2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

New Catholic Bible

Footnotes

1. 2 Thessalonians 2:1 Paul uses the style and manner of apocalypses, but he speaks first and foremost as an apostle. He employs images and symbols to express where he is going and where he is leading the faithful. From the very beginning of Biblical history, God and Satan (i.e., the forces of evil) are involved in an implacable combat in which human beings are at the same time the terrain and the stakes. Christ is the conqueror of these evil forces. His victory, obtained on the cross, will be manifested on the great Day of his majestic return. We must prepare for this Coming.
2. 2 Thessalonians 2:1 Paul indicates that a problem has arisen concerning the circumstances surrounding the Day of the Lord. In times of crisis, there are always falsehood-mongers to whom the faithful give willing ear—but whom they should avoid altogether. So the Apostle intends to set forth certain features of the Day in order to correct what is being falsely claimed.
3. 2 Thessalonians 2:2 Is already here: Paul insists that the Day of the Lord has not already come, for the final days have not begun and their completion is not imminent.
4. 2 Thessalonians 2:3 Making use of images borrowed from the Prophets and from the authors of apocalypses, Paul brings on stage the forces of evil and the true witnesses of God: they constitute respectively the adversary and the obstacle. The portrait of the adversary gathers together in one personage all the doers of evil who are based on the historical enemies of God’s people in the Old Testament—especially Antiochus IV Epiphanes (see Dan 11:36) who in his supreme folly wanted to make himself a god.
   The obstacle, which was doubtlessly well known to the Thessalonians, stands for a more obscure reality for us; it could refer to the ensemble of believers who work to bring about the Kingdom of God (see also note on 2:6 below). Even though their victory is to be awaited, it is no less assured. This victory is based upon the Paschal Mystery with its twofold aspect of Death and Resurrection. Throughout the centuries, the forces of death and the People of God never cease to confront one another in the life of the world, in the heart of each person.
5. 2 Thessalonians 2:3 That Day cannot come: these words have been supplied in the text in order to bring out more clearly Paul’s meaning; the original sentence is incomplete. The lawless one . . . the son of destruction . . . the adversary: the leader of the rebellion, who will also come to be called “the Antichrist” (1 Jn 2:18; 4:3; 2 Jn 7).
6. 2 Thessalonians 2:6 What is now restraining him: some suggestions about the identity of this obstacle (in addition to the one mentioned in note 2:3b-12 above) are: the Roman State and its emperor; the principle of law embodied in the state; the Holy Spirit through the Church; and the preaching of the Gospel (possibly by Paul himself), for the end could not come until the Gospel was preached to all nations (see Mk 13:10).
7. 2 Thessalonians 2:8 Paul describes what will precede the Lord’s coming. He glimpses, toward the end of human history, a spectacular offensive launched by the forces of evil under the instigation of Satan. A great apostasy will follow (see Mt 24:10-12; Lk 18:8; 21:12-19; 1 Tim 4:1). The lawless one is both anti-God and anti-Christ, but he will not have the last word. On the day, when he thinks he has conquered, he will be confronted with the dazzling manifestation of Christ and completely overcome.
8. 2 Thessalonians 2:10 Love of the truth: one of Paul’s most felicitous expressions, it refers to love of the Gospel, the acceptance of this unprecedented gift that comes from the Father, Christ, and the Spirit. To refuse it is to exclude oneself from love forever.