2 Thessalonians 2: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul writes about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the gathering of believers to him, urging the Thessalonians not to be shaken by any message claiming that the day has already come. He says that day will not arrive until the rebellion happens and the man of lawlessness is revealed, a figure who exalts himself above every god and seats himself in God's temple, and whom the Lord Jesus will destroy at his coming. He describes the deception that goes with this figure and those who perish for refusing to love the truth. He then thanks God that his readers were chosen for salvation, tells them to hold to what he taught them, and prays for their comfort and strength.

Claim by Claim

1. 2:1
   • The writers make a request of the brothers.
   • The request concerns the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
   • The request concerns the gathering together of believers to him.
2. 2:2
   • The request is that they not be quickly shaken out of their mind.
   • The request is that they not be alarmed.
   • They are not to be shaken or alarmed by a spirit.
   • They are not to be shaken or alarmed by a spoken message.
   • They are not to be shaken or alarmed by a letter presented as coming from the writers.
   • The claim being spread is that the day of Christ has already arrived.
3. 2:3
   • No one is to deceive them in any way.
   • That day will not come unless the falling away comes first.
   • That day will not come unless the man of sin is revealed.
   • The man of sin is the son of destruction.
4. 2:4
   • He opposes.
   • He exalts himself above everything called God.
   • He exalts himself above every object of worship.
   • He seats himself as God in the temple of God.
   • He displays himself as being God.
5. 2:5
   • Paul asks whether they do not remember.
   • Paul told them these things while he was still with them.
6. 2:6
   • They know what is now restraining.
   • The restraint is so that he may be revealed at his own time.
7. 2:7
   • The mystery of iniquity is already at work.
   • There is one who now restrains.
   • The one who restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.
8. 2:8
   • Then the lawless one will be revealed.
   • The Lord will consume him with the breath of his mouth.
   • The Lord will abolish him with the brightness of his coming.
9. 2:9
   • The coming of that one is according to the working of Satan.
   • His coming is with all power.
   • His coming is with signs.
   • His coming is with lying wonders.
10. 2:10
    • His coming is with every deception of unrighteousness directed at those who are perishing.
    • They did not receive the love of the truth.
    • Receiving the love of the truth would have led to their being saved.
11. 2:11
    • For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion.
    • The result is that they believe the lie.
12. 2:12
    • The purpose is that they all be condemned.
    • They did not believe the truth.
    • They took pleasure in unrighteousness.
13. 2:13
    • The writers are obligated to thank God always for them.
    • The brothers are loved by the Lord.
    • God chose them from the beginning for salvation.
    • That salvation is in sanctification by the Spirit.
    • That salvation is in belief of the truth.
14. 2:14
    • God called them to this through the writers' gospel.
    • The calling is for obtaining the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15. 2:15
    • The brothers are to stand fast.
    • The brothers are to hold the traditions they were taught.
    • Those traditions were taught by spoken word or by the writers' letter.
16. 2:16
    • Our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father are invoked.
    • God loved us.
    • God gave everlasting comfort.
    • God gave good hope through grace.
17. 2:17
    • May he comfort their hearts.
    • May he establish them in every good word and work.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

2:1

The King James "we beseech you ... by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" sounds like an oath, as though Paul were begging them in the name of the second coming. The Greek preposition here means "concerning" or "with regard to": the coming, and the gathering to him, are the subject Paul is about to discuss, not the thing he swears by. The word translated "coming" is parousia, which in ordinary Greek meant the official arrival of a king or emperor at a city, an event a town prepared for and went out to meet.

2:2

"Shaken in mind" translates a verb used of a ship torn loose from its moorings or a building knocked off its foundation; the point is being dislodged from settled thinking, not merely upset. "At hand" in 1611 English could mean "already here," and that is what the Greek verb means: the claim Paul is denying is not that the day is near but that it has already begun. "By spirit" means a message delivered as prophecy in the assembly. "Letter as from us" means a letter forged in Paul's name, which is why he signs the end of this letter in his own handwriting.

