and trials to bear. He would rejoice yet more to receive his “new clothes.” He does not answer here his own doubts about the interim, doubts probably caused by his metaphors. We know however that he thought the matter through and lost any hesitations he may have had. For in a later letter to the Philippians when he is in prison and faced with almost certain death before the parousia he writes “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (1:21). But even in our letter Paul does not allow possible