It's a "what" not a "he"

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Guys, I don't mean to make anyone feel silly for arguing about this, but honestly, it's really silly to keep arguing about this.

[00:00:09]The whole quote unquote restrainer, he who now letteth will let or restrain, withhold, whatever. This This repeated three times here.

[00:00:18]The first is up here.

[00:00:21]Falling away first and that man of sin be revealed.

[00:00:24]Okay?

[00:00:25]He who withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. Same thing. Falling away first is what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time is the man of sin being revealed. And then it's repeated a third time. Only he who now letteth will let same thing as saying what withholdeth that he might be taken out of the way is the same thing as saying revealed.

[00:00:51]If you just do a word study out of the way means to come into the midst.

[00:00:57]It doesn't mean to go away. It means to come into the midst.

[00:01:00]To come into being, like ascend out of the bottomless pit, which is specifically what he's got to do in order so he can go into the temple and declare himself to be above all that is called God or is worshipped so that he as God sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. This is ridiculous.

[00:01:16]It says what withholdeth. You know, there's a falling away first. Okay, maybe that's less clear. It specifically says what withholdeth, not who not who or what group. It's what. It's a what. It's not a person. It's a thing.

[00:01:31]Where this lacks clarity here or where this gets confused that people will go right to this verse is like, "Oh, no, it's a he. It's not a what. It's a he."

[00:01:40]No, it's still a what.

[00:01:46]>> [clears throat] >> He who now there is actually no gender associated to this word. He who now is literally just an adverb that says just now.

[00:01:59]It doesn't say he now. It just It means just now.

[00:02:04]Where the he comes from is restrain.

[00:02:11]As you can see down here in the Greek it has a whole bunch of these things right here.

[00:02:18]Just now or he who now, as it says in the NASB upstairs on this page >> [clears throat] >> upstairs, it's not he who now. It means just now. There's no he attached to that.

[00:02:33]And as you can see down here, I'll just prove it to you. It's just an adverb.

[00:02:37]There's no gender attached to that. The gender is attached to restrain.

[00:02:43]And it's he because there's a masculine gender associated to this verb.

[00:02:50]There is no actual he. It is a what. And the reason it says he in the third iteration of saying the same thing in the verse is because of this.

[00:03:02]In the Greek language, they can assign genders.

[00:03:06]It doesn't necessarily mean that it's a male or a female doing it, although it could and that depends on context.

[00:03:12]But like up here, wickedness has a feminine gender.

[00:03:18]Which is kind of strange because the person who embodies wickedness the mystery of lawlessness uh is going to manifest in a man of sin.

[00:03:30]That's not feminine. But it's just like there's no I I didn't create the Greek language. I don't really know what the rhyme or reason here is, but it assigns genders to specific words.

[00:03:41]So, where people are getting their themselves all out of sorts here is they're saying, "Oh, the restrainer is a he."

[00:03:47]No, it's actually not. It's not a person. It's a what.

[00:03:52]And the what was already established here. The only reason that it was written this way and I didn't write it, so I cannot account for this.

[00:04:01]But the he who now that's not accurate.

[00:04:06]Because the he is attached to the word here, not to the word here.

[00:04:15]Again, we go back down here. You've got two Greek words. The adverb, which means just now, and then the restrain or withhold letteth, which has the masculine gender attached to it. So, that's why people are like, "No, it's a he." No, it's not a he. It's a what with a masculine gender.

[00:04:35]Again, I don't know Greek. All I can do is come here and I can look at the same thing you can and I can explain why they wrote he. But it's not a he.

[00:04:44]It's a what.

[00:04:46]And that is made extraordinarily clear that it is a what up here when you understand that this is the first time it's stated.

[00:04:55]This is the second time it's stated.

[00:04:57]And this is the third time it's stated.

[00:05:01]And there is no he that's doing the falling away or the withholdeth or the letteth.

[00:05:08]It's a what.

[00:05:10]This is the most perfect example you'll find.

[00:05:14]And the he down here is just a gender attached to a verb.

[00:05:21]Doesn't mean it's a he doing it. It's just a gender attached to a verb. Hello, Greek language.

[00:05:29]I don't know anything other than that's what it says. But what I also will say there's no being taken out of the way.

[00:05:37]It's a coming to be. Why it was written that way, I cannot tell you. I cannot explain to you what the writers of this chapter were thinking when they wrote it this way.

[00:05:49]But just about everything that people assume is inaccurate. Word studies are your friend with this chapter. And if you don't do them, you are going to get very much wrong.

[00:06:01]So, um taken out of the way doesn't mean out of the way. It means to come into the midst.

[00:06:08]That is all.