Paul’s first prayer is that God and Jesus together may make possible another visit to Thessalonica. The word translated himself is commonly used by Paul at the beginning of his prayers (cf. 5.23; 2 Thess. 2.16; 3.16). By New Testament times, the word had lost some of its earlier emphatic force, and in this and similar contexts it may be something of a formula. If this is so, the word would be best omitted in translation, as in Moffatt Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch Bijbel in Gewone Taal. On the other hand, it is here in an emphatic position at the beginning of a sentence, and so may express a further link with the whole preceding passage 2.17–3:10. This would imply the following: “Satan has done everything possible (cf. 2.18; 3.5) to keep us apart, and has so far succeeded. We therefore pray that God himself and our Lord Jesus (the only higher power to whom we can appeal) may overrule Satan’s efforts and bring us together again.” In this case, the word himself, which is included in most translations, would be justified.

In many languages one cannot speak of Father without identifying the person(s) to whom he stands in that relation; that is, kinship terms such as “father” must always be possessed. In general, the possessive pronoun used with “Father” in this type of context would be the inclusive first person plural, if one must distinguish between first person inclusive and exclusive, for example, “I pray that our God and our Father himself.” A connective such as “and” might give the impression that there are two deities. Accordingly, apposition or a relative clause may be necessary, for example, “our God, our Father” or “our God, who is our Father.”

God and Jesus are so united in Paul’s thought and prayer that he can link them as subjects of verbs (may … prepare, v. 11, may … make … grow more and more and may … make … become … great, v. 12) which in Greek are the singular. This emphasizes the way in which Paul can speak first of God the Father and immediately after of Jesus in relation to the same activities. King James Version‘s addition of “Christ” (after “Lord Jesus”) is unlikely to be a part of the original text. Modern translations, with the exception of Knox and Jerusalem Bible (but not Bible de Jérusalem), have our Lord Jesus, which is almost certainly correct.

The exact meaning of the word translated prepare, and therefore of the metaphor prepare the way, is not certain in this context. The verb may mean either (1) “to make straight,” or (2) “to guide or direct.” If the second possibility is chosen, a human object must be supplied: “may God guide us along the path which leads to you.” Phillips, for example (cf. Knox New English Bible Translator’s New Testament Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale), translates “guide our steps to you.” “To make straight” seems to fit the context better, since the problem is not that the evangelists may lose their way, but that outside obstacles need to be removed. Barclay (cf. Bijbel in Gewone Taal) accordingly translates “open up the way,” and Zürcher Bibel Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée Bible de Jérusalem have “smooth our path.” The Greek word occurring here is related both in form and in meaning to that used in Mark 1.3b: “Make a straight path for him to travel.”

In many languages prepare the way, particularly in the meaning which it has in this context, is rendered “make it possible for us to come,” or “remove anything that keeps us from coming.”

In some languages an idiomatic expression, “to clear the path for us to come to you,” may be employed. In some languages it is often important to distinguish carefully the directional implications in terms such as “come” and “go.” This means that some languages in this instance may require “go to you” rather than “come to you.” It all depends upon the perspective used in a language. Is the point of reference the people to whom one is addressing a letter, or is it the place from which the letter is sent? Careful attention to such details are necessary if one is to avoid serious confusion (see notes on 4.14).

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 .

We beg (cf. 4.1) translates a word which can mean either “to ask a question” or “to ask someone to do something.” The context makes it clear that the second meaning is intended here. To pay proper respect translates a single word which normally means “to know.” Here it has the meaning of “to recognize” (Phillips), “respect,” or “appreciate the worth of” (see 4.4), and it refers to those who guide and instruct you in the Christian life. Paul means that the Thessalonians are to pay the respect which is due to them as leaders or guides. Phillips “get to know those who work so hard among you” oddly implies that the “spiritual leaders” were not already well known to those whom they led. Work suggests hard labor. The corresponding noun is used in 2.9, where Paul is speaking about manual work; in 3.5, where he is speaking of his work as an apostle; and in 1.3, where both everyday work and specifically Christian activities may be implied. Here the context shows that Paul is referring to work involved in the leadership of the Christian community.

As Revised Standard Version‘s rather literal translation shows, the verbs work, guide, and instruct are linked only by “and”: “respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you.” Good News Translation shows correctly that work is a general term, and that guide and instruct refer to specific aspects of the leaders’ work.

