2 Thessalonians 2:11

An echo of the primitive Semitic view (still extant, cf. Curtis's Prim. Sem. Religion To-Day, pp. 69 f.), that God may deliberately lead men astray, or permit them to be fatally infatuated, as a penal discipline (cf. Ps. Sol. 8:15; Test. XII. Patr. Dan. ix.). A modern would view the same phenomenon as wilful scepticism issuing in superstition, or in inability to distinguish truth from falsehood. Delusions of this kind cannot befall believers (cf. Mark 13:22; Test. Issach. iii.). In Test. Napht. iii. 3, idols are πνεύματα πλάνης (cf. Test. Levi. iii. 3, etc.).