1 Thessalonians 4:6

Compare the saying of rabbi Simon ben Zoma (on Deuteronomy 23:25): “Look not on thy neighbour's vineyard. If thou hast looked, enter not; if thou hast entered, regard not the fruits; if thou hast regarded them, touch them not; if thou hast touched them, eat them not. But if thou hast eaten, then thou dost eject thyself from the life of this world and of that which is to come” (quoted in Bacher's Agada der Tannaiten, 2nd ed., 1903, i. 430). There is no change of subject, from licentiousness to dishonesty. The asyndeton and the euphemistic ἐν τῷ πράγματι (not τῳ = τινί, Win. § 6 4 d) show that Paul is still dealing with the immorality of men, but now as a form of social dishonesty and fraud. The metaphors are drawn from trade, perhaps as appropriate to a trading community. While ὑπερβαίνειν may be intransitive (in its classical sense of “transgress”), it probably governs ἀδελφόν in the sense of “get the better of,” or “overreach;” πλεονεκτεῖν similarly = “overreach,” “defraud,” “take advantage of” (2 Corinthians 7:2; 2 Corinthians 12:17-18; Xen., Mem., iii. 5, 2; Herod. viii. 112). Compare ἀκαθαρσίας πάσης ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ (Ephesians 4:19). The passage (with 1 Thessalonians 4:8) sounds almost like a vague reminiscence of Test. Asher, ii. 6: ὁ πλεονεκτῶν τὸν πλησίον παροργίζει τὸν Θεόν … τὸν ἐντολέα τοῦ νόμου Κύριον ἀθετεῖ. Only τὸν ἀνθ. here is not the wronged party but the apostles who convey God's orders. διότι κ. τ. λ. = “since (cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:8) the Lord is the avenger (from Deuteronomy 32:35; cf. Sap. 12:12; Sir 30:6; 1Ma 13:6, ἐκδικήσω περὶ; 4Ma 15:29) in all these matters” (of impurity). How, Paul does not explain (cf. Colossians 3:5-6). By a premature death (1 Corinthians 11:30)? Or, at the last judgment (1 Thessalonians 1:10)? not in the sense of Sap. 3:16, 1 Thessalonians 4:6 (illegitimate children evidence at last day against their parents) at any rate.