The Nugget:
1Th 4:15 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. (KJV)
1Th 4:15 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. (ESV, English Standard Version)
1Th 4:15 For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. (NET Bible)
1Th 4:15 For on the Lord’s own authority we say that those of us who may be left behind and are still living when the Lord comes back, will have no advantage at all over those who have fallen asleep. (Williams NT)
1Th 4:15 And this we say to you, by the word of our Lord, that we who may survive and be alive, at the coming of our Lord, shall not precede them who have slept. (Murdock NT)
1Th 4:15 We are telling you what the Lord taught. We who are still alive when the Lord comes will not go into his kingdom ahead of those who have already died. (GW, God’s Word translation)
1Th 4:15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are still living at the coming of the Lord, will not go before those who are sleeping. (BBE, Bible in Basic English)
1Th 4:15 What we tell you now is the Lord’s own message. Those of us who are still living when the Lord comes again will join him, but not before those who have already died. (ERV, Easy to Read Version)
1Th 4:15 Our Lord Jesus told us that when he comes, we won’t go up to meet him ahead of his followers who have already died. (CEV, Contemporary English Version)
My Comment:
1 Thessalonians 4:15 is of critical importance to understand accurately. Many Bible readers and some Bible scholars miss the point of what Paul declares.
Paul declares that this teaching about the Pretribulation Rapture comes directly from the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry.
I have just finished reading a very lengthy scholarly study by an author who fully did his homework. This author does not take a position on the various prophetic positions taken by many based on this passage. Rather, this author painstakingly, step by step, absolutely establishes that the teaching in this passage is based directly upon the earthly teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ that was well known in the early church even though it is minimally addressed in the Gospel accounts that have come down to us.
Here is the bibliographical information that identifies the book I just finished reading in my Logos library:
Ferda, Tucker S. 2024. Jesus and His Promised Second Coming: Jewish Eschatology and Christian Origins. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
I believe this author confirms the accuracy of the notes I have placed in the Ultimate Cross Reference Treasury at 1 Thessalonians 4:15.
Dig deeper into 1 Thessalonians 4:15 by studying the cross references and notes from:
the original Treasury of Scripture Knowledge:
1 Thessalonians 4:15
by the: 1Ki 13:1, 1Ki 13:9, 1Ki 13:17, 18, 1Ki 13:22, 1Ki 20:35, 1Ki 22:14
which are: 1Co 15:51, 52, 53; 2Co 4:14
prevent: Job 41:11; Psa 88:13, Psa 119:147, 148; Mat 17:25
asleep: 1Th 4:13
my expansion as given in The Ultimate Cross Reference Treasury:
1 Thessalonians 4:15
For this we say. 1Th 4:18, Gen 24:67, Gal 3:17, Eph 4:17.
by the word. Paul prefaces his remark by telling us that he is speaking in accordance with the already revealed word of the Lord, an expression Paul has used in some of his other letters to specify that what he is teaching is based directly upon what Jesus taught during his earthly ministry (%Rom 16:25, *1Co 7:10; 1Co 9:14; 1Co 11:23; %1Co 14:34 note, 1Co 14:37, %Gal 1:12). Among the passages recorded in our four Gospels which Paul may have reference to would be Luk 20:35, 36; and especially **Jhn 11:25, 26. **1Th 4:2 note. +1Th 1:8, 1Ki 13:1; 1Ki 13:9; 1Ki 13:17, 18; 1Ki 13:22; 1Ki 20:35; 1Ki 22:14, **Luk 20:35; Luk 20:36, **Jhn 11:25; **Jhn 11:26, Act 18:9, Gal 1:12, Eph 3:3.
that we. FS39, Act 17:27, Some have mistakenly drawn the inference that Paul here asserts he expected the return of Jesus in his own lifetime. This, of course, is an unwarranted inference which fails to take into account Paul’s own inspired prediction regarding the great apostasy and the coming of Antichrist given in 2 Thessalonians 2, events which Paul certainly did not suppose were to be compressed into his own lifespan. The fact that Christ revealed to Peter certain events which would transpire in his life (Jhn 21:18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23), as well as to Paul (Act 9:15; Act 20:23, 24; Act 27:24), must not be understood to deny the doctrine of the imminency of the return of Christ. Robertson notes Paul “was alive, not dead, when he wrote” (Word Pictures, vol. 4, p. 32). Paul sometimes associates himself with the living (as here, and Php 3:20, Tit 2:12, 13), and sometimes with the dead, (as **1Co 6:14, **2Co 4:14; 2Co 5:8, Php 1:21, 22, 23, 24; Php 2:17, 2Ti 4:6, 7, 8). By such words Paul simply associates himself with the class of the living to which he then belonged, as opposed to the dead, and was not making a statement about how soon Jesus would return, a secret which God has kept in his own counsel (+*Deut 29:29, Mat 24:36, +*Mrk 13:32, +*Act 1:7), as Hogg and Vine well observe (Comm. on 1 Thessalonians, p. 138). 1Th 4:17, 1Th 5:10, Psa 66:6, Hos 12:4, Mat 16:28 note. Mrk 9:1, Luk 9:27, Rom 13:11; Rom 13:13, +1Co 6:14; 1Co 15:51, Php 3:20, Tit 2:12, 13.
