2 Thessalonians 2:5

It was no after-thought, on Paul's part (the singular rules out Spitta's idea that Timothy wrote this apocalyptic piece). Nor was it an idiosyncrasy of his teaching. Especially since the days of Antiochus Epiphanes (Daniel 7:11; cf. Gunkel's Schöpfung u. Chaos, 221 f.), a more or less esoteric and varied Jewish tradition had pervaded pious circles, that the last days would be heralded by a proud uprising against God. The champion of this movement was no longer the Dragon or cosmic opponent of God, as in the older mythology (though traces of this belief still linger), but an individual (ὁ ἄνομος) who incorporates human wickedness (τὸ μυστήριον τῆς ἀνομίας) and infernal cunning in his own person, and who essays to supplant and suppress the worship of the true God, by claiming divine honours for himself. He is Satan's messiah, an infernal caricature of the true messiah. Cf. Asc. Isa., iv. 6, where it is said that Belial “will do and speak like the Beloved and he will say, I am God and before me there has been none”.