The words translated did not choose (cf. Phillips; Revised Standard Version New English Bible Knox Barclay [cf. Moffatt] “has not destined,” King James Version “hath not appointed,” Jerusalem Bible “never meant us to experience the Retribution”) have been understood in rather different ways, as the various English translations just quoted show. The ordinary meaning of this common verb is “to put.” One of its extended meanings is “to put in a particular position or office,” and thus “to appoint.” “To destine” is the meaning chosen here by many commentators and translators, but it is rare elsewhere. It is not the more usual word for “choose” (found, for example, in 1 Corinthians 1.27), nor is it the word for “predestine” (found in Romans 8.29-30 and Ephesians 1.5, 11). The closest parallel is Acts 13.47 (quoting Isaiah 49.6), where Good News Translation translates “I have made you a light for the Gentiles.” The Greek verb does not imply choosing certain persons from among a larger group, and the reference to the future contained in the English “destine” is found, not in the Greek verb itself, but in the following words, “for wrath.” In order to avoid as far as possible all these outside associations, there is much to be said for keeping close to the ordinary meaning of the verb, and translating “God did not put here in order to condemn us.” “Here” (that is, “in the church,” not “in the world”) is implied. “In order to condemn us” brings out the clear implication that the “wrath” is God’s (Good News Translation does this by inserting his).

If one wishes to avoid a direct translation of choose, it may be possible to employ an expression such as “God did not deal with us as he has…,” or “God has not done what he has done to us in order to condemn us.”

To possess may mean “to hold in possession” or “to gain possession of.” How one translates this verb will depend on whether salvation is understood as a present possession or a future hope. This question is settled decisively (1) by hope of salvation in verse 8, which implies a future event, and (2) by the parallel to suffer his anger, which has a future reference. The wider context, too, looks forward to the final and complete salvation which believers will experience at the coming of Christ. Salvation is therefore here a future hope, and to possess means “to gain possession of.”

To suffer his anger may be rendered in some languages as “in order to condemn us and make us suffer at the last judgment,” or “just so that he could make us suffer.” The phrase to possess salvation may seem clear in English, but it is quite impossible in some languages where “to possess” may refer only to objects and not a state such as is implied in salvation. If one translates the first part of verse 9 as “God did not deal with us as he did in order to make us suffer at the last judgment,” it may then be possible to translate the second part as “but he did what he did in order to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In placing the negative in verse 9a, it may be necessary to shift it from God’s activity to the suffering, for example, “God dealt with us as he did, not in order to make us suffer, but in order that we would be saved through our Lord Jesus Christ.” In some cases it may be necessary to introduce the positive statement before the negative one, for example, “God dealt with us as he did in order that we would be saved through our Lord Jesus Christ. He did not purpose that we would just suffer.”

Through our Lord Jesus Christ expresses secondary agency. It is God who is the primary agent in salvation, and this is made possible by means of the Lord Jesus Christ. This secondary agency is expressed in some languages by “in order that God would save us; our Lord Jesus Christ did it.”

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 .