The Syntax of en Christo in 1 Thessalonians 4-16

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JBL 126, no. 3 (2007): 579593

The Syntax of έν Χριστώ

in 1 Thessalonians 4:16

DAVID KONSTAN

[email protected]

Brown University, Providence, RI 02912

ILARIA [email protected]

Catholic University of Milan, 20123 Milan, Italy

In 1 Thess 4:16 we read: δτι αυτός ό κύριος έν κελεύσµατι, έν φωνή

αρχαγγέλου και έν σάλπιγγι θεοϋ, καταβήσεται απ ούρανοϋ, και οι

νεκροί έν Χριστώ άναστήσονται πρώτον, κτλ. The translation in the RSVruns: "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with

the archangel's call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in

Christ will risefirst," etc.1 Our concern in this article is with the final clause: "And

the dead in Christ will rise." Does the Greek mean, "those who are dead in Christ

will rise," as many have taken it, including Jerome in the Latin Vulgate: mortui qui

in Christo sunt resurgent! 2 Or is it preferable to take it as meaning, "the dead will

We wish to express our warm thanks to Frederick Brenk, Donald Russell, and Stanley

Stowers for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper, and for their generous encour-agement; we are grateful also to two anonymous referees for JBL and to James C. VanderKam.

1 Cf. the translation in Karl Staab and Norbert Brox, Cartas a los Tesalonicenses, cartas de la

cautividad y cartas pastorales (Spanish trans, by Florencio Galindo; Barcelona: Herder, 1974), 50:

"... y los muertos en Cristo resucitarán primero." Staab comments: "El estar en Cristo, que paraPablo constituye el ser mismo de la existencia cristiana, no sufre menoscabo alguno por la muerte

corporal" (pp. 57-58). More tendentious is the version of Ortensio da Spinetoli, in Le lettere di San

Paolo (4th ed.; Milan: Edizioni Paoline, 1988), 75: "e i morti che sono in Cristo risorgeranno per

primi."2 See James Everett Frame, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistles of St. Pa

to the Thessalonians (ICC; Edinburgh: T&T Clark 1912; repr 1946) 175: "First the resurrection

mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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580 Journal of Biblical Literature 126, no. 3 (2007)

rise in Christ"?3 The choice between the two versions is of considerable importance.

On the first interpretation, only those who have died in Christ will be resurrected,

whereas the second can be taken to signify that all the dead will be resurrected in

Christ4—the necessary premise for the thesis of universal salvation or apocatastasis

defended by Origen and other patristic writers, including Gregory of Nyssa.5 In

Neukirchener Verlag, 1986), 201: in 1 Thess 4:16 "die Möglichkeit und Wirklichkeit der Aufer

stehung ist für Paulus selbstverständliche Gegebenheit. Sie wird aber betont auf die Toten cin

Christus' beschränkt. Die Näherbestimmung wird auf eine geprägte urchristliche Redeweise

zurückgehen, die die Toten als solche ausweist, die zu Christus gehören." In n. 289, Holtz compares

1 Cor 15:8; Rev 4:13; and Eph 4:1, ό δέσµιος έν κυρίω, but the parallels are not exact (see below). See P. Siber, Christus leben: Eine Studie zur paulinischen Auferstehungshoffnung (ATANT

61; Zurich: Theologischer Verlag, 1971), 57 n. 162.3 Hung Sik Choi analyzes and classifies the various usages of έν Χριστώ in Paul ("ΠΙΣΤΙΣ

in Galatians 5:56: Neglected Evidence for the Faithfulness of Christ," JBL 124 [2005]: 46790, esp.

488 n. 104), noting that in Pauls authentic letters this phrase always refers to the redemptive

sphere, indicating God's saving activity: justification in Christ, reconciliation in Christ, resurrec-

tion in Christ, election, blessing, sanctification, forgiving, access to Good, knowledge, life, free-

dom, righteousness, sonship, grace, love, all in Christ. This is in line with the interpretation of

1 Thess 4:16 as referring to resurrection in Christ.4

Stanley Stowers points out that, in this letter, Paul is consoling the Thessalonians becausesome of them have died and Christ has not yet returned. Hence, he explains that, at the

resurrection, the living Thessalonians will be rejoined by the dead, and so Paul focuses not on

resurrection in general but rather on the problem at hand. His argument is this: all who have died

in Christ will be saved; therefore, you will be saved, since you all died in Christ. The focus is not

on the distinction between those who did and those who did not die in Christ, but on the salvation

of the entire Thessalonian community. Now, Paul could equally well have consoled the Thessa-

lonians by arguing that all who have died will rise in Christ; hence they too will rise in Christ

using a general eschatological statement to address a specific case. This is rhetorically forceful: if

all who have died will rise in Christ, then certainly you Thessalonians—good Christians that you

are—will do so as well. It does not seem to us that the question of which argument Paul chose to

present can be decided on the basis of the context alone, although the context is certainly relevant.

This is why we have elected to focus on the syntax of the phrase, with a view to determining

whether it favors one reading over another. Needless to say, any conclusion drawn must be

compatible with both the text and the context.5 See, e.g., Ilaria Ramelli, "Nota sulla continuità della dottrina dell apocatastasi in Gregorio

di Nissa: dal De Anima et Resurrectione all'In Illudi Tunc et Ipse Filius? Archaeus 10 (2006): 105-45; eadem, "Allegoria ed escatologia: Fuso della retorica nel De anima et resurrectione di Gregoriodi Nissa e il suo rapporto con la tradizione filosofica classica e la dottrina cristiana," in Approches

de la Troisième Sophistique: Hommages à Jacques Schamp (ed. E. Amato; Brussels: Latomus, 2006),193-220; eadem, "Christian Soteriology and Christian Platonism: Origen, Gregory of Nyssa and

the Biblical and Philosophical Basis of the Doctrine of Apokatastasis," paper delivered at the


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Konstan and Rametti: 1 Thessalonians 4:16 581

this article, however, we set aside the theological arguments6 and concentrate

simply on the point of grammar: does the prepositional phrase έν Χριστώ modify

oí νεκροί, or does it go more naturally with άναστήσονται? For all the potential

significance of the answer to this question, it appears that no one so far has

investigated Paul's usage with respect to this specific construction.7

We have examined all the occurrences of έν Χριστώ and έν τω Χριστώ in

the NT, numbering eightyfour in all. The expressions are not found in the Gospels

or Acts, but occur almost exclusively in and throughout the Pauline corpus: in

Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Philemon,

Filius...' (ICor 15,2728): Gregory of Nyssa's Exegesis, Some Derivations from Origen, and EarlyPatristic Interpretations Related to Origen's" (seminar paper at the 15th International Conference

on Patristic Studies, Oxford 611 August 2007, forthcoming); eadem, Apocatastasi (Milan: Vita e

