manifest themselves in St. Paul's correspondence, and in the later developments of the Johannine literature.
ii. St. Paul. — The general tendency of modem scholarship is to find adeveloi)ment in the eschato- logy of St. Paul from the ' cruder ' eschatology of the earlier Epistles, e.g. 1 and 2 Thessalonians, through the central group of Epistles, Koinansand Corinthians, to the Epistles of the Captivity such as Philippians,* and possibly Ephesians, which, if not by St. Paul, is generally recognized as Pnuline.
R. H. Charles finds a stage of development be- tween 1 and 2 Corinthians, but for convenience we may take the three main groujis and examine their view of the Parousia separately.
(a) 1 and 2 The.isalonians. — In both these Epistles the Parousia occupies a foremost place. It is not necessary to discuss here tlie Pauline authorship of 2 Thess. For the best and most recent statement of the whole position the reader is referred to Kirsopp Lake's 2 he Earlier Epistles of St. Paul. It is also a tenable position that 2 Thess. is the earlier of the two. But the two are in any case so close together in time that they may be taken together as they stand to represent St. Paul's views on the Parousia about A.D. 51 (see art. Thessalonians, Epistles to the).
The passages in 1 and 2 Thess. are important as much for whatthey imply as for what they explicitly state. They show how largely the eschatological element bulked in the primitive apostolic preaching. The most important passage in 1 Tliess. is 4''-5". The following are the principal points arising from it.
It implies that St. Paul had taught his converts the near approach of the Parousia of Christ and the consequent blessing, apparently on earth, of the living believers. But it also implies that he had not told them what place the believers who died in the interval of expectation would have. The implication is that the Thessalonians supposed the dead would lose their part in tlie Messianic Kingdom, and were sorrowing accordingly.
It also seems that St. Paul does not supply his solution to the question ready-made from Jewish apocalyptic material, but bases it on two grounds : (1) his own deduction from the death and resur- rection of Jesus (v."), and (2) a word of the Lord (v."). Of course, this may be disputed, but to the present writer the passage is important evidence for the working of St. Paul's mind on the questions of the eschatological scheme, and for the method which he applied to their solution.
Hence St. Paul infers from the death and resur- rection of Jesus, probably by way of his own fundamental view of the vital union between Christ and the believer, that as death is not a bar to Christ's entering on His Messianic Kingdom, neither will it prevent believers who die from sharing that Kingdom. The Resurrection is the key to both difficulties. God raised Christ and will raise believers in Christ for the Kingdom. That is the fundamental position and the principle upon which it is based. Then the details are apparently supplied from the primitive oral tradi- tion of our Lord's teacliing as known to St. Paul, although not preserved in the Synoptists {iv \6yii) Kvplov). (For the interpretation of 4f Xiyif) Kvplov as referring to the oral tradition rather than to a special revelation cf. 1 Co 7'" 9" 11^ 15M Accord- ingly, the order of events as presented in this passage is : ( 1 ) the resurrection of Christ takes place; (2) during the present generation ('we which are alive and remain ') Christ will descend
•It may be remarked that Kirsopp Lake now argnes for an earlier date for Philippians, during the Apostle's stay at Ephesus. This will bring it into the Romans and Corinthians group (Exp, 8th ser., vu. [1914] 481 S.).
PAKOUSIA
PAROUSIA
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into the air with a word of comiiiaiul, tlie arch- angel's voice, and the tnini|ietofGoil ; (3) thereupon the dead in Christ rise first ; (-1) after a very hrief interval of time, the living will be 'caught up,' with the raised dead, to meet the Lord in the air ; (5) both living and dead will then be ' for ever with the Lord.' The Apostle does not say where, on earth or in heaven, nor does he speak here of any change in the living who are caught up. (6) lie goes on to distinguish this event from the 'day of the Lord ' (5^). He implies that they know accur- ately the details about the ' times and seasons,' including the coming of the day of the Lord, whereas he had previously implied that they were not acquainted with the event described in 4'"'", ' I would not have you ignorant.' The ' day of the Lord' comes as a thief in the night; it brings judgment upon the sinners, those who are ' of the night.' Believers will not be overtaken by it. God has not appointed them to wrath but to obtain salvation ' through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him.'
This passage seems to distinguish the Parousia proper, the coming of Christ for the saints, from the ' day of the Lord ' with its judgments. It is not easy to reconcile 2 Thess. with 1 Thess. except on the hypothesis that 2 Thess. is prior to 1 Thess., and that, in endeavouring to meet difficulties raised in reply to 2 Thess., the Apostle had worked out the torm of Parousia doctrine which appears in 1 Thess. Otherwise, if the usual order be retained, the opening verses of 2 Thess. suggest that St. Paul had not realized the incompatibility of the new outline given in 1 Th 4'""'* with the older traditional view represented by 2 Th 1.