Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, A thief in the night, and peace and security
Paul reminds the church that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night: while people say peace and security, sudden destruction comes like labor pains, but they are children of the day who keep awake and sober, armed with faith, love and hope.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul tells them they already know that the Lord's day will arrive without warning, like a burglar at night. When people are saying all is calm and safe, ruin will fall on them suddenly. The believers belong to the day, so they are to stay alert and sober, armed with faith, love and hope, since God has destined them for salvation, and they should keep encouraging one another. Who was saying peace and security is debated.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/day-of-the-lord\/","n":"The day of the Lord","s":"The prophets spoke of a coming day when God would judge the world and rescue his people. Paul calls it the day of Christ, giving Jesus the place the prophets gave to God.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/imperial-cult\/","n":"Caesar worshiped as savior and lord","s":"Augustus and the emperors after him were hailed as savior, lord and son of a god, and in the eastern provinces they were worshiped. The titles the Gospels give Jesus were already being used for Caesar.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/present-age-and-age-to-come\/","n":"This age and the age to come","s":"Jews divided history into the present age, under the rule of evil nations, and the age to come, when God would rule unchallenged. The sufferings expected before the change were called birth pangs.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/soldiers-and-armor\/","n":"Roman soldiers and their gear","s":"The legionary was the most familiar picture of armed strength in the provinces: helmet, breastplate, boots, a big shield and a short sword, fighting shoulder to shoulder. Legions that held their ranks were thought almost unbeatable.","r":""}
Paul echoes Jesus on the unknown time (Acts 1:7; Keener and his notes). The thief in the night is another saying of Jesus (Matthew 24:43), a motif the cultural backgrounds article finds uncommon in earlier Jewish sources. Wilkins notes that thieves dug through clay walls and that, since "modern conceptions of police force were nonexistent", each householder guarded his own home. Who says peace and security is disputed. Keener and his notes hear the emperors' claim, Wright calls it "one of the comforting phrases that the Roman empire put out"; the ESV Study Bible thinks an echo of Jeremiah 6:14 more likely. These labor pains are sudden and final, as in Isaiah 13:8 (Keener and his notes), and the article notes that Jewish sources stressed "the destruction of the wicked far more than its unexpectedness". The armor recalls the Lord as warrior in Isaiah 59:17 (the cultural backgrounds notes; Arnold). Whether the day of the Lord means the end of history or can cover events within it is debated: the CSB Study Bible and the Zondervan dictionary tie it to the end, while Wright reads it as giving events within history their meaning.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Thessalonians 5:1, 5:2, 5:3 and 5:6-7
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on 1 Thessalonians 5:8
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Jesus' Teachings as Background in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11
- ESV Study Bible, study note on 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3
- CSB Study Bible, note on 1 Thessalonians 5:2
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians, comment on 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Matthew 24:43
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 11, Spiritual Warfare, The Christian Life As Warfare
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry day of the Lord
