 |  |
(5) Watchful or Drowsy (5: 10).
The reader will perceive that we have altered the wording from that of the A.V. We
must now prove the truthfulness of this correction. There are two distinct words used in
I Thessalonians for `sleep'. In I Thess. 4: 13, 14 and 15 the word `sleep' is
koimaomai. This word means `to fall asleep' particularly in death. Our English word
cemetery is from the Greek koimeterion `a dormitory'. The heathen poets used `sleep' as
a symbol of death, but they generally added the words `perpetual', `eternal' or the like, as
they had `no hope'. Thus:
"But we, or great or wise, or brave,
Once dead, and silent in the grave
Senseless remain; one rest we keep
One long, eternal, unawaken'd sleep" (Moschus Idyll).
Homer says of a slain hero:
"He slept a brazen sleep",
and Virgil speaks of `an iron sleep' and eyes closing in `everlasting night'. This word
already fixed in its meaning, was used in the N.T., in the Gospels, Acts and Epistles, the
only, but glorious, difference being that, while the idea of `sleep' is retained unaltered,
the blessed hope of resurrection introduces the new conception of an awaking from that
sleep.
When we turn to I Thess. 5: another word is used for `sleep', katheudo, a word never
used for those who `sleep in Jesus'. It differs from koimaomai in that this word means `to
fall asleep', whereas katheudo means `to compose oneself to sleep', and so means `to
drowse' or `be drowsy'. Katheudo is used in I Thess. 5: 6, 7, 10. The alternative to
koimaomai, the sleep of death, is `to awake' (John 11: 11), but the alternative to
katheudo is not so much `to awake' but `to be wide-awake', `to watch', or if the play on
words will help, the alternative to "drowse" is to "rouse". Gregoreo, which is used in
I Thess. 5: 6, 10 comes in the exhortation `Watch therefore', that follows the parable of
the Wise and Foolish Virgins. These two sections I Thess. 4: 13-18 & I Thess. 5: 1-11,
are thrown into a correspondence thus:
A | 4: 13. Concerning those that have fallen asleep.
B | 4: 14-16. The sleeping saint.
The living saint.
C | 4: 17. "Together with" hama sun.
D | 4: 18. Comfort one another.
A | 5: 1-4. Concerning the times and seasons.
B | 5: 5-10. The sleeping saint.
The watchful saint.
C | 5: 10. "Together with" hama sun.
D | 5: 11. Comfort one another.
The Apostle makes it clear that the child of God differs from the children of night, and
that `sleepiness' belongs to the unsaved and `watchfulness' pertains to the redeemed and,
in other places and in other contexts, he has spoken of `the terror' of the Lord, the