1 Thessalonians — The Tyndale New Testament (1534)

The epistle known today as 1 Thessalonians in Tyndale's revised New Testament of 1534, translated from the Greek and opened, as in the print, by Tyndale's prologue to the epistle. It is printed here from the copy in the British Library as keyed by the Text Creation Partnership, in the spelling of 1534; the margin notes are given as footnotes, and the crosses ✚ and ⊢ mark where the lessons read in church begin and end.

¶ A Prologe to the fyrst epistle of S. Paul to the Thessalonyans.

THis pystle dyd Paul wryte of exceadynge loue and care: and prayseth them in the▪ ij. fyrst Chapters / because they dyd receaue the gospell ernestly / and had in tribulacion and persecucion continued therin sted fastlye / and were become a⟨illegible⟩ ensample vnto all congregacions / and had therto sof fred of their awne kynsmen as Christ and his Apostles dyd of the Iewes / puttinge them therto in mynde / how purelye and godlye he had lyued amonge them to their ensample / & thanketh God that his gospell had brought forthsoche frute amonge them.

In the thyrde Chapter / he sheweth his diligēce and care / least his so great laboure and their so blessed a begynnynge shuld haue been in vayne / Satan and his Apostles vexinge them with persecucion / and destroyenge their fayth with mēnes doctryne. And therfore he sent Timothe to them to comforte them and strength them in the fayth / and thanketh God that they had so constantly endured / and desyred God to encrease them.

In the fourth he exhorteth them to kepe them selues from synne / and to do good one to another. And therto he informeth them concerninge the resurreccion.

In the fyueth he wryteth of the last daye / that it shuld come sodenlye / exhortinge to prepare them selues therafter and to kepe a good order concerninge obedience and rule.

The text

Chapter 1

¶ The fyrst Chapter.

1 PAul / Syfuanus [A] and Timotheus. Unto the congregacion of the Tessalonyans / in God the father / & in y[ᵉ] Lorde Iesus Christ. Grace be with you / and peace from God oure father / and from the Lorde Iesus Christ.

2 We geve God thākes all waye for you all / makinge mension of you in oure prayers

3 with out ceasynge / and call to remembraunce youre worke in the faythe / and labour in love & perseveraunce in the hope of oure lorde Iesus [B] Christ / in the sight of God oure father:

4 because we knowe brethren beloved of god / how y[ᵗ] ye are electe.

5 For oure gospell came not vnto you in worde only / but also in power / and also in the holy gost and in moche certayntie / as ye knowe after what maner we behaued oure selves amonge you / for youre sakes.

6 And ye became folowers of vs and of the lord / and receaved the worde in moche affliccion / with ioye of the holy gost:

7 so that ye were an ensample to all that beleve in Macedonia and Achaia.

8 For from you sounded out the worde of the lorde / not in Macedonia and ⟨illegible⟩ Achaia only: but youre fayth also which ye have vnto god / spred hersilfe abroade in all quartars / so greatly that it nedeth not vs to speake eny thynge at all.

9 For they thē selves shewe of you what maner of entrynge in we had vnto you & how ye tourned to God from ymages / for to serve the livynge & true god /

10 & for to loke for his sonne from heven / whom he raysed from deeth: I mean Iesus which delivereth vs from wrath to come.

Chapter 2

¶ The .ii. Chapter.

1 FOr ye youre selves knowe brethren of oure entraunce in vnto you / howe that [A] it was not in vayne:

2 but even after that we had suffered before and were shamfully entreated at Phillippos (as ye well knowe) then were we bolde in oure God to speake vnto you the gospell of God / with moche strivynge.

3 Dure exhortacion was not to brynge you to erroure / nor yet to vnclennes / nether was it with gyle:

4 but as we were alowed of God / that the gospell shuld be cōmitted vnto vs: even so we speake / not as though we entended to please men / but God / which trieth oure hertes.

5 [B] Nether was oure conversacion at eny tyme wᵗ flatterynge wordes / as ye well knowe nether in cloked coveteousnes / God is recorde:

6 nether sought we prayse of men / nether of you / nor yet of eny other / when we myght have bene chargeable / as the apostles of Christ

7 but we were tender amonge you / even as a norsse cheressheth her children /

8 so was oure affeccion towarde you / oure good will was to have dealte vnto you / not the gospell of God only: but also oureawne soules / because ye were deare vnto vs.

9 ✚ Ye remember brethrē oure laboure & travayle.¹ For we laboured daye & nyght / because we wolde not be greveous vnto eny of you / & preached vnto you y[ᵉ] gospell of God.

10 Ye are witnesses / & so is god / how holyly & iustly & vnblameable² we behaved oure selves amonge you that beleve:

11 as ye knowe how that we exhorted and comforted and besought every one of you / as a father his childrē /

12 that ye wolde [C] walke worthy of God / which hath called you vnto his kyngdome and glory.

13 For this cause thanke we god with out ceasynge / because that when ye receaved of vs the worde wherwith God was preached / ye receaved it not as the worde of man: but even as it was in dedes the worde of God / which worketh in you that beleve.

