IN this paper I propose to consider the section chapter iv. 13-18 of 1 Thessalonians.

We cannot tell with positive certainty why the subject of this passage—the share of the departed in the blessings consequent on the coming of the Lord—came to be dealt with in this Epistle. The Apostle introduces the subject somewhat unexpectedly with the words: "But we would not that ye should be ignorant, brethren, concerning them that sleep, so that ye may not sorrow even as the rest who have not hope." It is hardly likely that St. Paul would have entered upon the question, as he here does, unless there had manifested itself in the Thessalonian Church a certain hopelessness at the death of some of its members; and it seems justifiable to suppose that news, brought possibly by Timothy from Thessalonica, had reached the Apostle which made the exhortation here given necessary. It cannot reasonably be argued that the interval of time that had elapsed since the Thessalonian Church was founded was too short for any of its members to have passed away. The implication in the section under consideration that some had died has, it is true, been used as an argument against the genuineness of the Epistle, but the earlier part of the Epistle is so obviously genuine, betraying as it does so strongly the depth of the Apostle's feeling, and his anxiety for the Church from which he had been prematurely separated, that it is unreasonable not to accept the present section as genuine too, and to explain its genesis as due to information which St. Paul had received. Certainly in the months that had elapsed since he had left Thessalonica there had been time for deaths to occur among the members of the Church; and this seems the simplest explanation of the introduction of the subject into the Epistle.

1. Now in order to understand the passage before us, we must keep in mind the purpose for which it was written. This was to inspire the Christians of Thessalonica with hope respecting the dead who had been members of their community. For these they were sorrowing even as those who were outside the pale of the Church would have sorrowed. The Christian hope, associated with the coming of Christ, was not thought to be applicable to them. Death was considered to be a bar to its realisation. The Apostle here teaches that this view of regarding the matter was all wrong, and that the dead in Christ would be at no disadvantage at the Parousia, in the blessings of which they would share quite as much as those who would be alive when that great event occurred.

We must not in the passage under consideration look for a treatise on eschatology. It obviously is not that. The Apostle's aim is to dispel a certain lack of hope, and all that he says here is directed to this end. The hope that was theirs that were Christ's in this life was to be extended to those who had died in the faith of the risen Jesus.

To be without hope for the dead was to forget the fundamental facts of the Christian faith, that Jesus had died and had risen again. "If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also those that fell asleep through this Jesus (τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) God will bring with him."

We must examine this phrase τοὺς κοιμηθέντας διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ—those that fell asleep through the Jesus—that is, the Jesus just mentioned as having died and risen. The first time the name Ἰησοῦς occurs it is without the article, the second time, the article is appended with the obvious intention of referring back to the Jesus already spoken of as having died and, according to Christian belief, risen again.

We note that the aorist participle (τοὺς κοιμηθέντας) is used in the phrase before us, whereas in the previous verse it is the present participle that occurs (περὶ τῶν κοιμωμένων). There is plainly a distinction to be made here. οἱ κοιμώμένων = those that are sleeping, those that are asleep, the fact of death, and not the act of dying being prominent. But οἱ κοιμηθέντες διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ = those that fell asleep through the (risen) Jesus, there being no reference to their present condition as sleeping or dead, but to their condition at the moment of death—they fell asleep διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ.

What, then, are we to understand by διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ here? I agree with Lightfoot that the words must be taken with τοὺς κοιμηθέντας, and not with the following ἄξει σὺν αὐτῷ; but I do not find myself in agreement with him as to the force of διὰ. The difficulty, Lightfoot says,¹ is to assign "its proper signification of instrumentality to the preposition.'' It is true that he allows that the διὰ. may not be that of the instrument but "the διὰ of passage.'' He says, having in mind the phrase οἱ κοιμηθέντες ἐν Χριστῷ of I Corinthians xv. 18:"As a state of spiritual condition is ἐν Χριστῷ, so a transition from one state to another is διὰ Χριστοῦ.'' But his note leaves the impression that he prefers to bring out the force of instrumentality in the participle. " The justification of διὰ is probably to be sought in the fact that κοιμηθῆναι is not equivalent to θανεῖν, but implies moreover the idea first of peacefulness, and secondly of an awakening. It was Jesus who transformed their death into a peaceful slumber. "According to this, then, the phrase τοὺς κοιμηθέντας διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ would practically mean "those whose death was through Jesus turned into a sleep."

