Joseph Plevnik, «1 Thessalonians 4,17: The Bringing in of the Lord or the Bringing in of the Faithful?», Vol. 80 (1999) 537-546

The image of bringing in, which, in dependence on Hellenistic parousia depictions, denotes the bringing in of the Lord at his coming, does not fit the imagery and the theology of Paul in 1 Thess 4,13-18. Hellenistic parousias depict the citizens making the royal visitor welcome in their city, whereas 1 Thess 4,13-18 depicts the effect of the Lord’s coming on them. The faithful are raised; the faithful are taken up. 1 Thess 4,13-18 really depicts the bringing in of the faithful, not of the Lord. The implication is that they do not return to the earth, but stay with the Lord forever.

Deissmann also suggested a resemblance of imagery between Hellenistic parousias and Paul’s descriptions of Christ’s coming. Describing the Flinders Petrie Papyrus, he states:

This papyrus supplies an exceptionally fine background of contrast to the figurative language of St. Paul, in which Parousia (or Epiphany, "appearing") and "Crown" occur together. While the sovereigns of this world expect at their parousia a costly crown for themselves, ‘at the parousia of our Lord Jesus’ the apostles will wear a crown — the ‘crown of glory’ (1 Thess 2,19) won by his work among the churches, or the ‘crown of righteousness’ which the Lord will give to him and to all that have loved His appearing (2 Tim 4,8)¹⁷.

        According to this, the resemblance is not perfect: there is a shift in imagery. In correspondence with the Hellenistic model, the crown of Gold here should be a feature of Christ the Lord. But Paul speaks of himself: the faithful are his "crown of glory". Deissmann can only establish a "background of contrast". The uniform Hellenistic civilisation, according to Deissmann, provided many examples of parousias, such as the coming of king Saitapharnes¹⁸, or of the healer god Asclepius at Epidaurus¹⁹, or of the visits of Roman emperors. When Nero visited Corinth and Patras, these cities struck coins to commemorate the glorious event and indicate the beginning of a new era²⁰. Similarly, the cities visited by Hadrian minted coins in commemoration of that event.

        The word parousi/a, Deissmann notes, had been employed in Egypt and in Asia Minor, while in Greece the synonym e)pidhmi/a was preferred²¹. This, however, weakens his argument that based the congruence of imagery solely on the common word parousi/a. The argument is further weakened by the fact that Paul employed the term parousi/a as often for his own visit or the visit of his co-workers as for the coming of the Lord²². Besides, the term parousi/a was employed in Hellenistic and Roman²³ sources for visits other that the emperor’s. The term parousi/a was hence used in the technical sense neither by the apostle nor in Hellenistic or Roman sources²⁴.