14 ✚ For ye brethrē became folowers of the congregacions of god which in Iewry are in Christ Iesu: for ye have suffered lyke thynges of youre kynsmen as we oure selves have suffered of the Iewes.

15 [D] Which as they kylled the lorde Iesus & their awne prophetes / even so have they persecuted vs / and God they please not / & are contrary to all men

16 and forbid vs to preache vnto the gentyls / that they myght besaved / to fulfill their synnes all waye. For the wrath of God is come on them / even to the vtmost.

17 For as moch brethren as we are kept from you for a season / as concernynge the bodyly presence / but not in the herte / we enforsed the more to se you personally with great desire.

18 And therfore we wolde have come vnto you / I paul once and agayne: but Satan with stode vs.

19 For what is oure hope or ioye / or croune of reioysynge? are not ye it in the presence of oure lorde Iesus Christ at his cōmynges

20 yes ye are oure glory and ioye.

Notes to Chapter 2

Chapter 3

¶ The .iii. Chapter. [A]

1 VVherfore sence we coulde no lenger forbeare / it pleased vs to remayne at³ Athens alone /

2 and sent Timotheus oure brother and minister of god / and oure laboure felowe in the gospell of Christ / to stablysshe you & to cōforte you over youre fayth

3 y[ᵗ] no mā shulde be moved in these afflicciōs. For ye youre selves knowe that we are even [B] apoynted therevnto.

4 For verely when I was with you / I tolde you before that we shulde suffre tribulacion / even as it came to passe / & as ye knowe.

5 For this cause / when I coulde no lenger forbeare / I sent / that I myght have knowledge of youre fayth / lest haply the tempter had tempted you / and that oure laboure had bene bestowed in vayne.

6 But now lately whē Timotheus came frō you vnto vs / and declared to vs youre fayth & youre love and how that ye have good remembraunce of vs all wayes / desyringe to se vs as [C] we desyre to se you.

7 Therfore brethrē we had consolacion in you / in all oure adversite & necessite / through youre fayth.

8 For now are we alyve / yf ye stonde stedfast in the lorde.

9 For what thankes can we recompence to god agayne for you / over all the ioye that we ioye for youre sakes before oure god /

10 whyle we / nyght and daye praye excedingly that we myght se you presently / and myght fulfill that wich is lackynge in youre fayth.

11 God him silfe oure father and oure lorde Iesus Christ gyde oure iorney vnto you:

12 and [D] the lorde increace you & make you flowe ouer in love one towarde another / and towarde all men / even as we do towarde you /

13 to make youre hertes stable and vnblameable / in holynes before God oure father / at the commynge of oure Lorde Iesus Christ / with all his sainctes.

Notes to Chapter 3

Chapter 4

The .iiii. Chapter. ✚

1 FUrther more we beseche you brethren / & exhorte you in the lorde Iesus / that ye increace more and more / euen as ye [A] have receaved of vs / how ye ought to walke & to please god.

2 Ye remember what commaundmētes⁴ we gave you in oure lorde Iesu Christ.

3 For this is the will of god / even that ye shuld be holy /

4 and that ye shuld abstayne from fornicacion / that every one of you shuld knowe how to kepe his nessell in holynes and honoure /

5 and not in the lust of concupiscence / as do the hethen which knowe not god /

6 that noman goo to farre and desraude his brother in bargayninge: because the lorde is a venger of all suche thinges as we tolde you before tyme & testified.

7 For god hath not called vs vnto vnclennes: but vnto holynes.

8 He therfore that despiseth / despiseth not man / but God / which hath sent his holy sprete amonge you.

9 ✚ [B] But as touchynge brotherly love / ye nede⁵ not that I wryte vnto you. For ye are taught of God to love on another.

10 Ye and that thinge verely ye do vnto all the brethrē which are thorow oute all Macedonia. We beseche you brethren that ye encreace more & more /

11 & that ye studye to be quyet / and to medle with youre⁶ awne busynes / and to worke with youre awne hondes / as we commaunded you:

12 that ye maye be have youre selves honestly towarde them that are with out / and that nothinge be lackynge vnto you.

13 [C] ✚ I wolde not brethren have you ignoraūt⁷ concerninge them which are fallen a slepe / that ye sorowe not as other do which have no hope.

14 For yf we beleve that Iesus dyed & rose agayne: even so them also which slepe by IeIesus / will God brynge agayne with him.

15 And this saye we vnto you in the worde of the Lorde / that we which live and are remayninge in the comminge of the Lorde / shall not come yerre they which slepe.

16 For the Lorde him selfe shall descende frō hevē with a showte and the voyce of the archangell and trompe⁸ of God. And the deed in Christe shall aryse fyrst:

17 then shall we which live and remayne / be caught vp with them also in the cloudes / to mete the Lorde in yᵉ ayer. And so shall we ever be with the Lorde.

18 Wherfore cōforte youre selves one another with these worde ⊢

Notes to Chapter 4

Chapter 5

¶ The .v. Chapter.

