ISB ~ 2 Thessalonians 2 v4

exalts himself:The Antichrist will declare himself God and demand to be worshiped.

the temple of God:Identified differently by different interpreters. (1) Some (e.g., St. Irenaeus, St. Cyril of Jerusalem) see it as a reference to the Jerusalem Temple. This view entails a belief that the sanctuary, which now lies in ruins, will be rebuilt in the end times. (2) Others (e.g., St. John Chrysostom, St. Ephraem the Syrian) see a reference to the Church, since in Paul’s theology, believers make up the true Temple of God (1 Cor 3:16; 2 Cor 6:16; Eph 2:21). (3) It is also possible to understand the expression metaphorically, i.e., as a visual description of the Antichrist’s supreme arrogance in putting himself in the place of God.

• Paul’s portrait of the Antichrist is modeled on the blasphemous villains of biblical history, such as the king of Babylon, who wanted to make himself like the Most High and sit enthroned in heaven (Is 14:13-14), the prince of Tyre, who claimed to be a god and sit in the seat of the gods (Ezek 28:2), and the Syrian ruler Antiochus Epiphanes IV, who exalted himself above every god and desecrated the Jerusalem Temple with a pagan altar and idol (Dan 11:36; 1 Mac 1:20-24, 54).