Pensiero, forthcoming), with rich documentation.6 Theological arguments concerning the passage assume two forms: first, whether all are to

be resurrected in Christ, or only those who "have died in Christ" (see notes below); second,

determining the meaning of έν Χρισ τώ. We do not enter into the latter question here; for

discussion, see Troels EngbergPedersen, "Stoicism in the Apostle Paul: A Philosophical Reading,"

in Stoicism: Traditions and Transformations (ed. Steven K. Strange and Jack Zupko; Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 2004), 5275, esp. 6367. EngbergPedersen states that being "in

Christ" may mean, according to Paul, "a direct bodily participation, in a manner that was probablyto be taken to be quite literally, where we would speak of metaphor." Stanley K. Stowers ("What

Is Pauline Participation in Christ?" in Redefining FirstCentury Jewish and Christian Identities:

Essays in Honor of Edward P. Sanders [ed. Fabian Udoh, Gregory Tatum, and Susanna Heschel;

Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, forthcoming], with bibliography), Alexander

J. M. Wedderburn ("Some Observations on Paul's Use of the Phrases 'In Christ' and 'With Christ?'

/SNT25 [1985]: 8397), Brenda B. Colijn ("Paul's Use of the 'In Christ' Formula," ΑΓ/23 [1991]:

926), and Lars Hartman (Into the Name of the Lord Jesus: Baptism in the Early Church [Edin-

burgh: T&T Clark, 1997], 3750) all tend to interpret έν Χριστώ in Paul in a baptismal sense.7 On the Pauline credentials of the Letters to the Thessalonians (the second is commonly

considered deuteroPauline), see Bonnie Thurston, Reading Colossians, Ephesians, and 2 Thessa-

lonians: A Literary and Theological Commentary (Reading the New Testament; New York:

Crossroad, 1995); Earl J. Richard, First and Second Thessalonians (SP 11; Collegeville, MN:

Liturgical Press, 1995); Abraham Smith, Comfort One Another: Reconstructing the Rhetoric and

Audience of I Thessalonians (Literary Currents in Biblical Interpretation; Louisville: Westminster

John Knox, 1995); Beverly Roberts Gaventa, First and Second Thessalonians (Interpretation;

Louisville: John Knox, 1998); Steve Walton, Leadership and Lifestyle: The Portrait of Paul in the

Miletus Speech and 1 Thessalonians (SNTSMS 108; Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University

Press, 2000); Gene L. Green, The Letter to the Thessalonians (Pillar New Testament Commentary;

Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002); Colin R. Nicholl, From Hope to Despair in Thessalonica: Situating

1 and 2 Thessalonians (SNTSMS 126; Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

L. Michael White argues that this is the earliest of Paul's letters (From Jesus to Christianity: How


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Colossians, 1 and 2 Timothy, and 1 and 2 Thessalonians,8 to which we may addthree instances in 1 Peter. In our view, the majority of occurrences favor—and noneis incompatible with—taking the phrase in 1 Thess 4:16 with the following verb,that is, that the dead will rise in Christ. This is, indeed, the normal construction

with a prepositional phrase preceding a verb. As it happens, there are two examplesin the following verse (4:17): έπειτα ηµείς οι ζώντες oi περιλειπόµενοι αµασυν αυτοϊς άρπαγησόµεθα έν νεφέλαις εις άπάντησιν τοϋ κυρίου ειςαέρα* και ούτως πάντοτε συν κυρίω έσόµεθα, where the RSV renders: "then

we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the cloudsto meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord 1 (the translationsthat follow are based on the RSV, sometimes modified for greater literalness). The

balanced clauses perhaps support taking έν Χριστώ with the verb as well.To be sure, the phrase έν Χριστώ modifies a preceding substantive, and more

particularly the subject of the sentence, in letters that are attributed with certaintyto Paul, but in these cases the article is invariably repeated before the phrase, forexample, Rom 3:24: δια της άπολυτρώσεως της έν Χριστώ; 8:39: της αγάπηςτοϋ Ίησοΰ της έν Χριστώ; 1 Cor 1:4: έπί τη χάριτι τοϋ θεοϋ τη δοθείση

8 Wayne Α. Meeks and John T. Fitzgerald place 1 Thessalonians among "The Undoubted

Letters of St. Paul" and 2 Thessalonians among "The Works of the Pauline School" (The Writingsof St Paul: A Norton Critical Edition [2nd ed.; New York: Norton, 2007], 39,1015). Abraham

J. Malherbe considers both letters authentically Pauline (The Letters to the Thessalonians: A New

Translation with Introduction and Commentary [AB 32B; New York: Doubleday, 2000]) ; the first,

written by Paul four months after he left Thessalonica, is "essentially a pastoral letter" (p. 78).

Malherbe makes good use of patristic interpretations of the letter to show its paraenetic intent

(p. 86), looking especially, in respect to the passage under discussion, to John Chrysostom, who

understands the passage as referring to all the dead; see Wendy Mayer and Pauline Allen, John

Chrysostom (Early Church Fathers; London: Routledge, 2000), 4152. For 1 Thessalonians as a

consolatory letter, see Matthias Konradt, Gericht und Gemeinde: Eine Studie zur Bedeutung und

Funktion von Gerichtsaussagen im Rahmen der Paulinischen Ekklesiologie und Ethik im 1 Thess

und 1 Kor (BZNW 117; Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 2003); Konradt defines 1 Thessalonians as

2iparakletischerBrief(p. 38) and reads it in tandem with 1 Corinthians on the issue of resurrection

and eschatology (see esp. p. 181). On Pauls complex eschatology, see also N. T. Wright, Paul: In

Fresh Perspective (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005), part 1, ch. 3: "Messiah and Apocalyptic"; and Joost

Holleman, Resurrection and Parousia: A TraditioHistorical Study of Pauls Eschatology in 1 Corin-

thians 15 (NovTSup 84; Leiden: Brill, 1996), who argues for a threephase process in 1 Cor 15:20

23, beginning with Jesus' resurrection and concluding with his parousia (Holleman also notes the

different perspectives Paul adopts in his various letters). See also Joseph Plevnik, "The Taking Up

of the Faithful and the Resurrection of the Dead in 1 Thess 4:1318," CBQ 46 (1984): 27483;

Ben F. Meyer, "Did Paul's View of the Resurrection of the Dead Undergo Development?" TS 47

(1986): 36387; idem, "Paul and the Resurrection of the Dead," TS 48 (1987): 15758. Richard N.


