Is The Word Rapture Mentioned in the Bible?
Where is the Rapture Mentioned in the Bible?
Is the Rapture Mentioned in the KJV Bible?
A lot of Christians are hearing from other Christians that the Rapture is Not in the Bible. Sadly, a growing number of Christians today are being taught that the Rapture is nowhere mentioned in the Bible. But it is! At the very least, in concept. But also as a Biblical term. It's just not in the English version of the Bible. The Rapture is definitely presented as an important event when our Lord Messiah Jesus comes back for His Bride.
But even if a definite term for the rapture were not at all in the Bible, I want to state that just because a term does not appear in the English Bible explicitly, does not necessarily mean that the concept is unbiblical or unsupported by the holy scriptures. And understanding this is very important because words may change in meaning over time, but concepts seldom will.
There are a few terms that don’t appear even once in Scripture, that believers in Christ have long been using as a common way of referring to certain clearly presented and understood Biblical concepts, for example:
- "The Bible," is nowhere mentioned in the Bible, but we use it everyday to refer to the compilation of the Judeo-Christian Holy Scriptures.
- "The Millennium," is also not mentioned anywhere in the Bible, but we all use it to refer to the concept of the future 1000 year reign of Messiah on earth, when (according to the Bible) the saints who are part of the first resurrection (Rev 20:6) and the martyrs coming in from the tribulation (Rev 20:4) "...shall reign with him a thousand years..."
- The term "Bible-Believing Christian," is also never mentioned in the Bible. But we all know that these were the only type of Christians that existed when the Church began, because Jesus and the apostles quite often referred to, and quoted, the Hebrew Scriptures. In those days, every Christian believed that the written Scripture was the authoratative Word of God: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." ~ 2 Tim 3:16-17
- The Word "Hanukkah" or the phrase "Feast of Lights," (which is the celebration of the miracle of the temple lampstand) is also nowhere mentioned in the Bible. But the concept of Hanukkah is definitely presented! The term used in scripture is: "the Feast of Dedication" ~ John 10:22
No one would doubt that when a bible-believing Christian talks about "the Bible" that they're talking about the compilation of Judeo-Christian holy scriptures. Nor would anyone doubt that when a believer is talking about "the Millennium", they're actually referring to the future 1000-year rule of Christ on earth. Nor would it occur to any true believer in Jesus Christ, to doubt that the "Christians" mentioned in the New Testament, were true bible-believing Christians. But, sadly, most Christians have no idea that Jesus was attending the "Hanukkah" celebration at the temple in Jerusalem when disagreement broke out and the Judean religious leaders picked up stones to kill him for blasphemy. During this Feast of Lights, they literally wanted to extinguish the One who truly Is the Light of the World!!
"The Rapture" qualifies as one of those terms that bear a Biblical concept. So, let's take a look at one of the passages in scripture where the concept of the Rapture is presented.
The Rapture Concept
The concept of the Rapture event is presented to us in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18:
"15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep [dead]. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words." (NKJV)
We can all agree that Nowhere in this New Testament text do we find the word "rapture" mentioned. But we do see the concept. Further below, I'll show you how the word "rapture" actually comes from a classical Bible translation. For now, let's stay focused just on the concept.
Rapture Bible Verse KJV
"17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." ~ 1 Thes 4:17 (KJV)
Now we've seen where the concept of the Rapture is presented in the English Bible. But, as I mentioned earlier, the fact that the English Bible does not use the word 'rapture' is merely a matter of the text's language source. People seem to forget that the Bible was first written in older, ancient languages that were only quite some time later, finally translated into English. So we are not done yet.
I will now take you along to show you how the verb used in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 is indeed linked to the word Rapture. We won't find the word rapture in the English translation of the Bible, but we will find it in a classical translation of the Bible. So, lets get started with the classical Bible translations.
A Brief Overview of Classical Bible Translations: From the Ancient Original Scrolls to the First Two Complete English Bibles.