The translator has to choose between two possible meanings of the word which Good News Translation translates as guide: (1) “to be at the head of,” and (2) “to be concerned about,” or “care for” (in each case, the Christian community). 1 Timothy 5.17 is a clear example of the first meaning (Good News Translation has “leaders” there, as Translator’s New Testament has in the present verse), and Titus 3.8, 14 is an evident case of the second. Those who prefer the second meaning here argue that the surrounding verbs work and instruct refer to voluntary work which could be done by any member of the community. However, this is by no means certain, particularly as far as instruct is concerned. Like the older translation “admonish,” instruct often implies warning or blame; it is not the most common word for “teach.” In 1 Corinthians 4.14 and Colossians 1.28, the same word refers to one of Paul’s own functions as an apostle and evangelist; in Colossians 3.16 it is a question of Christians instructing each other.

Are we then to think of “ordinary” Christians working hard at caring for one another and warning one another when necessary? or of leaders in the community who issue instructions and warnings from a position of special responsibility? The form of the sentence as a whole (those … who …) seems to point to a particular group within the Christian community. However, Paul does not in this passage use any of the words, such as “bishop,” “elder,” or “deacon,” which later became titles to describe particular offices in the church. The translator should beware of reading back into this passage the more formal hierarchical structures of a later period. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch uses a compound word which means “those who preside over the community” and adds a note comparing them to the officials of the synagogue mentioned, for example, in Matthew 5.22 (cf. Moffatt “presiding over you”). The meaning of the whole sentence (omitting “in the Lord” for the moment) is therefore that the Thessalonians are to show the respect due to those who have the hard task of leading the community and issuing any warning or reproof which may be necessary. There is no suggestion that those who work, those who guide (or lead), and those who instruct (reprove, warn) are different people. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “Honor all who exert themselves for you, those who preside over the community, and all who show you the right way” is slightly misleading, since it suggests different groups.

It would obviously be wrong to translate beg as a request for some object or special consideration. This is a matter of “urgently asking” or “urging.”

To pay proper respect may, of course, be translated merely as “to give honor to,” but one may come a little closer to the meaning of the original in translating “to recognize as important,” or “to acknowledge the value of those who….”

Since who work among you can be so readily misunderstood as an expression of manual labor, it may be better to use some such expression as “do so much for you.”

The final clause, who guide and instruct you in the Christian life, may be introduced by a phrase “these are the ones who….” To guide may be rendered as “be your leaders,” and instruct you as “tell you what you should do.”

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 .

The noun witnesses is better rendered as a verb in some languages, for example, “you yourselves know just what we did,” or “you yourselves can tell just what we did,” or “… how we behaved.” A parallel expression may then be used to render and so is God, for example, “and God himself knows just what we did,” or “… saw the way we behaved.” In general, the Greek term for “witness” involves two aspects: (1) personal knowledge, and (2) the ability to speak about this personal experience. In some languages one needs to be explicit in indicating both these aspects. However, if both “the people” and “God” are combined as joint witnesses, it will probably be necessary to restrict the focus of attention to either “knowing” or “seeing,” for example, “both you and God know exactly how we behaved.”

Our conduct may be translated as “just what we did,” “how we acted towards you,” or “how we carried on when we were with you.”

You who believe is a common synonym for “you Christians” (cf. 1.7). This expression may need to be expanded in some cases, for example, “you who believe the Good News,” or “you who accept our message.” However, in other instances “you Christians” may express the meaning adequately.

Pure, right, and without fault represent another of the series of three terms which, as we have seen (1.2; 2.3; cf. 2.12), are a feature of Paul’s discourse style. There is a considerable overlap of meaning between these terms, and it is more important in translation to convey the total meaning of the three words together than to look for three precise equivalents. In some contexts, pure refers to conduct in relation to God (“pious” without the negative connotation of this word), and right refers to behavior towards other people. However, this is not always so, and the present context (toward you who believe) makes it clear that Paul is speaking of human relationships. There is no suggestion that Paul behaved less well towards nonbelievers, but here he is appealing to what his (Christian) readers know from their own experience.