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υµϊν έν Χριστώ; 1 Cor 4:17: τάς οδούς µου τας έν Χριστώ; Gal 1:22: ταΐς

έκκλησίαις της Ιουδαίας ταΐς έν Χριστώ; 1 Tim 1:14: µετά πίστεως και

αγάπης της έν Χριστώ (cf. 2 Tim 1:13: έν πίστει και αγάπη τη έν Χριστώ);

3:13: έν πίστει τη έν Χριστώ; 2 Tim 1:1: ζωής της έν Χριστώ; 2:1: έν τηχάριτι τη έν Χριστώ; 2:10: σωτηρίας τύχωσιν της έν Χριστώ; 3:15: διαπίστεως της έν Χριστώ.9 Analogous to this use is that of the article alone with

the prepositional phrase (as in the classical construction oi περί, etc.) in Rom 8:1

ουδέν άρα νυν κατάκριµα τοις έν Χριστώ, which is equivalent in sense to

τοις ουσι έν Χριστώ; the two constructions are combined in Phil 1:1: πασιν

τοις άγίοις έν Χριστώ Ίησοϋ τοις ουσιν έν Φιλίπποις. Of course, one cannot

repeat the article where it does not occur and is not even implicit, as in the case of

an indefinite noun, for example, Rom 6:23: το χάρισµα του Θεοΰ ζωή αιώνιοςέν Χριστώ, "the gift of God is life αιώνιος10 in Christ," where ζωή in the predicate

position does not take the article. The absence of a following verb leaves the

attribution of έν Χριστώ unambiguous; cf. 2 Cor 12:2: οϊδα άνθρωπον έν

Χριστώ . . . άρπαγέντα, "I know a man who was caught up in Christ to the third

heaven."11

In some cases, there is an understood form of the verb "to be" that attaches theformula έν Χριστώ to the subject, for example, 2 Cor 5:17: εϊ τις έν Χριστώ,

καινή κτίσις ("if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation"); Phil 2:1: εϊ τις ουν

παράκλησις έν Χριστώ, "if there is any encouragement in Christ"; 1 Cor 16:24:

ή αγάπη µου µετά πάντων υµών έν Χριστώ, "my love be [oris] in Christ with

you all." In other cases, the expression "is X in Christ" is used predicatively, for

example, 1 Cor 4:10: ηµείς µωροί δια Χριστόν, ύµεις δε φρόνιµοι έν

Χριστώ, "we are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ"; Eph 3:21: αότώ

9 Malherbe notes the absence of the repeated article, but he nevertheless does not associate

the phrase with the following verb: "'the dead in Christ' describes the dead in their relation to

Christ (cf. 1 Cor 15:23) and does not refer to an immediate state in which they found themselves,

as though the text read hoi nekroi hoi en Khristoi, the dead who are in Christ. The phrase is equiv-

alent to 'those who have fallen asleep in Christ* (1 Cor 15:18) and 'the dead who die in the Lord'

(Rev 14:13). Death does not sever their relation with Christ (cf. Rom 8:3139). Nor is it in con-

ception the same as the 'first resurrection* of the souls of the martyrs of Rev 20: 45 . . . Paul's

interest is in Christians, and speculation in the fate of nonChristians is misplaced. Paul is offer-

ing encouragement, not a comprehensive eschatological treatise" (Letters to the Thessalonians,

275). So too, Ernest Best notes the difference between our passage and the expression, οι νεκροί

έν Χριστώ (A Commentary on the First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians [HNTC; New

York: Harper & Row, 1972], 197).1 0 For the meanings of αιώνιος as different from άΐδιος, see Ilaria Ramelli and David

Konstan Termsfor Eternity: Aiônios and aïdios in Classical and Christian Texts (Piscataway NJ:


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ή δόξα έν τη εκκλησία και έν Χριστώ, "to him be the glory in the church and

in Christ"; Col 1:2: τοις έν Κολοσσούς άγίοις και πιστοίς άδελφοΐς, έν

Χριστώ χάρις ύµίν και ειρήνη άπο θεοΰ πατρός ηµών, "to the saints and

faithful brethren at Colossae: Grace be to you in Christ and peace from God ourfather";12 1 Thess 5:18: τοϋτο γαρ θέληµα θεοϋ έν Χριστώ, "this is the will of

God in Christ."

Sometimes the expression έν Χριστώ modifies a substantive or adjective that

has verbal force, for example, in connection with terms for belief: Gal 3:26: πάντες

γαρ υίοι θεοϋ έστε δια της πίστεως έν Χριστώ Ίησοϋ ("for you are all sons

of God through faith in Christ Jesus"), where the phrase perhaps depends onπίστις,

13 which is construed like the verb πιστεύω; but έν Χριστώ is perhaps

more likely to be predicative and to depend on the verb έστέ: thus, the RSVrenders: "for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith".14 Another

1 2 The parallelism between grace in Christ and peace from God favors this interpretation

over that of the RSV: "to the saints and faithful brethren who are in Christ at Colossae: Grace to

you and peace from God our Father." Cf. also 1 Thess 1:1: Εύχαριστοϋµεν τω θεω πάντοτε

περί πάντων υµών; and 2 Thess 1:12.1 3

Choi argues forcefully, and perhaps rightly, that in Paul πίστις Χρίστου means "Christ's

faithfulness" rather than "faith in Christ"; he provides an extensive review of previous scholarship

("ΠΙΣΤΙΣ in Galatians 5:56"). In particular, he interprets Gal 3:26 δια της πίστεως έν ΧριστώΊησοϋ not as "You are children of God through faith in Christ," but "you are children of God in

Christ, through faith," that is, Christ's faithfulness (p. 477). But while the genitive "of Christ" may

be objective ("faith in Christ") or subjective ("Christ's faith"), the phrase πίστις έν Χριστώ

appears to signify rather "faith in Christ." We offer a few illustrations: Sophocles, Trachiniae 588:

αλλ' εϊ τις εστί πίστις έν τοις δρωµένοις; Polybius 7.14.2; 18.35.3: την πίστιν έν τούτω

τω µέρει διαφυλάττειν; Diodorus Siculus 1.79.2 (= Hecataeus of Abdera frag. 25 FGH): την

ολην πίστιν έν τη καλοκαγαθία ποιήσας, "having placed his entire trust in nobility" (though

the verb ποιήσας may govern the preposition); Philo Judaeus, De cherubim 85: πίστιν έν ού

θνητών έορταΐς; Plutarch, Praecepta gerendae reipublicae 805B: πίστις έν συνηγορία; Origen,

Contra Celsum 1.62 πίστει έν σοφία ανθρώπων και ούκ έν δυνάµει θεοΰ; and Paul's own

example in Rom 3:25: δια της πίστεως έν τω αύτοΰ αϊµατι. Pistis in the nonChristian

authors generally means "trust" rather than "faith" in the Christian sense, but the syntactic

structure is the same, unless "faith in Christ" bears the special sense of "the faith that is in Christ."

