テサロニケ人への手紙第一 5:23

Paul's benediction 'the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ' deploys a tripartite anthropology (spirit, soul, body) that has generated significant debate about whether Paul holds a trichotomist view of human constitution. Most scholars read the triad as a comprehensive designation of the whole person rather than a precise philosophical partition, comparable to the 'heart, soul, strength' of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:5). The eschatological frame — 'until the coming of our Lord' — places the entire sanctification process within the horizon of the parousia, making present holiness an anticipation of the final presentation before the Lord. The attribution of sanctification to 'the God of peace' (ho theos tēs eirēnēs) connects the ethical goal to divine character rather than human effort, maintaining the indicative-basis for the imperative.