Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Thessalonians · About this commentary
The Rebellion, and the Man of Sin
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4
3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction. · WEB
Two things must happen before that day, and the text describes the second of them in detail without ever giving him a name.
Let no one deceive you in any way. The answer to the panic is a sequence: the day will not come unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction.
The word for rebellion is apostasia G646, and Scripture uses it in only one other place — the charge that Paul taught Jews to forsake Moses Acts 21:21. Its sense there is defection from something previously held. What is predicted is therefore a falling away from within, not merely opposition from outside.
Verse 4 gives the profile, and every clause is a marker. He opposes. He exalts himself against all that is called God or is worshiped. He seats himself where God belongs — the word for the building is naos G3485, the inner sanctuary rather than the outer precincts — and displays himself as God. Daniel described a king who exalts himself above every god Daniel 11:36, and a horn speaking great words against the Most High Daniel 7:25; the ambition is older still, in the boast to ascend above the stars and be like the Most High Isaiah 14:13–14. Scripture does not name him — it describes him, marker by marker, until a name is unnecessary.
held with reason What this mark means