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Gordon Fee takes a different position based on the idea of the parallelism of Hebrew
poetry. 85 He says,
At the same time, the poetic nature of this sentence seems to disallow altogether that
these two lines of (now poetic) prose intend two different events. Indeed, it is the nature
of such synonymous parallelism in Hebrew poetry that the second line usually simply
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elaborates or intensifies what is said in the first line.
While the parallelism of Hebrew poetry is something to recognize, one cannot necessarily make
such conclusions with Paul’s words here. When one looks at Isaiah 11:4, the first phrase is
indeed intensified with the second. The subjects of both phrases, however, are similar: “the rod
of his mouth” and “the breath of his lips.” Here the subjects are two different aspects of the Lord
Jesus; first, the breath of his mouth, and second, the appearance of his coming. This seems to
imply two different actions or events. When these events will take place and how much time
will be between them is unknown. Paul does not want to raise different concerns with the
Thessalonians by causing them to fear this great evil force. There will be no question as to what
will be the outcome. The Lord Jesus will stand victorious over the clearly defeated “lawless
one.”
The Lord will abolish him “with the appearance of his coming” (τῇ ἐπιφανείᾳ τῆς
παρουσίας αὐτοῦ). ἐπιφάνεια (“appearance”) is a rather rare noun in the New Testament. Outside
of this letter, it only appears five other times, all in Paul’s pastoral epistles. Paul uses it once in 2
Timothy 1:10 to refer to the first appearance of Christ on this earth at his birth. The other four
references (1 Ti 6:14; 2 Ti 4:1,8; Tit 2:13) all refer to his appearance in judgment as he returns in
glory, much similar to the use here. D. Michael Martin suggests, “The term implies a visible
demonstration of the presence of a formerly unseen deity. It may consist of a revelation of the
deity himself or a revelation of his power through some visible act.” 87
85 Other commentators see this sentence as parallelism to describe the same action: Hendriksen (183),
Ward (160), and Martin (243).
86 Gordon D. Fee, The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009), 292.
87 D. Michael Martin, 1, 2 Thessalonians. Vol. 33, The New American Commentary (Broadman & Holman
Publishers, 1995), 242.
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