SEV Biblia, Chapter 4:16
Porque el mismo Seor con aclamacin, con voz de Arcngel y con trompeta de Dios, descender del cielo; y los muertos en el Cristo resucitarn primero;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Thessalonians 4:16
Verse 16. The Lord himself] That is: Jesus Christ shall descend from heaven; shall descend in like manner as he was seen by his disciples to ascend, i.e. in his human form, but now infinitely more glorious; for thousands of thousands shall minister unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand shall stand before him; for the Son of man shall come on the throne of his glory: but who may abide the day of his coming, or stand when he appeareth? With a shout] Or order, en keleusmati? and probably in these words. Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment; which order shall be repeated by the archangel, who shall accompany it with the sound of the trump of God, whose great and terrible blasts, like those on mount Sinai, sounding louder and louder, shall shake both the heavens and the earth! Observe the order of this terribly glorious day: 1. Jesus, in all the dignity and splendour of his eternal majesty, shall descend from heaven to the mid region, what the apostle calls the air, somewhere within the earth's atmosphere. 2. Then the keleusma, shout or order, shall be given for the dead to arise. 3. Next the archangel, as the herald of Christ, shall repeat the order, Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment! 4. When all the dead in Christ are raised, then the trumpet shall sound, as the signal for them all to flock together to the throne of Christ. It was by the sound of the trumpet that the solemn assemblies, under the law, were convoked; and to such convocations there appears to be here an allusion. 5. When the dead in Christ are raised, their vile bodies being made like unto his glorious body, then, 6. Those who are alive shall be changed, and made immortal. 7. These shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. 8. We may suppose that the judgment will now be set, and the books opened, and the dead judged out of the things written in those books. 9. The eternal states of quick and dead being thus determined, then all who shall be found to have made a covenant with him by sacrifice, and to have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, shall be taken to his eternal glory, and be for ever with the Lord. What an inexpressibly terrific glory will then be exhibited! I forbear to call in here the descriptions which men of a poetic turn have made of this terrible scene, because I cannot trust to their correctness; and it is a subject which we should speak of and contemplate as nearly as possible in the words of Scripture.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 16. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven , etc.] Not by proxy, or by representatives; not by the ministry of angels, as on Mount Sinai; nor by the ministers of the word, as under the Gospel dispensation; nor by his spirit, and the discovery of his love and grace, in which sense he descends in a spiritual manner, and visits his people; but in person, in his human nature, in soul and body; in like manner as he went up to heaven will he descend from thence, so as to be visible, to be seen and heard of all: he will come down from the third heaven, whither he was carried up, into which he was received, and where he is retained until the time of the restitution of all things, and from whence the saints expect him: and this descent will be with a shout ; the word here used is observed by many to signify such a noise or shout as is made either by mariners, when they pull and row together; and shout to direct and encourage one another; or to an army with the general at the head of it, when about to undertake some considerable action, to enter on a battle, and make the onset; Christ will now appear as the King of kings, and Lord of lords, as the Judge of the whole earth, attended with the host, or armies of heaven, and the shout of a king will be among them: perhaps the same is intended, as by the voice of a great multitude, as the voice of many waters, and of mighty thunderings upon the coming of Christ, the destruction of antichrist, and the marriage of the Lamb, in ( Revelation 19:1,6,7,14,15). The Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions render it, in, or with command; and the Arabic version, with his own government, or authority; that is, he shall descend, either by the command of his Father, as man and Mediator, having authority from him, as the son of man, to execute judgment; or with his commanding power and authority over the mighty angels, that shall descend with him: it follows, with the voice of the archangel ; so Michael is called, in ( Jude 1:9) with which compare ( Revelation 12:7) and who perhaps is no other than Christ himself, who is the head of all principality and power; and the sense be, that Christ shall descend from heaven with a voice, or shall then utter such a voice, as will show him to be the archangel; or as the Syriac version renders it, the head, or prince of angels; and which whether, it will be an articulate voice, such as was expressed at the grave of Lazarus; or a violent clap of thunder, which is the voice of God; or the exertion of the power of Christ, is