1 Thessalonians 5:3

3.

(a) οταν alone: א*AG, 17, 47, latt syrpesh, Tert Cyp Orint.

(b) οταν δε, אcBD, cop syrhcl.

(c) οταν γαρ, KLP, &c., vg, Dam Ambrst.

This grouping of witnesses is peculiar. (c) may be ruled out as a Syrian emendation; cf. 1 Corinthians 11:31. (b) makes a rather difficult sense (see Expos. Note); and with cop and Harclean syr testifying in its favour, and G and the latt against it, the δε can hardly be a Western addition. Moreover Δε before λεΓωϲΙΝ might easily escape the eye of the copyist; cf. δε δοκιμαζετε, 1 Thessalonians 5:21, and note.

For αιφνιδιος AD*G read, itacistically, εφνιδιος.

επισταται in אB 17 37, against the εφισταται of DKP, &c.; see Expository Note.

3. ὄταν λέγωσιν Εἰρήνη καὶ�. When they are saying, (There is) peace and safety (security). This verse stands in abrupt (asyndetic) explanatory relation to ὅτι … ἔρχεται (1 Thessalonians 5:2). Once more the prophetic language of the O.T. is drawn upon: see Micah 3:5 f.; Jeremiah 6:14 f., Jeremiah 8:11; Ezekiel 13:10—where the false assurances of lying prophets are denounced. “It seems not unlikely that this sentence,” continuing as it does 1 Thessalonians 5:2 without a break, “is a direct quotation from our Lord’s words” unrecorded elsewhere (Lightfoot): cf. notes above on αὐτοὶ … οἴδατε and ὡς κλέπτης ἐν νυκτί; also note below on τότε αἰφνίδιος κ.τ.λ. The subject of λέγωσιν is given by the context, viz., the men “of night” and “of darkness.” Εἰρήνη κ.τ.λ. forms an elliptical clause—the utterance of those cherishing a false security. At the very moment when men of the world are wrapped in ease and are assuring each other that all is well, the ruin breaks upon them,—e.g. in the case of the πλούσιος ἄφρων of Luke 12:16 ff. Periods of self-complacent prosperity are pregnant with calamity, and prelude some awful “Day of the Lord.”

τότε αἰφνίδιος αὐτοῖς ἐπίσταται ὄλεθρος: then suddenly over them stands destruction. Tunc repentinus eis superveniet interitus (Vulg.), imminet excidium (Beza)—not seen approaching, but first visible as it presses close upon the doomed transgressors and is on the point of overwhelming them. The words of Jesus reported in Luke 21:34 are distinctly echoed, not in thought only but in phraseology: προσέχετε ἑαυτοῖς μή ποτε βαρηθῶσιν αἱ καρδίαι ὑμῶν ἐν κραιπάλῃ καὶ μέθῃ (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:7 below) καὶ μερίμναις βιωτικαῖς, καὶ ἐπιστῇ ἐφʼ ὑμᾶς αἰφνίδιος (in these two places only in N.T.) ἡ ἡμέρα ἐκείνη ὡς παγίς; cf., besides Matthew 24:38 ff., Luke 17:26 ff. “One out of several special points of coincidence between St Paul’s Epistles and the Third Gospel, where it diverges from the others” (Lightfoot); cf. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; 1 Corinthians 15:5; 1 Timothy 5:18. Αἰφνίδιος bears emphasis by its place at the beginning, and ὄλεθρος at the end of the sentence; being a secondary adjectival predicate, the former is best rendered by the English adverb. For ὄλεθρος, see note to 2 Thessalonians 1:9.

Ἐπίσταται stands for ἐφίσταται in the best mss. (see Textual Note above). The earlier Greek Codices show considerable variation and uncertainty in regard to the aspirate: “the spiritus asper tended gradually to disappear” (Winer-Schmiedel, Grammatik, p. 38). Here the form of the cognate verb ἐπίσταμαι probably reacted on the middle voice of ἐφίστημι; “aspiration is” almost “universal in the other 14 examples of compounds of ἴστημι with a preposition capable of showing aspiration” (WH). The same double spelling appears in the mss. of Wis 6:8 (9); and D makes the opposite confusion, ἐφ- (for ἐπ-)ίστασθε, in Acts 10:28.

ὥσπερ ἡ ὠδὶν τῇ ἐν γαστρὶ ἐχούσῃ, as the birth-pang (comes on) her that is with child: another O.T. simile (Isaiah 13:6-8; Isaiah 37:3; Hosea 13:13; Micah 4:9 f.; thrice in Jeremiah); used by Jesus, on the happier side of its application, in John 16:21; also in Galatians 4:19. Ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχειν, or φέρειν, is an established Greek locution for pregnancy. There lie in this comparison the three points of inevitable certainty, suddenness, and intense pain. Hence the added clause, καὶ οὐ μὴ ἐκφύγωσιν, and they shall in no wise escape: a further reminiscence of the warning of Luke 21—ἵνα κατισχύσητε ἐκφυγεῖν ταῦτα πάντα (Luke 21:36); for ἐκφεύγειν in similar threatenings, cf. Romans 2:3; Hebrews 2:3; Hebrews 12:25.

1 Thessalonians 5:4-6 contrast the outlook of the readers, in view of the dread “day”—so certain in itself, so uncertain in its date—with that of the careless world around them.