1– 4. ‘ We have been speaking of the great Day of the Lord, but that you may not fall into any mistake as to the Parousia of the Lord by which it will be ushered in, and the assembling of believers by which it will be accompanied, we beg of you, Brothers, not to allow your minds to be unsettled for little or no reason, or to be kept disturbed by any prophetic utterance, or teaching, or letter, any or all of them purporting to come from us, to the effect that the Day of the Lord has actually arrived. Do not, we beg of you, let any man lead you completely astray in this or any other way. For in no case will this Parousia take place until after the great Apostasy, and the consequent revelation of the Man of lawlessness, that son of perdition. So terrible indeed will be his revolt that, as the embodiment of Satanic power, he will be found exalting himself against every one that is spoken of as god, or that is an object of worship. Yes, he will even go the length of seating himself in the Temple of God, and claiming to be God.’ 1. Ἐρωτῶμενδέκτλ.] For ἐρωτάω see I. 4:1 note, and for ἀδελφοί see I. 1:4 note. ὑπὲρτ. παρουσίας] ‘ as regarding the Parousia,’ the original meaning of ὑπέρ ‘ on behalf of,’ ‘ in the interest of’ being here almost wholly lost sight of, cf. Romans 9:27, 2 Corinthians 1:8; 2 Corinthians 8:23; 2 Corinthians 12:8, and such a passage from the Κοινή as P.Tebt. 19, 9 f. (2./b.c.) ὑπὲρδὲὧνσημαίνειςκωμογραμματέωνμόλιςἕωςτῆςκεχωρισθήσονται, ‘ regarding the komogramateis whom you mention, they will hardly depart until the 25th.’ In no case is there any warrant for the A.V. rendering ‘ by’ as an adjuration (Vg. per adventum). For παρουσία see Add. Note F, and for the full title τ. κυρ. Ἰης. Χρ. see Add. Note D. ἐπισυναγωγῆς] The word goes back to such a saying of the Lord as Mark 13:27 καὶἐπισυνάξειτοὺςἐκλεκτοὺςαὐτοῦ, and is found elsewhere in the N.T. only in Hebrews 10:25 where it is applied to the ordinary religious assembling of believers as an anticipation of the great assembling at the Lord’ s Parousia: cf. 2Ma 2:7 ἕωςἂνσυνάγῃὁθεὸςἐπισυναγωγὴντοῦλαοῦ with reference to the gathering of the tribes into the temporal kingdom of the Messiah. For the verb see Deuteronomy 30:4, Psalms 105. (106.) 47, Zechariah 12:3; Zechariah 12:12 :2Ma 1:27, Didache 9:4, and cf. O.G.I.S. 90, 23 (2./b.c.— the Rosetta stone) τοῖςἐπισυναχθεῖσινεἰςαὐτὴν [Λύκωνπόλιν] ἀσεβέσιν.