1 Thessalonians 4:14

εἰ γὰρ πιστεύομεν ὅτι Ἰησοῦς�. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again: the faith of a Christian in its briefest statement (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:3 f.); the form of supposition, εἰ with pres. indicative, assumes the fact,—for writers and readers alike (we believe: cf. 1 Corinthians 15:11). In Romans 10:9 St Paul declares the faith that “saves” to be the heart-belief that “God raised Jesus our Lord from the dead”; in 1 Corinthians 15:13-19 he argues that “if Christ hath not been raised” the whole Gospel is false, affording no salvation from sin, and no assurance that dying Christians do not perish in the grave. Granted this one certainty, and these consequences are reversed. See 1 Corinthians 6:14-15 at large; 2 Corinthians 4:14; Romans 4:24; Romans 5:10; Romans 8:11; Romans 14:7-9; Philippians 3:10 f., for other teaching of St Paul bearing on the momentous and manifold effects of the resurrection of Jesus. In this connexion the Redeemer is “Jesus,” being thought of in His human person and in the analogy of His experience to our own; hence οὔτως καί in the apodosis. What we believe of this “firstborn amongst many brethren, firstborn out of the dead” (Romans 8:29; Colossians 1:18), we trust to see fulfilled in His brethren: ἀπαρχὴ χριστός, ἔπειτα οἱ τοῦ χριστοῦ ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ αὐτοῦ (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

οὕτως καὶ ὁ θεὸς τοὺς κοιμηθέντας διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἄξει σὺν αὐτῷ. So also will God, (in the case of) those who fell asleep through Jesus, bring (them) along with Him: this awkward rendering reproduces the order of the Greek words, which throw emphasis on the action of God, who is conceived as the Raiser-up of the Lord Jesus, and associate Christ’s people with Him in this restoration (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Corinthians 6:14; 2 Corinthians 4:14; Galatians 1:1; Ephesians 1:19 f.). The aorist participle, τοὺς κοιμηθέντας, looks back to the “falling asleep” from the standpoint of the Parousia (ἄξει σὺν αὐτῷ).

The διά clause may belong grammatically either to the participle or to the principal verb ἄξει (note the article, τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, “the Jesus” who “died and rose again,” &c.): two considerations make for its association with κοιμηθέντας—the occurrence of the like combination in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, οἱ νεκροὶ ἐν Χριστῷ; and the fitness of the adjunct as an explanation of the emphatically reaffirmed κοιμᾶσθαι. “Through Jesus” (per Jesum, Vulg.; not in Jesu, as in Beza) the Thessalonian Christians had “fallen asleep”: death in their case was robbed of its terrors, as the survivors would remember, and transformed into sleep; clinging to the name of Jesus, they defied death (cf. Romans 8:38 f.). Such faith in Him whom He raised from the dead, God will not disown; He “will bring them (back from the unseen world) with Him.”

“Jesus! my only hope Thou art,

Strength of my failing flesh and heart!”

(Charles Wesley’s Dying Hymn.)

The argument of this verse is elliptical, its compression being due to the vivacity and eagerness of the Apostle’s mind, especially manifest under strong emotion. More completely expressed, his syllogism would read thus: “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again on our behalf, we are bound to believe that He will raise up those who fell asleep in death trusting in Him, and will restore them to us at His return.” St Paul leaps over two steps in drawing out his conclusion: (1) he argues from belief in the fact in his protasis to the fact itself in the apodosis; (2) he tacitly assumes the immediate consequence, viz. the resurrection of the κοιμηθέντες guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus, in his haste to anticipate the ultimate consequence, their return along with Jesus; for it was about the share of their beloved dead in the Advent that the readers were anxious. Underlying this assurance we trace St Paul’s deep and characteristic doctrine of the union between Christ and Christians. This unity becomes clearer as we proceed: see 1 Thessalonians 4:16 f. (οἱ νεκροὶ ἐν Χριστῷ, πάντοτε σὺν κυρίῳ ἐσόμεθα); 1 Thessalonians 5:10; 2 Thessalonians 1:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:14; cf. 1 Corinthians 15:23; 2 Corinthians 4:10; Romans 6:5; Colossians 3:1-4; 2 Timothy 2:11, &c. The nerve of the Apostle’s reasoning lies in the connexion of the words “died and rose again”: Jesus has made a pathway through the grave; by this passage His faithful, fallen asleep but still one with Him, are conducted to appear with Him at His return. Ἄξει, “ducet, suave verbum: dicitur de viventibus” (Bengel). Cf. Hebrews 2:10, πολλοὺς υἱοὺς εἰς δόξαν�; but the thought here is that of reunion with the living saints, rather than of guidance to heavenly glory (see 2 Thessalonians 2:1).