Tuesday, October 4, 2022

M. Eugene Boring on "the Restrainer" (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7)

  

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)