We do not reject this interpretation out of hand, but simply note that, if it is correct, it does not

affect our argument concerning 1 Thess 4:16. See also Ilaria Ramelli, "Alcune osservazioni su

credere," Maia n.s. 51 (2000): 6783; Studi su Fides (pref. by Sabino Perea Yébenes; Graeco-

Romanae Religionis Electa Collectio 11; Madrid: Signifer Libros, 2002). We note in this

connection that a good number of important testimonia read δια της πίστεως Ίησοϋ Χρίστου

instead of δια της πίσ τεως έν Χριστώ Ίησοϋ; the former include Mss 1739,917,206s, the Syriac version called Peshitta, Ephraem the Syrian, the Sahidic Coptic version, and even the third

century papyrus p46

which reads πίστεως Χρίστου Ίησοϋ (cf the critical apparatus in Andreas


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ambiguous instance is Eph 1:1: Παύλος . . . τοις άγίοις τοίς ουσιν [έν Έφέσω]

και πιστοΐς έν Χριστώ Ίησοϋ; if "in Ephesus" is deleted, in accord with

important manuscripts and witnesses, the case for the predicative use is still

stronger; so the RSV: "to the saints who are also faithful in Christ Jesus." Again, inEph 3:6: είναι τα έθνη . . . συµµέτοχα της επαγγελίας έν Χριστώ, "partakers

of the promise in Christ" = "who partake of...," unless we take the final phrase to

depend on the verb "to be."

Dependency on the verbal noun is more likely in Col 1:4, άκούσαντες την

πίστιν υµών έν Χριστώ, "we have heard of your faith in Christ." Romans 16:3,

910 is perhaps analogous: Άσπάσασθε Πρίσκαν και Άκύλαν, τους

συνεργούς µου έν Χριστώ . . . άσπάσασθε Οόρβανον τον συνεργον ηµών

έν Χριστώ . . . άσπάσασθε Άπελλην, τον δόκιµον έν Χριστώ, "Greet Priscaand Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ... greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in

Christ . . . ; greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ": the sense is, "who has

collaborated with me in Christ, who has been approved in Christ,"15 although it is

possible to understand οντά with συνεργόν and δόκιµον, or even to take the

phrase with the verb άσπάσασθε: "Greet in Christ...," etc. (see below). Cf. Phlm

23: ασπάζεται σε Έπαφρας ό συναίχµαλωτός µου έν Χριστώ; 1 Cor 3:1:

ούκ ήδυνήθην λαλησαι υµίν ως πνευµατικοίς, άλλ' ως σαρκίνοις, ωςνηπίοις έν Χριστώ, where again it may be possible to take έν Χριστώ—even

though it appears at the end of the clause—directly with the preceding verb.16 As

Franciscan Printing Press, 2005), 351: "forse è meglio qui unire έν Χριστώ Ίησοϋ con έστε ed

esprimere un senso pregnante: 'siamo figli di Dio "per mezzo di Cristo" e soppratutto "in unione

a Cristo Gesù."'" Buscemi has a good discussion of the textual variants here, some of which give

the genitive Χρίστου Ίησοϋ. Contra Joseph B. Lightfoot, Saint Pauls Epistle to the Galatians

(10th ed.; London: MacMillan, 1890), 149, ad έν Χρι στώ Ίησοϋ: "The context shows that these

words must be separated from δια της πίστεως. They are thrown to the end of the sentence so

as to form in a manner a distinct proposition, on which the Apostle enlarges in the following

verses: 'You are sons by your union with, your existence in Christ Jesus'" Cf. Hans Dieter Betz,

Galatians: A Commentary on Pauls Letter to the Churches in Galatia (Hermeneia; Minneapolis:

Fortress, 1979), 186: "Two formulas state the conditions for this adoption: 'through [the] faith* (δια

της πίστεως) and through incorporation in the 'body of Christ,' i.e. 'in Christ Jesus."' These latter

interpretations seem tendentious, at least in light of the apparent structure of the sentence. See,

most recently, Michael E Hull, Baptism on Account of the Dead (1 Cor 15:29): An Act of Faith in

the Resurrection (SBL Academia Biblica 22; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005), 24447,

for discussion of this passage in connection with baptism.1 5

Cf. C. E. B. Cranfield, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans(ICC; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1979), 785: "έν Χριστώ Ίησοϋ clearly serves to indicate that it is

in relation to Christ and in the work of the gospel rather than in any other sphere or matter that


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we shall see, this phrase often occurs at the end of a colon but nevertheless depends

on the main verb even when the latter comes much earlier in the sentence. We

stress, however, that the construction of the phrase with verbal nouns or adjectives

is rare and limited to a few words. Had Paul written oi αποθανόντες έν Χριστώάναστήσονται instead of οι νεκροί έν Χριστώ άναστήσονται, the case would

have been rather less ambiguous, although even so, to be perfectly clear, he would

have to have said οι αποθανόντες oi έν Χριστώ άναστήσονται or οι έν

Χριστώ αποθανόντες άναστήσονται.17

Indeed, in the great majority of cases, the phrase έν Χριστώ modifies the

main verb or participial forms of the verb. In the simplest form, the verb is "to be,"

for example, Rom 16:7: προ έµου γέγοναν έν Χριστώ; 1 Cor 1:30: ύµεις έστε

έν Χριστώ; Gal 3:14: ϊνα εις τα έθνη ή ευλογία τοϋ 'Αβραάµ γένηται ένΧριστώ; Gal 3:28: ούκ ενι Ιουδαίος ουδέ Έλλην, ουκ ενι δούλος ουδέ

ελεύθερος, ούκ έ'νι άρσεν και θήλυ· πάντες γαρ ύµεΐς εις έστε έν Χριστώ;

1 Thess 2:14: µιµηταί έγενήθητε, αδελφοί, τών εκκλησιών του θεοϋ τών

ούσών έν τη Ίδουδαία έν Χριστώ; Phil 2:5: τοϋτο φρονείτε έν ύµιν ö και

έν Χριστώ, supplying "is* or perhaps "you have" (so RSV). We may compare the

use with intransitive verbs, for example, 1 Cor 15:19: έν τη ζωη ταύτη έν Χριστώ

ήλπικότες έσµέν, "we have hoped in Christ"; Phil 3:3: καυχώµενοι έν Χριστώ,

"glorying in Christ"; Phil 1:26: το καύχηµα υµών περισσεύη έν Χριστώ; Rom

6:11: υµεις λογίζεσθε εαυτούς [είναι] νεκρούς µεν τη αµαρτία, ζώντας δετω θεώ έν Χριστώ, " .. alive to God in Christ"; 2 Tim 3:12: oi θέλοντες ζην

