Passage

2 Thessalonians 2.7

Book: 2 Thessalonians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

5. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6. And now ye know that which restraineth, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season.

7. For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way.

And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of his coming; 9. even he, whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, (2 Thessalonians 2:5-9, ASV)

WEB

5. Don’t you remember that, when I was still with you, I told you these things? 6. Now you know what is restraining him, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season.

7. For the mystery of lawlessness already works. Only there is one who restrains now, until he is taken out of the way.

Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his coming; 9. even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, (2 Thessalonians 2:5-9, WEB)

KJV

5. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6. And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. ^{withholdeth: or, holdeth}

7. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9. Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, (2 Thessalonians 2:5-9, KJV)

YLT

5. Do ye not remember that, being yet with you, these things I said to you? 6. and now, what is keeping down ye have known, for his being revealed in his own time,

7. for the secret of the lawlessness doth already work, only he who is keeping down now [will hinder], till he may be out of the way,

and then shall be revealed the Lawless One, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the manifestation of his presence, 9. [him,] whose presence is according to the working of the Adversary, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, (2 Thessalonians 2:5-9, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

Speaker: Paul the Apostle, on the present operation of what is not yet revealed.
Audience: The church at Thessalonica, capital of the Roman province of Macedonia and a free city on the Via Egnatia. Paul had planted the congregation only months earlier (Acts 17:1-9) and left the city under duress; the believers were still under local pressure, and had been unsettled by a report that the day of the Lord had already arrived (2:2).
Location: Most probably Corinth, where Silvanus and Timothy were with Paul (Acts 18:5), written shortly after 1 Thessalonians.
Time period: c. AD 50-52. The date is anchored by the Gallio inscription at Delphi, which places the proconsulship of Achaia held by Gallio (Acts 18:12) at roughly AD 51-52.

Theological reading

"The mystery of lawlessness is already at work." Mysterion in Paul normally means something hidden that God discloses, as at Romans 16:25 and Ephesians 3:3-6. Here the word is turned toward evil: lawlessness has its own hidden operation, running now, awaiting a public unveiling that will parallel and parody the revealing of Christ.

Present tense, present tense. Both "is at work" and "restrains" are present. The verse holds two things at once: evil is genuinely operative already, and it is genuinely held in check already. Neither half should be dropped. Read alone, the first produces despair and the second produces complacency.

"He who restrains." The masculine participle here, against the neuter of verse 6, is the crux of the passage. No proposal accounts for the pair without some strain, and Paul's own explanation was given orally (2:5).

"Until he is out of the midst." The Greek phrase is spatial and does not name an agent. It is compatible with removal by another and with departure. Translations that supply "taken out of the way" are making a defensible choice, not reading an explicit passive.

What the verse is for. It explains why the day has not come without telling the readers to do anything about it. The instruction of the chapter arrives at 2:15, and it is to stand firm and hold what was taught.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G2722 - katecho, katecho, Strong's G2722
G3466 - mysterion, mysterion, Strong's G3466
G1096 - ginomai, ginomai, Strong's G1096

Quoted in

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.