Whereas we might have been burdensome to you, as the apostles of Christ: but we became little ones in the midst of you, as if a nurse should cherish her children:
Adam Clarke
But we were gentle among you - Far from assuming the authority which we had, we acted towards you as a tender nurse or parent does to a delicate child. We fed, counselled, cherished, and bore with you; we taught you to walk, preserved you from stumbling, and led you in a right path. Instead of ηπιοι, gentle, many MSS., and several versions and fathers, have νηπιοι, young children. But this never can be considered the original reading, the scope of the place being totally opposed to it. It is the Thessalonians whom the apostle considers as young children, and himself and fellow laborers as the nurse; he could with no propriety say that he was among them as a little child, while himself professed to be their nurse.
Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.