What Does 1 Thessalonians 4:13 Mean in the King James?
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse lets grief remain while naming death with a word that leaves waking possible.
THE MEANING
Your grief over someone who has died is real, yet hopelessness is not the only truthful response to death. The verse calls the dead asleep, holding open the possibility of waking while allowing sorrow to remain.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that grieving means you have no hope: sorrow and hope can exist together.
THE ROOT
κοιμωμένων
koimōmenōn
GROWS FROM
κοιμάω (koimáō), stem κοιμ- (koim-)
To sleep or put to sleep; here, sleep is the image used for those who have died.
“asleep” in this verse is koimōmenōn. The same Greek verb appears in 1 Corinthians 15:20 for those who have slept, alongside the risen Christ as firstfruits. The shared word makes the hope visible within the image itself: sorrow remains, while death is pictured in a form that can be awakened.
ALSO GROWS
koímēsis: Sleep, sleeping
κοίμησις
This noun preserves sleep as a state, echoing the verse’s image for the dead.
koimētḗrion: Sleeping place; later, cemetery
κοιμητήριον
The word for cemetery carries the same sleeping-place image forward.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures death as sleep when waking remains within the horizon of hope.
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.THE THREAD
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.The phrase them that slept uses the same Greek root as asleep here. In this verse, that sleep appears alongside the risen Christ as firstfruits, opening the image toward waking without erasing grief.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us