1 Thessalonians 4:17 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Thessalonians 4:17
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 shall we ever be with the Lord.
to live (literally or figuratively) · verb — present active participle, nominative plural masculine
remain
περιλειπόμενοιperileipomenoi
G4035
to leave all around · verb — present passive deponent participle, nominative plural masculine
up
ἁρπαγησόμεθαharpagēsometha
G726
to seize (in various applications) · verb — second future passive indicative, 1st person plural
together
ἅμαhama
G260
properly · adverb
with
σὺνsun
G4862
with or together (but much closer than G3326 (μετά) or… · preposition
them
αὐτοῖςautois
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — dative plural masculine
in
ἐνen
G1722
"in · preposition
clouds
νεφέλαιςnephelais
G3507
properly · noun — dative plural feminine
to
εἰςeis
G1519
to or into (indicating the point reached or entered) · preposition
meet
ἀπάντησινapantēsin
G529
a (friendly) encounter · noun — accusative singular feminine
Lord
κυρίουkuriou
G2962
supreme in authority · noun — genitive singular masculine, a title
in
εἰςeis
G1519
to or into (indicating the point reached or entered) · preposition
air
ἀέρα·aera
G109
by analogy · noun — accusative singular masculine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
so
οὕτωςhoutōs
G3779
in this way (referring to what precedes or follows) · adverb
we
ἔσομαιésomai
G2071
will be
ever
πάντοτεpantote
G3842
every when · adverb
be
ἔσομαιésomai
G2071
will be
with
σὺνsun
G4862
with or together (but much closer than G3326 (μετά) or… · preposition
Lord
κυρίῳkuriō
G2962
supreme in authority · noun — dative singular masculine, a title
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Corinthians 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we…
Revelation 11:12 And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies behe…
John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
1 Thessalonians 4:15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them whic…
Revelation 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail becaus…
Revelation 7:14-17 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes,…
Daniel 7:13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they b…
John 17:24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Thessalonians 4:13–end
In these words the apostle comforts the Thessalonians who mourned for the death of their relations and friends that died in the Lord. His design is to dissuade them from excessive grief, or inordinate sorrow, on that account. All grief for the death of friends is far from being unlawful; we may weep at least for ourselves if we do not weep for them, weep for own loss, though it may be their fain. Yet we must not be immoderate in our sorrows, because,
I. This looks as if we had no hope, Th1 4:13. It is to act too much like the Gentiles, who had no hope of a better life after this; whereas we Christians, who have a most sure hope, the hope of eternal life after this, which God who cannot lie h…
we which are alive . . . shall be caught up--after having been "changed in a moment" (Co1 15:51-52). Again he says, "we," recommending thus the expression to Christians of all ages, each generation bequeathing to the succeeding one a continually increasing obligation to look for the coming of the Lord. [EDMUNDS].
together with them--all together: the raised dead, and changed living, forming one joint body.
in the clouds--Greek, "in clouds." The same honor is conferred on them as on their Lord. As He was taken in a cloud at His ascension (Act 1:9), so at His return with clouds (Rev 1:7), they shall be caught up in clouds. The clouds are His and their triumphal chariot (Psa 104:3; Dan 7:13…
The Lord himself - That is: Jesus Christ shall descend from heaven; shall descend in like manner as he was seen by his disciples to ascend, i.e. in his human form, but now infinitely more glorious; for thousands of thousands shall minister unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand shall stand before him; for the Son of man shall come on the throne of his glory: but who may abide the day of his coming, or stand when he appeareth?
With a shout - Or order, εν κελευσματι· and probably in these words: Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment; which order shall be repeated by the archangel, who shall accompany it with the sound of the trump of God, whose great and terrible blasts, like those on mo…
The Church Fathers
For we shall, according to the apostle, be caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord (even the Son of man, who shall come in the clouds, according to Daniel ) and so shall we ever be with the Lord, so long as He remains both on the earth and in heaven, who, against such as are thankless for both one promise and the other, calls the elements themselves to witness: "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth.
Well, then, what difference is there between heathens and Christians, if the same prison awaits them all when dead? How, indeed, shall the soul mount up to heaven, where Christ is already sitting at the Father's right hand, when as yet the archangel's trumpet has not been heard by the command of God, -when as yet those whom the coming of the Lord is to find on the earth, have not been caught up into the air to meet Him at His coming, in company with the dead in Christ, who shall be the first to arise? To no one is heaven opened; the earth is still safe for him, I would not say it is shut against him.
For that which has taken place in Christ's Humanity is a common boon bestowed on mankind generally. For as when we see in Him the weight of the body, which naturally gravitates to earth, ascending through the air into the heavens, we believe according to the words of the Apostle, that we also "shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air," even so, when we hear that the true God and Father has become the God and Father of our First-fruits, we no longer doubt that the same God has become our God and Father too, inasmuch as we have learnt that we shall come to the same place whither Christ has entered for us as our forerunner.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Air — The atmosphere, as opposed to the higher regions of the sky (1 Thess. 4:17; Rev. 9:2; 16:17). This word occurs once as the rendering of the Hebrew ruah (Job 41:16); elsewhere it is the rendering of…
Immortality — Perpetuity of existence. The doctrine of immortality is taught in the Old Testament. It is plainly implied in the writings of Moses (Gen. 5:22, 24; 25:8; 37:35; 47:9; 49:29, comp. Heb. 11:13-16; Ex.…
Thessalonians, First Epistle To The — was written by the apostle Paul at Corinth, a few months after he had founded the church at Thessalonica, at the close of the year A.D. 62 or the beginning of 53. The Epistles to the Thessalonians,…
Bereavement · RESIGNATION IN — RESIGNATION IN
Death · 15:51; — 15:51;
Death Of Saints, The · Survivors consoled for — Survivors consoled for
Immortality · 2:11; — 2:11;
Resurrection, The · Of saints shall be followed by the change of those then alive — Of saints shall be followed by the change of those then alive
Reward Of Saints, The · Described as: Being with Christ — Described as: Being with Christ
Second Coming Of Christ, The · The saints alive at, shall be caught up to meet him — The saints alive at, shall be caught up to meet him
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Then we which are alive and remain,.... See Gill on 1 Thessalonians 4:15.
shall be caught up; suddenly, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and with force and power; by the power of Christ, and by the ministry and means of the holy angels; and to which rapture will contribute, the agility which the bodies both of the raised and changed saints will have: and this rapture of the living saints will be
together with them; with the dead in Christ, that will then be raised; so that the one will not come before the other, or the one be sooner with Christ than the other; but the one being raised and the other changed, they will be joined in one company and general assembly, and be caught up t…
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18
15. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
15. Hoc enim vobis dicimus in sermone Domini, quod nos, qui vivemus et superstites erimus in adventum Domini, non praeveniemus eos, qui dormierunt.
16. 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:
16. Quoniam ipse Dominus cum clamore, cum voce Archangeli et tuba Dei descendet e coelo: ac mortui, qui in Christo sunt, resurgent primum.
17. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up to…
to meet: This alludes to the custom of sending an official delegation to greet a visiting dignitary and accompany him as he enters the city (Matt 25:6, 10; Acts 28:15-16).
