2 Peter 3:1

The False Teachers’ Denial of the Lord’s Return

3:1 Dear friends, this is already the second letter I have written ¹  you, in which ²  I am trying to stir up ³  your pure mind by way of reminder:

2 Peter 3:16

3:16 speaking of these things in all his letters. ⁴  Some things in these letters ⁵  are hard to understand, things ⁶  the ignorant and unstable twist ⁷  to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures. ⁸ 

¹ tn Grk “I am already writing this [as] a second letter.” The object-complement construction is more smoothly rendered in English a bit differently. Further, although the present tense γράφω (grafw) is used here, English convention employs an epistolary past tense. (The Greek epistolary aorist might have been expected here, but it also occurs in situations unlike its English counterparts.)

² tn The relative pronoun is plural, indicating that the following statement is true about both letters.

³ tn Or “I have stirred up, aroused.” The translation treats the present tense verb as a conative present.

⁴ tn Grk “as also in all his letters speaking in them of these things.”

⁵ tn Grk “in which are some things hard to understand.”

⁶ tn Grk “which.” The antecedent is the “things hard to understand,” not the entirety of Paul’s letters. A significant principle is seen here: The primary proof texts used for faith and practice ought to be the clear passages that are undisputed in their meaning. Heresy today is still largely built on obscure texts.

⁷ tn Or “distort,” “wrench,” “torture” (all are apt descriptions of what heretics do to scripture).

⁸ sn This one incidental line, the rest of the scriptures, links Paul’s writings with scripture. This is thus one of the earliest affirmations of any part of the NT as scripture. Peter’s words were prophetic and were intended as a preemptive strike against the heretics to come.