What Does 2 Thessalonians 2:7 Mean?

(7) **For.**—Logically, the “for” belongs to the clause “he that letteth;” thus:” For, although the mystery is already at work, the wicked one will not be revealed until he that now withholds shall disappear.” **The mystery of iniquity doth already work.**—Both “mystery” and “iniquity” have the article in the Greek, perhaps (as in 2Thessalonians 2:3) because the phrase was well known to the Thessalonians. *Lawlessness* is a more literal rendering than “iniquity”; the same word in 1John 3:4 is rendered “the transgression of the law.” The word “mystery” in Greek does not necessarily involve any notion of mysteriousness in our modern sense. It means a secret (which may be, in its own nature, quite simple) known to the initiated, but incapable of being known until it is divulged. Here the whole emphasis is thrown, by a very peculiar order of the Greek words, upon the word “mystery.” It may be paraphrased thus:—“For *as a secret, *into which the world is not yet initiated, that lawlessness is *already* at work.” Thus the word “mystery” stands in sharp contrast with the word “revealed” in 2Thessalonians 2:6; 2Thessalonians 2:8 : the time for publishing, openly avowing, the secret is not yet come. To whom, then, is the mystery of that lawlessness now known? Not to all those who are contributing to its ultimate manifestation, for most of them are deceived by it (2Thessalonians 2:10), and, while sharers in the Apostasy, still believe themselves members of the Church. The mystery is known to God, and (1) to enlightened Christians like St. Paul; (2) to Satan and a few Satanic men who avow to themselves their real object in joining the movement. Though the mystery is said to work (the verb expresses an inward activity, *e.g., *1Thessalonians 2:13, Romans 7:5, like that of leaven on the lump), it is not a personal thing, not (like “Man of Sin,” “that which withholdeth,”) a covert description of any person or set of persons; it is solely the unavowed design which is gradually gaining influence over men’s hearts: it is the same movement as the “falling away” of 2Thessalonians 2:3. In several places (*e.g., *2Peter 2:1 *et seq.;* Jude 1:18 *et seq.*) the coarser side of the “falling away” is spoken of, but here the “lawlessness” seems not so much to mean ordinary antinomianism as insubordination to God—rebellion. **Only he. . . .**—More correctly, *Only *[*it cannot be revealed*]* until he that now withholdeth disappear from the midst.* The English version has obscured the meaning by putting “letteth,” although the word is precisely the same as in 2Thessalonians 2:6—the only difference being that there it was neuter: “the thing which withholdeth;” while here it is masculine:” he.” Evidently to St. Paul’s mind there was a great obstructive power, which was gathered up in, and wielded by, the person so described:” he that withholdeth.” How this potentate would “disappear out of our midst” St. Paul gives no hint; but obviously not by death: for, unless the power itself was to disappear with him, his successor would equally be “he that now withholdeth.” We may therefore say that the prophecy would be satisfied if “he that withholdeth” proved to be a whole succession of persons; we have hardly the same right to say so of the “Lawless One.”