The first action of the Jews mentioned by Paul is that they killed the Lord Jesus. Usually, when referring to the death of Jesus, Paul speaks of him being crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23; 1 Corinthians 2:2, 1 Corinthians 2:8; 2 Corinthians 13:4; Galatians 3:1). Here, however, the death of Christ is linked to the death of the prophets, who were not crucified. In addition, Paul’s focus is not on the saving significance of Jesus’ death but on the fact that his death came about through persecution. For these reasons the apostle uses the word killed.
1,2 Interestingly, although the Gospels and the book of Acts often ascribe responsibility for Jesus’ death to the Jews, this is the only time that Paul does so (see, e.g., Galatians 3:1; John 18:14, John 18:14; Acts 2:23, Acts 2:36; Acts 3:13–15). Historically, Jesus’ death came about through the plotting of certain Jewish leaders, who exerted political pressure on the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, to have Jesus executed. For the sake of political convenience, Pilate gave in to their request. Responsibility for Jesus’ execution lay, therefore, with both Jews and Gentiles (Matthew 26:57 – 27:27; Mark 14:53 – 15:15; Luke 22:66 – 23:25; John 18:12 – 19:16; cf. Acts 4:25–27). However, at this point in 1 Thessalonians Paul focuses on the Jews; this allows him to offer encouragement and hope to the Thessalonian disciples through a reference to the biblical tradition of persecution.3
15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind