C. Children of the Day (5:4-11) 153
1 Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saving, "Peace and safety, " destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
Having begun to speak about the Parousia, Paul uses the certainty of the Lord's coming as a means of urging the Thessalonians to greater efforts in Christian living. He has so far been concerned with the way the Parousia will affect the dead, but he now turns to the way the living relate to it. But before he actually gets into this exhortation he has a few words to say on the subject of the time of the Parousia.
1 "Now, brothers, about times and dates" introduces a new section of the letter.' The distinction between the two words "times" and "dates" 2 is not very easy to reproduce in English, for we habitually regard time simply as a matter of duration. Our idea of time is very nearly identical with that conveyed by the former of the two words. Indeed, we derive our word "chronology" from it. It denotes time simply as sequence. The word rendered "dates" can be more difficult. Sometimes the two words have much the same meaning, and the difference between them can easily be exaggerated, but when it is used distinctively this second word means time in its qualitative rather than its quantitative aspect. It can indicate the suitable time for the purpose in mind, and thus can mean something like "opportunity." It is the kind of time we have in mind when we think of "one crowded hour of glorious life." This second word, then, can have a reference to the kinds of events that are taking place rather than simply to the duration that is being measured.3 The combination of the two is perhaps a way of bringing before the mind both the duration of time that must elapse before the coming of the Lord and the nature of the events that will characterize the end time. But it should be added that most scholars see little difference between the words here (Ward and Moore, however, distinguish them).
Paul maintains that there is no real need4 for anyone to write to the Thessalonians about the times. This is not to be taken as the language of complimentary exaggeration. Paul did not hesitate to castigate his converts when they fell down on the job, nor to put them right when they were in error. There is abundant evidence from the two letters that he had spoken a good deal about the Parousia during his initial preach- ing.5 An expression such as the one we are considering means that Paul was quite happy with the way the converts had learned this part of their lesson. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that a number of the Thessalonians had been disturbed when some of the believers died. They may have wondered not only about the fate of these people when the Lord would come again, but also about whether they themselves would live through to see the great day. Yet this did not mean that they were unsound on the matter of "times and dates." They knew quite well that there was no way of predicting when the great event would take place, but they had been reminded of their own mortality. They feared lest they should lose their place in the Parousia. Paul's answer to the previous difficulty should have cleared up the position for such people. But he leaves nothing to chance. He reminds them of what they already knew on this subject, and helps them to relate this knowledge to their current problem.
2 What Paul has said negatively in verse 1 he repeats positively when he says that the Thessalonians "know very well." He puts the emphasis on "you yourselves";6 they have no need of an instructor in the matter. So also "very well" means that their knowledge in this matter is complete and needs no supplement. There is a touch of irony about this way of putting it: you know very well that no one can know when this will be! Some have held that the term implies that this knowledge rested ultimately on a saying of Jesus. That would mean that it was solidly based and that no addition or modification need be looked for. Such a saying might be Matthew 24:43 (= Luke 12:39), or that reported in Acts 1:7, which is noteworthy in that it makes use of the same expression "times or dates" as here .7 But we cannot be sure that this is really implied.
The coming day is spoken of as "the day of the Lord."8 This is a very ancient expression, for it was already well known in the time of Amos, who mentioned it for the express purpose of refuting erroneous ideas about it then current (Amos 5:18-20). The idea was thus older than his day, and perhaps considerably older. The point that Amos made was that the day would be one of judgment on all people. The Israelites could expect to be punished then for their sins, just as they expected that other people would be punished. This is one of a number of places where concepts used of Yahweh in the Old Testament are applied to Christ in the New, a revealing insight into the ways the first Christians viewed their Savior. The thought of final judgment carries over into the New Testament understanding of the Day, and one way of referring to it is to call it "the day of judgment" (2 Pet. 2:9). In line with this is its designation as "the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed" (Rom. 2:5). By contrast it may be thought of as "the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30). Again, its connection with the Deity may be stressed, for on that day God's action will be manifested as never before. Thus we find "the day of God" (2 Pet. 3:12), "the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6), "the day of the Lord" (1 Cor. 5:5), and "the day of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 1:8). It may be simply "that day" (2 Thess. 1:10; see RSV), or "the last day" (John 6:39-40), or "the great Day" (Jude 6). It is clear that the early church found a large place for the events of that Day, and that it was a major concept for them. Here the emphasis is on the Parousia, the great event of that great day. In view of the manyfaceted character of that Day it is not surprising that it presented problems to the Thessalonians; later on this was to be in part the cause of the second letter (2 Thess. 2:2).
The event is vividly before Paul's mind, and he makes use of the present tense rather than the future (which NIV for some reason substitutes; the tense "suggests certainty rather than immediacy," Whiteley). Yet despite the fact that it is so vivid to his mental vision, he knows full well that its coming will be totally unexpected. In this we see the combination of two strands of teaching that are common throughout the New Testament. On the one hand that Day is certain, and believers must continually be expecting it. The Lord comes "soon" (Rev. 22:20). Yet no one can know when it will be (Mark 13:32).9 It will come on the world unexpectedly. It will come like "a thief in the night." The comparison to the coming of a thief is found elsewhere, but this is the only place where "in the night" is added10 (Paul will pick up the "night" motif in the following section). The addition completes the picture of a totally unheralded approach, devastating in its unexpectedness. This does away with all date fixing.
What he says bears on another matter that is a source of dispute among evangelicals, namely, as to whether believers will be left on earth to pass through the great tribulation of the last days. The language of this section could be understood either way. It seems to me that the probability is that it should be taken as signifying that believers will pass through the day spoken of. Paul speaks of them as being ready (v. 4), not as being taken out of the trouble in question.I t But I fully recognize that other interpretations are possible, and suggest that it is not wise for any of us to condemn those who understand such passages differently.
3 The unexpectedness of the coming of that Day is illustrated by the behavior of unbelievers when it comes.12 The verb ("are saying") has no expressed subject, but there is no real doubt as to who are in mind.'3 Unlike the Christians, the unredeemed world will have no thought of a cataclysmic end to the universe, and it will be rejoicing in a fancied security right up to the very moment of the disaster.14 Moffatt brings this out by rendering, "when `all's well' and `all is safe' are on the lips of men." "Peace," as we saw in our comments on 1:1, usually in the New Testament denotes the prosperity of the whole person, but in this context the emphasis is rather on the absence of alarms. Paul is speaking of a complete failure to reckon with the realities of the situation. So also with the word "safety." It is an unusual word with a basic meaning like "that cannot be shaken."15 Under the circumstances this is the height of folly and misapprehension.
The startling nature of the disaster is further emphasized by the use of the unusual adjective rendered "sudden"16 (NIV changes to the adverb). This word is placed in an emphatic position, right in the forefront of the clause. Again, the verb is in the present tense for greater vividness, and it is a verb that is often used of sudden appearances (though the verb itself does not necessarily include the idea of suddenness).
The disaster itself is described as "destruction." It is not completely clear what this means, but we are probably right in refusing to see in it anything approaching annihilation. Rather, the term is to be understood to mean loss of fellowship with God, the loss of that life which is really life. Like the term "death" when applied to ultimate reality, it is the opposite of life and not simply the cessation of existence. The word is used again in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, and there it clearly means banishment from the living presence of the Lord. This is its meaning here also.
It will be completely impossible for people to escape, and Paul does not leave this to be inferred but states it categorically. He employs the emphatic form of the negative (which, outside quotations, he uses four times only in all his epistles; see the note on 4:15) and the compound form of the verb. It still needs emphasis that there are no other alternatives than life with the Lord or eternal loss. One or the other is inevitable.