1 Thessalonians 4:15
New International Version
According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.

New Living Translation
We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died.

English Standard Version
For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

Berean Standard Bible
By the word of the Lord, we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep.

Berean Literal Bible
For this we declare to you in the word of the Lord, that we the living, remaining unto the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those having fallen asleep,

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.

New American Standard Bible
For we say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

NASB 1995
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

NASB 1977
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.

Legacy Standard Bible
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

Amplified Bible
For we say this to you by the Lord’s [own] word, that we who are still alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede [into His presence] those [believers] who have fallen asleep [in death].

Christian Standard Bible
For we say this to you by a word from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
For we say this to you by a revelation from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly have no advantage over those who have fallen asleep.

American Standard Version
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
But this we say to you by the word of Our Lord, that we, those who remain at the coming of Our Lord, we who have life, shall not overtake those who are asleep;

Contemporary English Version
Our Lord Jesus told us that when he comes, we won't go up to meet him ahead of his followers who have already died.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For this we say unto you in the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them who have slept.

English Revised Version
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
We are telling you what the Lord taught. We who are still alive when the Lord comes will not go [into his kingdom] ahead of those who have already died.

Good News Translation
What we are teaching you now is the Lord's teaching: we who are alive on the day the Lord comes will not go ahead of those who have died.

International Standard Version
For we declare to you what the Lord has told us to say: We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have died.

Literal Standard Version
for we say this to you in the word of the LORD, that we who are living—who remain over to the coming of the LORD—may not precede those asleep,

Majority Standard Bible
By the word of the Lord, we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep.

New American Bible
Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep.

NET Bible
For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep.

New Revised Standard Version
For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died.

New Heart English Bible
For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left to the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep.

Webster's Bible Translation
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not precede them who are asleep.

Weymouth New Testament
For this we declare to you on the Lord's own authority--that we who are alive and continue on earth until the Coming of the Lord, shall certainly not forestall those who shall have previously passed away.

World English Bible
For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep.

Young's Literal Translation
for this to you we say in the word of the Lord, that we who are living -- who do remain over to the presence of the Lord -- may not precede those asleep,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Return of the Lord
14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. 15 By the word of the Lord, we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise.…

Cross References
1 Kings 13:17
For I have been told by the word of the LORD: 'You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.'"

1 Kings 20:35
Meanwhile, by the word of the LORD, one of the sons of the prophets said to his companion, "Strike me, please!" But the man refused to strike him.

1 Corinthians 15:18
Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

1 Corinthians 15:52
in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

2 Corinthians 12:1
I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to gain, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord.

Galatians 1:12
I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 2:19
After all, who is our hope, our joy, our crown of boasting, if it is not you yourselves in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?


Treasury of Scripture

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

by the.

1 Kings 13:1,9,17,18,22
And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense…

1 Kings 20:35
And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbour in the word of the LORD, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man refused to smite him.

1 Kings 22:14
And Micaiah said, As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I speak.

which are.

1 Corinthians 15:51-53
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, …

2 Corinthians 4:14
Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.

prevent.

Job 41:11
Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.

Psalm 88:13
But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

Psalm 119:147,148
I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word…

asleep.

1 Thessalonians 4:13
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

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Alive Anticipate Asleep Authority Continue Declare Earth Fallen Lord's Passed Prevent Previously Sleeping Way Wise Word
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Alive Anticipate Asleep Authority Continue Declare Earth Fallen Lord's Passed Prevent Previously Sleeping Way Wise Word
1 Thessalonians 4
1. He exhorts them to go forward in all manner of godliness;
6. to live holily and justly;
9. to love one another;
11. and quietly to follow their own business;
13. and last of all, to sorrow moderately for the dead.
17. followed by a brief description of the resurrection, and second coming of Christ to judgment.