It may be difficult in some languages to find adequate terms to translate pure, right, and without fault, since the first two terms are positive and the third is negative. In many languages the closest equivalent of pure is itself a negative expression, for example, “without anything wrong.” The translation of right normally focuses on “the way things should be”; and without fault may often be translated as “there is nothing for which we could be blamed in what we did.” All three expressions may be combined with an expression for “conduct,” for example, “The way in which we behaved towards you who believe was without anything wrong. It was just the way we should have acted, and there was nothing that we should be blamed for.” Three complete clauses to translate three words in Greek may seem to be rather heavy, but in some languages this expansion may be the closest natural equivalent.

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 .

The new theme is introduced by a transitional which King James Version and Revised Standard Version (cf. Luther 1984) inappropriately translate as “but.” As we have just seen, no contrast with the previous section in involved, but rather a close parallel. The transition is made by some translators in a brief phrase: “as for love of the brethren” (Knox cf. La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale Jerusalem Bible) or “next, as regards brotherly love” (Phillips). The first word, translated about, is often used by Paul to introduce a new subject (e.g. 1 Corinthians 7.25; 8.1; 12.1; 16.1). It forms part of the title of many Greek writings, and has almost the function of a section heading here.

It may seen strange to say There is no need to write you about love for your fellow believers and then do just that. This was a common device in ancient times, and is characteristic of the way in which, at times, Paul implies the right kind of behavior in those to whom he writes, even while urging them on to greater effort and better behavior. This impersonal expression may be rendered in some languages as “I do not need to write about love,” or “To write to you about love for your fellow believers is really not necessary.”

Love for your fellow believers is one word in Greek. Most older translations (King James Version cf. Luther 1984 Zürcher Bibel La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale) and some more modern ones (Moffatt Phillips cf. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) have “brotherly love,” a phrase which has passed into current speech and thereby lost much of its specific original meaning. For the first Christians it meant, not figurative brother-like love, but the love of those who had become, in a very real sense, members of the Christian family. Outside Christian writings (e.g. 1 Maccabees 12.10, 17) the word is used only in speaking of men of common physical descent. In the Old Testament, “brother” meant “fellow Israelite,” but Jesus called his followers his own (Mark 3.33 ff.) and one another’s (Matthew 23.8) brothers, and this usage was carried over into the early church, regardless of differences of nationality and descent. Good News Translation‘s apparently loose paraphrase is thus much more precise than the literal equivalent “brotherly love” would be. Compare Revised Standard Version “love of the brethren” (cf. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch); Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “love between brothers”; Jerusalem Bible “loving our brothers”; Bible en français courant, more explicitly, “love between brothers in the faith”; Barclay “the love which should be characteristic of the Christian fellowship”; New English Bible “love for our brotherhood”; Translator’s New Testament “love for our fellow-Christians.” It is quite a different word from that used at the end of the verse in love one another, but the meaning in this context is the same. Here as in 3.12 Paul immediately balances a reference to the love of Christians for one another by a reminder of their responsibilities to those who are not believers (v. 12).

If love for your fellow believers is transformed into a verb expression, it may be necessary to say “about how you should love others who also believe in Christ,” or “… your brothers who believe in Christ.”

You yourselves is emphatic in Greek as in English. The implied contrast is “you do not need us to write to you, because you have been taught by God” (cf. Bible en français courant Bijbel in Gewone Taal). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch changes the focus a little by putting the sentence into the active voice: “God himself has taught you to love one another” (cf. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). The word translated taught by God is not used anywhere else in the Greek Bible; just as we speak of people being “self-taught,” so Paul says that the Thessalonians are “God-taught.” The means of teaching may be either through the guidance of the Holy Spirit or through experience.

It may be necessary in some languages to change the passive expression you yourselves have been taught by God into an active one, for example, “God himself has taught you how you should love one another.”

The exact relation between you … have been taught and you should love is uncertain. The Greek is general enough to convey either a relation of means and purpose (“you have been taught in order that you might love”) or a relation of means and result (“you have been taught, and as a result you love one another”). The former is much more likely. The Greek does not imply manner: “taught in what way you should love one another,” though the how of Good News Translation (cf. Bible en français courant) might be misunderstood in this sense. Moffatt cf. Jerusalem Bible Barclay Translator’s New Testament Luther 1984 Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale Jerusalem Bible Traduction œcuménique de la Bible Bijbel in Gewone Taal have simply “taught … to love one another,” with a possible slight loss of meaning. The past tense is not explicit, since “God-taught” is an adjective.

