2 Thessalonians 2:3

Let noman deceive you by any means beguile you, as the Revisers commonly render this Greek verb, and the A. V. in 2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14, and Romans 7:11 (comp. Genesis 3:13, "the serpent beguiledEve"). It implies a thorough, commonly a wicked deception; comp. also Romans 16:18. The kindred noun (deceit) appears in 2 Thessalonians 2:10.

in any wise (R. V.) points to the variety of ways ("by spirit, word," &c., 2 Thessalonians 2:2) in which the readers were being plied with this delusion.

forthat day shall not come, except there come a falling away first The R. V. supplies the ellipsis more simply: for it will not be. The Apostle's mind becomes absorbed in his description of "the Man of Lawlessness" (2 Thessalonians 2:4), and he forgets to complete the sentence; but his meaning is clear enough. For a similar dropped, or broken sentence comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:11 (see note, and Introd.Chap. VI, on the Style of St Paul). His manner is that of a speaker rather than a studied writer, and such lapses are natural in the freedom of conversation.

"A falling away" is a mistranslation. The Apostle uses the definite article; he refers to the apostasy of which he had spoken distinctly to his readers (2 Thessalonians 2:5). This word in common Greek denotes a military or political revolt, a defection; then in the LXX it is applied to revolting from Gode.g. in Jeremiah 29:32 ("rebellion against the Lord"), Malachi 2:15; Malachi 2:15 ("revolt," consisting in sacrificing to idols): so the corresponding verb in Hebrews 3:12; comp. Acts 21:21 ("thou teachest apostasy from Moses"), 1 Timothy 4:1. Here this ominous expression appears for the first time within the Christian Church, as signifying revolt from Christ, the faithless defection of men "denying the Lord that bought them" (2 Peter 2:1). It is sad to find such a prediction in the earliest writings of the N. T. It originated, doubtless, in the words of Christ, Matthew 24:10-13: "Then shall many stumble … Many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of the many shall wax cold." Comp. the mournful prophecy of Moses concerning the future of his people (Deuteronomy 31:28-29, &c.). This presentiment of St Paul grew in distinctness and was expressed with increasing emphasis, as time went on; comp. Romans 16:17-20; Acts 20:29-30; Ephesians 4:14; 1 Timothy 4:1, &c. Such words as those of 1 Corinthians 16:22 ("If any man love not the Lord, let him be anathema"), and Colossians 2:19 ("not holding fast the Head"), shew that in his view personal loyalty to Christ was the safeguard of Christianity.

As to the particular form and direction of the apostasy, nothing is said, nor as to the time of its rise or duration. Disloyalty to Christ confronted St Paul in his later years in many forms; and ever since the Church has had to straggle with inward corruption, as well as with outward foes. The Apostle anticipates this conflict; he foresees that tares will spring up along with the wheat, and "both" must "grow together until the harvest" (Matthew 13:24-30). Such development of internal evil had not yet taken place, and by this the Thessalonians might be sure that the Day of the Lord had not dawned.

andthat man of sin be revealed Lit., and there be revealed the man of sin; or, according to the reading of the Greek preferred by Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort, in agreement with the two oldest MSS, the man of lawlessness. In 2 Thessalonians 2:7 the writer speaks of "the mystery of lawlessness," as of something present to his readers" minds; and in 2 Thessalonians 2:8 this same "man" is styled "the lawlessone." Throughout St Paul lays the utmost stress upon this attribute of the system of evil, with which he apprehends that the Kingdom of Christ must have a final and conclusive struggle. Lawlessness is the essence of that system, and "the man of lawlessness" its complete impersonation (comp. 1 John 3:4).

Now "lawlessness" is in the Apostle's eyes a characteristic of the Gentile world, which "knew not God" (ch. 2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:5) and had cast off moral restraint. But he looked beneath the formal and outward possession of God's law in the letter, and recognized in the Jewish people the like lawlessness of spirit (Romans 2:1; Romans 2:17-19); while "Gentiles not having law," sometimes "shewed the work of the law written in their hearts" (Romans 2:14-15). "The man of lawlessness" is therefore one in whom St Paul sees the lawlessness of a godless world culminating the ne plus ultraof "the carnal mind" that is "enmity against the law of God," which "is neither subject to His law nor can be" (Romans 8:7). And he is emphatically "the manof lawlessness" (with no distinction of Jew or Gentile; comp. Romans 3:19; Romans 3:23), being the person in whom human nature, in so far as it is separated from and opposed to God (see next ver.), finds its ultimate realisation.

We must distinguish, then, between "the apostasy" and "the man of lawlessness," in that the former is the corruption of the church, while the latter is the culmination of the evil of the world. (Comp. "the wild beast" of Revelation 13:1, "rising out of the" murmuring and restless "sea" of the nations, the "many waters" of ch. Revelation 17:1; Revelation 17:15.) But the two influences, though not identical, are in combination. The former naturally contributes to the latter, an apostate Church paving the way for the advent of an atheistic world-power. We shall find in the next verse an echo of the prophecies of Daniel, so clear as to justify us in regarding these two evil powers as analogous to those of Daniel 8:23: "When the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance shall arise;" where, as it proved in the Maccabean times, the apostasy within Israel gives the signal for the rise of the heathen despot.

"The man of lawlessness" is "the son of perdition," being the one to whom this doom peculiarly belongs, who like Judas Iscariot (John 17:12) in going to "perdition" will "go to his own place" (Acts 1:25). For the Hebraistic phrase "son of" comp, 1 Thessalonians 5:4, and note.

Perditionis synonymous with destruction, ch. 2 Thessalonians 1:9; there it falls on the godless, here on the Lawless One lawlessness being the moral counterpart of godlessness, and both fatal to man's true life.