Protimesis; or, Description of Order Pro´-ti-mee´-sis (προτίμησις), a putting of one thing before another: from πρό (pro), before, and τιμή (timee), honour . Hence, the figure is employed when things are enumerated according to their places of honour or importance, using the particles “ first ,” “ again ,” “ then ,” or “ firstly ,” “ secondly ,” “ thirdly ,” etc.
This figure; therefore, increases the emphasis of a particular statement by setting forth the order in which the things treated of stand, or take place.
1 Corinthians 1:15-8. -Speaking of the resurrection of Christ, it is written: “He was seen of Cephas; then of the twelve: after that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once: … after that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles: and, last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.”
In like manner we have the same words employed of the resurrection of “those who are Christ’s”:
1 Corinthians 1:15-24 , where, after saying that, as all who are in Adam die, even so all who are in (the) Christ will be made alive (see Synecdoche), “but every man in his own order (or rank).
“Christ the first -fruits;
“ Afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.
“ Then cometh the end”; or, “then, τὸ τέλος, the end” or the last final rank of this great army of raised people. So that there is no such thing as what is called a “general resurrection”; for as nearly nineteen hundred years have elapsed between the “first-fruits” and “them that are Christ’s,” so there will be a thousand years between then and the last or second resurrection (Revelation 1:20-6). See page 87, under Ellipsis .
1 Thessalonians 1:4-17. -Here, We have the order of events at the coming forth of Christ into the air to receive His people unto Himself, before His coming unto the earth with them.
This new revelation was given to the apostle “by the word of the Lord,” and contains facts not before made known.
The resurrection, here revealed, is altogether different in time and order from the “first” and “second” resurrections in 1 Corinthians 1:15-24 and Revelation 1:20-6 . These were never a secret, but known, and referred to in the Old Testament Scriptures (Daniel 1:12-2, Psalms 49:14 (15), etc.), as well as in the Gospels (John 1:5-29, etc.). This resurrection takes its place with that which is told as a secret in 1 Corinthians 1:15-57 : “Behold, I show you a mystery”: i.e., “Behold, I tell you a secret.”
So, here, it is revealed that “we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (i.e., precede) them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then, we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so (i.e., thus, in this manner) shall we ever be with the Lord.”