2 Thessalonians 2:2-3
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
2 not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed either by a “spirit,”[a] or by an oral statement, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand.(A) 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For unless the apostasy comes first and the lawless one is revealed,[b] the one doomed to perdition,
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- 2:2 “Spirit”: a Spirit-inspired utterance or ecstatic revelation. An oral statement: literally, a “word” or pronouncement, not necessarily of ecstatic origin. A letter allegedly sent by us: possibly a forged letter, so that Paul calls attention in 2 Thes 3:17 to his practice of concluding a genuine letter with a summary note or greeting in his own hand, as at Gal 6:11–18 and elsewhere.
- 2:3b–5 This incomplete sentence (anacoluthon, 2 Thes 2:4) recalls what the Thessalonians had already been taught, an apocalyptic scenario depicting, in terms borrowed especially from Dn 11:36–37 and related verses, human self-assertiveness against God in the temple of God itself. The lawless one represents the climax of such activity in this account.
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