A Word Study

One of the greatest tools that theologians have for determining what a word means is the “word study”. Quite simply one looks at every use of a particular word in the whole Bible and compares all words with the lexicon definition.

It involved getting out a concordance and making a list of every verse that contained the word. However, computer programs will do the work in seconds. (We use the Accordance Bible program and Bible Hub) Remaining is the rather tedious task of reading every verse and sometimes the whole passage that the word is in. This works for most words, but there are exceptions. Words used less than 10 times often do not provide enough uses to come to any conclusion. There are words like “God” that appear in the thousands, too many times to make it practical to look at all of them.

So here is one that has just enough uses to be definitive, but not so many as to be arduous.

Ho Anomos, i.e., The Lawless One

The English translation of the Bible is not consistent in the translation of this word, many are unaware of how it is used.

All the words marked in red represent the Greek word anomos.

Noun

And then will I declare to them,  ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’ Matt. 7:23

The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, Matt. 13:41

So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Matt. 23:28

And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold. Matt. 24:12

“Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; Rom. 4:7 

I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification. Rom. 6:19

Do not be mismated with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 2 Cor. 6:14 

Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, 2 Th. 2:3

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 2 Th. 2:7

who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds. Titus 2:14

Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee with the oil of gladness beyond thy comrades.” Heb. 1:9

. . . then he adds,  “I will remember their sins and their misdeeds no more.” Heb. 10:17

Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 1 John 3:4 

Adjective

For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me, ‘And he was reckoned with transgressors’; for what is written about me has its fulfilment.” Luke 22:37

. . . this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. Acts 2:23

To those outside the law I became as one outside the law — not being without law toward God but under the law of Christ — that I might win those outside the law. 1Cor. 9:21

And then the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming. 2 Th. 2:8

The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, 2 Th. 2:9

. . . understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 1Tim. 1:9

(for by what that righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds), 2Pet. 2:8

Adverb

All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. Rom. 2:12 

To those outside the law I became as one outside the law — not being without law toward God but under the law of Christ — that I might win those outside the law. 1Cor. 9:21

The context is strictly about the Torah or the Laws of God which stands forever. Not once is the context of Roman or Greek civil law, or any other civil law in history. All human laws pass away with the empires or nations that created them. It has nothing to do with secular governmental laws. The word means to be without Torah, i.e. lawless.

From the beginning of the Mosaic Law to the first century BC, to be lawless meant to be without Torah. In 1Cor. 9:21, it is used by those who are Gentiles or those who were not subject to Mosaic Law. They are outside the law, i.e., anomos.

What exactly were the Pharisees doing that prompted Messiah to call them Torah breakers? [Matt. 23:28] One would think of all the people in the world these were Torah keepers, not breakers. However, they were not practicing what they were preaching. Messiah repeatedly calls them hypocrites in Matt 23.

1 Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples,  2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat;  3 so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice.  4 They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger.  Matt. 23:1-4

Messiah did not tell his disciples not to keep the law. He told them to practice and observe whatever they (the Pharisees) tell them.

To teach that the Law has passed away is to be Lawless, i.e., without Torah.

1  Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet him, we beg you, brethren,  2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited, either by spirit or by word, or by letter purporting to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.  3 Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of Torah Breaking is revealed, the son of perdition,  4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.  5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you this?  6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time.  7 For the mystery of Torah Breaking is already at work; only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.  8 And then the Torah Breaker will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming.  9 The coming of the Torah Breaker by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders,  10 and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.  11 Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false,  12 so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Th. 2:1-12