(15) By the word of the Lord.--Literally, in. A most direct claim to plenary inspiration (see references). It does not mean "According to certain words which Christ spoke," nor yet "By means of a revelation from the Lord to me," but "By way of a divine revelation:" "I tell you this as a message straight from God." In what way apostles and prophets became conscious of supernatural inspiration we cannot tell; but elsewhere also St. Paul speaks of possessing the consciousness sometimes and not at others. (See 1Corinthians 7:10; 1Corinthians 7:12; 1Corinthians 7:25; 1Corinthians 7:40.) He means this declaration here to hold good of the details, which are such as no one would invent and teach with such solemnity; at the same time it must be remembered, with regard to the details, that it is the very idiom of prophecy (which St. Paul here uses) to express by material imagery spiritual facts.

We which are alive and remain.--Literally, We, (that is) the quick, those who are left over. There is not the least necessity for supposing from these words that St. Paul confidently expected the Advent before his death. Very likely he did, but it cannot be proved from this passage. Had the "we" stood alone, without the explanatory participles, it might have amounted to a proof, but not so now. His converts are strongly under the impression that they will be alive at the Coming, and that it will be the worse for the departed: therefore, St. Paul (becoming all things to all men) identifies himself with them--assumes that it will be as they expected--and proves the more vividly the fallacy of the Thessalonians' fears. It would have been impossible, on the contrary, for St. Paul to have said "we which are dead" without definitely abandoning the hope of seeing the Return. Besides which, St. Paul is only picturing to imagination the scene of the Advent; and for any man it is far easier to imagine himself among the quick than among the dead at that moment.

Shall not prevent--i.e., "be before," "get the start of." If it were not for these words, we might have fancied that the Thessalonians had not been taught to believe in a resurrection at all; which would have been a strange departure from the usual apostolic gospel (1Corinthians 15:1, et seq.). We here learn what was the exact nature of the Thessalonians' anxiety concerning the dead. They were full of excited hopes of the coming of that kingdom which had formed so prominent a part of the Apostles' preaching there (Acts 17:7); and were afraid that the highest glories in that kingdom would be engrossed by those who were alive to receive them; and that the dead, not being to rise till afterwards, would have less blessed privileges. This would make them not only sorry for their dead friends, but also reluctant to die themselves. The negative in this clause is very emphatic in the Greek, and throws all its force upon the verb: "We shall certainly not get the start of them that sleep;" i.e., "if anything, we shall be behind them; they will rise first." . . .

Verse 15. - For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord; or rather, by a word of the Lord. The apostle does not refer to those portions of the gospel which record our Lord's discourses concerning the last things; nor to some sayings of Christ preserved by tradition; but to a direct revelation made unto himself by the Lord. We know from Scripture that Paul had many such revelations imparted to him (comp. 1 Corinthians 11:23; Galatians 1:11, 12). That we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord. These words are the occasion of an important discussion. It has been affirmed that the apostle here asserts that he himself expected to be alive, with the majority of those to whom he was writing, at the Lord's advent; that, according to his expectation, Christ's second coming was close at hand. "Those who are alive and remain" are distinguished from "those who are asleep," and in the former class the apostle includes himself and his readers. And a similar declaration is contained in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:51). Such is the view adopted by Grotius, Olshausen, Koch, Neander, Lechler, Baur, Winer, Reuse, Lunemann, Riggenbach; and, among English divines, by Alford, Jowett, Stanley, and Conybeare. Some of them suppose that Paul changed his opinion on this point - that whilst in his earlier Epistles he taught the immediateness of the advent, in his later Epistles he renounced this hope and looked forward to his own departure. There does not seem to be any ground for this opinion. On the contrary, it would appear from the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, written only a few weeks after this Epistle, that Paul did not expect the advent immediately, but mentions a series of events which would intervene before its occurrence (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3). And in this Epistle he represses the curiosity of the Thessalonians about the precise time of the advent by telling them that it was beyond the sphere of his teaching (1 Thessalonians 5:1, 2). We consider, then, that the apostle speaks here as a member of the Christian body, and uses a very common form of expression - that we Christians which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord; but not at all intending to express his confidence that he himself and his converts would be actually alive at the advent. "He spake," says St. Chrysostom, "not of himself, but of Christians who would be alive at the day of judgment." Such is the view adopted by Chrysostom, Calvin, Bengel, Hofmann, Lunge, Macknight, Ellicott, Bishop Alexander, Wordsworth, and Vaughan. At the same time, it must be remembered that the time of the advent was expressly concealed (Matthew 24:36; Acts 1:7), and that it might occur at any period; and, by reason of their proximity to the first advent, the primitive Christians would be deeply impressed with the possibility or even probability of its occurrence in their days. Christians were to be living always in readiness for this great event, and thus it became a matter of expectation. "Strictly speaking, the expectation of the day of the Lord was not a belief, but a necessity in the early Church; clinging as it did to the thought of Christ, it could not bear to be separated from him; it was his absence, not his presence, that the first believers found it hard to realize" (Jowett). Hence Paul might not regard the advent as far removed into the distant future, as wholly impossible to happen in his days, but as an occurrence which might at any time take place; but he did not teach anything definite or certain on the subject. Shall not prevent; go before or anticipate, obtain the preference over, get before, so that those that are asleep might be left behind and fail of the prize. Them that are asleep; those who are dead, so that they, the living, should be glorified before them, or perhaps hinder their glorification.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
By
ἐν (en)
Preposition
Strong's 1722: In, on, among. A primary preposition denoting position, and instrumentality, i.e. A relation of rest; 'in, ' at, on, by, etc.