εύσεβώς έν Χριστώ Ίησοϋ διωχθήσονται, "live in Christ Jesus"; Gal 5:6: έν

γαρ Χριστώ Ίησοϋ ούτε περιτοµή τι ισχύει ούτε άκροβυστία ("avail");

Phil 3:14: διώκω εις το βραβειον της άνω κλήσεως τοϋ θεοϋ έν Χριστώ,

"I press on... in Christ" (although it is possible to understand the final phrase as

depending on κλήσεως, "the calling upon God in Christ," where the noun has a

verbal force). Analogous is the construction with passive forms, as in Gal 2:17:

ζητοϋντες δικαιωθήναι έν Χριστώ, "to be justified in Christ."18

spiritual Christians, but as still carnal and indeed infants. He may be qualifying this disparagingdescription by allowing that they are, at all events, "infants in Christ," that is, Christians, even ifraw beginners; but if the prepositional phrase in fact depends on νηπίοις the sense may be "infantsin respect to Christ," that is, practically ignorant of him.

17 We are grateful to one of the anonymous reviewers for calling our attention to thisquestion.

18

So too 1 Cor 1:2: τη εκκλησία τοϋ θεοΰ τη ουση έν Κορίνθω, ήγιασµένοις ένΧριστώ, "... sanctified in Christ"; Eph 2:10: αύτοΰ γαρ έσµεν ποίηµα, κτισθέντες ένΧριστώ; 2 Tim 1:9: κατά ιδίαν πρόθεσιν και χάριν την δοθεΐσαν ήµίν έν Χριστώ "


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Related to the preceding is the predicative use with "to be," as in Rom 12:5: εν

σώµα έσµεν έν Χριστώ; Phil 1:13: ώστε τους δεσµούς µου φανερούς έν

Χριστώ γενέσθαι; Eph 2:13: έν Χριστώ Ίησοϋ ύµεις οι ποτέ οντες µακράν

έγενήθητε εγγύς. Similar to this, in turn, is the predicative use with other verbs,

for example, "to have": Rom 15:17: έ'χω οδν καύχησιν έν Χριστώ, "I have pride

in Christ" (contrast RSV: "in Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud"); 1 Cor

15:31: την ύµετέραν καύχησιν, ην εχω έν Χριστώ; Gal 2:4: την έλευθερίαν

ηµών ην εχοµεν έν Χριστώ (RSV: "our freedom which we have in Christ");

Phlm 8: πολλήν έν Χριστώ παρρησίαν έχων; 1 Cor 4:15: έάν γα ρ µύριους

παιδαγωγούς εχητε έν Χριστώ . . . έν Χριστώ Ίησοϋ δια τοϋ ευαγγελίου

έγώ υµάς έγέννησα, with the verb "to give birth to" in the latter clause. Several

other verbs are employed this way as well.19

A subset of the above constructions involves verbs of saying, for example, Rom

9:1: άλήθειαν λέγω έν Χριστώ, "I speak the truth in Christ"; 2 Cor 2:17:

κατέναντι θεοϋ έν Χριστώ λαλοϋµεν; Eph 1:3: ό θεός ό εύλογησας (= ος

εύλόγησεν, "who blessed") ήµας έν πάση ευλογία πνευµατική έν τοις

έπουρανίοις έν Χριστώ (this is an example of the phrase έν Χριστώ at the end

χρηστότητι εφ' ηµάς έν Χριστώ, "so that he might show the wealth of His grace in his kindness

toward us in Christ."19

See Eph 1:1920: την ένέργειαν . . . ην ένήργησεν έν τω Χριστώ έγείρας αυτόνεκ νεκρών; Eph 3:11: κατά πρόθεσιν τών αιώνων ην έποίησεν έν τω Χριστώ; 2 Cor 2:14:τω δε θεώ χάρις, τω πάντοτε θριαµβεύοντι ηµάς έν τω Χριστώ (= δς θριαµβεύει,"who will cause us to triumph"); Eph 2:6: συνεκάθισεν έν τοις έπουρανίοις έν Χριστώ("caused us to sit"); Col 1:28: ϊνα παραστησωµεν πάντα άνθρωπον τέλειον έν Χριστώ("that we may present every man mature in Christ," although the final phrase may also beunderstood as depending on the adjective τέλειον, "perfect in Christ"); Phlm 20: άνάπαυσόνµου τα σπλάγχνα έν Χριστώ, "refresh my heart in Christ"; Rom 8:2: ό γαρ νόµος τουπνεύµατος της ζωής εν Χριστώ Ίησοϋ ήλευθέρωσέν σε άπο τοϋ νόµου της αµαρτίαςκαι του θανάτου, "for the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the lawof sin and death" (contrast the RSV: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me[alternate reading] free from the law of sin and death," in which case one would expect της ζωγ|ςτης έν Χριστώ Ίησοϋ); Phil 4:7: ή ειρήνη τοϋ θεοϋ . . . φρουρήσει... τα νοήµατα υµώνέν Χριστώ, "will keep in Christ"; Phil 4:19: ό δε θεός µου πληρώσει πάσαν χρείαν υµών. . . έν Χριστώ, "will supply... in Christ" (contrast RSV: "will supply every need of yoursaccording to his riches in Christ Jesus"; Elio Peretto, in Le lettere di San Paolo, 389, translates: "Imio Dio soddisferà ogni nostro bisogno in perfezione della sua ricchezza, in Cristo Gesù," separating via punctuation the final phrase from the verb on which we take it to depend); Eph 4:32: ό

θεός έν Χριστώ έχαρίσατο ύµιν, which signifies not "as God in Christ forgave you" (RSV) butrather "God has forgiven you in Christ," that is, thanks to Christ (in accord with the broad senseof έν influenced by the usage of the preposition b in Hebrew and Aramaic); 2 Cor 5:19: θεός ην


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of a clause and depending on a verb that comes considerably earlier in the

sentence); 2 Cor 12:19: κατέναντι θεοΰ έν Χριστώ λαλοϋµεν; Phil 4:21:άσπάσασθε πάντα αγιον έν Χριστώ, "greet in Christ" (see further below).

The three occurrences of the expression in 1 Peter are in accord with Paulineusage. In 1 Pet 3:16 the phrase έν Χριστώ is enclosed between the article and thesubstantive and thus refers to the latter in accord with regular Greek usage: τηνάγαθήν έν Χριστώ άναστροφήν. In 1 Pet 5:10 the phrase depends on aparticiple: ό θεός ό καλέσας ύµας εις την αιώνιον αύτου δόξαν έν Χριστώ,

while in 1 Pet 5:14 the article functions as in the οι περί construction (cf. Rom 8:1,cited above): ειρήνη υµιν πασιν τοις έν Χριστώ, "to all you who are in Christ."

