not, however, filled up that measure, they accounted Domitian, and the other emperors of a similar character, as a kind of com plement to make up the full measure of the evil. They cer tainly did not by this interpretation exhaust the prophecy ; but yet they attained to some part of the truth, namely, that some thing connected with Rome is here intended, whatever might be the mode of its exhibition.
Let us go a little closer. The check is something with which the Thessalonians were unacquainted when Paul had been with them not long before : and i now,' wrhen the same apostle wrote these things, they ( knew' it, from the fact of the beginnings of the events corresponding [to his words] more than many, a little before, would have thought. This is evident from the antithesis between the fifth and sixth verses. The epistle was written about the eighth year of Claudius, 48 of the Dion, sera, as we show in Or do temporum, p. 278. At that period Claudius had expelled from Rome the Jews, whether believers or unbelievers, and this because the latter were constantly rais ing tumults ; and in Judaea itself, too, Cumanus was grievously oppressing them. Therefore, in the provinces, the prefects and procurators, in Italy and at Home the Emperor himself, was holding back the evil. It is a remarkable proof of this fact, that the Jews did not kill James until after the death of Festus, and before the arrival of Albinus. Whatever they did on that occasion, they would willingly have done on other occasions against Christ, but could not for the Romans. So Gallio held them back at Corinth, Claudius Lysias at Jerusalem, Acts xviii. 14, 21, 32. In the time of Paul, the Roman power cer tainly held back the evil ; not immediately (directly) : there fore it must have been mediately (indirectly). Moreover, the in strumentality or medium of holding it back was severity towards the Jews, who would have proceeded farther, if they had been permitted by the Romans. I shall willingly listen to an easier and simpler (I should be glad to hear a more ready and probable) interpretation.
XIII. When the check ceased to be in the way, that Iniquitous one [' Wicked*'} is revealed. — This position agrees with the fifth, and yet it also differs from it. The former marks the long continuance of the check ; the latter, the time of revealing the