I charge you therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
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Fulgentius of Ruspe
AD 533
Concerning the coming judgment of human beings, living and dead, the blessed Paul says this, “I bear witness in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power.” At his coming, from the body of the first man which God fashioned from the earth, up until the bodies of all human beings which began to live when they were infused with a soul, all will be raised by him by whose action they were created. In the resurrection, individual bodies will be restored to their individual souls, which they began to have in the wombs of their mothers, in order that they might begin to live—in order that, in the examination of the just judge, souls might receive in their very same individual bodies their reward, of the kingdom or of punishment, in those bodies in which they had led a good or evil life in this world.
Per adventum, kata ten epiphaneian. Ver. 14. Reddet, apodosei, in some manuscripts though in more, apodoe. The commentary of St. Chrysostom agrees with the Latin.
I charge thee (literally, testify to thee) before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead; i.e. all those that have been dead for so many ages since the beginning of the world; and the living, i.e. those who shall be found living at the end of the world, but who shall die, and be presently raised again. See 1 Corinthians xv. 52.
By his coming. The sense by the Greek seems to be, who shall judge them at or by his coming, rather than I charge thee by his coming, as others translate. (Witham)
He also died, and rose again, and ascended into the heavens to Him that sent Him, and is sat down at His right hand, and shall come at the end of the world, with His Father's glory, to judge the living and the dead, and to render to every one according to his works.
He either means the wicked and the just, or the departed and those that are still living; for many will be left alive. In the former Epistle he raised his fears, saying, I give you charge in the sight of God, Who quickens all things 1 Timothy 6:13: but here he sets before him what is more dreadful, Who shall judge the quick and the dead, that is, Who shall call them to account at His appearing and His kingdom. When shall He judge? At His appearing with glory, and in His kingdom. Either he says this to show that He will not come in the way that He now has come, or, I call to witness His coming, and His kingdom. He calls Him to witness, showing that he had reminded Him of that appearing. Then teaching him how he ought to preach the word, he adds,
After giving comfort and encouragement for everyone, he brings up great things at the close of his writing. Now reasonably he brings up such great things, because he was destressed about what he was going to say to the disciple about his own death. So the Scriptures say, from which he said, that "From childhood you have known the Scriptures. (2 Tim 3:15)"
