2 Thessalonians 2:8 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Then shall that Wicked be revealed, &c.— When the obstacle mentioned in the preceding verse should be removed, then shall that Wicked, &c. Nothing can be plainer than that the lawless (ο ανομος), as the Greek signifies,—the wicked one here mentioned, and the man of sin, must be one and the same person. The apostle was speaking before of what hindered that he should be revealed, and would continue to hinder, till it was taken away; "and then shall that wicked one, &c." Not that he should be consumed immediately after he was revealed; but the apostle, to comfort the Thessalonians, no sooner mentions his revelation, than he foretels also his destruction, even before he describes his other qualifications. His other qualifications should have been described first in order of time; but the apostle hastens to what was first and warmest in his thoughts and wishes, "Whom the Lord shall consume, &c." If these two clauses refer to two distinct and different events, the meaning manifestly is, That the Lord Jesus shall gradually consume him with the free preaching and publication of his word; and shall utterly destroy him at his second coming in the glory of his Father, with all his holy angels. If these two clauses relate to one and the same event, it is a pleonasm very usual in the sacred, as well as other Oriental writings; and the purport plainly is, that the Lord Jesus shall destroy him with the greatest facility, when he shall be revealed from heaven; as the apostle has expressed it in the preceding chapter, 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8. But I prefer the former interpretation.