The ancient Old Testament scrolls were mostly written in Hebrew, with some sections in Aramaic. The Greeks' rise to power over the ancient world, gave them control over Israel. Many Jewish families lived outside of Israel in various cities of the Greek empire. Over time, they no longer spoke Hebrew/Aramaic, only Greek. Thus the need arose for a Greek translation of the ancient Hebrew scriptures. At some point, about 70 to 72 Greek-speaking Hebrew scholars were commissioned to translate the Hebrew holy scriptures into Greek. As turned out, the 70+ translations, though done individually, were practically identical. Thus the original Greek translation of the original Hebrew-Aramaic scriptures was born in the 3rd century BC, over two hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ! This translation is known in English as the 'Septuagint'. The name comes from the Latin word 'septuaginta' or 'LXX', meaning '70'.
About one century after the Greek Septuagint was written, the Romans conquered the Greeks and became the next world power. About two centuries later, after Messiah Yeshua's (Jesus') resurrection, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, the Christian faith spread across the Roman empire, and Latin was becoming the main world language. In the early 4th century, Constantine the Great converted to Christianity. In the late 4th century, after Constantine's death, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, identifying itself as 'catholic' (universal, all-embracing.) Christians were still being taught the Word of God by Christian church leaders of the day, and the gospel letters and messages that had been written earlier by the apostles and historians before the destruction of Jerusalem, were now being hand-copied and circulated. The New Testament did not yet exist and in a world where Latin was becoming the major world language, the need arose for a Latin translation of the Septuagint so that every Latin-speaking believer could hear it and know it. The Roman Catholic priest Jerome of Stridon (aka, St Jerome) translated the holy scriptures from the Greek Septuagint into the Latin Vulgate, the common ("vulgar") Latin of the people, and added a section containing the Latin translation of all the authenticated copies (of confirmed authorship) of the circulating Greek gospels and teachings of Christ and of his apostles. This became the Bible for the Latin world (and consequently for the rest of the known world under its power) for over a millennium!!
The word rapture is one such term imported into English from the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible. In 1 Thessalonians 4:17, the verb used in the Greek Septuagint is 'harpazo', which was correctly translated into the Latin Vulgate as 'rapiemur.' Both words, the Greek 'harpazo' and the Latin 'rapiemur', carry the exact same meaning of suddenly and quickly being seized up, taken away, snatched away, or caught up. Emotionally or spiritually, it means in ecstasy, pleasure, lust, passion, excitement, or great joy. Physically, it means suddenly and by great force (meaning, since we belong to the Kingdom of Heaven, when the time comes, we will be immediately and speedily evacuated from the earth with great force/power, no matter where we are at that time; and no prior request, formality, or even consent will be required.) Note the basic keywords: Taken away, suddenly, quickly, and with force.
Now, I know what you're thinking, "But Joy, "rapiemur" and "rapture" are two completely different words! I don't see the correlation." Just hold on for a second. Since most Americans tend to have at least a little understanding of Spanish, I will use Spanish to explain what's happening in the Latin. I am fairly confident that most of you will get it.
NOTE to any readers who may be familiar with Latin: Know that, just to keep things simple when I share my comparison of the two languages, in my explanation I will be minimizing the number of Latin infinitives down to just the one main infinitive. I will be ignoring the other "sub-" infinitives because at this stage understanding all that, is not important for the point I'm going to make. So, please bear with me. Thank you.
Let's continue. You see, Spanish, being a romance language, is very similar to Latin in many ways. This is because Spanish inherited its verb conjugation structure and its modalities from the Latin. In Spanish, just as in Latin, there are a lot of verb conjugations and grammatical declensions that could make a non-native speaker's head spin. This is what can make Spanish a bit challenging to learn for most English speakers.
