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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 1 Thessalonians 1:10 - 1:10
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
To wait for (ἀναμένειν)
N.T.o. Several times in lxx, as Job 2:9; Job 7:2; Isa 59:11. Paul's usual word is ἀπεκδέχομαι: see Rom 8:19, Rom 8:28, Rom 8:25; 1Co 1:7; Phi 3:20.
From heaven (ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν)
Lit. from the heavens. Comp. 1Co 15:47; 1Th 4:16; 2Th 1:7. Paul uses the unclassical plural much oftener than the singular. Although the Hebrew equivalent has no singular, the singular is almost universal in lxx, the plural occurring mostly in the Psalm. Οὐρανός is from a Sanscrit word meaning to cover or encompass. The Hebrew shamayim signifies height, high district, the upper regions. Similarly we have in N.T. ἐν ὑψίστοις in the highest (places), Mat 21:9; Luk 2:14 : ἐν ὑψηλοῖς in the high (places), Heb 1:3. Paul's usage is evidently colored by the Rabbinical conception of a series of heavens: see 2Co 12:2; Eph 4:10. Some Jewish teachers held that there were seven heavens, others three. The idea of a series of heavens appears in patristic writings, in Thomas Aquinas's doctrine of the celestial hierarchies, and in Dionysius the Areopagite, Through the scholastic theologians it passed into Dante's Paradiso with its nine heavens. The words to await his Son from heaven strike the keynote of this Epistle.
Jesus which delivered (Ἱησοῦν τὸν ῥυόμενον)
More correctly, delivereth. See on Mat 1:21. Ῥύεσθαι to deliver, mostly in Paul. Lit. to draw to one's self. Almost invariably with the specification of some evil or danger or enemy. Σώζειν to save is often used in a similar sense, of deliverance from disease, from sin, or from divine wrath: see Mat 1:21; Mar 6:56; Luk 8:36; Act 2:40; Rom 5:9 : but σώζειν is a larger and more comprehensive term, including not only deliverance from sin and death, but investment with all the privileges and rewards of the new life in Christ.
The wrath to come (τῆς ὀργῆς τῆς ἐρχομένης)
Lit. the wrath which is coming. The wrath, absolutely, of the wrath of God, as Rom 5:9 Rom 7:19; 1Th 2:16. Sometimes for the punishment which wrath inflicts, as Rom 12:4; Eph 5:6; Col 3:6. See on Joh 3:36. The phrase wrath to come is found in Mat 3:7; Luk 3:7. Coming does not necessarily imply the thought of speedy or imminent approach, but the general tone of the Epistle points in that direction.