2 Peter 1:13

1:13 Indeed, as long as I am in this tabernacle, ¹  I consider it right to stir you up by way of a reminder,

2 Peter 1:18

1:18 When this voice was conveyed from heaven, we ourselves ²  heard it, for we were with him on the holy mountain. ³ 

2 Peter 2:11

2:11 yet even ⁴  angels, who are much more powerful, ⁵  do not bring a slanderous ⁶  judgment against them before the Lord. ⁷ 

2 Peter 2:17

2:17 These men ⁸  are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm, for whom the utter depths of darkness ⁹  have been reserved.

2 Peter 1:9

1:9 But ¹⁰  concerning the one who lacks such things ¹¹  – he is blind. That is to say, he is ¹²  nearsighted, since he has forgotten about the cleansing of his past sins.

2 Peter 1:14

1:14 since I know that my tabernacle will soon be removed, ¹³  because ¹⁴  our Lord Jesus Christ revealed this to me. ¹⁵ 

2 Peter 2:21

2:21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them.

2 Peter 3:4-5

3:4 and saying, ¹⁶  “Where is his promised return? ¹⁷  For ever since ¹⁸  our ancestors ¹⁹  died, ²⁰  all things have continued as they were ²¹  from the beginning of creation.” 3:5 For they deliberately suppress this fact, ²²  that by the word of God ²³  heavens existed long ago and an earth ²⁴  was formed out of water and by means of water.

2 Peter 3:7

3:7 But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, by being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. ²⁵ 

2 Peter 1:17

1:17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father, when that ²⁶  voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory: “This is my dear Son, in whom I am delighted.” ²⁷ 

2 Peter 2:1

The False Teachers’ Ungodly Lifestyle

2:1 But false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. ²⁸  These false teachers ²⁹  will ³⁰  infiltrate your midst ³¹  with destructive heresies, ³²  even to the point of ³³  denying the Master who bought them. As a result, they will bring ³⁴  swift destruction on themselves.

2 Peter 3:16

3:16 speaking of these things in all his letters. ³⁵  Some things in these letters ³⁶  are hard to understand, things ³⁷  the ignorant and unstable twist ³⁸  to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures. ³⁹ 

[1:13]  ¹ tn Or “tent.” The author uses this as a metaphor for his physical body.

[1:18]  ² tn The “we” in v. 18 is evidently exclusive, that is, it refers to Peter and the other apostles.

[1:18]  ³ tn 2 Pet 1:17-18 comprise one sentence in Greek, with the main verb “heard” in v. 18. All else is temporally subordinate to that statement. Hence, more literally these verses read as follows: “For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory: ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am delighted,’ we ourselves heard this voice when it was conveyed from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain.”

[2:11]  ³ tn Grk “whereas.”

[2:11]  ⁴ tn Grk “who are greater in strength and power.” What is being compared, however, could either be the false teachers or “the glorious ones,” in which case “angels” would refer to good angels and “the glorious ones” to evil angels.

[2:11]  ⁵ tn Or “insulting.” The word comes from the same root as the term found in v. 10 (“insult”), v. 12 (“insulting”), and v. 2 (“will be slandered”). The author is fond of building his case by the repetition of a word in a slightly different context so that the readers make the necessary connection. English usage cannot always convey this connection because a given word in one language cannot always be translated the same way in another.

[2:11]  ⁶ tc ‡ Some witnesses lack παρὰ κυρίῳ (para kuriw; so A Ψ 33 81 1505 1881 2464 al vg co), while others have the genitive παρὰ κυρίου (para kuriou; so Ì⁷² 1241 al sy^ph,h**). The majority of witnesses (including א B C P 1739 Ï) read the dative παρὰ κυρίῳ. The genitive expression suggests that angels would not pronounce a judgment on “the glorious ones” from the Lord, while the dative indicates that angels would not pronounce a judgment on “the glorious ones” in the presence of the Lord. The parallel in Jude 9 speaks of a reviling judgment against the devil in which the prepositional phrase is entirely absent. At the same time, in that parallel Michael does say, “The Lord rebuke you.” (Hence, he is offering something of a judgment from the Lord.) The best options externally are the dative or the omission of the phrase, but a decision is difficult. Internally, the omission may possibly be a motivated reading in that it finds a parallel in Jude 9 (where no prepositional phrase is used). All things considered, the dative is to be preferred, though with much reservation.

[2:17]  ⁴ tn Although some translations have simply “these” or “these people,” since in v. 14 they are described as having eyes “full of an adulteress,” men are in view.

[2:17]  ⁵ tn Grk “utter darkness of darkness.” Verse 4 speaks of wicked angels presently in “chains of utter darkness,” while the final fate of the false teachers is a darker place still.

