Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, The man of lawlessness and the restrainer
Paul tells a church unsettled by claims that the day of the Lord has already come that the rebellion must come first and the man of lawlessness be revealed, who sets himself up in God's temple claiming to be God; something holds him back for now, and the Lord Jesus will destroy him by the breath of his mouth.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, in every translation this tool compares.
Some in the church have been told, by a prophecy, a report or even a letter said to be from Paul, that the Lord's day is already here. Paul says it cannot be, because a great rebellion must come first and a man of lawlessness must appear who sets himself up as God in God's temple. Something or someone is holding him back for now, but when he appears the Lord Jesus will destroy him, and those who refused the truth will be deceived. Who the restrainer is, which temple is meant and how the passage is fulfilled are all debated.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/hailing-a-king\/","n":"Hailing a king","s":"A colt nobody had ridden, cloaks on the road, waving branches, kneeling, the cry Hail, and the delegation that went out to meet a visiting ruler: the public gestures that greeted a king.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/day-of-the-lord\/","n":"The day of the Lord","s":"The prophets spoke of a coming day when God would judge the world and rescue his people. Paul calls it the day of Christ, giving Jesus the place the prophets gave to God.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/antichrist\/","n":"Antichrist and the lawless one","s":"Daniel's king who exalts himself above every god and defiles the sanctuary became a pattern Jews saw again in Antiochus, Pompey and Caligula. Paul's man of lawlessness, who sets himself up in God's temple claiming to be God, belongs to that line.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/temple-and-courts\/","n":"The temple and its courts","s":"Herod's huge rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, believed to be God's dwelling, laid out in courts that kept Gentiles, women and Jewish men at set distances.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-satan\/","n":"The satan, the tempter","s":"The accuser, tempter and deceiver of Jewish belief, seen as the power behind human and political evil. In the Gospels he tests Jesus and is the strong man Jesus binds, and John calls him the ruler of this world.","r":""}
Coming and gathering both come from Jesus' sayings (Matthew 24:3, 27, 31) (Keener and his notes), and the cultural backgrounds article finds the coming, parousia, uncommon in earlier Jewish sources, while lawlessness, apostasy and false prophets were stock items in Jewish lists of end-time sufferings. How anyone could think the day had come is not obvious: Keener and his notes suggest Greeks with no idea of a future resurrection took the future as fulfilled; Wright and Bird argue that the claim shows the day cannot have meant the end of the world. The abomination recalls Daniel, and Daniel came to mind again when Pilate brought the emperor's images into Jerusalem in AD 26 and when Caligula ordered his statue set up in the temple (Wilkins); even Romans normally deified rulers only after death (the cultural backgrounds article on the imperial cult). Only here is he called the man of lawlessness, and Carson, Moo and Morris write, "He is telling us something new". Who sends the delusion is read differently: Heiser has Satan empower the signs and God send the delusion, Arnold has God permit "evil spirits of deception to delude non-Christians", and Wright compares Pharaoh's hardened heart.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, and on 2 Thessalonians 2:1 and 2:2
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on 2 Thessalonians 2:2
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, articles Jesus' Teachings as Background in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, and The Imperial Cult (Revelation 13)
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians, comment on 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 18, The Argument of 2 Thessalonians
- Michael S. Heiser, Reversing Hermon, Appendix V, The Ancient Antichrist Profile: Jew or Gentile?
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 14, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, The Contribution of the Thessalonian Epistles
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Matthew 24:15
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 12, Ongoing Hostility and One Final Rebellion
