But we don't want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don't grieve like the rest, who have no hope.
That ye sorrow not ...  Taken alone, these words do not convey Paul's thought.  It is not "sorrow not," but "sorrow not as those who have no hope."  Concerning the hopeless state of the Gentile world, it must be admitted that, here and there, a few lonely figures seem to have clung to thin threads of hope; but the darkness and despair which had fallen upon the Gentile nations due to their rejection of God and the consequent debauchery that followed was in every practical sense total.  "The belief held generally by the Greeks was that there was no resurrection, that death was the end of all things."[24]