[1:9]  ⁵ tn Grk “for.” The connection, though causal, is also adversative.

[1:9]  ⁶ tn Grk “to the one for whom these things are not present.”

[1:9]  ⁷ tn The words “that is to say, he is” are not in Greek. The word order is unusual. One might expect the author to have said “he is nearsighted and blind” (as the NIV has so construed it), but this is not the word order in Greek. Perhaps the author begins with a strong statement followed by a clarification, i.e., that being nearsighted in regard to these virtues is as good as being blind.

[1:14]  ⁶ tn Grk “since I know that the removal of my tabernacle is [coming] soon.”

[1:14]  ⁷ tn Grk “just as.”

[1:14]  ⁸ sn When the author says our Lord Jesus Christ revealed this to me, he is no doubt referring to the prophecy that is partially recorded in John 21:18-19.

[3:4]  ⁷ tn The present participle λέγοντες (legontes, “saying”) most likely indicates result. Thus, their denial of the Lord’s return is the result of their lifestyle. The connection to the false teachers of chapter 2 is thus made clear.

[3:4]  ⁸ tn Grk “Where is the promise of his coming?” The genitive παρουσίας (parousia", “coming, advent, return”) is best taken as an attributed genitive (in which the head noun, promise, functions semantically as an adjective; see ExSyn 89-91).

[3:4]  ⁹ tn The prepositional phrase with the relative pronoun, ἀφ᾿ ἧς (af’ |h"), is used adverbially or conjunctively without antecedent (see BDAG 727 s.v. ὅς 1.k.).

[3:4]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “fathers.” The reference could be either to the OT patriarchs or first generation Christians. This latter meaning, however, is unattested in any other early Christian literature.

[3:4]  ¹¹ tn The verb κοιμάω (koimaw) literally means “sleep,” but it is often used in the Bible as a euphemism for the death of a believer.

[3:4]  ¹² tn Grk “thus,” “in the same manner.”

[3:5]  ⁸ tn The Greek is difficult at this point. An alternative is “Even though they maintain this, it escapes them that…” Literally the idea seems to be: “For this escapes these [men] who wish [it to be so].”

[3:5]  ⁹ tn The word order in Greek places “the word of God” at the end of the sentence. See discussion in the note on “these things” in v. 6.

[3:5]  ¹⁰ tn Or “land,” “the earth.”

[3:7]  ⁹ tn Grk “the ungodly people.”

[1:17]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “such a.” The pronoun τοιᾶσδε (toiasde) most likely refers to what follows, connoting something of the uniqueness of the proclamation.

[1:17]  ¹¹ tn The verb εὐδόκησα (eudokhsa) in collocation with εἰς ὅν (ei" Jon) could either mean “in whom I am well-pleased, delighted” (in which case the preposition functions like ἐν [en]), or “on whom I have set my favor.”

[2:1]  ¹¹ sn There will be false teachers among you. Peter uses the same verb, γίνομαι (ginomai), in 2 Pet 2:1 as he had used in 1:20 to describe the process of inspiration. He may well be contrasting, by way of a catchword, the two kinds of prophets.

[2:1]  ¹² tn Grk “who”; verse 1 is one sentence in Greek, the second half constituting a relative clause.

[2:1]  ¹³ sn By the use of the future tense (will infiltrate), Peter is boldly prophesying the role that false teachers will have before these Gentile believers. It was necessary for him to establish both his own credentials and to anchor his audience’s faith in the written Word before he could get to this point, for these false teachers will question both.

[2:1]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “will bring in,” often with the connotation of secretiveness; “your midst” is implied.

[2:1]  ¹⁵ tn Or “destructive opinions,” “destructive viewpoints.” The genitive ἀπωλείας (apwleia") could be taken either attributively (“destructive”) or as a genitive of destination (“leading to destruction”). Although the preferable interpretation is a genitive of destination, especially because of the elaboration given at the end of the verse (“bringing swift destruction on themselves”), translating it attributively is less cumbersome in English. Either way, the net result is the same.

[2:1]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “even.” The καί (kai) is ascensive, suggesting that the worst heresy is mentioned in the words that follow.

[2:1]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “bringing.” The present participle ἐπάγοντες (epagonte") indicates the result of the preceding clause.

[3:16]  ¹² tn Grk “as also in all his letters speaking in them of these things.”

[3:16]  ¹³ tn Grk “in which are some things hard to understand.”

[3:16]  ¹⁴ 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.

[3:16]  ¹⁵ tn Or “distort,” “wrench,” “torture” (all are apt descriptions of what heretics do to scripture).

[3:16]  ¹⁶ 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.