Here as at the end of all his letters, Paul replaces the brief greeting, common in secular letters of the period, with a specifically Christian benediction. For the key word grace, see notes on 1.1. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch restructures the sentence to read “May Jesus Christ, our Lord, keep you in his grace.”

This final statement in this First Letter to the Thessalonians is essentially a kind of prayer, and therefore must be put into such a form in some languages, for example, “I pray that our Lord Jesus Christ may be gracious to you,” “… may show his goodness to you,” or “… may show you his love and kindness.” The use of both “love” and “kindness” is an attempt to reproduce to two major components of meaning which exist in the Greek term translated grace.

The final “Amen,” found in many manuscripts, is included in King James Version Biblia Dios Habla Hoy Moffatt Knox. It was probably added through the influence of liturgical usage. Different manuscripts add a variety of notes, of which King James Version translates one: “The first epistle unto the Thessalonians was written from Athens.” Other manuscripts have “from Corinth.” None of these notes even claims to be part of the original text.

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .