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1 Thessalonians 4:16: Difference between revisions
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It is also important to read this in a more modern translation: | It is also important to read this in a more modern translation: | ||
'''ESV''' | |||
:''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.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Th 4:16.</ref> | :''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.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Th 4:16.</ref> | ||
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:'' 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. 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. 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.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Th 4:15-17.</ref> | :'' 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. 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. 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.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Th 4:15-17.</ref> | ||
The Greek word for coming used in these passages is "parousia" which had a long history in the Greek-speaking world as “the official term for a visit of a person of high rank, especially of kings and emperors visiting a province. In 1 Thessalonians 4:16, Paul starts with a brief description of the nature of the Parousia itself, whose primary feature, “the Lord will come down from heaven,” can easily get lost in the surrounding sights and sounds, “sights” in the sense that Christ’s “coming down from heaven” is otherwise assumed to be visible to those who await him. | The Greek word for coming used in these passages is "parousia" which had a long history in the Greek-speaking world as “the official term for a visit of a person of high rank, especially of kings and emperors visiting a province. | ||
==The Greek grammar of 1 Thessalonians 4:16== | |||
In 1 Thessalonians 4:16, Paul starts with a brief description of the nature of the Parousia itself, whose primary feature, “the Lord will come down from heaven,” can easily get lost in the surrounding sights and sounds, “sights” in the sense that Christ’s “coming down from heaven” is otherwise assumed to be visible to those who await him. | |||
First of all, what is being described is “fanfare,” the boisterous display that the Thessalonians would recognize as that which accompanied the “coming” (= visit) of the emperor to their city. But Paul does this in part by using language from two key Old Testament texts: | First of all, what is being described is “fanfare,” the boisterous display that the Thessalonians would recognize as that which accompanied the “coming” (= visit) of the emperor to their city. But Paul does this in part by using language from two key Old Testament texts: | ||
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Paul applies the language of the “Psalm of Ascent” to describe the coming from heaven of the truly Great King, the risen Lord, Jesus Christ, who is now seen as “descending” in a way similar to the “descent” of Yahweh at Sinai. | Paul applies the language of the “Psalm of Ascent” to describe the coming from heaven of the truly Great King, the risen Lord, Jesus Christ, who is now seen as “descending” in a way similar to the “descent” of Yahweh at Sinai. | ||
It | It is also important to note that there is an “and” between only the second and third members of this description; thus, as the ESV has it: “with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.” In ordinary English this would mean that the Coming is accompanied in three ways: a command, an archangel’s voice, and God’s trumpet. However, what is the standard English practice for a list is not the style used by a Greek writer, who would ordinarily have had two “ands” between the three phrases. | ||
What this indicates is that the second and third items, “with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God”, spell out how the “summons” or “cry of command” will occur at the Coming.<ref>Gordon D. Fee, The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009), 110, 176.</ref> | '''What this indicates, in Greek grammar, is that the second and third items, “with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God”, spell out how the “summons” or “cry of command” will occur at the Coming.'''<ref>Gordon D. Fee, The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009), 110, 176.</ref> | ||
Thus, the Greek grammar of the passage stands against William Branham's narcissistic interpretation of the passage. | Thus, the Greek grammar of the passage stands over and against William Branham's narcissistic interpretation of the passage. | ||
=Quotes of William Branham= | =Quotes of William Branham= | ||