2 Thessalonians 2:3-5
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For unless the apostasy comes first and the lawless one is revealed,[a] the one doomed to perdition, 4 (A)who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship, so as to seat himself in the temple of God,[b] claiming that he is a god— 5 do you not recall that while I was still with you I told you these things?
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- 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.
- 2:4 Seat himself in the temple of God: a reflection of the language in Dn 7:23–25; 8:9–12; 9:27; 11:36–37; 12:11 about the attempt of Antiochus IV Epiphanes to set up a statue of Zeus in the Jerusalem temple and possibly of the Roman emperor Caligula to do a similar thing (Mk 13:14). Here the imagery suggests an attempt to install someone in the place of God, claiming that he is a god (cf. Ez 28:2). Usually, it is the Jerusalem temple that is assumed to be meant; on the alternative view sketched above (see note on 2 Thes 2:1–17), the temple refers to the Christian community.
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