1. Contra Colin R. Nicholl, From Hope to Despair in Thessalonica: Situating 1 and 2 Thessalonians (SNTSMS 126; Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004), 23, who believes that Paul is giving the verb κοιμάω a new, specifically Christian sense: “we suggest that the portrayal of the Christian dead as ‘asleep’ … is a significant, if subtle, affirmation … that deceased Christians will rise from the dead to be with Christ at his parousia.” See also Fee, Thessalonians, 167–68.
2. So the GNB, NJB. The CEV captures this interpretation: “Then you won’t grieve over them and be like people who don’t have any hope.”
3. So Nicholl, From Hope to Despair, 23–26. Apparently too the NKJV, NLT.
4. Calvin, Thessalonians, 279.
5. D. A. Carson, How Long O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil (2nd ed.; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006), 112.
6. N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003), 81.
7. See Best, Thessalonians, 187; Fee, Thessalonians, 169 n. 21.
8. Wallace, Grammar, 683.
9. A cognate verb occurs in Matt 13:30. In 13:39–42, 49–50, the angels gather up the wicked.
10. Plato, Phaedo (trans. Tredennick) 67d-e, 68b.
11. Luke 16:19–31, which, though parabolic, is still a portrayal that depends on accepted truths; 2 Cor 5:6–9; Phil 1:21–23; Rev 6:9–11.
12. Gary S. Shogren, “Mortality and Immortality,”DLNT, 776.
13. For example, to Abram in Gen 15:1; from God on Sinai to Moses in Exod 24:4; to Balaam in Num 24:13; to Nathan in 2 Sam 7:4; to Elijah in 1 Kgs 17:24; to Isaiah in Isa 66:5.
14. This is explicit in 1 Kgs 13—“λόγος” of the Lord is used in 1 Kgs 13:1, 9, 17; while ῥῆμα appears as its parallel in 1 Kgs 13:18, 21. This is parallel with the stereotyped “this is what the Lord says” (1 Kgs 13:2, 21).
15. So David Wenham, Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 310–11, who suggests that Paul may have borrowed Matt 25:1–13 and applied it to Christians who have died and then “arisen” to meet the bridegroom. See also S. Kim, “Jesus, Sayings of,” DPL, 475–77. Among other exegetes, David Hill, New Testament Prophecy (New Foundations Theological Library; Atlanta: John Knox, 1979), 130–31, 166, proposes that 1 Thess 4:15 is a summary of the Lord’s teaching, not an agraphon or an oracle.
16. See Kim, “Jesus Tradition,” 234–37; similarly Wanamaker, Thessalonians, 170–71; Green, Thessalonians, 222. See the analysis on Paul and the Jesus tradition by Michael Thompson, Clothed with Christ: The Example and Teaching of Jesus in Romans 12.1–15.13 (JSNTSup 59; London: T&T Clark, 1992), 70–76.
17. For example, Acts 20:35, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” See the overview by W. D. Stroker, “Agrapha,” ABD, 1:92–95. Strecker, Theology of the New Testament, 212, regards 4:16–17 as an apocalyptic tradition from Jewish Christianity. Joachim Jeremias, Unknown Sayings of Jesus (trans. R. H. Fuller; 2nd ed.; London: SPCK, 1964), 80–83, takes it as a saying of Jesus that had been slightly modified in transmission.
18. See esp. Best, Thessalonians, 189–94; also Malherbe, Letters to the Thessalonians, 267–70; John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Thessalonians 8 (NPNF1 13:355).
19. John Chrysostom in his In principium actorum (PG 51.93.16–19, four sermons on Acts, a work not included in the NPNF series) asserts that Paul possessed the full range of charismatic gifts; he quotes this verse and others to show that Paul had the gift of prophecy. D. E. Aune, Prophecy in Early Christianity and the Ancient Mediterranean World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 253–56, carefully examines 1 Thess 4:15 and concludes it was a prophetic oracle given by someone other than Paul, perhaps Silas.
20. Wallace, Grammar, 456.
21. Stanley E. Porter, Idioms of the Greek New Testament (Biblical Languages: Greek 2; Sheffield: JSOT, 1992), 181.
22. Best, Thessalonians, 194–96.
23. See too Origen, Cels. 5.17 (ANF 4:550): “Paul, as one who is alive and awake, and different from those who are asleep [κοιμάω], speaks as follows …”; Origen then quotes 1 Thess 4:15–17.
