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2Th_2:3-4. An emphatically-repeated exhortation, and the reason of it. The readers were by no means to be misled into the fancy, that the day of the Lord was now to dawn; for the apostasy and the appearance of Antichrist must precede it.
ἐξαπατᾶν ] does not precisely convey the idea of a deceit occurring from wicked intention, whilst it may be correctly imagined that nothing evil was seen in the mode of deception mentioned in 2Th_2:2—rather it was considered as an excusable vehicle for the diffusion of views which were believed to be recognised as true; only the idea of delusion, i.e. of being misled into a false and incorrect mode of contemplation, is expressed by the verb.
When, then, the apostle says, Let no man befool you, it is, similar to a form of representation usual to him, in the meaning of suffer yourselves to be befooled by no one. Comp. Eph_5:6; Col_2:16; Col_2:18.
κατὰ μηδένα τρόπον ] not only recapitulates the three modes of misleading mentioned in 2Th_2:2 (Bengel, Baumgarten-Crusius), but is an absolute expression, so that accordingly it may be supposed that some other mode of deception might be employed.
The sentence 2Th_2:3-4 is grammatically incomplete. The finite verb to ὅτι is wanting, which Paul intended to accompany the conjunction, but easily forgot as he added to ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῆς ἁμαρτίας a longer description. It is perfectly clear from the connection that οὐκ ἐνέστηκεν ἡ ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου from 2Th_2:2 is to be supplied to ὅτι . In a very forced manner Knatchbull attempts to remove the incompleteness of the construction by placing a comma after ὅτι , supplying ἐνέστηκεν to ὅτι , and uniting it with μή τις … τρόπον into one sentence. “Suffer yourselves to be deceived by no one that (the day of the Lord is at the door), unless first there shall have come,” etc. To maintain this meaning ἐνέστηκεν must necessarily be added to ὅτι . But still more arbitrary is the attempt of Storr and Flatt to remove the ellipsis by explaining ἐὰν μή as analogous (!) to the Hebrew àÄí ìÉà , in the sense of most certainly, most positively.
ὅτι ] is to be separated from the preceding by a colon, and does not denote indeed (Baumgarten-Crusius), but for.
ἀποστασία ] a later Greek form for the older ἀπόστασις . See Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 528. The expression is to be left in its absoluteness, not, with Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Augustin (de civitate dei, xx. 21), and Bolten, to be taken as abstractum pro concreto, so that Antichrist himself is to be understood. But not apostasy in the political sense, but entirely religious apostasy—that is, a falling away from God and true religion—can have been meant by ἀποστασία . (1) What is said of the ἄνθρωτος τῆς ἁμαρτίας in direct internal connection with the apostasy, (2) the characteristic of the ἀποστασία , 2Th_2:3, by ἀνομία , 2Th_2:7, and (3) the constant biblical usage, constrain us to this view. Comp. LXX. 2Ch_29:19; Jer_2:19; 1Ma_2:15, etc.; Act_21:21; 1Ti_4:1. Accordingly, also, Kern’s view (comp. already Aretius and Vorstius) is to be rejected as inadmissible, that we are to think of a mixture of political and religious apostasy.
Moreover, the apostle speaks of ἡ ἀποστασία (with the article), and also ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῆς ἁμαρτίας κ . τ . λ ., either because the readers had already been orally instructed concerning it (comp. 2Th_2:5), or because the Old Testament prophets had already foretold the apostasy and the appearance of Antichrist. But the apostasy is not the consequence of the appearance of Antichrist, so that Paul by καὶ ἀποκαλυφθῇ κ . τ . λ . goes backwards from a statement of its effect to a specification of its author (so Pelt and de Wette, appealing to 2Th_2:9-10); but it precedes the appearance of antichrist, so that this is the historical climax of the ἀποστασία , and serves for its completion (2Th_2:7-10).
The apostle considers Antichrist as a parallel to Christ; therefore he here speaks of an ἀποκάλυψις (comp. 2Th_1:7), a revelation of what was hitherto concealed, as well as, in 2Th_2:9, of an advent of the same.
ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῆς ἁμαρτίας ] the man of sin, i.e. in whom sin is the principal matter, and is, as it were, incorporated—who thus forms the climax of wickedness.
ὁ υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας ] the son of perdition, i.e. who on account of his wickedness falls a prey to perdition. Comp. Joh_17:12. See Winer, p. 213 [E. T. 298]. Schleusner and Pelt erroneously take the expression as transitive: “who will be the cause of perdition to others.” Equally erroneously Theodoret, Oecumenius, and others; also Heydenreich and Schott: the transitive sense is to be united with the intransitive.