“... It is this God of wholeness and good order who must save them from the additional dissensions and difficulties that the intruders will inevitably bring. The expected victory is described as crushing Satan under their feet, a figure which points back to the originally promised mastery over the serpent (Genesis 3:15). Paul seems to be adapting an apocalyptic tradition witnessed to in the Testament of Levi, ‘And Beliar shall be bound by him, And he shall give power to his children to tread upon evil spirits’ (18:12). Yet by naming Satan in opposition to the God of peace, he is actually accusing the intruders themselves as the ministers of Satan in whose service they will bring confusion into the Roman church. Thus the prayer for their speedy overthrow focuses probably upon an interim victory, more than upon the final apocalyptic conquest of Satan at the parousia ...”