24. MM, 666–67.
25. Sallustius, Concerning the Gods and the Universe 21 (trans. Nock).
26. Philo, Rewards 117 (trans. Jonge). Philo uses “gathering” (συνάγωγος). See the use of the cognate verb “gather” (συνάγω) in Did. 10.5, discussed under 4:14 above.
27. Morris, Thessalonians (TNTC), 93.
28. See the useful article by D. F. Watson, “Michael,” ABD, 4:811. See esp. 1 En. 20.5 (ed. Charlesworth): “Michael, one of the holy angels, for (he is) obedient in his benevolence over the people and the nations.” Also War Scroll 16.6–7. In the Gospel of Judas, Michael is he who distributes spirits to human beings.
29. The loud trumpet signaled the epiphany of Yahweh in Exod 19:16: “On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled.” See also Zech 9:14; Heb 12:18–21. Michael blows the trumpet, and so do other angels, in late Judaism: see Apoc. Mos. 22.1.
30. Schippers, “Pre-Synoptic Traditions,” 233: “Paul has completely incorporated the pre-synoptic tradition into his letter to the Thessalonians.” Contra the minimalist position of C. M. Tuckett, “Synoptic Tradition in 1 Thessalonians?” pages 160–82 in The Thessalonian Correspondence (ed. Collins), who argues there is hardly any dependence on the Synoptic tradition in this letter.
31. Modern Gnostics understand the resurrection of the saints as the receiving of the higher knowledge (gnosis) during this life. See the contemporary Gnostic teaching by Stephan A. Hoeller, “The Gnostic Catechism”: www.webcom.com/gnosis/ecclesia/catechism.htm. “Question 89. How and when is our resurrection to take place? It takes place by Gnosis while we are still in earthly life.”
32. The tension that occurred between church and the Hellenistic world is evidenced by the clause “I believe … in the resurrection of the body” in the Apostles’ Creed. As early as the first and second century we hear denials of the resurrection in 1 Clem. 24–27; Barn. 21.1; 2 Clem. 9.1, 5 (“And let none of you say that this flesh is not judged and does not rise again…. If Christ, the Lord who saved us, became flesh (even though he was originally spirit) and in that state called us, so also we will receive our reward in this flesh.” Justin Martyr tells Trypho in Dial. 80.4–5 (ANF 1:239) that “some who are called Christians … say there is no resurrection of the dead, and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven…. But I and others, who are right-minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead.” Justin Martyr and Tertullian wrote whole treatises on the topic of the resurrection.
33. Wallace, Grammar, 437–38.
34. So Leon Morris, Word Biblical Themes (Dallas: Word, 1989), 49.
35. The LXX does not use the verb “catch up” (ἁρπάζω) of Enoch in Gen. 5:24, but rather “transferred” (μετατίθημι); Wis 4:10–11, however, uses both verbs to describe Enoch’s experience.
36. See Plevnik, “The Taking Up of the Faithful,” 274–83. He states that this verse is parallel to 2 Cor 4:13–14, and since the latter passage speaks of being led into God’s presence in heaven, 1 Thess 4:17 must also speak of going on to heaven. Therefore, the Thessalonians did not know about the resurrection because Paul had only taught them about the translation of the saints to heaven at Christ’s coming. Plevnik’s point falters in assuming that passages that sound similar are making the same point. See also his “The Destination of the Apostle and the Faithful,” 83–95
37. See the Matthean parable of the ten maidens (Matt 25:1–13); five of them apparently go forth in order to meet the groom and then walk back with him to the wedding feast, from which the girls had originally set out; however, we do not possess enough detailed information about wedding customs to make absolute claims. The language in the better manuscripts of Matt 25:6, “to meet” (εἰς ἀπάντησιν) is identical to what Paul uses here—another tantalizing clue that Paul is working with the Matthean tradition. Notice that in Matt 25:1, ὑπάντησις is interchangeable with the ἀπάντησις of 25:6. In both verses, some manuscripts have the words switched.
38. LSJ, “ἀπάντησις.” See also MM; the Hellenistic references show that this is not a Semiticism.
39. The NRSV and ESV also have “gates,” which preserves the metaphor—the Son of Man comes as a king to the gates of his city. See the synoptic parallel in Mark 13:29. The alternative translation, which is not so strong a possibility, is that this refers to the door of a habitation (see NIV), as indeed several metaphors of the Synoptic apocalypse speak of the lord of the household and his servants.
