Page 44 - Watchman- What of the Night

The Exegesis of the Text and Context

Now let us examine the context. It is plain that the Apostle from verse three is
speaking of the apostasy and the rise of the Man of Sin as preceding the Day of the
Lord. In verse five he reminds the Thessalonian Christians that he has told them of
these things when he was with them in Thessalonica. The Holy Spirit in the church is

nowhere remotely suggested in the passage.
In verses six and seven are some peculiarities in the text which even Greek
scholarship, aside from true scriptural illumination, finds difficult to explain. May we

note in passing that translation and interpretation are Siamese twins. Where a
translator does not understand the spiritual meaning of an obscure passage, anything
can result, such as the lame and patched up line ―…he who now letteth will let, until
he be taken out of the way.‖ The subsequent translators, official and independent,
seem to have been without illumination on the meaning of the passage, since they all

with one exception, stay close by the ship of the A.V. Mr. Ivan Panin seems to be the
only one who has really understood the passage and given a correct translation.
Since the passage is a revelator of the doings of Satan, that father of darkness and

lies has blinded the eyes of men to the comparatively simple meaning of the passage.
The R.V. has for verse six: ―And now ye know that which restraineth, to the end
that he may be revealed in his own season.‖ If the R.V. had retained the A.V.
―withholdeth‖ for ―restraineth‖ it would have been even better. This is perfectly
correct, and shows unmistakably that the restraining or withholding one is restraining

or withholding himself until a certain auspicious moment when he will reveal himself.
Nothing is plainer than that the Personality who is now withholding himself, is
exactly the same power and personality who will reveal himself ―in his own season.‖

He is not restraining the course of evil in the world, he is simply withholding himself
from his personal manifestation until the psychological moment when lawlessness is
ripe and ―transgressors are come to the full.‖*

*There is a striking peculiarity in the Greek text of verse six. The TO KATECHON

(omicron before nu), translated ―that which restraineth‖ is in the neuter gender while
the intensive pronoun AUTON is masculine. A masculine pronoun has a neuter
antecedent.

This can only be explained by the fact that an unseen, hidden force is neuter. The
pneuma―spirit, whether of God or evil is neuter. This sinister, withholding force is
neuter as he lurks in the shadows, but in connection with the aorist passive infinitive
of the verb to reveal, the pronoun becomes masculine. Likewise in the next verse
when the withholding one is seen as ‗coming into being out of the midst‘ he becomes
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