13, 14. ‘ With regard moreover to that other matter which we understand is causing you anxiety, the fate namely of those of your number who are falling on sleep before the coming of the Lord, we are anxious, Brothers, that you should be fully informed. There is no reason why you should sorrow, as those who do not share in your Christian hope cannot fail to do. For as surely as our belief is rooted in the death and resurrection of Jesus, even so we are confident that God will bring along with the returning Jesus those who have fallen on sleep through Him.’ 13. Οὐθέλομενδέκτλ.] a phrase used by St Paul to introduce a new and important topic, and always with the impressive addition of ἀδελφοί; cf. Romans 1:13; Romans 11:25, 1 Corinthians 10:1; 1 Corinthians 12:1, 2 Corinthians 1:8, and for a near parallel see P.Tebt. 314, 3 (2./a.d.) πιστεύωσεμὴἀγνοεῖν. The corresponding formula γινώσκεινσεθέλω is very common in the papyri, especially in opening a letter after the introductory greeting, e.g. B.G.U. 27, 3 ff. (2.– 3./a.d.) καὶδιὰπ[α]ντὸςεὔχομαίσεὑγιένενκαὶ [ἐγὼ?] αὐτὸςὑγιένω. Γινώσκεινσεθέλωκτλ. περὶτῶνκοιμωμένων] ‘ concerning them that are falling asleep’ (Vg. de dormientibus)— the pres. part. not only indicating a state of things that was going on, but also lending itself more readily to the thought of a future awakening than the perf. would have done (cf. Lft. ad loc.). It was doubtless indeed the extreme appropriateness of the word κοιμᾶσθαι in the latter direction (Thdt.: τῷγὰρὕπνῳἐγρήγορσιςἕπεται, Aug. Serm. 93:6, ‘ Quare enim dormientes vocantur, nisi quia sue die resuscitantur?’ ) that led St Paul to prefer it to ὀποθνήσκειν in speaking of the death of believers who alone are thought of here, though in no case must the underlying figure be pressed as if descriptive of his idea of their intermediate state. The same metaphor frequently occurs in the earlier O.T. and apocalyptic literature without any reference to the resurrection-hope, e.g. Genesis 47:30; Genesis 47:2 Regn. 7:12, Jeremiah 28. (51.) 39 (ὕπνοναἰώνιον), Jubilees 23:1, 36:18, Ass. Mos. 1:15, 10:14, Apoc. Bar. 11:4, Test. xii. patr. Joshua 20:4 (ἐκοιμήθηὕπνοναἰώνιον); on the other hand as preparing us for the later Christian use of the term cf. Daniel 12:2, 2Ma 12:44 f., 4 Ezra 7:32 ‘ et terra redder qui in ea dormiunt, et puluis qui in eo silentio habitant.’ On the varied connotation of the term in Jewish eschatology see Volz Jüd. Eschat. p. 134, and for the occurrence of the figure in pagan literature, cf. Callim. Epigr. 10:1, Hom. Il. 11:241, Soph. Electr. 509, Verg. Aen. 6:278 . See also the striking saying of Gorgias (5./b.c.) in his extreme old age ἤδημεὁὕπνοςἄρχεταιπαρακατατίθεσθαιτἀδελφῷ (Aelian V.H. 2:35). The verb (especially ἐκοιμήθην) is very common in Christian inscriptions, e.g. I.G.S.I. 549, 1 σὺνθεῷ ... ἐκοιμ[ήθη] ἡδουλὴτοῦ [θεοῦ] Σαβεῖνα, 68, 1 ἐκοιμήθηἡθεοκοίμητοςΑἰγεία. The allied subst. κοιμητήριον appears by the middle of the 3rd cent. if not earlier. Thus the formula of dedicating τὸκοιμ[η]τ[ή]ριονἕωςἀναστάσεως is found in an inscription at Thessalonica (C.I.G.9439) which Kirchhoff thinks may belong to the 2nd cent., though Ramsay carries it forward to the middle of the 4th (C. and B. 1. p. 495). The word is often thought to be exclusively Christian, but Roberts-Gardner (p. 513) quote two inscriptions which by the figures of a seven-branched candelabrum are shown to be of Jewish origin. The first of these (C.I.G. 9313) runs—ΚοιμητήριονΕὐτυχ[ι]αςτῆςμητρὸςἈθηνέουκὲΘεοκτίστου. For the existence of a Jewish colony in Athens cf. Acts 17:17, and see art. ‘ Athens’ in Hastings’ D.B. by F. C. Conybeare καθὼςκαὶοἱλοιποί] ‘ even as also the rest,’ i.e. ‘ all who are not believers,’ synonymous with οἱἔξω (v. 12): cf. Romans 11:7, Ephesians 2:3. The clause is often interpreted as = ‘ to the same extent as the rest’ (Thdt.: τὴνἀμετρίαν [λύπην] ἐκβάλλει), but this is to strain the Gk. unduly, and we have rather one of the constantly recurring instances in which St Paul ‘ states his precept broadly, without caring to enter into the qualifications which will suggest themselves at once to thinking men’ (Lft.). On the force of καί see 2:14 note. οἱμὴἔχοντεςκτλ.] The general hopelessness of the pagan world in the presence of death is almost too well-known to require illustration, but see e.g. Aesch. Eum. 618 ἅπαξθανόντος, οὔτιςἐστʼ ἀνάστασις, Theocr. Id. 4:42 ἐλπίδεςἐνζωοῖσιν, ἀνέλπιστοιδὲθανόντες, Catull. 5:5 f. ‘ nobis cum semel occidit breuis lux, nox est perpetua una dormienda, ’ and the touching letter of Cicero ad Fam. 14:2, which was dated—Thessalonicae. The inscriptions tell the same tale, e.g. I.G.S.I. 929, 13 κοιμᾶταιτὸναἰώνιονὕπν(ον), 1879, 11 εὐψυχῶ ... ὅστιςοὐκἤμηνκαὶἐγενόμην, οὐκεἰμὶκαὶοὐλυποῦμαι.