40. So E. Peterson, “ἀπάντησις,” TDNT, 1:380–81. Among other authors, this is one of those cases where one side errs by reading too much meaning into a word, and the other side refutes what is in effect a straw man. For example, John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Thessalonians 10 (NPNF1 13:356) states that such a coming by a king by definition includes the giving of rewards for the faithful subjects and the immediate judgment of the city’s rebels; the type of expanded meaning of the concept is approved by Lucien Cerfaux, Christ in the Theology of St. Paul (trans. Geoffrey Webb and Adrian Walker; New York: Herder and Herder, 1959), 39–42. A better way forward is shown by M. R. Cosby, “Hellenistic Formal Receptions and Paul’s Use of ΑΠΑΝΤΗΣΙΣ in 1 Thessalonians 4:17,” BBR 4 (1994): 15–34. He demonstrates that the word does not necessarily carry all the baggage that is sometimes attributed to its meaning (citizens prepare the reception; the offering sacrifices; judgment of rebels who are jailed within the city). Nevertheless the word can be shown generally to describe “a loose pattern to play against when describing the coming of a heavenly king” (15). Similarly Malherbe, Letters to the Thessalonians, 277; Bruce, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 102–3. Doubtful is the theory of N. T. Wright, that it was Paul who originally combined “meeting” with parousia in order to pit Christ against the earthly usurper, the emperor. See N. T. Wright, Paul in Fresh Perspective (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005), 74. The easiest refutation of Wright’s point is that it was not Paul who first applied these terms to the second coming; he found them in the gospel tradition (παρουσία: Matt 24:27, 37; see also Jas 5:8; “meeting” [ἀπάντησις], see our analysis above).
41. So S. Turner, “The Interim, Earthly Messianic Kingdom in Paul,” JSNT 25 (2003): 331. See also the essay by Douglas J. Moo, defending the posttribulationist view timing of the rapture, in Reiter, Three Views on the Rapture, 169–211. Wanamaker, Thessalonians, 169–70, states that the reference to the clouds means that they accompany Christ back to heaven.
42. Seyoon Kim, Christ and Caesar: The Gospel and the Roman Empire in the Writings of Paul and Luke (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 6; N. T. Wright, Paul in Fresh Perspective, 54–56, 142–43.
43. Harry J. Leon, The Jews of Ancient Rome (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1966), 335. See the detailed analysis of the Jewish doctrine of the resurrection by C. Brown, “ἀνάστασις,” NIDNTT, 3:259–75.
44. See the indispensable study by Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, 32–84.
45. Epicurus, “Letter to Menoeceus” (trans. Hicks).
46. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.21 (trans. Long).
47. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, 82.
48. M. Eugene Boring, Klaus Berger, and Carsten Colpe, eds., Hellenistic Commentary to the New Testament (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995), 494. Another funerary inscription from the third century AD reveals that some Hellenized Jews seem scarcely distinguishable from the Greeks with regard to their despair over the afterlife: “I, the son of Leontius, lie dead, Justus, the son of Sappho … (and left) my poor parents in endless mourning…. And having gone to Hades, I, Justus, lie here with many of my own kindred, since mighty Fate so willed. Be of good courage, Justus, no one is immortal” (see P. W. van den Horst, “Jewish Tomb Inscriptions in Verse,” in Hellenism, Judaism, Christianity: Essays on their Interaction [CBET; Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1994], 35).
49. Gaventa, First and Second Thessalonians, 67: “people in desperate pain will seek and grasp for comfort wherever they can find it, in an effort to manage the pain of loss. Paul takes a strikingly different strategy.”
50. Seneca, Ep. 116, “On Self-Control” (trans. Gummere).
51. For the Pharisees’ view see Josephus, Ant. 18.1.3 (§14); J.W. 2.8.14 (§163).
52. See P. S. Johnston, “Death and Resurrection,”NDBT, 444–47.
53. Beginning in the second century, a number of heresies (Marcionism, various strands of Gnosticism) rejected these implications of the OT, being informed by Greek assumptions. See, e.g., Tertullian, Res. 24; 41; 57 (ANF 3).
54. R. Bultmann, Jesus Christ and Mythology (New York: Scribner, 1958), 15. Without giving away any support to postmodernism, still I must say it is jarring to read Bultmann a mere fifty years after he gave this speech and to see how badly out of fashion his “modern” approach to truth has become.
55. Gaventa, First and Second Thessalonians, 76–79.