While studying the gift of contributing I came across something in 1 Thessalonians that troubled me.  I had to look into it further.  The translation—although we could have imposed our weight as apostles of Christ; instead we became little children among you^[1]—seemed oddly religious to me.  It implied that ordinarily the apostles of Christ threw their weight around, but Paul and his associates behaved out of the ordinary in Thessalonica by becoming little children.  Truly, then as now, religious leaders throw their weight around at times.  But if Paul thought that δυνάμενοι ἐν βάρει εἶναι ὡς Χριστοῦ ἀπόστολοι (having power [or, able] in weight [or, burden] we are as Christ’s apostles) meant that he was empowered by Christ to throw his weight around, he was clearly wrong.

Jesus warned us to be wary of such people (Mark 12:38, 39 NET).

Watch out for the experts in the law.  They like walking around in long robes and elaborate greetings in the marketplaces, and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.

And again (Luke 20:46 NET):

Beware of the experts in the law.  They like walking around in long robes, and they love (φιλούντων, a form of φιλέω)^[2] elaborate greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.

Paul seemed aware of this when he characterized the behavior of the false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ:^[3]  For you put up with it if someone makes slaves of you, he wrote, if someone exploits you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone behaves arrogantly toward you, if someone strikes you in the face. (To my disgrace, he wrote facetiously, I must say that we were too weak [ἠσθενήκαμεν, a form of ἀσθενέω]^[4] for that!)^[5]  Paul’s facetious use of ἠσθενήκαμεν here referred back to what some in Corinth were saying about him: His letters are weighty and forceful, but his physical presence is weak (ἀσθενὴς)^[6] and his speech is of no account.^[7]  Apparently they mistook love, patience and kindness for weakness.

Apostles were empowered however by the word of Christ to receive their necessary provisions, presumably from God through the gift of contributing to one or more of the people to whom they ministered; the worker deserves his provisions, the Lord said (Matthew 10:8-11 NET):

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.  Freely you received, freely give.  Do not take gold, silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for the journey, or an extra tunic, or sandals or staff, for the worker deserves his provisions.  Whenever you enter a town or village, find out who is worthy there and stay with them until you leave.

The word translated weight in although we could have imposed our weight as apostles of Christ is βάρει, a form of βάρος.^[8]  βάρει was only used once.  βάρος, and another form βάρη, and their translations in the NET are listed below.

Had the word been translated hardship or burden it would have hearkened back to Paul’s more sarcastic and facetious remarks to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 12:13-15a NET):

For how were you treated worse than the other churches, except that I myself was not a burden (κατενάρκησα, a form of καταναρκάω)^[9] to you?  Forgive me this injustice!  Look, for the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden (καταναρκήσω, another form of καταναρκάω) to you, because I do not want your possessions, but you.  For children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.  Now I will most gladly spend and be spent for your lives!

Though the words are different, the concepts are quite similar.  To the Corinthians Paul and his associates were parents who save up and spend for their children (τέκνοις, a form of τέκνον).^[10]  To the Thessalonians they were like a nursing mother caring for her own children (τέκνα, another form of τέκνον), with such affection for you we were happy to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.^[11]  They treated the Thessalonians as a father treats his own children (τέκνα, another form of τέκνον).^[12]

I have not burdened (κατεβάρησα, a form of καταβαρέω)^[13] you, Paul continued to address the Corinthians in his second letter.  Yet because I was a crafty person, he wrote facetiously, I took you in by deceit!  I have not taken advantage of you through anyone I have sent to you, have I? he invited them to contradict him.  I urged Titus to visit you and I sent our brother along with him.  Titus did not take advantage of you, did he?  Did we not conduct ourselves in the same spirit?  Did we not behave in the same way?^[14]

For you recall, brothers and sisters, Paul continued to address the Thessalonians in his first letter, our toil and drudgery: By working night and day so as not to impose a burden (ἐπιβαρῆσαι, a form of ἐπιβαρέω)^[15] on any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God.  You are witnesses, and so is God, as to how holy and righteous and blameless our conduct was toward you who believe.^[16]