which are alive. Paul now explains what will happen to those believers who are alive and among those few true believers that remain when Jesus returns at the Rapture. 1Th 4:17, **1Co 15:51, 52, 53, *2Co 4:14.
and remain. Gr. περιλειπομενοι, *S# G4035, only here and 1Th 4:17, perileipomenoi, present passive participle of perileipō, “remain, be left behind,” “to leave over; to remain over, to survive,” (Arndt, Gingrich; Thayer); compare citation in MM, p. 506b, “a very small portion…will be left.” Job 1:21, +*Isa 24:6, +*Mat 7:14, Luk 18:8.
the coming. Gr. parousia, +Mat 24:3, +1Th 2:19. Parousia has the basic meaning of presence or arrival, used in later Greek secular literature of the official visit of a king or ruler. In the New Testament it is used nontechnically of presence (1Co 16:17, 2Co 10:10, Php 1:26; Php 2:12); of coming or arrival (2Co 7:6, 7, Php 1:26); and in a technical eschatological sense of the second coming of Christ, with the connotation of ultimate presence (+Mat 24:3 note, Mat 24:27; Mat 24:37; Mat 24:39, 1Co 15:23, 1Th 2:19; 1Th 3:13; 1Th 4:15; 1Th 5:23, 2Th 2:1; 2Th 2:8, Jas 5:7, 8, 2Pe 1:16; 2Pe 3:4; 2Pe 3:12, 1Jn 2:28). Hogg and Vine note that the usual translation, “coming,” is misleading, for other Greek words are better so translated (erchomai, Luk 12:45; Luk 19:23, eleusis, Act 7:52, eisodos, Act 13:24). “…whereas these words fix the attention on the journey to, and the arrival at, a place, parousia fixes it on the stay which follows on the arrival there” (Comm. on Thessalonians, p. 87, See also Boyce Blackwelder, Toward Understanding Thessalonians, p. 85). The word parousia does not itself denote either secrecy or invisibility (Mat 24:3 note). Hogg and Vine further note (p. 88) that when used non-prophetically of Christ, parousia refers to a defined period (**2Pe 1:16, the transfiguration, see **Mat 17:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). Where it is used prophetically, parousia refers to the time beginning with the descent of the Lord from heaven into the air (1Th 4:16, 17), and ending with his revelation and manifestation to the world (2Th 1:7). “The Parousia of the Lord Jesus is thus a period with a beginning, a course, and a conclusion. The beginning is prominent in 1Th 4:15; 1Th 5:23, 2Th 2:1, 1Co 15:23, Jas 5:7, 8, 2Pe 3:4; the course in 1Th 2:19; 1Th 3:13, Mat 24:3; Mat 24:37; Mat 24:39, 1Jn 2:28; the conclusion in 2Th 2:8, Mat 24:27” (Hogg and Vine, Thessalonians, p. 88). Based upon the meaning of the word for “coming,” this text teaches that when Jesus Christ returns at the Rapture, He returns to stay, not to return to the third heaven as many mistakenly teach. Thus, Jesus returns at his coming, or ultimate presence, to the earth, not merely over the earth, at this Pretribulation Rapture. *1Th 3:13, *1Co 15:23, 2Th 2:1, 2, 2Ti 4:1.
shall not. FS158, +Mat 5:18, +Act 10:42. Those believers in Christ who are alive at His return will not take precedence over those who have died in Christ.
prevent. obsolete for precede. Probably everyone knows that the English expression used in the King James Version (“prevent”) means “precede.” Thus, at the Rapture, all the dead in Christ are raised first by resurrection before the living are translated without dying into their glorified bodily form. Job 41:11, Psa 59:10; Psa 88:13; Psa 119:147, 148, Mat 17:25, 1Co 15:52, 2Co 10:14.
asleep. See on 1Th 4:13, +*Isa 26:19, Jhn 11:11, 1Co 15:6.