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2Th_2:10. Καὶ ἐν πάσῃ ἀπάτῃ ἀδικίας ] and in every deceit which leads to or advances unrighteousness, i.e. ungodliness (Estius, Aretius, Grotius, de Wette, and others).
But this energetic working of Antichrist by no means describes his power as irresistible; only the ἀπολλύμενοι succumb under it. Theodoret: Οὐ γὰρ πάντων κρατήσει , ἀλλὰ τῶν ἀπωλείας ἀξίων , οἳ καὶ δίχα τῆς τούτου παρουσίας σφᾶς αὐτοὺς τῆς σωτηρίας ἐστέρησαν .
τοῖς ἀπολλυμένοις ] is dativus incommodi, and belongs not only to ἐν πάσῃ ἀπάτῃ ἀδικίας (Heydenreich, Flatt, Hofmann), but to the whole sentence from 2Th_2:9 onwards.
οἱ ἀπολλύμενοι ] are they who perish, who fall into eternal ἀπώλεια (comp. 1Co_1:18; 2Co_2:15; 2Co_4:3), and the present participle characterizes this future fate as already decided. Comp. Bernhardy, Syntax, p. 371. But the addition ἀνθʼ ὧν κ . τ . λ . denotes that this was occasioned by their own fault.
ἀνθʼ ὧν τὴν ἀγάπην τῆς ἀληθείας οὐκ ἐδέξαντο ] in requital for this (comp. Luk_1:20; Luk_19:44; Act_12:23; LXX. 1Ki_11:11; Joe_3:5; Xen. Anab. i. 3. 4, ibid. v. 5. 14), that they have not received in themselves the love of the truth. To interpret, with Bolten: τὴν ἀγάπην τῆς ἀληθείας , “the loveable and true religion,” is naturally as impossible as, with Chrysostom, Theodoret,[51] Oecumenius, and Theophylact, to find therein a circumlocution for Christ Himself. ἡ ἀλήθεια denotes moral and religious truth generally, not, as is usually supposed, Christian truth specially. Thus every objection which Kern (p. 212) takes to it vanishes, that τὴν ἀγάπην τῆς ἀληθείας οὐκ ἐδέξαντο was written instead of the simple τὴν ἀλήθειαν οὐκ ἐδέξαντο . For in a similar manner, as the apostle in Gal_5:5, instead of the simple δικαιοσύνην ἀπεκδεχόμεθα , which one would expect, put the apparently strange ἐλπίδα δικαιοσύνης ἀπεκδεχόμεθα , but did so designedly, in order to oppose to the arrogant feeling of the legally righteous the humble feeling of the true Christian; so here the expression τὴν ἀγάπην τῆν ἀληθείας οὐκ ἐδέξαντο is designedly chosen to bring forward the high degree of guilt. Not only have they not received the Christian truth presented to them; for it might be still conceivable that they highly esteemed the truth itself and felt themselves drawn to it, although in consequence of spiritual blindness they had not known and recognised Christianity as an embodiment and full expression of the truth; but they have not even received into their hearts the love of the truth under whatever form it may be presented to them; they have rendered themselves entirely unsusceptible of the truth, they have hardened themselves against it.
εἰς τὸ σωθῆναι αὐτούς ] in order that they might be saved, brings still more prominently forward this hardness. They ought to have received that ἀγάπη τῆς ἀληθείας , to the end that they might receive σωτηρία , eternal salvation. But the attainment of such an end did not trouble them, was something indifferent to them.
[51] Ἀγάπην ἀληθείας τὸν κύριον κέκληκεν , ὡς ἀληθῶς ἡμᾶς καὶ γνησίως ἀγαπήσαντα .