July 29, 2007

Thessalonian Nuggets - 1Th 4:14
Jesus' Resurrection, the Foundation for Ours

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.” (1Thessalonians 4:14)

Paul begins this verse with the conjunction gar ("For"). The most common use of this conjunction is to introduce a "ground" clause, which in this case introduces the reason why they should not be uninformed about the dead in Christ and consequently grieving in the manner they are. This first statement as well introduces a possible primitive confession of the church, "We believe that Jesus died and rose again."

Though v. 14 introduces Paul's teaching to correct the defective eschatology of the Thessalonians, it will be in vv. 15ff that his main point will be clarified. V. 14a is a reminder of what the Thessalonians already believe with the apostle Paul, and thus he uses it as a premise to begin his teaching and reassurance.

This verse contains a form of a conditional construction. The "if" (ei) clause is called the protasis; the "even so" (houtos kai) clause is what is called the apodosis. However, on the surface, the apodosis does not seem to follow or correspond to the protasis as you can see here as we break it down:

"if we believe that Jesus died and rose again"

"even so [thus] God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus."

What is most likely going on here is that Paul has an ellipsis in the second part leaving out the implied phrase, "we believe." This is the sense that the New English Translation has rendered it,

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians.”

I. H. Marshall notes,

It is sometimes suggested that the line of Paul's thought is: "Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so we also believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep," but in fact Paul omits the italicised words. Paul is not making a declaration of what God will do provided that we believe...but rather saying, 'If this is what we believe about Jesus, this is what follows from it;' he is drawing out the implication of belief in the resurrection of Jesus (p. 123, 1 and 2 Thessalonians).

Nicholl adds, "Certainly the apodosis does presuppose the truth of the protasis and communicates absolute certainty that God will in the future intervene on behalf of the deceased Christians. This may suggest that Paul is seeking to assure his converts that their deceased will be 'with Jesus’" (p. 26, From Hope to Despair in Thessalonica).

In a separate future article, I will devote exclusively on the important debate in this verse among commentators on how to interpret "axei" ("will bring," or "will take"). Is the movement upward or downward? "Lead away (take)" or "bring"? Since this discussion has implications for the Prewrath view and other views, I will spend substantive space on this question.