ostle,
we may be sure that 2 Thessalonians was written during St. Paul's first
stay at Corinth.

[Sidenote: Character and Contents.]

The Epistle consists of instruction and exhortation. The most
characteristic passage is ii. 1-12. The apostle declares that he never
taught that the day of the Lord is about to dawn immediately (ii. 2).
It must be preceded by several events. There will be an apostasy, the
revelation of "the man of sin, the son of perdition," who will assume
equality with God and sit in the temple of God. Over against this "man
of sin" we find placed "one that restraineth now." Many strange
interpretations of these two phrases have been devised, and the fancy
of commentators has ranged over various historical monsters from
Mohammed to Napoleon Bonaparte. One favourite idea is that the
description of the man of sin "setting himself forth as God" refers to
the worship offered to the Roman emperors, and to the attempt made by
Caligula in A.D. 39 to place his statue in the temple at Jerusalem.
But it seems far better to regard the man of sin as hostile Judaism,
personified in an Antichrist who pretends to be the representative of
God foretold in Mal. iii. 1. The other force which St. Paul personifies
is the curbing power of a strong government as then seen in the
administrative system of the Roman empire. The power of Rome protected
him against Jewish fanaticism at this period (Acts xix. 35-41; xxii.
22-29), but in this truly irreligious fanaticism he discerned a latent
mysterious evil (ii. 7) which would afterwards reveal itself in hideous
excesses. While "the man of sin," or {132} "wicked one," thus wreaks
his will, Christ will come and consume him with the breath of His mouth.

St. Paul understood the real genius of the antichristian Jews. Early
in the 2nd century they began a series of rebellions against the power
of Rome, committing horrible atrocities. These rebellions culminated
between A.D. 132 and 135. The Jews then rallied round a pretended
Messiah, Simon Bar Kocheba, whom they named "Prince of Israel"; they
killed the Christians who refused to blaspheme Jesus, and they captured
Jerusalem from the Romans. After a fierce struggle the Romans took
Jerusalem again, and crowds of Jews were either massacred, or sold as
slaves by the oak of Abraham at Hebron and in the markets of Egypt.

ANALYSIS

Salutation, thanksgiving for faith, charity, steadfastness, the
certainty of Christ's com