not certain: it is added, and with the trump of God ; called the last trump, ( 1 Corinthians 15:52) because none will be blown after it, and may be the same with the seventh trumpet, ( Revelation 11:15) and here the trump of God, because blown by his order; or by Christ himself, who is God, and so be the same with the voice of the archangel; and these figurative expressions are used, to set forth the grandeur and magnificence in which Christ will come; not in that low, mean, and humble form in which he first came, but with great glory, and marks of honour and respect; with angels shouting, trumpets blowing, and saints rejoicing. This is said in allusion to the trumpet which was heard on Mount Sinai at the giving of the law, and of which the Jews say f28 , that it aytym ajam , quickened the dead; for they have a notion, that, when the Israelites first heard the voice of the Lord, they died; but upon hearing it the second time, they returned to life f29 : and they suppose also in the time, to come, at the resurrection of the dead, a trumpet will be blown, which will quicken the dead f30 , and the day of judgment f31 ; and this is reckoned by them as one of the signs of the Messiah's coming f32 : Michael shall shout with a great shout, and the graves of the dead shall be opened at Jerusalem, and the holy blessed God will restore the dead to life, and Messiah the son of David shall come, etc. And the dead in Christ shall rise first ; the same with those that are asleep in Jesus, ( 1 Thessalonians 4:14) not only the martyrs that died for the sake of Christ, and his Gospel; nor merely those who die in the lively exercise of faith in Christ; but all that die interested in him, and in union with him: and these shall rise, in consequence of their being his; being given to him, made his care and charge, and engaged for by him, and in virtue of their union to him; and shall rise to an entire conformity to his glorious body, and in order to enjoy eternal life and glory with him: and these will rise first, before the wicked, which is the first resurrection, ( Revelation 20:5,6) even a thousand years before them; the righteous will rise in the morning of the resurrection, and so will have the dominion in the morning, ( Psalm 49:14) even at the beginning of the thousand years, as soon as Christ will come; but the wicked will not rise till the evening of that day, or till the close of the thousand years: and this agrees with the notions of the Jews, who thought that some will rise before others; Wheresoever thou findest the dead, take them and bury them, and I will give thee the first place in my resurrection. (2 Esdras 2:23) Having mentioned those words in ( <19B609> Psalm 116:9) I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living, it is asked f33 , is there no land of the living but Tyre and its neighbours, and Caesarea, and its neighbours, where is cheapness and fulness? says R. Simeon ben Lekish, in the name of Bar Kaphra, the land in which the dead live, hlyjt , first, in the days of the Messiah: and on the same place elsewhere they observe, that our Rabbins say two things, or give two reasons, why the fathers loved to be buried in the land of Israel, because the dead in the land of Israel hlyjt yyj , live, or rise first, in the days of the Messiah, and shall enjoy the years of the Messiah: and in another place they take notice of what is written in ( Isaiah 26:19) and the earth shall cast out the dead: says R. Jochanan, the dead which are in the land (i.e. of Israel), they shall live first; as it is said, thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise: these are they that are without the land; awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust, these are they that die in the wilderness: and again f36 , as it is said, Isaiah 40:26 that bringeth out their host by numbers, come see, it is said, all that die in the land of Israel atymdqb wmwqy , shall rise first, because the holy blessed God shall awake them, and raise them, according to ( Isaiah 26:19).
Once more they say f37 , they that study in the law as they ought, these are they that shall rise first to everlasting life, as it is said ( Daniel 12:2), and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, etc. and these are for everlasting life, because they study in everlasting life, which is the law: to which may be added the following passage f38 , they that are worthy to be buried in the land of Israel, shall be raised first and they shall be raised and quickened before the rest of the children of the world, who draw the waters of the law; and they draw, because they study to draw out of the waters of the law; and they are strengthened by the tree of life, and they shall go out first, because the tree of life is the cause why they shall rise first: they sometimes endeavour to fix the time, how long they will rise before the rest f39 ; many of those that sleep, etc. these are the righteous that shall go before others in life, and how many years shall they go before them? R. Judah says, two hundred and ten years; R. Isaac says, two hundred and fourteen; according to others, the righteous shall go (or be raised) a year before the rest of men; says R. Nachman, it will be according to the computation (of time) that the carcass has been in the dust; R. Jose replies, if so, there will be many resurrections.
