of the Thessalonians, however, was for their fellow-Christians, in the intermedi- ate state of Hades. As the problem had not arisen during Paul’s stay at Thessa- lonica, he now offers the church a reason- able solution of the difficulty (13-18).— οὐ θέλομεν δὲ ὑμᾶς ἀγνοεῖν, contrast the οἴδατε οἵ iv. 2, v. 2, and compare the ordinary epistolary phrases of the papyri (Expos., 1908, 55) such as γεινώσκειν σε θέλω (commonly at the beginning of a letter, ο). 6ο]. πο τ. Phil ier2 se21Cor i. 8, and with ὅτι, but here, as in 1 Cor. xii, I, with περί).---τῶν κοιμωμένων -- the dead in Christ (16), a favourite Jew- ish euphemism (Kennedy, δέ. Paul’s Conc. of Last Things, 247 f., and cf, Fries in Zeitschrift fir neutest. Wrss. i, 306 f.), not unknown to Greek and Roman I:tera- ture.—ot λοιποὶ, κ.τ.λ., cf. Butcher’s Some Aspects of the Greek Genius, pp. 153f., 159 f. Hope is the distinguishing note of Christians here as in Eph. ii. 12; Col. 1. 22, etc.
Ver. 14. Unlike some of the Corin- thians (1 Cor. xv. 17, 18), the Thessa- lonians did not doubt the fact of Christ’s resurrection (et of course implies no uncertainty). Paul assumes their faith in it and argues from it. Their vivid and naive belief in Christ’s advent within their own lifetime was the very source of their distress. Paul still shares that belief (τ7).---διὰ τοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦ is an unusual expression which might, so far as gram- mar is concerned, go either with τ. κ. (so. e.g., Ellic., Alford, Kabisch, Light- foot, Findlay, Milligan) or ἄξει. The latter is the preferable construction (so most editors). The phrase is not needed (cf. 15) to limit τ. κ. to Christians (so Chrys., Calvin), for the unbelieving dead are not before the writer’s mind, and, even so, ἐν would have been the natural preposition (cf. 16), nor does it mean martyrdom. In the light of ν. ο (ef. Rom. v. 9; 1 Cor. xv. 21), it seems to. connect less awkwardly with ἄξει, though not = “‘at the intercession of Jesus’”
12---15.
τοὺς κοιµηθέντας διὰ τοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦ " ἄξει σὺν αὐτῷ.
Ἑ ήν if la ε a A ,
ὑμῖν λέγομεν "ἐν λόγῳ " Κυρίου, ὅτι ἡμεῖς οἱ ζῶντες ot * περιλειπό- 3 κ᾿ , - ’ π 5 να, ‘
μενοι εἰς τὴν παρουσίαν τοῦ Κυρίου “οὐ μὴ " φθάσωμεν τοὺς κοιμη-
i. 6 and Asc. Isa. iv. 16.
(Βεζα). t 2 Macc. i. 31, viii. 14, etc.
(Rutherford). Jesus is God’s agent η the final act, commissioned to raise and muster the dead (cf, Stahelin, ¥ahrb. f. deut. Theol., 1874, 189 f., and Schettler, Die paul. Formel “‘ Durch Christus,” 1907, 57 1). The divine mission of the Christ, which is to form the climax of things, involves the resurrection of the dead who are His (v. το). Any general resur- rection is out of the question (so Did., xvi. 6: ἀνάστασις νεκρῶν" οὐ πάντων δὲ, ἀλλ᾽ ὡς ἐρρέθη, ἥξει ὁ Κύριος Kai πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ).
‘Ver. 15. κυρίου. On the tendency of the N.T. writers to reserve κύριος, with its O,T. predicates of divine authority, for Jesus, cf. Kattenbusch, of. cit., ii. 522. Paul’s use of the term goes back to Christ’s own claim to κύριος in the higher sense of Mark xii. 35 f.—Aéyopev. Con- trast the οἴδατε οὖν. 2 and the language of iv. 1. Evidently Paul had not had time or occasion to speak of such a con- tingency, when he was with them.—év λόγῳ κυρίου may mean either (a) a quota- tion (like Acts xx. 35) from the sayings of Jesus, or (8) a prophetic revelation vouch- safed to Paul himself, or to Silvanus (cf. Acts xv. 32). In the former case (so, among modern editors, Schott, Ewald, Drummond, Wohl.), an ἄγραφον is cited (Calvin, Koch, Weizsacker, Resch, Paul- inismus, 238 f.; Ropes, die Spritche Fesu, 153 f.; M. Goguel; van der Vies, 15-17; Ο. Holtzmann, Life of Fesus, 10; von Soden) but it is evidently given in a free form, and the precise words cannot (even in ver. 16) be disentangled. Besides we should expect τινι to be added. Unless, therefore, we are to think of a primitive collection (Lake, Amer. Fourn. Theol., 1906, 108 f.) or of some oral tradition, (ϐ) is preferable. The contents of Matt. xxiv. 31 (part of the small apocalypse) are too dissimilar to favour the conjecture (Pelt, Zimmer, Weiss) that Paul was thinking of this saying as current per- haps in oral tradition, and the O.T. an- alogy of λόγος Κυρίου ( = God’s pro- phetic word), together with the internal probabilities of the case (Paul does not remind them of it, as elsewhere in the epistle) make it on the whole more likely