ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

1 Thessalonians 4.17

Book: 1 Thessalonians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

There are ads on our codex that pay for hosting and keep the codex free. If you can, please consider whitelisting ris3n.com or allowing scripts to support the work.

Sponsored

Brands, events, influencers advertise here

ASV

15. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. 16. 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;

17. then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

  1. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18, ASV)
WEB

15. For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left to the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep. 16. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with God’s trumpet. 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. So we will be with the Lord forever.

  1. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18, WEB)
KJV

15. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. prevent: or, come before, or, anticipate, or, precede 16. 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:

17. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

  1. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. comfort: or, exhort (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18, KJV)
YLT

15. for this to you we say in the word of the Lord, that we who are living, who do remain over to the presence of the Lord, may not precede those asleep, 16. because the Lord himself, in a shout, in the voice of a chief-messenger, and in the trump of God, shall come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise first,

17. then we who are living, who are remaining over, together with them shall be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in air, and so always with the Lord we shall be;

  1. so, then, comfort ye one another in these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

  • Speaker: Paul, writing with Silvanus (Silas) and Timothy, who are named as co-senders in the opening (1 Thess 1:1).
  • Audience: The church in Thessalonica, capital of the Roman province of Macedonia; a largely Gentile congregation of recent converts (1 Thess 1:9) founded on the second missionary journey (Acts 17:1-9).
  • Location: Written from Corinth, shortly after Timothy returned with news of the young church (1 Thess 3:6).
  • Time period: c. AD 50-51. The Gallio inscription from Delphi fixes Paul in Corinth around AD 51-52 (Acts 18:12), which makes this letter either the earliest or one of the two earliest surviving Pauline writings, roughly twenty years after the crucifixion.

Theological reading

"Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord."

"Caught up." Harpagēsometha, from harpazō, to seize or snatch. The Latin Vulgate renders it rapiemur, which is where the English word rapture comes from; the word itself is not in the English text of any standard translation. The same verb describes Philip's removal at Acts 8:39 and the ascent to the third heaven at 2 Corinthians 12:2.

"To meet." Eis apantēsin is a formal term in Hellenistic civic life for the delegation that goes out from a city to receive an arriving king or governor and escort him back in. Acts 28:15 uses it exactly this way when the Roman brothers come out to the Forum of Appius to meet Paul and accompany him into the city. That usage is a substantial argument that the passage describes a welcoming party for a returning Lord rather than a removal to elsewhere, and it is one reason posttribulational readers find their view natural here. It is not decisive, since Paul may be using the word more loosely.

"In the clouds." Cloud imagery for divine arrival runs from Sinai through Daniel 7:13, the son of man coming with the clouds, to Acts 1:9-11, where the two men in white say Jesus will come in the same way He was taken. Paul is not describing weather.

The emphasis falls on the last clause. "And so we shall always be with the Lord" is the point of the whole passage; the mechanics serve the promise. Verse 18 tells the church to use these words for comfort, which is how the paragraph asks to be read.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Passages:

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.