The
author of 2 Thessalonians himself probably did not have in mind a specific
power, principle, or person that was presently restraining the advent of the
Lawless One. He likely intended his depiction to be provocatively obscure. I
thus consider it fruitless to rehearse once again the numerous attempts to
identify him or t. If the author of 1 Thessalonians had anything definite in
mind, whatever or whoever it was indeed is subject to God, who is in charge of
present and future. If one insists on trying to identify some historical
institution or person as “the Restrainer,” interpreters can probably do no
better than the ancient interpretation of the Roman Empire as embodied in the
Roman emperor. This would again position the writer as opposing some views promoted
by the author of Revelation that were circulating in his day and claiming: we
are not in the last days, and the Roman Empire is not the evil
beast/Lawless One, but instead (at present at least) that power of law and
order holds back the forces of chaos and creates a stable world in which the
Christian mission can be carried out. This would be a nuanced view of Roman
power, somewhat like the views circulating in the Pauline churches that would
later be inscribed in 1 Peter, the Pastorals, and Luke-Acts. The exhortation
the author will make in 2 Thess 3:12-13 fits this ethos. (M. Eugene Boring, I
& II Thessalonians: A Commentary [The New Testament Library;
Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015], 276-77)