Earlier Paul had written the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 9:4, 7-12 NET)

Do we not have the right to financial support?…Who ever serves in the army at his own expense?  Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit?  Who tends a flock and does not consume its milk?  Am I saying these things only on the basis of common sense, or does the law not say this as well?  For it is written in the law of Moses, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.”  God is not concerned here about oxen, is he?  Or is he not surely speaking for our benefit?  It was written for us, because the one plowing and threshing ought to work in hope of enjoying the harvest.  If we sowed spiritual blessings among you, is it too much to reap material things from you?  If others receive this right from you, are we not more deserving?  But we have not made use of this right.  Instead we endure everything so that we may not be a hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

The translators of the NET probably know all of this as well, if not better, than I do.  The problem comes, I think, from translating the conjunction ἀλλὰ as instead in this instance, contrasting the two clauses:  although we could have imposed our weight as apostles of Christ; instead (ἀλλὰ)^[17] we became little children among you.  What possible contrast could we became little children among you provide to being a burden financially?

Such a contrast makes little sense whether the disputed word νήπιοι (a form of νήπιος)^[18] (little children, infants) or ἤπιοι (a form of ἤπιος;^[19] gentle) is selected.  I do think the NET translators were right to prefer νήπιοι.^[20]  And the mere possibility that one might tease the apostles throwing their weight around out of the Greek here sounds like double entendre.  It alerts my ear to Paul’s facetiousness and hyperbole.  So I consider ἀλλὰ to be magnifying or amplifying the prior clause (yea, moreover) rather than setting up a contrast.

In 2 Corinthians 7:11 (NET), for instance, the Net translators either left ἀλλὰ out of this kind of amplification or translated it what: For see what this very thing, this sadness as God intended, has produced in you: what eagerness, (ἀλλὰ) what defense of yourselves, (ἀλλὰ) what indignation, (ἀλλὰ) what alarm, (ἀλλὰ) what longing, (ἀλλὰ) what deep concern, (ἀλλὰ) what punishment!  If I apply something similar to 1 Thessalonians 2:7 I get a translation like, “Empowered to be burdensome as Christ’s apostles, yea, we became infants^[21] in your midst!”

The actual contrast came next, not unlike the rebuttal of 2 Corinthians 12:16b—Yet (ἀλλὰ) because I was a crafty person, I took you in by deceit!—in verse 17—I have not taken advantage of you through anyone I have sent to you….  Paul and his associates did not become infants suckling at the breast of the Thessalonian church; they were the nursing mother suckling the church, not because believers in Thessalonica were a burden, but because with such affection for you we were happy to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.^[22]

Understood this way, the ordinary situation of the apostles of Christ is that the worker deserves his provisions, as Jesus put it, or to be a burden (κατενάρκησα, a form of καταβαρέω) on the church financially, as Paul implied.^[23]  The extraordinary circumstance by contrast was to preach the gospel free of charge (1 Corinthians 9:13-18 NET)

Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple eat food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar receive a part of the offerings?  In the same way the Lord commanded those who proclaim the gospel to receive their living by the gospel.  But I have not used any of these rights.  And I am not writing these things so that something will be done for me.  In fact, it would be better for me to die than – no one will deprive me of my reason for boasting!  For if I preach the gospel, I have no reason for boasting, because I am compelled to do this.  Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!  For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward (μισθὸν, a form of μισθός)^[24].  But if I do it unwillingly, I am entrusted with a responsibility.  What then is my reward (μισθός)?  That when I preach the gospel I may offer the gospel free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights in the gospel.

Another consequence of viewing it this way, however, is that Paul might have taken another little gibe at Peter and James (implying that they were like suckling infants) similar to the gibe he took in his first letter to the Corinthians (though not so whiny):  Do we not have the right to the company of a believing wife, like the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?  Or do only Barnabas and I lack the right not to work?^[25]