Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Thessalonians · About this commentary
Spirit, Soul, and Body
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
23 May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. · WEB
A prayer for the whole person, kept whole until the coming — and the one who calls is the one who will do it.
May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. The adverb is holotelēs G3651, used nowhere else in Scripture, and it means through to the end with nothing left out. That word governs everything after it: the verse is a prayer for completeness.
May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless. The piling of terms serves the same emphasis, and it is not an anatomy. Scripture stacks them the same way in the great commandment — heart, soul, mind and strength Mark 12:30 — where nobody derives four separable parts from four nouns. And the account of the human being runs the other way: dust and breath, and the man became a living soul Genesis 2:7 rather than receiving one as a passenger.
The destination fixes the sense. Preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ — the same terminus as the resurrection of 1 Thessalonians 4:16. What is being asked is that the whole person be kept until that day, which is what the previous chapter said would happen to the dead.
And verse 24 removes the weight from the reader: he who calls you is faithful, who will also do it. The prayer is answered by the character of the one prayed to.
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