1 Thessalonians — Greek text and reception
Choose a chapter to explore the source readings and their notes. Original references, source labels, and review records are retained.
Source guide and review record
Saints Translation
1 Thessalonians
Complete working translation draft, V2, Sep 13, 2026. All 89 Greek source verses were read and independently translated, with selected verified patristic reception kept distinct. Specialist linguistic review remains outstanding. No Hebrew parallel, LXX counterpart, or critical-apparatus collation is claimed.
Text and translation
SBLGNT Greek running main text, Michael W. Holmes, ed. (2010), official Faithlife electronic file.
Five chapters, 89 source verses and 89 translation rows: 10/20/13/18/28. Source verse order is preserved; sentences may continue across rows. No Hebrew/Greek comparison classifications apply to this single-source New Testament book.
The three columns contain the verse reference, an independent Greek–English translation, and textual or reception notes. Patristic interpretation is identified separately from the wording of the biblical source.
Sources and textual basis
All sources below were accessed on Sep 8, 2026.
[G] Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (2010), official Faithlife/SBLGNT electronic text
All five chapters, 89 source verses, directly read in full and independently translated. Running main text only; no manuscript or critical-apparatus collation.
Direct access to the publisher-maintained Greek electronic text.
[LIC] SBLGNT publisher license, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Publisher licensing terms consulted for this translation project; Greek text copyright 2010 Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software.
Direct publisher license access.
[CHR4] John Chrysostom, Homily 4 on First Thessalonians; NPNF First Series, volume 13 (1889), New Advent presentation
Opening discussion of 3:5 and exposition of 3:11–13.
Published English translation of patristic reception, read directly; Greek homily not collated.
[CHR11] John Chrysostom, Homily 11 on First Thessalonians, New Advent presentation
Exposition of 5:23, identifying spirit with the gift of grace.
Published English translation of patristic reception, relevant passage consulted directly.
Terminology
adelphoi → brothers. Familial community address, without claiming the audience is exclusively male.
ekklēsia → Church. The believing community; the plural in 2:14 is retained.
hagiasmos / hagiōsynē → sanctification / holiness. Related but distinct source nouns; moral and relational force is preserved.
skeuos / ktasthai → vessel / acquire. Retains the difficult expression in 4:4; its referent and idiomatic sense need further review.
parousia → coming. The Lord’s arrival/presence in the eschatological passages; no later timetable is inserted.
koimaomai / katheudō → fall asleep / sleep. Death imagery is explicit in 4:13–15; the watch/sleep contrast in 5:6–10 is not automatically harmonized with it.
psychē → life / soul. Lives at 2:8 reflects personal self-giving; soul at 5:23 retains the coordinated list.
Editorial decisions
New English translation from G; no modern English Bible served as a paraphrase base.
Greek base text copyright 2010 Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. This English translation and its notes adapt the Greek text; they are not the publishers’ English translation and imply no publisher endorsement. License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
Retained G’s gentle at 2:7, God’s fellow worker at 3:2, and absence of final Amen.
Retained difficult and polemical wording without adding later collective-guilt claims, a reconstructed historical catastrophe, or an eschatological timetable.
Source editorial boundary symbols are not words and are not translated. Selected reception comes from identified published English presentations, not a collation of patristic Greek.
Second AI agent review read every translation verse beside the full SBLGNT Greek source. No definite error requiring textual repair was found; documented contextual uncertainties remain open for qualified specialist review.
Review and open questions
Qualified independent Greek specialist review is still needed, especially 2:7, 2:16, 4:4–6, 4:14, and 5:10; the additional AI agent review does not replace it.
Review the possible senses of vessel/acquire at 4:4 and the attachment of through Jesus at 4:14 before a publication edition.
The chosen source text is a main-text edition; no claim of exhaustive manuscript evidence, critical consensus, or ecclesial approval is made.
1 Thessalonians 4:4,9,14; 5:10: image, implicit subject, prepositional attachment, and sleep/watch terms remain properly qualified in the notes.
Exact published English Chrysostom passages verified by the drafting/root agent; the second agent did not newly collate the Greek homilies.
All 89 translated verses were independently read against the complete supplied SBLGNT Greek file by a second AI agent. No definite omission or mistranslation requiring a content change was found. This is additional drafting review, not qualified human specialist certification.
Final textual and reception review
Review updated: Sep 11, 2026
All eighty-nine verses were reviewed against Michael W. Holmes’s SBLGNT running Greek text in the official Faithlife file. The existing reading wording is retained. These notes cover every selected verse; they do not claim manuscript-apparatus collation, exhaustive historical reception, or independent specialist certification. The difficult expressions at 2:7, 2:16, 4:4–6, 4:14, and 5:10 remain explicitly qualified.
