ris3n's Apologetics Codex
1 Thessalonians 5.8
Page Nav

Passage

1 Thessalonians 5.8

Book: 1 Thessalonians · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

There are ads on our codex that pay for hosting and keep the codex free. If you can, please consider whitelisting ris3n.com or allowing scripts to support the work.

Sponsored

Brands, events, influencers advertise here

ASV

6. so then let us not sleep, as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober. 7. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that are drunken are drunken in the night.

8. But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

  1. For God appointed us not unto wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10. who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:6-10, ASV)
WEB

6. so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober. 7. For those who sleep, sleep in the night; and those who are drunk are drunk in the night.

8. But let us, since we belong to the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and, for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

  1. For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10. who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:6-10, WEB)
KJV

6. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 7. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

8. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

  1. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10. Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:6-10, KJV)
YLT

6. so, then, we may not sleep as also the others, but watch and be sober, 7. for those sleeping, by night do sleep, and those making themselves drunk, by night are drunken,

8. and we, being of the day, let us be sober, putting on a breastplate of faith and love, and an helmet, a hope of salvation,

  1. because God did not appoint us to anger, but to the acquiring of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10. who did die for us, that whether we wake, whether we sleep, together with him we may live; (1 Thessalonians 5:6-10, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

  • Speaker: Paul, writing with Silvanus (Silas) and Timothy, who are named as co-senders in the opening (1 Thess 1:1).
  • Audience: The church in Thessalonica, capital of the Roman province of Macedonia; a largely Gentile congregation of recent converts (1 Thess 1:9) founded on the second missionary journey (Acts 17:1-9).
  • Location: Written from Corinth, shortly after Timothy returned with news of the young church (1 Thess 3:6).
  • Time period: c. AD 50-51. The Gallio inscription from Delphi fixes Paul in Corinth around AD 51-52 (Acts 18:12), which makes this letter either the earliest or one of the two earliest surviving Pauline writings, roughly twenty years after the crucifixion.

Theological reading

"But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation."

The armor comes from Isaiah. Of the LORD himself it is written, "he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head" (Isaiah 59:17). Paul gives the believer pieces of God's own armor, and he will develop the picture more fully later (Ephesians 6:13-17).

Faith, love and hope. The three appear together at the opening of the letter, "your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope" (1 Thess 1:3), and return here as equipment. Faith and love guard the chest; hope guards the head. See pistis and agapē.

"The hope of salvation." The salvation in view is future, the deliverance on the day of the Lord, as the next verse confirms: "God appointed us not into wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation" (5:9). Hope here is a settled expectation, not wishful thinking (sōtēria).

"Be sober." Strong's G3525 in the KJV, used in 5:6 and again here. Being "of the day" is a status; sobriety is how that status is lived while the night lasts.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

Quoted in

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Passages:

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.