Discovery Box1 Thessalonians 2:17-18 
ContextForced Absence from Thessalonica
2:17 But when we were separated from you, brothers and sisters, 1 for a short time (in presence, not in affection) 2 we became all the more fervent in our great desire 3 to see you in person. 4 2:18 For we wanted to come to you (I, Paul, in fact tried again and again) 5 but Satan thwarted us.
1 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:4.
2 tn Grk “in face, not in heart.”
3 tn Grk “with great desire.”
4 tn Grk “to see your face.”
5 tn Or “several times”; Grk, “both once and twice.” The literal expression “once and twice” is frequently used as a Greek idiom referring to an indefinite low number, but more than once (“several times”); see L&N 60.70.