If loving one another is not understood as what God taught, but rather as the purpose of what he taught, then one may translate “God himself has taught you so that you should love one another.” If the meaning is taken as result, one may translate “God has taught you, and therefore you love one another.”

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 .

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 .

We could not bear it any longer must refer to the intense emotion which Paul and his colleagues felt in missing the Thessalonians. It may be necessary to make this reference more specific, for example, “we could not endure any longer not seeing you,” or, stated idiomatically, “our being away from you was crushing us.”

The word so is important because it introduces clearly the reason for the decision. In some languages this reason may need to be made explicit, for example, “because of how we felt.” Or the preceding sentence may be combined with this statement about the decision, for example, “At last, because we could not endure any longer being away from you, we decided….”

We decided is the same verb which in 2.8 is translated we were ready, but here the tense shows that Paul is not thinking of a state of being ready and willing, but of a specific decision. This is not brought out by Revised Standard Version (“we were willing”), Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale (“we preferred”), or Traduction œcuménique de la Bible (“we thought it best,” cf. Zürcher Bibel). Decided is rightly chosen, not only by common language translations, but by Knox Barclay Translator’s New Testament (cf. Luther 1984 Jerusalem Bible). Moffatt has the equivalent “made up my mind” (cf. La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée Bible de Jérusalem).

In translating we in verses 1 and 2, it is important to make the proper transitions and to indicate clearly who is involved. This will mean that in many languages the first “we” in verse 1 will be the exclusive first person plural to include Paul, Silas, and Timothy. The second “we” will be the same (“we decided”), but the implied third “we” must refer merely to Paul and Silas, for the two of them were the ones who stayed on alone in Athens. Therefore it may be necessary to translate “so we three decided that we two would stay on alone in Athens.” The we of we sent would then refer to Paul and Silas, but our in the phrase our brother would be inclusive first person plural (for languages having the inclusive-exclusive distinction), since Timothy would be a fellow believer, not only of Paul and Silas, but of the Thessalonians as well. Us in the phrase who works with us would again refer simply to Paul and Silas. Only a careful sorting out of precise references in the use of we, our, and us can prevent serious misunderstanding.

To stay on is passive in form, literally “to be left behind” (Revised Standard Version), but the context shows that Paul is writing from his own point of view, not that of Timothy. Good News Translation and most other translations make this clear by the use of “remain” or the more common equivalents “stay on” or “stay behind” (Translator’s New Testament).

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 .

You yourselves know very well (New English Bible, cf. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “perfectly well”) emphasizes both you and know. At the moment, the point of the comparison with a thief is that he comes as unexpectedly as the Day of the Lord will come (cf. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “will surprise you”). The idea that the thief comes to do harm is not implied until later. The concept of the Day of the Lord goes back at least to Amos 5.18, 20, where it is already linked with the contrast between light and darkness; but whereas in the Old Testament, “the Lord” was God (that is, Yahweh or Jehovah), for Paul, here as in almost all other passages, “the Lord” is Christ.

The translation should make it clear, first, that the comparison is between two events, the coming of the Lord and the coming of a thief; and secondly, that something which is to happen, and is therefore unknown, is being compared to something which has already happened frequently, and is therefore well known. The addition of the future verb will come indicates clearly that the Day of the Lord is an event in the future. The verb “comes” could be added after thief, since it is implied. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch makes the point of comparison explicit by translating “will come as unexpectedly as a thief in the night.”

The image of the thief may be influenced by the saying of Jesus later recorded in Matthew 24.43; Luke 12.39. The same image is used later in 2 Peter 3.10; Revelation 3.3; 16.15. Paul does not need to search for original ways of expressing teaching with which his readers were already well acquainted.

The Day of the Lord will come as a thief at night is far more difficult to translate than one might think. The comparison is between two events, but in the first instance it is “time that comes” and in the second instance it is “the thief that comes.” In many languages it is impossible to speak about “a day coming,” though one can say “a person will come on a certain day.” If, however, one translates “the Lord will come as a thief comes at night,” the comparison may seem to point, not to the unexpectedness of the coming, but to stealthiness or bad intent. Here it may be necessary to say “the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief who comes at night” (cf. Phillips), or “the Lord will come when no one expects him, just as a thief comes when no one is expecting him.”

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 .