How to use the notes: each verse has its own textual observation. Reception codes point to the precisely bounded passage discussions below; a shared code does not claim that an author separately expounds every verse. English presentations of historical authors were checked; their biblical quotations can differ from the selected Greek. Later doctrinal, ascetic, and literary applications remain distinct from translated wording.
Greek source: Michael W. Holmes, The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition; official Faithlife electronic text.
Reception sources and passage discussions
John Chrysostom’s Homilies on First Thessalonians are consulted in John A. Broadus’s English translation, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, volume 13, as presented by New Advent. No inference about his exact Greek wording is made solely from this English version. The entries below summarize the stated passages, not each homily’s entire argument.
R01 · 1:1–3 — John Chrysostom, Homily 1 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 1:1–3. Chrysostom treats the shared salutation as humility and the thanksgiving as recognition of God’s work. Faith, love, and hope become visible through endurance and costly care.
R02 · 1:4–5 — John Chrysostom, Homily 1 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 1:4–5. He connects election and divine love with the messengers’ willingness to endure danger for the recipients, rather than presenting their preaching as mere verbal persuasion.
R03 · 1:6–7 — John Chrysostom, Homily 1 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 1:6–7. He calls the new believers teachers by example: joy in affliction marks imitation of the Lord, and the Spirit makes that joy possible.
R04 · 1:8–10 — John Chrysostom, Homily 2 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 1:8–10. He compares their spreading reputation to a trumpet and stresses eager conversion from idols. Waiting for the risen Son supplies encouragement amid present suffering.
R05 · 2:1–4 — John Chrysostom, Homily 2 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 2:1–4. He reads perseverance through danger as evidence of sincere preaching and interprets pleasing God as freedom from the pursuit of human applause.
R06 · 2:5–6 — John Chrysostom, Homily 2 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 2:5–6. He distinguishes publicly observable flattery from the hidden motive of greed, for which God is invoked, and notes the refusal to seek honors.
R07 · 2:7–8 — John Chrysostom, Homily 2 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 2:7–8. The nursing image becomes his model for gentle teaching. Sharing one’s life displays an affection willing to undergo hardship without extracting gain from pupils.
R08 · 2:9–12 — John Chrysostom, Homily 3 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 2:9–12. He presents labor and fatherly attention to each person as a pattern for teachers, combining encouragement with serious moral instruction.
R09 · 2:13–16 — John Chrysostom, Homily 3 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 2:13–16. He finds consolation in shared suffering with Judean Christians, but develops a severe anti-Jewish polemic. That historical interpretation is attributed to him and does not authorize inherited guilt for every Jewish person.
R10 · 2:17–20 — John Chrysostom, Homily 3 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 2:17–20. He reads orphaning, longing, and the crown language as intense pastoral affection. The words also you allow other communities to share that joy.
R11 · 3:1–4 — John Chrysostom, Homily 3 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 3:1–4. Sending Timothy shows costly concern; advance warning makes affliction less destabilizing. The English homily calls Timothy God’s minister and our fellow-worker, unlike the selected source’s God’s fellow worker.
R12 · 3:5 — John Chrysostom, Homily 4 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 3:5. Paul’s need to inquire shows, for Chrysostom, that saints did not know everything. He interprets the inquiry as love, not a finding that the community had already failed.
R13 · 3:6–8 — John Chrysostom, Homily 4 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 3:6–8. He emphasizes good news and now we live: the community’s steadfastness revives its teacher, whose comfort depends on the disciples’ welfare.
R14 · 3:9–10 — John Chrysostom, Homily 4 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 3:9–10. He distinguishes firmness under trial from incomplete instruction, allowing sincere praise and a desire to supply what is lacking to coexist.
R15 · 3:11–13 — John Chrysostom, Homily 4 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 3:11–13. The written prayer expresses affection and seeks love reaching everyone. He connects that widened love with a heart made blameless before God.
R16 · 4:1–3 — John Chrysostom, Homily 5 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 4:1–3. He urges continued growth beyond merely avoiding evil and reads sanctification as governing conduct, with particular attention to sexual purity.
R17 · 4:4–6 — John Chrysostom, Homily 5 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 4:4–6. He interprets possessing the vessel through self-mastery and freedom from passion, then identifies wronging a brother in this context with adultery. These are interpretive resolutions of the difficult expressions.
R18 · 4:7–8 — John Chrysostom, Homily 5 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 4:7–8. He treats sexual wrongdoing as an affront to the God who calls and gives the Spirit, regardless of the injured person’s social rank.
R19 · 4:9–10 — John Chrysostom, Homily 6 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 4:9–10. He reads praise of their existing love as a gentle way of eliciting further growth, and calls attention to God as its teacher.
R20 · 4:11–12 — John Chrysostom, Homily 6 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 4:11–12. He connects manual work with helping others and avoiding an idle dependence that damages the community’s reputation. This is his social and pastoral application of the passage.