The syntax of the phrase έν τω κυρίω is analogous to that of έν Χριστώ; the

expression occurs fortyeight times in the NT—fortyseven times in the Paulinecorpus and once in the Apocalypse. Indeed, the dependence of the phrase on a

verb—almost always expressed, though occasionally implicit—is even more evidenthere than in the case of έν Χριστώ. We present the passages in more or less thesame order as those involving the phrase έν Χριστώ above. Thus, with the verb"to be" we have Rom 16:11: άσπάσασθε τους έκ τών Ναρκίσσου τους οντάς

έν κυρίω; with "to be" implicit, 1 Cor 11:11: ούτε γυνή χωρίς ανδρός ούτε

άνήρ χωρίς γυναικός έν κυρίω. With intransitive or passive verbs, we note Eph6:10: ένδυναµοϋσθε έν κυρίω; Eph 2:21: πάσα οικοδοµή . . . αυξει εις ναον

αγιον έν κυρίω; Phil 3:1: χαίρετε έν κυρίω; Phil 4:4: χαίρετε έν κυρίω; Phil

4:10: έχάρην δε έν κυρίω; Phil 4:1: ούτως στήκετε έν κυρίω, "stand firm in

the Lord"; 1 Thess 3:8: έάν ύµεις στήκετε έν κυρίω; Col 3:18: ως άνήκεν έν

κυρίω, "as is fitting in the Lord" (RSV); Phlm 20: έγώ σου όναίµην έν κυρίω("benefit in the Lord"). See also Rom 14:14: πέπεισµαι έν κυρίω; Phil 1:14: ένκυρίω πεποιθότας; Phil 2:24: πέποιθα δή έν κυρίω (cf. 2 Thess 3:4:

πεποίθαµεν δε έν κυρίω έφ' υµάς; Gal 5:10: έγώ πέποιθα εις ύµας έν

κυρίω ότι ουδέν άλλο φρονήσετε); Phil 2:19: ελπίζω δε έν κυρίω; 1 Cor 1:31

(= 2 Cor 10:17): ό καυχώµενος έν κυρίω καυχάσθω; 1 Cor 7:39: ελευθέραέστιν ω θέλει γαµηθήναι, µόνον έν κυρίω ("she is free to marry whomever she

wants, only in the Lord"); 2 Cor 2:12: θύρας µοι άνεωγµένης έν κυρίω, "a door

was opened to me in the Lord." In the predicate position with "to be," see 1 Cor

15:58: ό κόπος υµών ούκ εστί κενόν έν κυρίω; 1 Cor 4:17: Τιµόθεον, δς

εστίν µου τέκνον άγαπητον και πιστον έν κυρίω (the construction may also

depend on the verbal force of the adjective πιστόν, "is faithful in the Lord," inaccord with the formula πιστεύω + έν Χριστώ); Eph 6:21: πάντα γνωρίσει

υµιν Τύχικος, ό αγαπητός αδελφός και πιστός διάκονος έν κυρίω (cf.Col 4:7: πάντα γνωρίσει υµιν Τύχικος, ό αγαπητός αδελφός και πιστός

δ ά ύ δ λ έ ί ) 1 C 9 1 έ ύ ί έ έ


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Col 4:17: τήν διακονίαν ην παρέλαβες έν κυρίω; Phlm 1:16: αυτόν άπέχηςούκέτι ως δοΰλον άλλα άδελφον άγαπητόν . . . και έν σαρκι και ένκυρίω; Rom 16:2: ϊνα αυτήν προσδέξησθε έν κυρίω; Phil 2:29: προσδέχεσθε

οδν αυτόν έν κυρίω; 1 Thess 5:12: είδέναι τους κοπιώντας έν ύµίν καιπροϊσταµένους υµών έν κυρίω.20

The only nonPauline occurrence of the phrase is in Rev 14:13, and it, like the

passage in 1 Thessalonians, concerns those who are dead in Christ. To indicate the

dead, however, John does not use the bare expression oi νεκροί έν κυρίω but

rather repeats the article before the prepositional phrase, and in addition encloses

the phrase between the article and a participle, so that its syntactical structure and

meaning are unequivocal: µακάριοι οι νεκροί οι έν κυρίω αποθνήσκοντες

άπ' άρτι . . . ϊνα άναποστήσονται έκ τών κόπων. We have here, then, aconstruction quite different from that in 1 Thessalonians, which indeed suggests

what Paul would have written if he had meant to say "those who are dead"—or

rather, who have died (the phrase depends on the participle)—"in Christ."

The phrases έν Χριστώ and έν κυρίω seem, then, to be regularly attachedto a verb, a participle, or an adjective with verbal force (this last very rarely,

however). If they do modify a substantive, they are either clearly enclosed in a

nominal phrase, as may occur also with a participle (1 Cor 7:22: ό γα ρ έν κυρίω

κληθείς δούλος), or else they are preceded by a repetition of the article.

Let us, finally, compare our passage in 1 Thessalonians, ol νεκροί έν Χριστώάναστήσονται, and 1 Cor 15:18: οι κοιµηθέντες έν Χριστώ άπώλοντο, where

2 0 For dependency on a verb of saying or greeting, see Eph 4:17: τούτο οδν λέγω καίµαρτύροµαι έν κυρίω; Rom 16:8: άσπάσασθε Άµπλιάτον τον άγαπητόν µου έν κυρίω;Rom 16:1213: άσπάσασθε Τρύφαιναν καί Τρυφώσαν, τάς κοπιώσας έν κυρίω,άσπάσασθε Περσίδα τήν άγαπητήν, ήτις πολλά έκοπίασεν έν κυρίω, άσπάσασθε'Ροϋφον, τον έκλεκτον έν κυρίω; 1 Cor 16:19: ασπάζεται υµάς έν κυρίω πολλά Άκύλανκαί Πρίσκαν; Rom 16:22: ασπάζοµαι υµάς έγώ Τέρτιος ô γράψας την έπιστολήν ένκυρίω (here it is apparent that in greetings, the expression έν κυρίω, like έν Χριστώ, tends tocome at the end of the clause or sentence, even when the verb on which it depends, ασπάζοµαι,occurs at the beginning: Tertius means "I greet you in the Lord," not "I who have transcribed thisletter [of Paul's] in the Lord"; we take it, then, that in the analogous greetings with έν Χριστώ thephrase refers also to the verb ασπάζοµαι). Analogous, it appears, is Eph 4:1: παρακαλώ οδνυµάς ό δέσµιος έν κυρίω άξίως περιπατησαι της κλήσεως, "I, a prisoner, beg you in theLord" (contrast the RSV: "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you...," which perhaps cannot

be excluded); cf. Phil 4:2: παρακαλώ το αυτό φρονείν έν κυρίω, "I entreat... to agree in theLord" (RSV). Still more clearly dependent on the verb is 1 Thess 4:1: έρωτώµεν υµάς και

