50. V. UNIFORM GREEK USAGES: "WITHHOLD"
1. Withhold, κατέχω (katechō). Who would imagine that "let" and "withhold" of the A.V.; and "restrain" of the R.V. in 2 Thess. ii. 6, 7, are all the rendering of one and the same Greek word? The word κατέχω (katechō) occurs nineteen times, and is rendered by thirteen different English words.
Who is to help us in coming to a true interpretation of this word, and of the passages in which it occurs?
There is no help outside the Word of God.
It is rendered hold fast three times, and hold three times, so that these are the most frequent renderings.
The only way of finding and testing the correct rendering is to look at every one of the passages and see if the one rendering hold fast can be consistently used. It will not follow that this word will be the very best according to our English idiom; and we need not make it the uniform rendering. We may use other words more in harmony with the genius of the English language so long as we keep the uniform sense hold fast in our mind: Matt. xxi. 38, "let us seize on his inheritance" (let us hold fast).
Luke iv. 42, "and stayed him, that he should not depart" (hold him fast).
Luke viii. 15, "having heard the word keep it" (hold it fast).
Luke xiv. 9, "with shame to take the lowest place" (to hold).
John v. 4, "of whatsoever disease he had" (he was held).
Acts xxvii. 40, "and made towards shore" (held their course toward).
Rom. i. 18, "who hold the truth in unrighteousness" (hold fast).
Rom. vii. 6, "having died to that by which we were held" (so marg. and R.V.).
1 Cor. vii. 30, "as though they possessed not" (held nothing fast).
1 This is done in cases where any may "hold the truth," and where the truth does not hold them. In that case such may continue to act unrighteously; e.g., when the proprietor of a journal, who holds the truth, allows an editor or writer to regularly teach what he knows to be error; and this for the sake of gain. That is holding the truth in unrighteousness; and, unfortunately such a thing is not unknown even in religious journalism. 1 Cor. xi. 2, and *keep* the ordinances" (hold them fast).
1 Cor. xv. 2, "if ye *keep in memory* what I preached" (hold fast).
2 Cor. vi. 10, "and yet possessing all things."¹
1 Thess. v. 21, "prove all things, *hold fast* that which is good."²
2 Thess. ii. 6, "ye know what *withholdeth*" (holds [him] fast).
2 Thess. ii. 7, "only he who now *letteth*" (he who now holdeth *fast*).³
Philem. 13, "I would have *retained*" (held fast).
Heb. iii. 6, "if we *hold fast* the confidence."
Heb. iii. 14, "if we *hold* the beginning of our confidence" (hold fast).
Heb. x. 23, "let us hold fast the profession of our faith."
Thus, we see, that *hold fast* is, and must be, the only correct rendering in 2 Thess. ii. 6, 7. This gives us, therefore, the key to the true interpretation of that prophecy.
2. *Temptation*.—περάζω (*peirazō*), *tempt*; πειρασμός (*peirasmos*), *temptation*.—These words are of frequent occurrence. The latter word occurs twenty-one times, and in all but one is rendered *temptation*. But the usage of *peirasmos* in the Bible is always in the sense of *trial*: hence specially of *trouble* or *tribulation*, because it is that which really *tries* a man better than anything else. Our English word "temptation" meant, originally, much the same: *to stretch out, handle, try the strength of*.
This is stated to be the object of *trial* (Deut. viii. 2).
In the Old Testament the word is used of the troubles themselves (Deut. vii. 19; xxix. 3. Compare Wisdom iii. 5; xi. 10. Sirach ii. 1. Judith viii. 24–27).
¹ The context shows that this rendering could not be improved, though the idea is there.
² Here the correct rendering occurs in one of the very Epistles where we have the wrong rendering, 2 Thess. ii. 6, 7.
³ This is Satan, who *holdeth fast* to something. What it is may be suggested in Rev. xii. 9–xiii. 1, viz., to his position in the heavenlies: from whence when he is cast out, he stands upon the sand of the sea, and "the man of sin" is revealed in his appointed season.