R21 · 4:13–14 — John Chrysostom, Homily 7 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 4:13–14. He grounds consolation in Jesus’ real death and resurrection. He explicitly considers both attachments of through Jesus: to falling asleep or to God’s bringing the sleepers.
R22 · 4:15–18 — John Chrysostom, Homily 8 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 4:15–18. He likens meeting the descending Lord to an honored welcome for a king. Resurrection precedes the common meeting, so the living gain no advantage over the departed; the purpose is consolation.
R23 · 5:1–3 — John Chrysostom, Homily 9 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 5:1–3. He discourages speculation about the date and applies the uncertainty also to each person’s death. Labor pains express both sudden arrival and distress.
R24 · 5:4–7 — John Chrysostom, Homily 9 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 5:4–7. He interprets light and wakefulness morally: watchful conduct prepares believers for an otherwise unexpected day. The spiritual sleep is voluntary inactivity in virtue.
R25 · 5:8–11 — John Chrysostom, Homily 9 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 5:8–11. He interprets armor as protection through faith, love, and hope. At 5:10 he explicitly changes sleep’s sense to bodily death; Christ’s death grounds confidence in life with Him.
R26 · 5:12–14 — John Chrysostom, Homily 10 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 5:12–14. He applies the leaders’ labor to pastoral ministry and prescribes patient treatment suited to the disorderly, discouraged, and weak, rather than harsh rebuke of all alike.
R27 · 5:15–18 — John Chrysostom, Homily 10 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 5:15–18. He urges active kindness beyond non-retaliation and connects joy, prayer, and thanksgiving with a response to suffering shaped by God rather than revenge.
R28 · 5:19–22 — John Chrysostom, Homily 11 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 5:19–22. He explains quenching as extinguishing grace through wrongdoing, then offers the prophecy context: false claims do not justify suppressing genuine prophecy; careful testing must distinguish them.
R29 · 5:23–24 — John Chrysostom, Homily 11 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 5:23–24. He identifies spirit with the gift of grace and joins instruction with prayer for the whole person. God’s faithfulness, rather than Paul’s own merit, grounds confidence.
R30 · 5:25–28 — John Chrysostom, Homily 11 on First Thessalonians; exposition of 5:25–28. He stresses humility in requesting prayer, affection conveyed by the kiss, and the wish to converse with everyone through the letter. His English citation includes holy brothers and final Amen; the selected Greek does not.
R31 · 4:9–12 — John Cassian, Institutes; Book X, chapter 7. Cassian reads the praise of brotherly love as preparation for corrective teaching. He applies quietness, attending to one’s affairs, and manual work to stability in a monk’s cell and resistance to accidie. This monastic setting is his application, not an added referent in Paul’s translation.
R32 · 5:6 — John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Part One; Enchanted Ground: Christian refuses Hopeful’s proposal to sleep (Gutenberg editorial §336). Christian invokes the watch-and-be-sober command to keep Hopeful awake on the Enchanted Ground. Their ensuing conversation enacts mutual spiritual vigilance; the allegory applies the verse rather than supplies a textual variant.
R33 · 5:17 — Augustine, Letter 130 to Proba; Chapter 9, section 18; continued in 10.19–20. Augustine interprets continual prayer as uninterrupted desire for eternal blessedness, sustained by faith, hope, and love. Set times of spoken prayer renew attention, while necessary work need not end the underlying desire.
R34 · 5:17 — John Cassian, Conferences; Conference IX, chapter 3; compare chapters 6–7. In the conference attributed to Abba Isaac, the prayer command requires purification of the heart and preparation before set prayer times. Germanus subsequently asks how such continuing prayer can be practiced. This is an ascetic reading, not a prescribed formula in the verse itself.
R35 · 5:23 — Irenaeus, Against Heresies; Book V, chapter 6, section 1. Irenaeus quotes the prayer to defend salvation of the complete person, including flesh, with soul receiving the Father’s Spirit. His argument opposes an account of spirituality that discards the body; it should not be reduced to a bare three-part anatomy.
Collation against Nestle–Aland 28
On 13 September 2026 every verse of this book where the SBLGNT and NA28 differ was identified from the edition marks of Tyndale House's Translators Amalgamated Greek New Testament (STEPBible, CC BY 4.0) and the SBLGNT apparatus, and the rendering above was read at each one. 10 verses differ; 5 of them would read differently in English if NA28 were translated instead of the SBLGNT, and each of those carries a note above beginning "NA28". The collation is against TAGNT's edition marks and the SBLGNT apparatus; a printed NA28 apparatus has not been consulted, and NA28's square brackets are inferred, not recorded.Irenaeus, Against Heresies
At no place was the rendering found to follow a reading other than the SBLGNT it declares.Irenaeus, Against Heresies