1 Thessalonians 5:1

1. For εχετε, εχομεν in Augep 199. “non opus habemus vobis scribere, vel sicut alii codices habent, non opus habetis vobis scribi.” The same variation in 1 Thessalonians 4:9 (see note above); other latt non est necesse vobis scribere (Tert non est necessitas scribendi vobis), vg non indigetis ut scribamus vobis. The Greek idiom makes ungrammatical Latin.

1. Περὶ δὲ τῶν χρόνων καὶ τῶν καιρῶν, ἀδελφοί. But about the times and the seasons, brothers.

Χρόνος signifies time as duration, καιρός as a specific point, occasion: asking περὶ τῶν χρόνων, one wants to know the length of the periods that may elapse before the Advent; asking περὶ τῶν καιρῶν, the number and nature of the critical events that must intervene and lead up to it; de temporibus et momentis (Vulg.). Ὁ μὲν καιρὸς δηλοῖ ποιότητα, χρόνος δὲ ποσότητα (Ammonius). For the association of these terms, cf. Titus 1:2 f.; Acts 1:7; Acts 3:20 f.; also Daniel 2:21; Daniel 7:12; Ecclesiastes 3:1; Wis 8:8 : for καιρός further, 1 Thessalonians 2:17 above; 2 Thessalonians 2:6; Romans 3:26; Galatians 6:9 f.; Luke 21:8, &c. Ἀδελφοί is repeated in 1 Thessalonians 5:4, as though the Apostles instinctively drew their friends near to themselves under the shadow of the solemn future; cf. ἡμῶν ἐπισυναγωγῆς, 2 Thessalonians 2:1. Chrysostom attributes the inquisitiveness περὶ τῶν χρόνων κ.τ.λ. to an idle, restless disposition (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:11): πολλὰ ἐπείγεται μανθάνειν ἥδη καὶ καταλαμβάνειν ἡμῶν ἡ διάνοια ὡς περίεργος καὶ λίχνος πρὸς τὴν τῶν�· τοῦτο δὲ σημαίνει�.

On οὐ χρείαν κ.τ.λ., see note to 1 Thessalonians 4:9.