(Updated July 16, 2025)
This Quote Archive collects pertinent quotes from St. Thomas Aquinas.
Next to each quote are the topic-based Quote Archives in which they are included.
This Quote Archive is being continuously updated as research continues.
Biblical Commentaries
St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on 2 Thessalonians
When he says “so that he sits in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God,” he gives the sign of this wrongdoing. For the Antichrist’s pride is greater than the pride of all who came before him. So as it is written of Gaius Caesar that he wanted to be worshiped while he was still alive, and put statues of himself in every temple, and as Ezekiel says of the king of Tyre, “I have said that I am God” (Ezek. 28:2), so it is quite believable that the Antichrist will act as they did, saying that he is both God and man. And as a sign of this he will sit in the temple.
But in what temple? Was it not destroyed by the Romans? This is why some say that the Antichrist is from the tribe of Dan, whose tribe is not named among the other twelve in Revelation (Apoc. 7:5). Because of this, the Jews will accept him at first, and will rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, and thus Daniel will be fulfilled: “an abomination and an idol will be in the temple” (Dan. 11:27). “But when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, let him who reads understand” (Matt. 24:15).
But some say that neither Jerusalem nor the temple will ever be rebuilt, but that their desolation will last until the final consummation. And even some Jews believe this. So this text is explained to mean “in the temple of God,” i.e., in the Church, since many from the church will accept him. Or according to Augustine, “he sits in the temple of God,” i.e., he rules and governs as though he himself with his messengers were the temple of God, as Christ is the temple with his adherents.
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