#Thief in the night verse full#
#Thief in the night verse series#

(This narrative of disappointed early eschatological expectation being tempered by later New Testament writings, which push the Parousia to the distant future has been a fixture in New Testament scholarship for over a century now.) The argument posits that some anonymous post-Pauline forger set out to remedy the problem of the “delayed Parousia” (that is, the growing disappointment that Jesus hadn’t returned right away like the first generation Christians had expected) by “correcting” Paul’s imminent theology, explaining that certain things had to happen first. Schmidt’s Vermutungen über die bieden Breife an die Thessalonicher (1801), this passage has frequently been used as “Exhibit A” to show that 2 Thessalonians is not Pauline, since 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 clearly teaches against an imminent Parousia, laying out specific things that must happen before the return of Christ. In fact, ever since the publication of J.E.C. … So far as Paul personally was concerned, ther was no real problem, and his own expectation of an imminent End was scarcely diminished.” ( Unity and Diversity in the New Testament, 355) Evidently Paul’s proclamation had led his converts to believe that the eschatological climaxwas very imminent indeed. J.D.G Dunn likewise cites 1 Thess 5:2f in a section where he argues that “the expectation of an imminent parousia was a prominent feature: it was well known that the Thessalonians’ turning to God had been a turning to await the parousia, the coming of Jesus …. Sanders cites 1 Thess 5:2 as evidence that “the Day of the Lord expected suddenly” (he also lists Phil 1:6 and 1 Cor 5:5, neither of which have anything remotely to do with imminent expectation). This teaching is most notable with Dispensational Evangelical theologians pushing the so-called pre-Millennial, pre-Tribulation rapture ( John MacArthur, Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, et al.) but it is also surprisingly dominant in mainstream scholarship as well, making it one of the few places these two camps actually agree.Į.P.

This passage is most often cited as evidence that Paul taught the imminent return of Christ, that is, that Jesus was going to return at any moment, without warning. As such, I’ve chosen to translate it with “appointments,” which seems to give as close a parallel to the temporal notion expressed here as I can think of. It often has the notion of “the appropriate time,” but that doesn’t communicate the proper sense to an English ear in this passage. The word denotes a distinct or fixed period of time, often being used of festal holidays, special feasts, etc.

The Greek word *καιρῶν is rather difficult to translate here as it is more specialized than any English term.

#Thief in the night verse full#

“Now, brothers, you don’t need me to to write to you about the times and appointments,^ because you know full well that the Day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night-while they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come upon them like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” (1 Thessalonians 5:1–3) The passage is found in 1 Thessalonians 5, where Paul begins to discuss the “Day of the Lord”:

While today’s passage is indeed commonly misinterpreted at the popular level, it is surprisingly very often misconstrued even at the highest levels of scholarship.

#Thief in the night verse series#

The first three installments of this series covered misinterpretations most often seen at the popular level. *If new to this series, you might want to check the introduction.*