1 Thessalonians 5:27

I call on you solemnly in the Lord ¹  to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters. ² 

I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.

I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren.

I command you in the name of the Lord to read this letter to all the brothers and sisters.

And make sure this letter gets read to all the brothers and sisters. Don't leave anyone out.

I give orders in the name of the Lord that all the brothers are to be present at the reading of this letter.

I solemnly command you by the Lord that this letter be read to all of them.

I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren.

I call on you solemnly in the Lord ¹  to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters. ² 

¹ tn Grk “I adjure you by the Lord,” “I put you under oath before the Lord.”

² tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א² A Ψ [33] 1739 1881 Ï ar vg sy bo), read “holy” before “brothers [and sisters]” (ἁγίοις ἀδελφοῖς, Jagioi" adelfoi"). It is possible that ἁγίοις dropped out by way of homoioteleuton (in uncial script the words would be written agioisadelfois), but it is equally possible that the adjective was added because of the influence of ἁγίῳ (Jagiw) in v. 26. Another internal consideration is that the expression ἅγιοι ἀδελφοί ({agioi adelfoi, “holy brothers”) is not found elsewhere in the corpus Paulinum, though Col 1:2 comes close. But this fact could be argued either way: It may suggest that such an expression is not Pauline; on the other hand, the unusualness of the expression could have resulted in an alteration by some scribes. At the same time, since 1 Thessalonians is one of the earliest of Paul’s letters, and written well before he addresses Christians as saints (ἅγιοι) in 1 Corinthians for the first time, one might argue that Paul’s own forms of expression were going through something of a metamorphosis. Scribes insensitive to this fact could well impute later Pauline collocations onto his earlier letters. The internal evidence seems to support, albeit slightly, the omission of ἁγίοις here. Externally, most of the better witnesses of the Alexandrian and Western texts (א* B D F G 0278 it sa) combine in having the shorter reading. Although the rating of “A” in UBS⁴ for the omission seems too generous, this reading is still to be preferred.

tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:4.