds.
As when a nurse cherishes her own children (wv ean trofov qalph ta eauthv tekna). This comparative clause with wv ean (Mark 4:26; Galatians 6:10 without ean or an) and the subjunctive (Robertson, Grammar, p. 968) has a sudden change of the metaphor, as is common with Paul (I Timothy 5:24; II Corinthians 3:13 ff.) from
babes to
nurse (trofov), old word, here only in the N.T., from trefw, to nourish, trofh, nourishment. It is really the mother-nurse "who suckles and nurses her own children" (Lightfoot), a use found in Sophocles, and a picture of Paul's tender affection for the Thessalonians. Qalpw is an old word to keep warm, to cherish with tender love, to foster. In N.T. only here and Ephesians 5:29.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing 1 Thessalonians 2:7:
Acts 17:5
Galatians 4:19
Ephesians 5:29
1 Thessalonians 2:1
1 Thessalonians 2:6
1 Thessalonians 2:11
1 Thessalonians 2:17
1 Thessalonians 3:1
2 Timothy 2:24
Hebrews 2:1
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