Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
Behold - calling attention to the "mystery" heretofore hidden in God's purposes, but now revealed.
You - emphatic, 'I tell (namely, by the word of the Lord, 1 Thessalonians 4:15) YOU х humin (G5213) legoo (G3004)], Who think you have so much knowledge, "a mystery" (cf. Romans 11:25) which your reason could never have discovered. 'Aleph (') C G g, Origen, 2,552 b 100: Greek manuscripts Didymus, in Jerome, and Acacius read, 'We shall all sleep, but we shall not all be changed'-plainly a corrupt reading, inconsistent with 1 Thessalonians 4:15; 1 Thessalonians 4:17, and with the argument here, which is, that a change is necessary (1 Corinthians 15:53); Fear not death, as if these found living at Christ's coming were to be better off. Nay, they too must undergo the great "change." The English version is supported by B, Greek manuscripts in Jerome, Origen 1,589 f, Syriac and Coptic versions. The Greek is, literally, 'We all shall not sleep, but,' etc. The putting off of the corruptible body for an incorruptible by an instantaneous change (like the beautiful butterfly bursting from its larva-envelope into the sunlight) will, in the case of "the quick," be equivalent to death, appointed to all men (Hebrews 9:27). Of this Enoch, and Elijah are types. The "we" implies that Christians in that age and every successive age since were designed to stand waiting, as if Christ might come in their time, and they be found among "the quick."