2:3

"A falling away" translates apostasia, a word used for political rebellion or revolt as well as for abandoning a religion; "the rebellion" and "the great defection" are both within its range. "Son of perdition" is a Hebrew way of speaking in which "son of" means "characterized by" or "destined for": the son of destruction is the man marked out for ruin. The same phrase is used of Judas in John 17:12. The King James follows manuscripts reading "man of sin"; other early manuscripts read "man of lawlessness," which is why the rendering beside it says that.

2:4

"That is worshipped" translates a noun meaning an object of veneration: a shrine, an image, a sacred site, anything before which people bow. It is broader than "a god." The word for "temple" here is not the whole temple complex but the inner sanctuary, the building itself where the deity was held to dwell. Readers in the first century would have heard this against a live memory: the emperor Caligula had ordered his own statue set up in the Jerusalem temple about a decade before this letter, and the order was only canceled at his death.

2:5

Paul had been in Thessalonica only a matter of weeks before hostility forced him to leave the city. This verse shows that even in that short stay he had taught them about these events in detail, which is why the letter can refer to them without explaining from scratch.

2:6

"Withholdeth" in 1611 meant to hold back or restrain, which is not what "withhold" means now. Note also that here Paul speaks of a restraining thing, neuter in Greek, while in the next verse he speaks of a restraining person, masculine. He says his readers already know what he means. We do not, and the language itself does not settle it.

2:7

"Let" in 1611 English meant to hinder or obstruct, the opposite of its modern sense; "he who now letteth will let" means "the one who restrains will go on restraining." The old sense survives only in the tennis term and in the legal phrase "without let or hindrance." "Mystery" translates a Greek word meaning something concealed and then disclosed to insiders, not a puzzle to be solved: the lawlessness is already operating, but out of sight.

2:8

"That Wicked" is the King James way of writing "the wicked one," a person, not wickedness in general. "The spirit of his mouth" uses a Greek word that means breath, wind and spirit alike; here it is breath, and the phrase echoes Isaiah 11:4, where the coming ruler kills the wicked with the breath of his lips. "The brightness of his coming" pairs two words that both meant a royal arrival: epiphaneia, the shining appearance of a god or a monarch showing himself in public, and parousia, the state visit itself.

2:9

"Lying wonders" does not necessarily mean the wonders are faked. The Greek phrase means wonders belonging to the falsehood, that is, displays of real force that serve a lie and point people toward it.

2:10

"Deceivableness" is an obsolete noun meaning deceit, the act of deceiving, not a capacity to be deceived. "They received not the love of the truth" describes refusing to welcome the truth as something to be loved, a stronger claim than simply failing to be convinced by it.

2:11

The Greek says "the lie," with the article, not "a lie" among many. "Strong delusion" translates a phrase meaning an active working of error, the same noun for "working" used of Satan in verse 9.

2:12

"Damned" in 1611 meant condemned or sentenced in a judgment, a legal word, without the narrowed modern sense of being consigned to hell. The Greek verb here is the ordinary one for a court reaching a verdict against someone.

2:13

"From the beginning" renders two Greek words that differ by a single space in the oldest manuscripts, which were written without gaps between words. One division gives "from the beginning"; the other gives "as firstfruits," meaning the first portion of a harvest, and would mean the Thessalonians were the first converts of their region. Ancient copies are split, and the choice cannot be settled from the letters alone. "Sanctification" means being set apart, marked off for a particular use, rather than moral improvement as such.

2:14

"Gospel" translates euangelion, which in ordinary Greek meant good news announced in public, such as word of a military victory or the birth of an emperor. It is an announcement that something has happened, not a set of instructions.

2:15

"Traditions" translates paradosis, meaning something handed over and passed on from one person to the next. In the first century it was the ordinary word for transmitted instruction, whether by mouth or in writing, and carried none of the modern suggestion of old custom or mere habit. "Epistle" simply means letter.

2:16

"Consolation" and the verb "comfort" in the next verse are the same Greek root, which covers comforting, encouraging and urging someone on; English needs two words where the Greek has one family. "Grace" translates charis, a favor given freely to someone who has no claim on it.

2:17

"Stablish" is an older form of "establish." The Greek verb means to set something firmly in place, to prop or brace it so it cannot be shifted, and it is the same image as "stand fast" in verse 15.