2 Thessalonians 2:8

Ιησους, after ο κυριος, is wanting in B and the Syrian witnesses, followed by the T.R. WH query the word, despite the almost unanimous support of the pre-Syrian witnesses (including the versions), to which other editors defer. WH rely on the authority of B, and on the preferability, high in the case of the names of Christ, of the brevior lectio. The O.T. complexion of the passage favours the bare κυριος; see Expos. Note. Moreover the frequency of ο κυριος Ιησους in 1 and 2 Thess. would prompt insertion on the part of copyists; cf. second note on 1 Thessalonians 5:9 above. The Fathers quote this sentence somewhat loosely: “Christ,” “the Lord Christ,” “the Lord Jesus Christ,” but oftenest “the Lord Jesus.”

ανελει in ABP and some minn.; αναλοι, א* Or (probably); ανελοι, D*G 17 67**—latt and vg, however, have interficiet, which points to ανελει; αναλωσει in DcKL &c.; the cop and syrr indicate αναλοι or -λωσει. On the whole, αναλοι commends itself as the mother reading, from which αναλωσει sprang by way of grammatical emendation, and ανελει partly by itacism, or paraphrase, and partly by correction after Isaiah 11:4. See Expository Note.

8. καὶ τότε�. And then (not before) shall be revealed the Lawless One: this sentence resumes 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, in the light of 2 Thessalonians 2:7 b. Καὶ τότε,—by contrast with the foregoing νῦν, ἤδη, ἄρτι, as in 1 Corinthians 4:5 (note also the previous ἕως), 1 Corinthians 13:12; with νῦν following, Romans 6:21; Galatians 4:8 f., Galatians 4:29. Ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῆς� (2 Thessalonians 2:3), the principle of whose existence operated in τὸ μυστήριον τῆς� (2 Thessalonians 2:7), is briefly designated ὁ ἄνομος, just as the heathen, generically, are οἱ ἄνομοί (Acts 2:23; 1 Corinthians 9:21, &c.). For ἀποκαλυφθήσεται, see notes on 2 Thessalonians 2:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:6; and in its relation to μυστήριον, 2 Thessalonians 2:7. Thrice, with persistent emphasis, ἀποκαλύπτεσθαι is asserted of ὁ ἄνομος, as of some portentous, unearthly object holding the gazer spell-bound. His manifestation will be signal, and unmistakable in its import to those whose eyes are not closed by “the deceit of unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:10); “the mystery of lawlessness” will now stand “revealed.”

ὂν ὁ κύριος [Ἰησοῦς] ἀνελεῖ (or ἀναλοῖ) τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ, whom the Lord [Jesus] will slay (or consume) by the breath of His mouth. So that ὁ ἄνομος has scarcely appeared in his full Satanic character and pretensions, when he is swept away by the Redeemer’s advent. The sentence is a reminiscence of Isaiah 11:4, where it is said of the “shoot from the stock of Jesse,” πατάξει γῆν τῷ λόγῳ τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ (Heb. בְּשֵׁבֶט פִּיו, “by the rod of His mouth”) καὶ ἐν πνεύματι διὰ χειλέων� (LXX)—the ἀσεβής of that passage becomes the ἄνομος of this: cf. Job 4:9, ἀπὸ πνεύματος ὀργῆς αὐτοῦ�; also Isaiah 30:33, נִשְׁמַת יהוה כְּנַחַל גָּפְרִית (“the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone”), Psalms 18:8; Psalms 21:9, for theophanies of fiery destructiveness. Later Jewish teaching identified the ἀσεβής of Isaiah 11:4 with Armillus (or Armalgus), the Anti-messiah; see Appendix, pp. 218 f. The terrible metaphor is in keeping with the language of 2 Thessalonians 1:7 f. above, ἀποκάλυψις … ἐν πυρὶ φλογός. Τὸ πνεῦμα (synon. with λόγος of Isaiah 11:4) τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ is not conceived as a physical agent: “the word” or “breath”—the judicial sentence—issuing “from the mouth” of the Lord, has an annihilating effect on the power of the ἄνομος, even as the O.T. λόγος Κυρίου, or πνεῦμα τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ (Psalms 32:6, LXX; cf. Ps. 103:30), operated creatively in the making of the world. As the sight of the Lord Jesus brings punishment on the cruel persecutors of His saints (2 Thessalonians 1:9), so the breath of His mouth suffices to lay low the Titanic Antichrist; “a word shall quickly slay him.”

καὶ καταργήσει τῇ ἐπιφανείᾳ τῆς παρουσίας αὐτοῦ, and will abolish by the apparition of His coming. Ἐπιφάνεια denotes a signal, often a sudden appearance, the coming into sight of that which was previously, or commonly, hidden. The word recurs in the Pastoral Epp., applied once to the First Advent, 2 Timothy 1:10; and four times to the Second (in place of παρουσία), 1 Timothy 6:14; Titus 2:13; 2 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 4:8. Ἐπιφανής, in Acts 2:20 (from the LXX, Joel 2:31), is rendered “notable”; the verb ἐπιφαίνομαι occurs in Titus 2:11; Titus 3:4, in like connexion. Bengel paraphrases the expression, “prima ipsius adventus emicatio,”—“the first dawn of the advent.” This noun belongs to later Greek: it is used of the “dawning of day” (Polybius), of the starting into sight of an enemy, of the apparition of gods to their worshippers, &c.; “dictum de Imperatoris, quasi dei apparitione, accessione ad regnum” (Herwerden, Lexicon Græcum suppletorium); much employed by the Greek Fathers in application to the various appearances of Christ. The Latin translators see in ἐπιφάνεια the brightness of the Advent (cf. ἐν πυρὶ φλογός, 2 Thessalonians 2:7): “illustratione adventus sui” (Vulg.), “illuminatione præsentiæ suæ” (Augustine); similarly Erasmus, “ut accipias claritate Christi advenientis obscuratum iri Antichristum.” For παρουσία, see note on 1 Thessalonians 2:19.

καταργέω, a favourite word of St Paul’s—found once in Euripides, then in Polybius, four times in 2 Esdras (LXX)—signifies by etymology to make idle (ἀργός, ἀ-εργός), inoperative, so to bring to nought, destroy, a thing or person in respect of power and efficacy, to make void, annul: cf., besides instances above, Luke 13:7; Hebrews 2:14; 1 Corinthians 15:24; Galatians 5:11. Severianus aptly says, recalling Colossians 3:4, ζωῆς οὐρανόθεν φανερουμένης, ἀδύνατον μὴ καταργηθῆναι τὸν τοῦ θανάτου πρόξενον. For the whole verse, cf. the description of Christ in Revelation 1:16 f.: ἐκ τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ ῥομφαία δίστομος ὀξεῖα ἐκπορευομένη, καὶ ἡ ὄψις αὐτοῦ ὡς ὁ ήλιος φαίνει ἐν τῇ δυνάμει αὐτοῦ· καὶ ὅτε εἶδον αὐτὸν ἔπεσα … ὡς νεκρός; for the former part of it, Revelation 19:15. St Paul may be thinking here, as in 2 Thessalonians 1:7 f. (see note), of the sudden light and arresting voice by which the Lord Jesus was revealed to himself (Acts 9:3; Acts 22:6). Theodore paraphrases the verse in a striking fashion: ἐξαίφνης�ʼ οὐρανῶν φανεὶς ὁ χριστὸς καὶ μόνον ἐπιβοήσας παύσει τῆς ἐργασίας, ὅλον αὐτὸν� (cf. ἀναλοῖ in text above).