1 Thessalonians 5

1 Thessalonians 5 is the fifth (and the last) chapter of the First Epistle to the Thessalonians in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It is authored by Paul the Apostle. It is authored by Paul the Apostle, likely written in Corinth in about 50-51 CE for the church in Thessalonica.[1] This chapter contains the message about Christ's second coming, final exhortations and greetings.[2]

1 Thessalonians 5
Fragments showing First Epistle to the Thessalonians 5:8–10 on Papyrus 30, from the third century.
BookFirst Epistle to the Thessalonians
CategoryPauline epistles
Christian Bible partNew Testament
Order in the Christian part13

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 28 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:

The Need for Wakefulness (5:1–11)
1 Thessalonians 4:16-5:5 in Uncial 0226 from 5th century.

Paul reminds the Thessalonians that "the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night" (verse 2), that is, quite unexpectedly, so they should be sober and put "the breastplate of faith and love" and "the helmet of hope of salvation".[3]

Verse 2
For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.[4]
  • "For you yourselves know perfectly": It was made plain and evident with high certainty to them either from the words of Jesus Christ (Matthew 24:42–44), or from Paul's and his co-workers' teaching.[5]
  • "The day of the Lord": when Jesus will reveal himself to be "King of kings, and Lord of lords, and the Judge of the whole earth", as he will appear in his glory.[5] This is sometimes referred to as "the day of the Son of man" or "the day of God", also "the day of redemption" of the body from the grave from mortality, and "the last day" when resurrection of the dead will happen, as well as "the day of judgment", when Jesus Christ will come to judge "the quick (the living) and the dead".[5]
  • "Comes as a thief in the night": when people are unaware that the Lord himself in that day will come (Revelation 3:3; 16:1), not to the character of the thief, nor to the goal of his coming; but the sudden manner of it, when not thought of and looked for and least expected.[5] Since the Thessalonians knew this full well, it was needless for the apostle to write about the time and season of it that it could no more be known and fixed, than the coming of a thief into any of their houses.[5]

Verse 8
But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.[6]

In this verse, Paul exposes the triad of faith, love and hope (in this specific order), which he introduced in 1 Thessalonians 1:3.[3]

"He put on (LXX: enedusato) righteousness as a breastplate (dikaiosunēn thōraka), and a helmet of salvation (perikephalaian sōtēriou) on His head"[8][lower-alpha 1]

where Paul changes "the breastplate of righteousness" to "the breastplate of faith and love", and adds "hope" to "the helmet of salvation".[3]

Final Exhortations and Greetings (5:12–28)

This final section contains various pieces of advice, greetings, prayers, Paul's own handwriting and a closing benediction.[9]

See also

Notes
  1. Also may allude Wisdom 5:18, which is presumably dependent of Isaiah, "He will put on righteousness as a breastplate (Greek: endusetai thōraka dikaiosunēn), and he will don true judgement instead of a helmet." apud Esler 2007, p. 1210

References
  1. Esler 2007, p. 1199.
  2. Esler 2007, p. 1202.
  3. Esler 2007, p. 1210.
  4. 1 Thessalonians 5:2 NKJV
  5. John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible – 1 Thessalonians 5:2
  6. 1 Thessalonians 5:8 NKJV
  7. 1 Thessalonians 5:8 Greek text analysis at Biblehub.com
  8. Isaiah 59:17 NKJV
  9. Esler 2007, p. 1211.

Sources
  • Esler, Philip F. (2007). "71. 1 Thessalonians". In Barton, John; Muddiman, John (eds.). The Oxford Bible Commentary (first (paperback) ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 1199–1212. ISBN 978-0199277186. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
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