1 and 2 Thessalonians, Volume 45 by F. F. Bruce

Author:F. F. Bruce
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL006070 Religion / Biblical Commentary / New Testament
Publisher: Zondervan

Comment

4:13 Οὐ θέλομεν δὲ ὑμᾶς ἀγνοεῖν, ἀδελφοί, “But we do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers”—a common Pauline locution, an emphatic way of saying “we wish you to know” (cf. Col 2:1), whether with reference to apostolic experiences (2 Cor 1:8) and travel plans (Rom 1:13) or with reference to disclosures of the divine purpose (Rom 11:25) and principles of personal conduct (1 Cor 10:1) and church practice (1 Cor 12:1). Whatever the subject matter in question, it is evidently considered important that the readers should be aware of it.

The subject to be dealt with here—the lot of the faithful departed at the Parousia—is apparently one on which the Thessalonian Christians had not been adequately informed. We need not suppose, with W. Schmithals, that they had recently been misled by gnosticizing visitors who denied the resurrection hope (Paul and the Gnostics, 160–162); still less need we suppose, with Mearns, that Paul was now concerned to correct “an exaltation theology of present glory” which he himself had originally taught at Thessalonica (“Early Eschatological Development,” 141).

περὶ τῶν κοιμωμένων, “with regard to those who are asleep.” The use of “sleep” as a euphemism for “death” was commonplace in antiquity; cf. the OT idiom “to sleep with one’s fathers” (e.g. of David, 1 Kgs [LXX 3 Kgdms] 2:10, ἐκοιμήθη μετὰ τῶν πατέρων). In Greek it is attested from Homer onward, even of death in battle (κοιμήσατο χάλκεον ὕπνον, “he slept the sleep of bronze,” Iliad 11.241). Not only κοιμᾶσθαι but εὕδειν and its compound καθεύδειν are found in this sense (cf. 5:10). Christians took it up as a congenial mode of expression, death being viewed by them as a sleep from which one would awake to resurrection life. In contemporary paganism it was too often viewed as a sleep from which there would be no awaking; cf. Catullus (5.4–6):

soles occidere et redire possunt:

nobis, cure semel occidit breuis lux,

nox est perpetua una dormienda.

The sun can set and rise again

But once our brief light sets

There is one unending night to be slept through.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.