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our distance is whether in the present passage Paul expected this to happen yet another time, or
whether he was simply using well-known ‘anti-Christ’ events to describe the Rebel’s selfdeification.”
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Some commentators and exegetes take the word out of its context. They remove the
word from the broader context of this section in which Paul speaks of the revelation of the “man
of lawlessness” in futuristic terminology. Wanamaker boldly says:
2 Thes. 2:3f., however, reads like prophecy about historical events to come, and it is
almost certain that this is how Paul and his readers would have understood it. The
passage can no longer be understood as valid, since the temple was destroyed in AD 70
without the manifestation of the person of lawlessness or the return of Christ occurring.
In order to maintain the continuing validity of the passage, some deny the obvious
reference to the historical temple at Jerusalem. 50
Scripture, however, is not to be discarded as unimportant or as no longer applicable. God has
preserved this letter of Paul as his inspired word. The comfort and warnings Paul gave to the
Thessalonian Christians are words of comfort and warning to all generations as well.
Some have taken the word out of the context of this very passage. With the phrase ἐπὶ
πάντα λεγόμενον θεὸν ἢ σέβασμα (“over everything that is called God or object of worship”) Paul
does not limit the Antichrist’s usurpation of authority to the Christian or Jewish faith. Lenski
says,
By saying “everyone called God,” etc., the Antichrist’s lawlessness is described as being
worse than that of the worst pagans. Pharaohs and Roman emperors were deified and
claimed divine honors, but never for one moment did they do this “against” any of their
pagan gods, temples, altars, etc. Antiochus desecrated the Jewish Temple, but he did it
by erecting an altar to Zeus. About thirteen years before the writing of this epistle
Caligula, the Roman emperor, did the same by trying to have his own statue erected in
the Jewish Temple, but even he was in no way opposing and exalting himself against the
Roman gods and objects of worship. 51
49 Gordon D. Fee, The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009), 284.
50 Charles A. Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand
Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990), 248.
51 R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians, to the Thessalonians, to
Timothy, to Titus and to Philemon (Minneapolis, MN: The Wartburg Press, 1946), 409.
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