These instances may suffice to show, that the Jews had a notion of some persons rising before others, to which the apostle may have some reference; though his sense is not only this, but also that the dead in Christ shall rise before the living saints are changed, and taken up to be with Christ, and so shall not go before to him; which illustrates and proves what he had before asserted.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 13-18 - Here is comfort for the relations and friends of those who die in the Lord. Grief for the death of friends is lawful; we may weep for our ow loss, though it may be their gain. Christianity does not forbid, an grace does not do away, our natural affections. Yet we must not be excessive in our sorrows; this is too much like those who have no hop of a better life. Death is an unknown thing, and we know little abou the state after death; yet the doctrines of the resurrection and the second coming of Christ, are a remedy against the fear of death, an undue sorrow for the death of our Christian friends; and of thes doctrines we have full assurance. It will be some happiness that all the saints shall meet, and remain together for ever; but the principa happiness of heaven is to be with the Lord, to see him, live with him and enjoy him for ever. We should support one another in times sorrow not deaden one another's spirits, or weaken one another's hands. An this may be done by the many lessons to be learned from the resurrection of the dead, and the second coming of Christ. What comfort a man by telling him he is going to appear before the judgment-seat of God! Who can feel comfort from those words? That ma alone with whose spirit the Spirit of God bears witness that his sin are blotted out, and the thoughts of whose heart are purified by the Holy Spirit, so that he can love God, and worthily magnify his name. We are not in a safe state unless it is thus with us, or we are desirin to be so __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
οτι 3754 αυτος 846 ο 3588 κυριος 2962 εν 1722 κελευσματι 2752 εν 1722 φωνη 5456 αρχαγγελου 743 και 2532 εν 1722 σαλπιγγι 4536 θεου 2316 καταβησεται 2597 5695 απ 575 ουρανου 3772 και 2532 οι 3588 νεκροι 3498 εν 1722 χριστω 5547 αναστησονται 450 5698 πρωτον 4412
Vincent's NT Word Studies
16. The word of the Lord, ver. 15, is apparently not intended to include the specific details which follow. In that word the revelation was to the effect that all believers simultaneously should share the blessings of the advent. The following description of the Lord's descent from heaven is intended to emphasise the fact that the reunion of dead and living believers will be accomplished by the Lord in person (autov). %Oti does not indicate the contents of the word of the Lord (that, as A.V.), but means for or because; and the details are meant to strengthen the more general declaration of ver. 15. In the details themselves there are traces of certain O.T. theophanies, as Exod. xix. 11-18; Micah i. 3. 27 Shall descend from heaven. Used nowhere else of Christ's second coming. Frequently in the Fourth Gospel, of Christ's descent to earth as man. See iii. 13; vi. 33, 38, 41, etc. In Eph. iv. 9, of his descent by the Spirit in order to endow the church.
With a shout (en keleusmati). N.T.o . Once in LXX, Prov. xxiv. 62 (English Bib. xxx. 27). From keleuein to summon. Often in Class. Lit. a shout of command, as of a general to his army, an admiral to his oarsmen, or a charioteer to his horses.
Archangel (arcaggelou). Only here and Jude 9. Not in O.T. The Pauline angelology shows traces of Rabbinical teachings in the idea of orders of angels. See Eph. i. 21; Col. i. 16; Rom. viii. 38. The archangels appear in the apocryphal literature. In the Book of Enoch (see on Jude 14) four are named, Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel. Michael is set over the tree which, at the time of the great judgment, will be given over to the righteous and humble, and from the fruit of which life will be given to the elect. In Tob. xii. 15, Raphael appears as one of the seven holy angels. Comp. Apoc. viii. 2. See also on Jude 9, and comp. Dan. xii. 1. 28
With the trump of God (en salpiggi qeou). For the trumpet heralding great manifestations of God, see Exod. xix. 13, 16; Psalm xlvii. 5; Isaiah xxvii. 13; Zech. ix. 14; Zeph. i. 16; Joel ii. 1; Matt. xxiv. 31; 1 Corinthians xv. 52; Apoc. i. 10; iv. 1. Of God does not indicate the size or loudness of the trumpet, but merely that it is used in God's service. Comp. harps of God, Apoc. xv. 2; musical instruments of God, 1 Chronicles xvi. 42. The later Jews believed that God would use a trumpet to raise the dead.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
4:16 {With a shout} (en keleusmati). Note this so-called instrumental use of en. Old word, here only in N.T., from keleuw, to order, command (military command). Christ will come as Conqueror. {With the voice of the archangel} (en fwnei arcaggelou). Further explanation of keleusmati (command). The only archangel mentioned in N.T. is Michael in #Jude 1:9. But note absence of article with both fwnei and arcaggelou. The reference may be thus indefinite. {With the trump of God} (en salpiggi qeou). Trumpet. See same figure in #1Co 15:52. {The dead in Christ shall rise first} (hoi nekroi en Christ"i anastsontai prwton). {First} here refers plainly to the fact that, so far from the dead in Christ having no share in the parousia, they will rise before those still alive are changed.
