1 Thessalonians 4:13

θελομεν in all uncials, latt vg; θελω in many minn., syrr cop.

κοιμωμενων, אAB 67** and other minn., latt vg (dormientibus) syrr. κεκοιμημενων is a patent Western and Syrian emendation, conformed to 1 Corinthians 15:20; it is found in DGKL, &c. See Expository Note.

λυπεισθε, AD*GL, and many minn.: itacistic.

13. Οὐ θέλομεν δὲ ὑμᾶς�, ἀδελφοί. But we would not have you to be ignorant, brothers. The impressive phrase οὐ θέλω … ἀγνοεῖν (cf. Romans 1:13; Romans 11:25; 1 Corinthians 10:1; 2 Corinthians 1:8) calls attention to a new statement which St Paul is anxious that his readers should well understand; it disappears after the second group of the Epistles: cf. the similar expressions of 1 Corinthians 12:3; Philippians 1:12; Colossians 2:1. Such formulæ are common in the Epistolary style of the period. Δέ follows οὐ θέλομεν, which form practically one word, Nolumus (Vulg.).

περὶ τῶν κοιμωμένων, concerning them that are falling asleep; “are asleep” (A.V.) represents the faulty reading of the T. R., κεκοιμημένων. The present participle denotes what is going on. This trouble had now arisen for the first time; see Introd. p. xliv. So vivid was the anticipation of the Parousia conveyed to the minds of St Paul’s converts, that the thought of death intervening to blot out the prospect had scarcely occurred to them. Now that some of their number have died, or are dying,—what about these? have they lost their part in the approaching ἀποκάλυψις τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ (1 Corinthians 1:7)? There entered, further, into the sorrow of the bereaved some doubt as to the future resurrection and eternal blessedness of those prematurely snatched away; for the sentence continues, in order that you may not sorrow (λυπῆσθε, continue in sorrow: pres. subjunctive) as the rest (of men) who are without hope. The grief of some of the readers bordered on extreme despair (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:18); yet they had been taught from the first the Christian hope of the resurrection (see 1 Thessalonians 1:10; Acts 17:18, &c.). We must allow for the short time that the Thessalonians had been under instruction and the many new truths they had to master, for the stupefying influence of grief, and for the power with which at such an hour, and amid the lamentations of unbelieving kindred, the darkest fears of their pre-Christian state would re-assert themselves. This dread was vaguely felt by the mourners; what they distinctly apprehended was that those dying beforehand could not witness the return of the Lord Jesus to His people “living” on the earth (1 Thessalonians 4:15; 1 Thessalonians 4:17). This implied a materialistic conception of the Parousia—almost inevitable in the first instance—which is tacitly corrected in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, and more fully rectified in the later teaching of 1 Corinthians 15:42-55 : “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”; “we shall be changed.” Sorrow over the departed is not forbidden, but the dark sorrow of οἱ λοιποί: “Permittantur itaque pia corda de carorum suorum mortibus contristari dolore sanabili, et consolabiles lacrimas fundant, quas cito reprimat fidel gaudium” (Augustine).

Κοιμᾶσθαι (the synon. καθεύδειν in 1 Thessalonians 5:10, see note; Matthew 9:24, and parallels) represents death as sleep, after the style of Jesus (see John 11:11 f.; 1 Corinthians 7:39, &c.), the term indicating the restful (and perhaps restorative) effect of death to the child of God, and at the same time its temporary nature,—“I go,” said Jesus of Lazarus, “that I may awake him from sleep.” So the early Christians called their burial-places κοιμητήρια, cemeteries, or dormitories. In the O.T. (Isaiah 14:18; Isaiah 43:17; 1 Kings 2:10; 1 Kings 11:43), and occasionally in classical Greek, the same expression is found, but by way of euphemism or poetical figure; its use in 2Ma 12:44 f., however, clearly implies a doctrine of the resurrection. This truth is assumed, to begin with, by the expression περὶ τῶν κοιμωμένων in reproof of despondent mourning. One does not grieve over “the sleeping.”

οἱ λοιποί, the rest, the lave—as in Ephesians 2:3—synon. with οἱ ἔξω of 1 Thessalonians 4:12 : that expression implies exclusion, this implies deprivation. οἱ μὴ ἔχοντες ἐλπίδα are the same as τὰ ἔθνη τὰ μὴ εἰδότα τὸν θεόν, 1 Thessalonians 4:5; Ephesians 2:12 identifies Gentile hopelessness and godlessness. Despair of any future beyond death was a conspicuous feature of contemporary civilization. The more enlightened a Greek or Roman might be, the less belief he commonly held in the old gods of his country and in the fables of a life beyond the grave: see the speeches of Cato and of Caesar in the Catiline of Sallust, and the quotations given by Lightfoot or Bornemann ad loc. from ancient elegiac poetry and sepulchral inscriptions. The loss of Christian faith in modern times brings back the Pagan despair,—“the shadow of a starless night.” Against this deep sorrow of the world the word sleep, four times applied in this context to the Christian’s death, is an abiding protest. 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 will give the reasons why the Thessalonians should not sorrow over their dead, as they are tempted to do.