Humanitext Reader

New Testament · 1 Thessalonians §4.1-4.18

Exhortation to Purity and the Coming of the Lord

Passage 4 of 5 · Greek

Summary

Paul exhorts the believers to maintain sexual purity, brotherly love, and a quiet, self-sufficient life, while comforting them with the hope of the resurrection of the dead and the rapture of the living at Christ's coming.

§4.1Λοιπὸν, ἀδελφοί, ἐρωτῶμεν ὑμᾶς καὶ παρακαλοῦ μεν ἐν κυρίῳ Ἰησοῦ, [ἵνα] καθὼς παρελάβετε παρʼ ἡμῶν τὸ πῶς δεῖ ὑμᾶς περιπατεῖν καὶ ἀρέσκειν θεῷ, καθὼς καὶ περιπατεῖτε,— ἵνα περισσεύητε μᾶλλον.
Finally, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.
§4.2οἴδατε γὰρ τίνας παραγγελίας ἐδώκαμεν ὑμῖν διὰ τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ.
For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
§4.3Τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν, ἀπέχεσθαι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ τῆς πορνείας, §4.4εἰδέναι ἕκαστον ὑμῶν τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος κτᾶσθαι ἐν ἁγιασμῷ καὶ τιμῇ, §4.5μὴ ἐν πάθει ἐπιθυμίας καθάπερ καὶ "τὰ ἔθνη τὰ μὴ εἰδότα τὸν θεόν," §4.6τὸ μὴ ὑπερβαίνειν καὶ πλεονεκτεῖν ἐν τῷ πράγματι τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ, διότι "ἔκδικος Κύριος" περὶ πάντων τούτων, καθὼς καὶ προείπαμεν ὑμῖν καὶ διεμαρτυράμεθα.
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.
§4.7οὐ γὰρ ἐκάλεσεν ἡμᾶς ὁ θεὸς ἐπὶ ἀκαθαρσίᾳ ἀλλʼ ἐν ἁγιασμῷ.
For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
§4.8τοιγαροῦν ὁ ἀθετῶν οὐκ ἄνθρωπον ἀθετεῖ ἀλλὰ τὸν θεὸν τὸν "διδόντα τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτοῦ" τὸ ἅγιον "εἰς ὑμᾶς. "
Therefore whoever disregards this disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
§4.9Περὶ δὲ τῆς φιλαδελφίας οὐ χρείαν ἔχετε γράφειν ὑμῖν, αὐτοὶ γὰρ ὑμεῖς θεοδίδακτοί ἐστε εἰς τὸ ἀγαπᾷν ἀλλήλους· §4.10καὶ γὰρ ποιεῖτε αὐτὸ εἰς πάντας τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς [τοὺς] ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ Μακεδονίᾳ.
Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia.
Παρακαλοῦμεν δὲ ὑμᾶς, ἀδελφοί, περισσεύειν μᾶλλον, §4.11καὶ φιλοτιμεῖσθαι ἡσυχάζειν καὶ πράσσειν τὰ ἴδια καὶ ἐργάζεσθαι ταῖς χερσὶν ὑμῶν, καθὼς ὑμῖν παρηγγείλαμεν, §4.12ἵνα περιπατῆτε εὐσχημόνως πρὸς τοὺς ἔξω καὶ μηδενὸς χρείαν ἔχητε.
But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
§4.13Οὐ θέλομεν δὲ ὑμᾶς ἀγνοεῖν, ἀδελφοί, περὶ τῶν κοιμωμένων, ἵνα μὴ λυπῆσθε καθὼς καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ οἱ μὴ ἔχοντες ἐλπίδα.
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
§4.14εἰ γὰρ πιστεύομεν ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἀπέθανεν καὶ ἀνέστη, οὕτως καὶ ὁ θεὸς τοὺς κοιμηθέντας διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἄξει σὺν αὐτῷ.
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
§4.15Τοῦτο γὰρ ὑμῖν λέγομεν ἐν λόγῳ κυρίου, ὅτι ἡμεῖς οἱ ζῶντες οἱ περιλειπόμενοι εἰς τὴν παρουσίαν τοῦ κυρίου οὐ μὴ φθάσωμεν τοὺς κοιμηθέντας·
For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
§4.16ὅτι αὐτὸς ὁ κύριος ἐν κελεύσματι, ἐν φωνῇ ἀρχαγγέλου καὶ ἐν σάλπιγγι θεοῦ, καταβήσεται ἀπʼ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ οἱ νεκροὶ ἐν Χριστῷ ἀναστήσονται πρῶτον,
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
§4.17ἔπειτα ἡμεῖς οἱ ζῶντες οἱ περιλειπόμενοι ἅμα σὺν αὐτοῖς ἁρπαγησόμεθα ἐν νεφέλαις εἰς ἀπάντησιν τοῦ κυρίου εἰς ἀέρα· καὶ οὕτως πάντοτε σὺν κυρίῳ ἐσόμεθα.
Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
§4.18Ὥστε παρακαλεῖτε ἀλλήλους ἐν τοῖς λόγοις τούτοις.
Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Notes

  1. §4.1ἵνα... ἵνα — The double use of `[ἵνα]` and `ἵνα` serves to restate the object clause of the main verbs (`ἐρωτῶμεν καὶ παρακαλοῦμεν`) after parenthetical and comparative clauses (`καθὼς...`), clarifying the syntactic connection of the sentence.
  2. §4.4τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος κτᾶσθαι — The interpretation of `σκεῦος` (vessel) is disputed: (1) controlling one's own body (metaphorically as a vessel of the soul), or (2) acquiring or possessing one's own wife (referring to holy marriage). Both views suit the context of avoiding sexual immorality, with the verb `κτᾶσθαι` (to acquire/possess) playing a key role in either reading.
  3. §4.14διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ — This prepositional phrase can either modify the participle `τοὺς κοιμηθέντας` (meaning those who fell asleep through/in Jesus) or the main verb `ἄξει` (meaning God, through Jesus, will bring those who fell asleep). Both syntactic arrangements are natural in the early Christian eschatological context.
  4. §4.15οὐ μὴ φθάσωμεν — The combination of `οὐ μή` followed by the aorist subjunctive `φθάσωμεν` represents the strongest form of emphatic future negation in Greek, expressing absolute certainty that the living will 'by no means precede' those who have fallen asleep.

Cite this passage

New Testament, 1 Thessalonians §4.1-4.18. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0031.tlg013.humanitext-grc2:4.1-4.18

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.