παρακαλοϋµεν έν κυρίω; 2 Thess 3:12: παρακαλοΰµεν έν κυρίω; see also Eph 6:1: τάτέκνα, υπακούετε τοις γονεΰσιν υµών έν κυρίω, where the idea is "obey in the Lord" ratherthan "parents in the Lord" (although the phrase έν κυρίω is missing from some manuscripts


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it would seem impossible to render "those who have fallen asleep have perished inChrist" (contrast the RSV: "those also who have fallen asleep in Christ haveperished"), even if Paul is here arguing by way of a reductio ad absurdum: if Christhas not risen, the dead will not rise in Christ, but rather have perished. However,even if we understand "those who have fallen asleep in Christ," the case is ratherdifferent from the phrase oi νεκροί έν Χριστώ άναστήσονται, since here ένΧριστώ depends on the participle κοιµηθέντες = εκείνοι οι έκοιµήθησαν ένΧριστώ, whereas the parallel interpretation of oi νεκροί έν Χριστώ would haveit depending on a substantive.21 It is important to note that in the verse immediatelyfollowing (v. 19), and again in v. 22, the phrase έν (τω) Χριστώ is employed inthe regular manner to modify the verb rather than the substantive. Thus, in 1 Cor

15:19, ει έν τη ζωη ταύτϊ| έν Χριστώ ήλπικότες έσµέν µόνον, ελεεινότεροιπάντων ανθρώπων έσµέν does not mean "if in this life in Christ...," etc., butrather "if we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to bepitied." Above all, 1 Cor 15:22 is important both for the grammar of the phraseunder consideration and for the theological side of the issue, since there it is said,"for just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ all will rise," ώσπερ γαρ έν τω Αδάµπάντες άποθνήσκουσι, ούτως καί έν τω Χριστώ πάντες ζωοποιηθήσονται.The position of πάντες and the parallelism between the two clauses guarantee theclose connection of both the prepositional phrase and the pronoun with thefollowing verb: "all will rise in Christ." Had Paul wished to say "all those who are inChrist will rise," he would have to have written πάντες oi έν τω Χριστώζωοποιηθήσονται or the like.22

So too, if Paul had wished to say "the dead in Christ will rise" or "those will rise who have died in Christ," he would have to have written oi έν Χριστώ νεκροίάναστήσονται, or else oi νεκροί oi έν Χριστώ άναστήσονται, which wouldhave been unequivocal. As the sentence stands, however, oi νεκροί έν Χριστώάναστήσονται, it would seem far more natural to take it to mean "the dead will

2 1 Kuss translates: "también los que durmieron en Cristo están perdidos" (Carta a los Romanos, 289).

22 Kuss translates: " .. . así también en Cristo serán todos vueltos a la vida" (Carta a los Romanos, 289), which is ambiguous enough, but he comments: "mientras en Cristo todos loscreyentes alcanzan la plena revelación de la vida eterna" (p. 292). There is nothing in the Greek

corresponding to "los creyentes." So too Vincenzo Jacone remarks: "Trattandosi della vita gloriosa

non si può prendere tutti se non nel senso di quelli che avranno unione con Cristo Gesù, e S.Paolo lo suggerisce perché, mentre usa il διά nel v. 21, ha έν nel nostro: i grammatici lo dicono

έν mistico Dato il contesto è ben diffìcile spiegare le parole dell'Apostolo per la risurrezionegenerale Si può affermare che la risurrezione degli empi non è esclusa, ma qui non è intesa"

(L i t l di S P l i R i i C i ti i G l ti [R M i tti 1951] 391) I t t


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rise in Christ," all the more so when compared with the formula in 1 Cor 15:22,

which is certainly by Paul himself, where it is not those who are dead in Christ—

whatever that might mean—but all people who will rise in Christ, inasmuch as

Christ is precisely the resurrection (see John 11:25, Έγώ ειµί ή άνάστασις καίή ζωή).

Although our argument depends first and foremost on an analysis of Paul's

own usage in respect to the prepositional phrases έν Χριστώ and έν κυρίω and

that of other NT writers, it is of interest to note that at least some of the early

Christian exegetes of the NT took the phrase in the way we have indicated. To be

sure, this interpretation, like the opposite one of taking έν Χριστώ with οι νεκροί,

will have been motivated by theological considerations and so cannot be considered

as independent evidence for the grammatical construction. Nevertheless, it doesshow that speakers of ancient Greek who lived relatively near to the time when the

NT texts were written found nothing strange in reading the phrase in the manner

we suggest.

Perhaps the clearest evidence is a passage in John Chrysostom (Homily 8, On

the First Letter to the Thessalonians [PG 62.439A], who cites the precise words in

4:16 (oi νεκροί έν Χριστώ άναστήσονται) and then comments (440A): και oi

νεκροί, φησίν, έν Χριστώ άναστήσονται, where the insertion of φησίν leaves

little doubt that he took έν Χριστώ with άναστήσονται (cf. 439D, where Johncomments: λέγει γάρ, άναστώσιν oi νεκροί ("for he says that the dead will

rise"; and again, oi τελευτήσαντες εγείρονται). It is relevant that John maintains

here that all who have lived since Adam will rise again (441A): τους άπ ο τοϋ

Αδάµ µέχρι της αυτοϋ παρουσίας πάντας εκείνους έστάναι τότε µετά

γυναικών και παίδων ("that all the descendants of Adam up until his [Jesus']

appearance will rise then, together with their wives and children"). Again, Cyril of

Alexandria leaves no doubt about how he understood the syntax of this passage,

since he alters the word order in such a way as to make "in Christ" depend

unequivocally on the verb (Commenary on Luke [from the Catenae] PG 72:824A):έν φωνή αρχαγγέλου και έν σάλπιγγι θεού καταβήσεται άπ' ουρανού

σαλπίσει γάρ, και οι νεκροί έγερθήσονται έν Χριστώ ("with the archangel's

call and with the trumpet of God he will descend from heaven; for he will sound

the trumpet, and the dead will awaken in Christ"). He interprets 1 Thess 4:16 as a

command uttered to all (Catechism for Those Who Are to Be Baptized 15.21): έν

φωνή αρχαγγέλου καί έν σάλπιγγι θεοϋ καταβήσεται άπ' ουρανού·

αρχάγγελος προσφωνεί καί λέγει τοϊς πασιν έγείρεσθε. So too, in the

Commentary on John, he cites 1 Thess 4:16 in reference to "the time of theresurrection of all" (της απάντων αναστάσεως τον καιρόν);23 cf. On the


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Adoration (PG 68:1105), where Cyril remarks of oi νεκροί έγερθήσονται:

"because we all [πάντες] must appear before the judgment of Christ" (see also

Maximus Confessor, Scholia to Ecclesiastes 12.3945). We may compare also two

Greek fragments of Irenaeus's Adversus Haereses (second century), whichparaphrase 1 Thess 4:16: έν Ίησοϋ τήν άνάστασιν τών νεκρών κηρύσσων

("announcing the resurrection of the dead in Jesus"; frag. 15, from book 3), and, less

directly, Θεός . . . ήγειρε (τον Ίησοϋν) και τήν σωτηρίαν έν αύτω έδωκε

τοις άνθρώποις ("God . . . raised [Jesus] and in him gave salvation to human

beings"; frag. 16). Irenaeus clearly understood Paul to mean that the dead will rise

in Christ, rather than that those who have died in Christ will rise.

