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2Th_3:3. A contrast to οὐ γὰρ πάντων ἡ πίστις , with a play upon the word πίστις , and a return to the statement in 2Th_2:16-17.
ὁ κύριος ] not a designation of God (Schott, Schrader, Olshausen, and Hilgenfeld, Ztschr. f. wiss. Theol., Halle 1862, p. 261), but of Christ. His faithfulness consists in this, that He, as Protector of the church, watches over the continuance of the faith, and effects its diffusion in spite of all ἄτοποι and πονηροί . Strikingly, Calvin: “Ceterum de aliis magis quam de se anxium fuisse Paulum, ostendunt haec ipsa verba. In eum maligni homines improbitatis suae aculeos dirigebant, in eum totus impetus irruebat: curam interea suam ad Thessalonicenses convertit.”
τοῦ πονηροῦ ] is, by Calvin, Musculus, Estius, Piscator, Menochius, Nat. Alexander, Benson, Bengel, Baumgarten, Moldenhauer, Macknight, Olshausen, Hofmann, also Cornelius a Lapide, Er. Schmid, and Beza, though not decidedly held by the latter, understood as masculine, accordingly as a designation of the devil. In itself nothing can be objected against this interpretation, as in Mat_13:19 and elsewhere frequently in the N. T., also with Paul in Eph_6:16, ὁ πονηρός is found in this sense. But here this interpretation is untenable, because ὃς στηρίξει ὑμᾶς καὶ φμλάξει ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ evidently resumes στηρίξαι ἐν παντὶ ἔργῳ καὶ λόγῳ ἀγαθῷ , 2Th_2:17, and only arranges it positively and negatively. But if τοῦ πονηροῦ corresponds to the negation of the position ἐν παντὶ ἔργῳ καὶ λόγῳ ἀγαθῷ , it must be neuter, and denote moral evil generally. But it would be arbitrary to make this neuter equivalent to τῶν πονηρῶν ἀνθρώπων , to which Koppe and Flatt give their countenance.