Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
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Athanasius the Apostolic
AD 373
And further, not to know when the end is, or when the day of the end will occur, is actually a good thing. If people knew the time of the end, they might begin to ignore the present time as they waited for the end days. They might well begin to argue that they should only focus on themselves. Therefore, God has also remained silent concerning the time of our death. If people knew the day of their death, they would immediately begin to neglect themselves for the greater part of their lifetime. The Word, then, has concealed both the end of all things and the time of our own death from us, for in the end of all is the end of each, and in the end of each the end of all is comprehended. This is so that, when things remain uncertain and always in prospect, we advance day by day as if summoned, reaching forward to the things before us and forgetting the things behind. … The Lord, then, knowing what is good for us beyond ourselves, thus stabilized the disciples in a correct understanding. They...
Now it is right and necessary, as in all divine Scripture, so here, faithfully to explain the time of which the apostle wrote, and the person and the point. This is so that the reader will not from ignorance miss either these or any similar particular and thus miss the true sense of the text. This was what the inquiring eunuch understood when he asked Philip, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet speak this? Of himself, or of someone else?” He feared lest, having explained the lesson unsuitably to the person, he should wander from the right sense. And the disciples, wishing to learn the time of what was predicted, implored the Lord: “Tell us,” they said, “when shall these things be? And what is the sign of your coming?” And again, hearing from the Savior the events of the end, they desired to learn the time of it, that they might be kept from error themselves. They also wished to be able to teach others, just as, when they had learned, they set right the Thessalonians, who were going wr...
And we Some impostors had taken occasion from St. Paul's first epistle to the Thessalonians, to teach that the day of judgment was at hand. The apostle here maintains that it certainly will come, but that it will come like a thief in the night. He says nothing of the time when it is to arrive; he merely refutes those who spoke of its taking place immediately.
By the coming Grotius and some others explain this coming, of the vengeance he took on the Jews by the arms of the Romans. It is true he speaks in many places of the destruction of Jerusalem, and of his coming at the last day, in terms exactly the same. But the context of the whole epistle demonstrates that he is here speaking of the last day. (Calmet)
And of our gathering together unto him. Literally, of our congregation unto him. That is, that you be not moved by any pretended revelation, nor by any words or letter, as spoken or written by me. (Witham)
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
When the resurrection will be, he has not said: “It will come in due order”; he has said: “And our assembling to meet him.” This point is quite important. Observe how Paul’s exhortation is accompanied by praise and encouragement, for he makes it clear that Jesus and all the saints will certainly appear at that time with us.
When the Resurrection will be, he has not said, but that it will not be now, he has said. And our gathering together unto Him. This also is no little matter. See how the exhortation also is again accompanied with commendation and encouragement, in that He and all the Saints will certainly appear with us. Here he is discoursing concerning the resurrection and our gathering together. For these things will happen at the same time. He raises up their minds. That ye be not quickly shaken, he says, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is now present.