In other cases, it is clear that a given commentator takes 1 Thess 4:16 to refer

to the resurrection of all, even though in citing the passage he, like Cyril in the words quoted above, may omit the phrase έν Χριστώ. Thus, Gregory of Nyssa (De

opificio hominis 221.23) observes: καθάπερ γάρ έν τη τοϋ παντός άναστοιχειώσει, φησίν ό απόστολος, αυτόν καταβήσεσθαι τον Κύριον έν κελεύ

σµατι, έν φωνή αρχαγγέλου, καί δια σάλπιγγος εις άφθαρσίαν τους

νεκρούς διαναστήσειν ("just as, at the reconstitution of the universe, says the

apostle, the Lord himself will descend with a command, with the archangel's call,

and with the sound of the trumpet will raise the dead to immortality"; cf. De anima

136C). It is clear at least that Gregory does not understand the expression oi νεκροί

έν Χριστώ as limiting the number of those who will be resurrected to those whohave "died in Christ." So too Didymus the Blind, Fragments from the Commentary

on the Psalms, frag. 1289, cites 1 Thess 4:16 and remarks: ως οδν το πρόσταγµα

της αναστάσεως φανηρούµενον πασι έπι το δικαίους και αδίκους

άναστήναι ("as the command of the resurrection will be made apparent to all

when the just and the unjust shall rise again"). Many other commentators simply

cite or allude to the passage we are discussing without the phrase έν Χριστώ.24

24

We note here Epiphanius, Panarion 2.306.19 (καταβήσεται γάρ, φησιν, κύριος άπ'ουρανού έν τη έσχατη σάλπιγγι και οι νεκροί άναστήσονται έν τη έσχατη ήµερα ένφωνή αρχαγγέλου); John of Damascus, Life ofBarlaam andjoasaph 108: έν φωνή αρχαγγέλουκαί έν σάλπιγγι θεού άναστήσονται οι νεκροί; Dialogue of Adamantius on the Correct Faithin God 48.2324: έν φωνή αρχαγγέλου, έν τη έσχατη σάλπιγγι καταβήσεται κύριος άπ'ουρανού, και οι νεκροί έγερθήσονται; Cyril, Fragments from the Commentary on 1 Corin-thians (Pusey, 3:249318, here 317.8): έν φωνή αρχαγγέλου καί έν σάλπιγγι θεούκαταβήσεται άπ' ουρανού και οι νεκροί έγερθήσονται άφθαρτοι; and cf. Macarius Macr.,Consolation to his Friend John 332.6: οι νεκροί άναστήσονται άφθαρτοι (Α. Sidéras, "25Unedierte byzantinische Grabreden," Κλασικά Γράµµατα 5. Thessalonica: "Παρατηρητής,"1990:31136); Theodoret of Cyrus, Exegesis of Daniel (PG 81:1425): οι νεκροί έγερθήσονταιάφθαρτοι; idem, Exegesis of the Pauline Letters (PG 82:648.34,648.50); Ephrem the Syrian, On


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Most interestingly, those who clearly understood "in Christ" to refer to oí

νεκροί invariably felt obliged to rephrase the citation. Thus, Porphyry, Against theChristians frag. 35, repeats the definite article: έν φωνή αρχαγγέλου καί ένσάλπιγγι θεοϋ καταβήσεται άπ' ουρανού καί οί νεκροί οι έν Χριστώάναστήσονται ("with the archangel's call and with the trumpet of God he willdescend from heaven and the dead, those in Christ, will rise"). And Origen, whodefended the thesis of universal salvation, oddly enough took the passage in this

way as well and placed the problematic phrase between the article and thesubstantive (Contra Celsum 5.17): τους έν Χριστώ νεκρούς. Origen, however,had a particular intepretation of "the dead." See his Commentary on John XX26.22745, according to which the dead in Christ are those who believed and

attempted to lead a virtuous life, whereas the living are those who are perfect andno longer sin (note also Methodius of Olympus, Symposium or. 6.4, for the ideathat the dead who will arise are the bodies, while the living are the souls).

Thus, the testimony of the Fathers seems to lend strong support to the case fortaking the phrase έν Χριστώ in 1 Thess 4:16 with the following verb rather than with the preceding noun.

In conclusion, we adduce one more passage, this one from 1 Thessaloniansitself. Just prior to the verse from which we began our discussion (4:14), Paul writes:ει γαρ πιστεύοµεν ότι Ίησοϋς άπέθανεν καί ανέστη, ούτως καί ό θεόςτους κοιµηθέντας δια τοϋ Ίησοϋ άξει συν αύτω. The RSV renders this: "Forsince we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will

bring with him those who have fallen asleep." This is surely right. Paul does notmean that those who have fallen asleep have done so through Jesus, but rather thatGod will resurrect them through or thanks to Jesus. To be sure, there is a difference

between δια τοϋ Ίησοϋ and έν Χριστώ,25 but both the parallel syntax26 and the

drift of the argument would seem to favor taking δια τοϋ Ίησοϋ here and ένΧριστώ in 4:16 with the verb.

2 5 But not necesssarily as wide as in classical Greek; see M. Zervick, Graecitas Biblica Novi

Testamenti (5th ed.; Rome: Pontifìcio Istituto Biblico, 1966) §§116-21, esp. §119, for the wide

range of meanings of the preposition έν in the NT, in part through the influence of the Hebrew

preposition b, which often has an instrumental value. Indeed, in 1 Cor 15:22, the passage that has

the closest bearing on 1 Thess 4:16, Marcion has δια τ οϋ Ίησοϋ in place of the more common

έν τω Χριστώ; cf. the critical apparatus in Merk and Barbaglio, Nuovo Testamento, 585.2 6

Repetition with variation is an extremely common feature throughout the Bible.


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The Syntax of en Christo in 1 Thessalonians 4-16