[the] word
λόγῳ (logō)
Noun - Dative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3056: From lego; something said; by implication, a topic, also reasoning or motive; by extension, a computation; specially, the Divine Expression.

of [the] Lord,
Κυρίου (Kyriou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 2962: Lord, master, sir; the Lord. From kuros; supreme in authority, i.e. controller; by implication, Master.

we declare
λέγομεν (legomen)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 1st Person Plural
Strong's 3004: (a) I say, speak; I mean, mention, tell, (b) I call, name, especially in the pass., (c) I tell, command.

to you
ὑμῖν (hymin)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Dative 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

that
ὅτι (hoti)
Conjunction
Strong's 3754: Neuter of hostis as conjunction; demonstrative, that; causative, because.

we
ἡμεῖς (hēmeis)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Nominative 1st Person Plural
Strong's 1473: I, the first-person pronoun. A primary pronoun of the first person I.

who are
οἱ (hoi)
Article - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

alive
ζῶντες (zōntes)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 2198: To live, be alive. A primary verb; to live.

[and] remain
περιλειπόμενοι (perileipomenoi)
Verb - Present Participle Middle or Passive - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 4035: To leave behind; pass: To be left behind, remain, survive. From peri and leipo; to leave all around, i.e. survive.

until
εἰς (eis)
Preposition
Strong's 1519: A primary preposition; to or into, of place, time, or purpose; also in adverbial phrases.

the
τὴν (tēn)
Article - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

coming
παρουσίαν (parousian)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3952: From the present participle of pareimi; a being near, i.e. Advent; physically, aspect.

of the
τοῦ (tou)
Article - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

Lord
Κυρίου (Kyriou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 2962: Lord, master, sir; the Lord. From kuros; supreme in authority, i.e. controller; by implication, Master.

will by no means precede
φθάσωμεν (phthasōmen)
Verb - Aorist Subjunctive Active - 1st Person Plural
Strong's 5348: Apparently a primary verb; to be beforehand, i.e. Anticipate or precede; by extension, to have arrived at.

those who
τοὺς (tous)
Article - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

have fallen asleep.
κοιμηθέντας (koimēthentas)
Verb - Aorist Participle Passive - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 2837: From keimai; to put to sleep, i.e. to slumber; figuratively, to decease.


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NT Letters: 1 Thessalonians 4:15 For this we tell you by (1 Thess. 1 Thes. 1Th iTh i Th)
1 Thessalonians 4:14
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