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.

Theology of Saint Paul (1959)³⁹ still followed Peterson’s explanation, in his next book The Christian in the Theology of St. Paul (1967)⁴⁰ he no longer does it. In his commentary on the Thessalonian epistles, B. Rigaux mentions the solutions of Peterson and Dupont, but leaves open the possibility of influences from both Hellenistic parousias and the Sinai pericope⁴¹.

        But Dupont’s dependence on the Sinai pericope was strained. E. Best pointed out the different function of the motifs common to the Sinai pericope and to 1 Thess 4,13-18. He stated: "But in this passage the clouds are not a vehicle but a covering, the word for ‘meet’ (at 19,7) is not the simple form as in Paul but a compound, the people ‘ascend’ and are not snatched up, and in Paul there is nothing comparable to the giving of The Commandments to which Exod 19,16-25 serves as an introduction; in addition clouds and trumpets are common apocalyptic images"⁴².

        And, as Dupont himself has stated, in the Sinai episode God is not brought by the people into their camp.

3. The Meaning in 1 Thess 4,13-18

        According to Peterson, Hellenistic parousias provided Paul with the image of bringing in (Einholung) which he employed in 1 Thess 4,16-18. As we have seen, his argument for it is weak, since the expression a)pa/nthsij or ei)j a)pa/nthsin is neither limited to Hellenistic parousias nor does it always suggest the bringing in⁴³. Moreover, the context and the imagery of 1 Thess 4,13-18 do not support this explanation. For instance, the being-snatched-up (a(rpaghso/meqa), and the cloud motif do not easily fit into that scenery. In Peterson’s interpretation, the people’s going up on a cloud is equivalent to the citizens’ going out of their city, which is rather strained.