I have had the topic of 1 Thessalonians 4 13-18 come up repeatedly in the last week. It prompted me to do some digging on it. This would be the “classic” set of verses to justify the idea of a rapture of the church before some unknown tribulation to come.
Here are the verses from the ESV:
The Coming of the Lord
13 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. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 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. 16 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. 17 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. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Let’s take this verse by verse starting with verse 13:
13 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.
Lets start with “ But we do not want you to be uninformed”.
The greek word agnoeō means “to be ignorant, to not know, or not understand”.
Paul uses this same opening line in:
Romans 1:13
1 Corinthians 10:1
1 Corinthians 12:1
The greek word for about peri can be substituted with the word regarding.
So a better way of saying this might be:
“Now listen up, I want you to understand regarding…those who are alseep.”
The word sleep koimaō is used 18 times in the New Testament. Does it mean literally sleeping, as if in ones bed? Or does it have another meaning? Let’s look at a few of those additional usages.
Mat 27:52
The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised,
Joh 11:11
After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.”
Joh 11:12
The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”
Act 7:60
And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
In each of the above usages, the word asleep is used to define those tho have died. There are other usages where it literally means to be sleeping, and not awake. In this case asleep is a metaphor for death. Why? Because we do not cease to exist while sleeping, just as a believer continues to exist after death.
So asleep refers to life after death.
To further the point, the ESV uses the word died, instead of asleep in 1 Cor 11:30.
Next we have “that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.”
You could turn that into “so that you will not grieve in the same way others do, who have no hope.”
The “others” here refer to those who don’t know Christ.
So the full verse could be:
“Now listen up, I want you to understand regarding those who have died, so that you will not grieve in the same way as others do who don’t know Christ.”
It makes one wonder, if the believers in Thessalonica had experienced some losses/deaths and had some concerns regarding the matter.
More to come in Part Two.