For example, just as in Spanish "haremos," "hicieron", "haga", "hecho" "hizo" and more, are all different conjugations of the exact same Spanish verb infinitive "Hacer" (meaning: To Do); in the same manner, in Latin, "rapiemur", "raptum", "rapturo", "rapio". "rapiebar", "rapitor", "rapturae" and more, are different conjugations or forms of the exact same Latin main infinitive "Rapere" (meaning: to rapture, to snatch up, to carry away). The various words I just listed above, are all different conjugations of the exact same verb or main infinitive. Therefore, in reality, they all mean the exact same thing; only, adjusted for person, gender, number, mood, voice, and tense. In other words, they are simply a conjugation or declension format of the infinitive. 'Rapiemur' is the "we"-form, passive, indicative future conjugation of the main infinitive "Rapere" meaning, "we will be raptured." So, the noun, "the rapture" simply means, "the sudden snatching up" or "the sudden taking away," The implication is that there's nothing anyone will be able to do to stop it, delay it, or avoid it, because the feeling of this word is that of being kidnapped! In Spanish, the verb ‘raptar' (also from the Latin 'rapere') means both to rapture (by God, good people, or good emotiones) and to kidnap or abduct (by people bent on evil.) The main point this verb makes is that these events will happen without prior notice or warning, quickly, and will overtake or overpower a person. So, it's not like we'll have a choice. (Not that we would want to stay here, anyway.)
The sudden, unexpected, and diligent nature of "being snatched away" or of "being raptured", is described in another passage in the New Testament as: "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." 1 Corinthians 15:31-52 explains how the transformation will happen at the time of this rapture, suggesting that it will be so sudden and quick that there will be no more time left to prepare. Verses 51-52 repeat and expand on what we've already read in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, and we see the exact same pattern: that God's trumpet will sound, that First the dead in Christ will be raised, then we who are still alive and on earth, will be changed to be caught up with them in the clouds--because our current physical bodies can't defy gravity and fly through the air.
" 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery [a hidden truth]: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." ~ 1 Corinthians 15:51-52
John Wycliff lived just before the start of the Protestant reformation. He was a Catholic priest but did not like what was happening in the Roman Catholic church. He believed that Christians should be able to read the Scriptures in their own language. He had come to believe that the scriptures were the only truly reliable guide to the truths of God and of life. So against the rules and the wishes of the corrupted leadership within the Roman Catholic Church at the time, he translated most of the Latin Vulgate Holy Bible into Middle English, for the common people. Here's the Rapture Bible Verse as it was translated directly from Latin into English by John Wycliff:
"16 For the Lord himself shall come down from heaven, in the commandment, and in the voice of an archangel [in the commanding, and in the voice of the archangel], and in the trump of God; and the dead men that be in Christ, shall rise again first. 17 Afterward we that live, that be left, shall be snatched (up) together with them in clouds, meeting Christ in the air; and so evermore we shall be with the Lord." ~ 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.
The Gutenberg Bible is the first printed edition of the Latin Vulgate Sacred Bible. This first print was published over 1000 years after Jerome of Stridon, the Roman Catholic priest known as St Jerome, had completed his handwritten translation of the Greek Septuagint and of the Greek New Testament writings, into the Latin Vulgate. This printed edition is called The Guttenberg Bible because it was printed in Germany by Johannes Guttenberg.
This is finally the first translation of the holy scriptures into Middle English from the original Old Testament Hebrew scrolls, the Greek Septuagint, and the original writings of the Greek New Testament. Yet, it still relied heavily on the Latin Vulgate as well. This translation was done mostly by William Tyndale, it was the first Bible to be published for the masses, thanks to the development of the printing press. Here's Tyndale's Rapture Bible Verse:
"16 For the Lorde him selfe shall descende fro heve with a showte and the voyce of the archangell and trompe 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." ~ 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
"His use of the archery term for missing the mark, ‘to sin’, was masterful. So was his ingenious invention ‘at-one-ment’. Many other phrases, such as ‘land of the living’, ‘the parting of the ways’, ‘apple of my eye’ are so familiar that we forget their biblical origin. The King James Version, published in 1611, retained much of Tyndale’s groundbreaking work."
In Closing
As a speaker and translator of three romance languages, myself, I can say that it has been a pleasure putting this information together for you. Know that it was done with a lot of love. So, I hope it s helpful to you.
Now that you know that the word ‘Rapture’ came into the English language from the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, and that this word is the exact Latin translation of the Greek word 'harpazo', let me know in the comments below if/how this insight has helped or will help you in the future. And please feel free to ask, in the comments section below, any questions you may have.
I appreciate your visit with me, today. Stay Blessed.
Shalom.
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