left behind

When the liturgical year begins to wind down, we encounter a passage in which Jesus informs us that at the end some people will be taken and some will be left. This passage in the Gospel According to Luke 17:34–35 (NABRE) and similar passages have caused a great deal of discussion about the end times and who will be left. The notion of the rapture in which some people are taken and some are left behind derives from this passage and from the First Letter to the Thessalonians 4:17 (NABRE), which in English translations uses similar vocabulary to that found in the Gospel passage.

The Gospel According to Luke uses the words παραλαμβάνω (paralambano), which means “to take or receive,” and ἀποτίθημι (apotithemi), which means “to put away or keep back.” The connotation of this passage essentially is one of some people being invited and some not.

Paul’s version usually is translated using the same words as the Gospel account—left and taken—but the underlying meaning and emphasis is considerably different. περιλείπομαι (perileiptomai) means “to remain over or to survive” and ἁρπάζω (harpazo) means “to seize, to capture, or to rape.” This violent imagery, often connected to life and death, gives the First Letter to the Thessalonians a decidedly different connotation.

Because the connotations of these two passages are somewhat at odds, they raise a number of questions. Will the end times be peaceful enough that one not invited could even sleep through them, as in the Gospel account? Or instead, will some people be violently captured and taken up by God, as described by Paul? In either case, what is clear from both versions is that whenever the time comes, not all will be called into union with God.

related topics: apocalypse; judgment; parousia

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