Paul introduces here, at the end of the first section, a theme which he will discuss in greater detail in 4.13–5.11, and which will be one of the two main subjects of his Second Letter to the Thessalonians. Paul is always anxious that the Thessalonian Christian should maintain a balance between the present and future dimensions of Christian experience. The link between the two is Jesus, whose name here (as in Hebrews 12.2) is in an emphatic position at the climax of a long sentence. Good News Translation reproduces the emphasis by repeating his Son (cf. Bible en français courant).

Son is one of the most important titles of Jesus in the New Testament. It expresses his uniquely close but dependent relationship with God, whom he was probably the first to address in prayer as “Abba.” Like most, if not all, human language about God and most titles of Christ, it involves a figurative extension of the central meaning of the word “son.” Because of its theological importance, the metaphor should, if possible, be maintained in translation. And since the concept of sonship is common to all cultures, it usually can be retained. However, connotations of youth and physical generation should be avoided.

In rendering to come from heaven, it is important to use a word which clearly indicates “the abode of God” rather than merely “sky.” In this context an appropriate equivalent in some languages is “to come from where God is.”

From death is literally “from the dead.” In Greek, as in English, raised is a common word used here with an uncommon meaning. In some languages, this meaning is normally translated by a different and more literary word. Bible en français courant maintains a common language level by translating “whom he has brought back from death to life” (cf. Barclay). It is important to be specific and clear in rendering whom he raised from death. It is “God” who “raised Jesus from death,” but only rarely can one render the phrase “raised from death” literally. An expression such as “caused to live again” may be necessary.

Rescues is a synonym of “saves,” but one which places greater emphasis on the negative aspect of liberation from some danger. There is no contradiction between the present rescues and the future reference of that is coming. In Greek rescues is a present participle which implies a process having duration, something which has begun but is still incomplete. In many languages rescues is best translated as “causes us to escape,” “releases us from,” or “causes us not to suffer because of.”

For the first time in this letter, us includes both senders and readers, as the context shows (see comments on v. 4).

It is important to note that it is his Son Jesus who is raised from death (that is, he is the object of God’s activity), but it is this same one who rescues us from God’s anger. The shift in agent must be clearly indicated in the receptor language.

God’s anger that is coming rightly expands a Greek phrase which literally means “the anger (or wrath) which is coming.” Jews reading Hebrew aloud refrained from pronouncing the name of God, and although Paul is writing Greek, he seems to be influenced here by Jewish usage. The use of the article “the” shows that Paul assumes his readers know to whose anger he is referring.

The problem in translating anger is that of expressing the idea of God’s permanent, total, and personal opposition to evil, without suggesting an outburst of bad temper. It is a particularly acute example of the difficulty of using human language about God (technically called “anthropomorphism”). The Greek word which Good News Translation translates anger is a common word, and it is also used to refer to human anger (for example in Ephesians 4.31). It corresponds to the even more “human” Old Testament metaphor of someone’s nose being inflamed against someone else an expression which is used freely in speaking both of God (Exodus 4.14) and of men (Genesis 30.2). The addition of that is coming shows that Paul is thinking of a final manifestation of God’s opposition to evil which is very close to the meaning of “judgment,” the term used here by New English Bible Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch Phillips. Other, less satisfactory, translations are “vengeance” (Knox) and “punishment” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). The Greek word for anger does not in isolation have a future reference, but New English Bible interestingly takes the whole phrase closely together and translates “the terrors of judgment to come.”

It is difficult in some languages to find adequate terms to translate the expression God’s anger. The focus of meaning in this context is judgment, but it would be wrong simply to translate “rescues us from God’s judgment that is coming,” even though the Greek term does imply a measure of God’s opposition to sin and his anger because of it. In some languages the best equivalent seems to be “angry judgment.” Some persons would prefer a translation such as “who rescues us from God’s stern judgment.” Some recasting of this last clause may result in “who rescues us from the judgment that is going to come because God is so angry because of men’s sins,” or “… because God is so angrily opposed to men’s sins.” Yet there are other languages in which it is impossible to speak about a “judgment that is going to come,” because “judgment” is not thought of as something that can “come.” One can, however, speak about “judgment which is going to take place,” or “a will-be judging.” This fact may require a recasting of the last clause to read “who will rescue us when God is about to judge people, for he is angry because of their sins.”

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 .