This interpretation would have more to commend it if death had not been called a sleep in pre-Christian times both by Jewish and heathen writers. Moreover it appears to me to read into the phrase what is not really contained in it. It directs attention too much to an act of Jesus, and does not sufficiently emphasize the state of those spoken of as τοὺς κοιμηθέντας διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ. Their state or condition when they died or fell asleep was διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ.

Nor does Lightfoot's alternative _interpretation whereby διὰ is "the διὰ of passage" satisfy me, and I think some other explanation of the preposition must be sought for. Nor is it far to seek. May not διὰ here be what the grammarians call, the διὰ of "attendant circumstances?"² Such a use of the preposition we found in 2 Timothy ii. 2:ἃ ἤκουσας παῤ ἐμοῦ διὰ πολλῶν μαρτύρων = the things which thou didst hear from me among many witnesses; and again in Rom. ii. 27:τὸν διὰ γράμματος καὶ περιτομῆς παραβάτην νόμου = who with the letter and circumcision art a transgressor of the law. A similar use of διὰ is to be found in Romans xiv. 20, κακὸν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ τῷ διὰ προσκόμματος ἐσθίει = it is evil for that man that eateth with offence; and again in Romans iv. 11 εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν πατέρα παντων τῶν πιστευόντων δἰ ἀκροβυστίας = that he might be the father of all them that believe when (or though) they are in a state of uncircumcision. In 2 Corinthians ii. 4 we read ἔγραψα ὑμῖν διὰ πολλῶν δακρύων, which we should translate, "I wrote unto you with many tears," though the phrase διὰ τῶν δακρύων might be rendered " through many tears."³

The interpretation of διὰ as the διὰ of attendant circumstances gives excellent sense to the passage we are considering. The Apostle is speaking of those who had fallen asleep in the faith of Jesus, who was raised from the dead. For we have already drawn attention to the force of the article before Ἰησοῦ. It is the same Jesus of whom it has just before been said that, according to Christian belief, He had died and risen again. The phrase τοὺς κοιμηθέντας διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ comes, then, to mean those who fell on sleep in this atmosphere or surrounding of Christian faith. They were in a certain relationship with the risen and living Jesus when they died. They had fallen asleep διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, of whom it is said:ἀπέθανεν καὶ ἀνέστη. As He was risen, so those who were His and had died through Him would God bring with Him. The return of Jesus to earth was a real hope of the Thessalonians (i. 10), what they needed assurance of was that with Him would be brought those who, having themselves shared this hope, had fallen asleep. These, they had to learn, were in no sense losers by death.

The Apostle goes on to enforce this point by an appeal to the word of the Lord: "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive that are left unto the coming (παρουσία) of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first."

There has been considerable difference of opinion as to what is here intended by "the word of the Lord." Some have thought that the Apostle is himself uttering an original prophetic message, spiritually revealed to Him. Some have argued that the reference is to some spoken word of the Lord Jesus, whether or not that word be recorded in our Gospels. Others, again, led by Steck, have found this' word of the Lord' in 2 Esdras v. 40, 41. This last explanation must, however, be rejected, for it is impossible to accept it if we allow the genuineness of 1 Thessalonians. Moreover, it has nothing in itself to recommend it, as the reader will probably readily grant if he refers to the passage. It remains, then, to consider the other two explanations.

2) This interpretation is given by Dobschiitz in his recent Commentary on the Thessalonian Epistles.

³⁾ Most of these examples are given by Blass, Grammar of N. T. Greek, p. 132.