1 OF the tymes and seasons brethren ye [A] have no nede that I write vnto you:

2 for ye youre selves knowe parfectly / that the daye of the Lorde shall come even as a thefe in the nyght.

3 When they shall saye peace and no daunger / than commeth on the⁹ soden destruccion / as the travalynge of a womā with childe / & they shall not scape.

4 But ye brethrē are not in darcknes / that yᵉ daye shuld come on you as it were a thefe.

5 ✚ Ye are all the childrē of light / & the children of yᵉ daye. We are not of y[ᵉ] nyght nether of darcknes.

6 Therfore let vs not slepe as do other: but [B] let vs watch and be sober.

7 For they that slepe¹⁰ slepe in the nyght: and they that be dronken / are dronken in the nyght.

8 But let vs which are of the daye / be sober / armed with the brest¹¹ plate of fayth and love / and with hope of salvaciō as an helmet.

9 For god hath not apoynted vs vnto wrath: but to obtayne salvacion by yᵉ meanes of oure lorde Iesu Christ

10 which died for vs: that whether we wake or slepe / we shuld lyve togedder with him.

11 Wherfore comforte youre selves togedder / [C] and edifie one another / even as ye do. ⊢

12 We beseche you brethren / that ye knowe them which laboure amonge you & have the oversight of you in the Lorde & geve you exhortacion /

13 that ye have them the more in love / for their workes sake / and be at peace with them.

14 ✚ We desyre you brethrē / warne them that are vnruly / comforte the feble mynded / for beare the weake / have continuall pacience towarde all men.

15 Se that none recōpence evill for evyll vnto eny man: but ever folowe that which is good / both amonge youre selves / and to all men.

16 Reioyce ever.

17 Praye cōtinually.

18 In all thingꝭ geve thankes. For this is the wyll of God in Christ Iesu towarde you.

19 Quenche not the¹² sprete.

20 Despise not prophesyinge.

21 Examen all thinges / & kepe that which is good.

22 Abstayne from all suspicious thingꝭ.

23 The very God of peace sanctifie you thorow out. And I praye God that youre whole sprete / soulse & body / be kept fautlesse vnto y[ᵉ] cōmynge of oure Lorde Iesus Christ

24 ✚ Faythfull is he which called you: which will also do it.

25 Brethrē / praye for vs.

26 Grete all the¹³ brethren with an holy kysse.

27 I charge you in the Lorde / that this pistle be reed vnto all the holy brethren.

28 The grace of the Lorde Iesus Christ be with you. Amen.

¶ The fyrst pistle vnto the Tessalonyans sent from Athens.

Notes to Chapter 5

Colophon

Transcribed from The newe Testament dylygently corrected and compared with the Greke by Willyam Tindale (Antwerp: Marten Emperowr, November 1534; STC 2826), British Library copy, as keyed by the Text Creation Partnership (EEBO-TCP Phase I, text A68940): keyed by Apex CoVantage from the ProQuest page images in 2005, then sampled and proofread by Judith Siefring. The TCP transcription was released into the public domain under CC0 1.0. The printed text is in the public domain.

Spelling, capitals, punctuation (including the virgule /), abbreviation marks (the macron, as in thē, and ꝭ) and the signs ¶ ✚ ⊢ ❧ are kept as printed. The only changes are these: long s (ſ) is set as s; superscript letters are set as ᵉ ᵗ ᵒ (yᵉ = the, yᵗ = that); ▪ marks a stop the transcribers could not identify; a word divided at the end of a line, with or without a printed hyphen, is joined into one word; a letter supplied from another text, as explained below, is set in square brackets; page breaks and catchwords are removed. Woodcuts and decorated initials are not reproduced, but woodcut captions are given. The margin notes are given as numbered footnotes. Printed headings are kept, including their misprints, as italic lines under the library's chapter headings. The letters [A] to [G] are the section letters printed in the margin, by which the 1534 margin references (for example "Esaie vij. c.") and the table of lessons find a passage.

The 1534 print has no verse numbers. They are supplied here from the eBible.org Tyndale New Testament (1534), a public-domain, verse-numbered electronic text of the same edition. A word-by-word alignment showed that about 97 per cent of the two texts' words are identical across the New Testament, and the remainder differ in spelling and abbreviation, with a few slips of keying in one text or the other. The paragraphs of the print give way to one paragraph per verse.

Words that the transcribers could not read are marked ⟨illegible⟩ (4 places on this page, 2 of them in the margin notes).

In the verse text of this book, 6 places that the transcribers could not read in the printed book have been supplied from the eBible.org Tyndale New Testament (1534), a later electronic transcription of Tyndale's New Testament whose transcriber is not named. Each supplied letter is set in square brackets, as in y[ᵉ] or fal[c]e, so that it can be told from a letter the transcribers read in the print. A place was supplied only where the verse alignment was exact on both sides, the eBible reading agreed letter for letter with every legible letter, and no macron could have stood in the gap. Where the small superscript letter after y was supplied, the eBible text is the only evidence for that letter.

This is an archival transcription of Tyndale's printed English, not a Good Works Translation: nothing here has been translated or modernised by the library.

🌲