RSV ~ 2 Thessalonians 2 Notes
2 Thess 2:1-12 | ISB Notes
Paul combats misinformation in Thessalonica that the day of the Second Coming is at hand. This appears to be the teaching of doomsday prophets who may have gotten the idea from a misreading of 1 Thessalonians (especially 1 Thess 5:2). In any case, they apparently forged a letter to this effect in Paul’s name and claimed to have had personal revelations to back it up. To silence these troublemakers and steady his shaken readers, Paul lays out the eschatological sequence of events that must take place before the “day of the Lord” dawns on the world (2 Thess 2:2). Though the basic outline of this prophecy is clear, no clear consensus exists in ancient or modern scholarship on how to understand many of its details (CCC 673-74).
2 Thess 2:1 | ISB Notes
the coming of our Lord: The return of Christ, who will come again in glory (Acts 1:11) to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42).
our assembling: Believers, both living and deceased, will be taken up with the Lord into heavenly glory (1 Thess 4:16-17).
2 Thess 2:2 | ISB Notes
shaken … or excited: False prophets are unsettling Paul’s readers, whose suffering and affliction seem to reinforce allegations that the tribulation of the last days is under way and is about to give way to the Second Coming (1:6; 1 Thess 2:14).
by spirit or by word: i.e., by charismatic revelations. These need to be measured against apostolic teaching in order to test their authenticity (1 Cor 14:29; 1 Thess 5:20-21).
by letter: i.e., by a forged document claiming to come from Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy (1:1). Paul considers this a form of deception (2:3).
the day of the Lord: The Day of Judgment. See note on 1 Thess 5:2.
2 Thess 2:3 | ISB Notes
the rebellion: Or, “the apostasy”. Paul envisions a time of terrible confusion and massive falling away from God at the end of days (1 Tim 4:1-2; 2 Tim 3:1-5).
the man of lawlessness: A man of extraordinary evil. When he comes, he will deify himself, claiming to be God (2:4); he will dazzle the wicked with displays of his power (2:9); and he will deceive the world with falsehoods of every kind (2:10). Most identify this figure with “the antichrist” prophesied by John (1 Jn 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 Jn 1:7) (CCC 675-77).
son of perdition: A Semitic way of saying “one who is doomed to destruction”. Jesus gave this title to his betrayer, Judas Iscariot (Jn 17:12).
2 Thess 2:4 | ISB Notes
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).
2 Thess 2:7 | ISB Notes
mystery of lawlessness: The secret operation of evil in the world. Readers are already getting a taste of this through the bitter experience of persecution (1:4). The steady build-up of iniquity throughout history is paving the way for an explosion of evil in the last days (CCC 385).
2 Thess 2:8 | ISB Notes
Jesus will slay him: Christ will descend from heaven as a divine Warrior to destroy the man of lawlessness with a word and trample the last remnants of evil underfoot (1 Cor 15:24).
the breath of his mouth: Or, “the Spirit of his mouth”.
• Paul is alluding to Is 11:4, where the Messiah appears as a judge who vindicates the poor and oppressed and slays the wicked with his powerful word.
2 Thess 2:9 | ISB Notes
activity of Satan: Suggests the man of lawlessness is an instrument in the hands of the devil.
pretended signs: Displays of demonic power that will captivate sinners and lead them blindly astray. These are not miracles in the strict sense, which are properly the work of God, but illusions that make sinners think the power of God is being witnessed.
2 Thess 2:11 | ISB Notes
a strong delusion: God will respond to the wicked by worsening their problem. Because they will defy God and willfully reject the truth, he will permit them to love their evils and errors without the merciful restraint of his grace (Is 6:9-10; 29:9-10). See note on Rom 1:24.
• Paul says “God will send” because, by his own just judgment, God will permit the devil to do these things. Being judged in this way, sinners will be deceived; and being deceived, they will be judged (St. Augustine, City of God 20, 19).
2 Thess 2:13 | ISB Notes
God chose you: By an eternal decree of love (Eph 1:5).
sanctification: The processes of becoming “holy”, which Paul naturally links with the Holy Spirit’s work within us. See note on 1 Thess 4:3.
2 Thess 2:15 | ISB Notes
the traditions: The teaching that Paul handed over to his readers, whether in writing or by oral instruction. This was the standard against which doctrinal claims (2:5) and moral behavior (3:6) were to be measured and judged. Even Paul’s personal example was a form of apostolic catechesis (3:79; 1 Cor 11:2; 2 Tim 1:13) (CCC 75-76, 82).
• The apostles did not hand down everything in writing; many unwritten things were handed down as well, and both written and unwritten are worthy of belief. So let us also regard the tradition of the Church as worthy of belief (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on 2 Thessalonians 4).