2 Peter 1:18

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

2 Peter 1:16

1:16 For we did not follow cleverly concocted fables when we made known to you the power and return ³  of our Lord Jesus Christ; ⁴  no, ⁵  we were ⁶  eyewitnesses of his ⁷  grandeur. ⁸ 

2 Peter 1:21

1:21 for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men ⁹  carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

2 Peter 3:4

3:4 and saying, ¹⁰  “Where is his promised return? ¹¹  For ever since ¹²  our ancestors ¹³  died, ¹⁴  all things have continued as they were ¹⁵  from the beginning of creation.”

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. ¹⁶  These false teachers ¹⁷  will ¹⁸  infiltrate your midst ¹⁹  with destructive heresies, ²⁰  even to the point of ²¹  denying the Master who bought them. As a result, they will bring ²²  swift destruction on themselves.

2 Peter 3:2

3:2 I want you to recall ²³  both ²⁴  the predictions ²⁵  foretold by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. ²⁶ 

2 Peter 3:5

3:5 For they deliberately suppress this fact, ²⁷  that by the word of God ²⁸  heavens existed long ago and an earth ²⁹  was formed out of water and by means of water.

2 Peter 2:4

2:4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, ³⁰  but threw them into hell ³¹  and locked them up ³²  in chains ³³  in utter darkness, ³⁴  to be kept until the judgment,

2 Peter 2:18

2:18 For by speaking high-sounding but empty words ³⁵  they are able to entice, ³⁶  with fleshly desires and with debauchery, ³⁷  people ³⁸  who have just escaped ³⁹  from those who reside in error. ⁴⁰ 

2 Peter 2:20-21

2:20 For if after they have escaped the filthy things ⁴¹  of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, ⁴²  they ⁴³  again get entangled in them and succumb to them, ⁴⁴  their last state has become worse for them than their first. 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.

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

[1:18]  ² 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.”

[1:16]  ³ tn Grk “coming.”

[1:16]  ⁴ tn Grk “for we did not make known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ by following cleverly concocted fables.”

[1:16]  ⁵ tn Grk “but, instead.”

[1:16]  ⁶ tn Grk “became.”

[1:16]  ⁷ tn Grk “that one’s.” That is, “eyewitnesses of the grandeur of that one.” The remote demonstrative pronoun is used perhaps to indicate esteem for Jesus. Along these lines it is interesting to note that “the Pythagoreans called their master after his death simply ἐκεῖνος” as a term of reverence and endearment (BDAG 302 s.v. ἐκεῖνος a.γ).

[1:16]  ⁸ sn The term grandeur was used most frequently of God’s majesty. In the 1st century, it was occasionally used of the divine majesty of the emperor. 2 Pet 1:1 and 1:11 already include hints of a polemic against emperor-worship (in that “God and Savior” and “Lord and Savior” were used of the emperor).

[1:21]  ⁵ tn If, as seems probable, the “prophecy” mentioned here is to be identified with the “prophecy of scripture” mentioned in the previous verse, then the Greek term ἄνθρωποι (anqrwpoi, “men”) would refer specifically to the human authors of scripture, who (as far as we know) were all men. Thus “men” has been used here in the translation. If, on the other hand, the “prophecy” mentioned in the present verse is not limited to scripture but refers to oral prophecy as well, then women would be included, since Joel 2:20 specifically mentions “sons and daughters” as having the ability to prophesy, and the NT clearly mentions prophetesses (Luke 2:36; Acts 21:9).

[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.”

[2:1]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “who”; verse 1 is one sentence in Greek, the second half constituting a relative clause.

[2:1]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Grk “will bring in,” often with the connotation of secretiveness; “your midst” is implied.

[2:1]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “even.” The καί (kai) is ascensive, suggesting that the worst heresy is mentioned in the words that follow.

[2:1]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “bringing.” The present participle ἐπάγοντες (epagonte") indicates the result of the preceding clause.

[3:2]  ¹¹ tn Grk “to remember.” “I want you” is supplied to smooth out the English. The Greek infinitive is subordinate to the previous clause.

[3:2]  ¹² tn “Both” is not in Greek; it is supplied to show more clearly that there are two objects of the infinitive “to remember” – predictions and commandment.

[3:2]  ¹³ tn Grk “words.” In conjunction with πρόειπον (proeipon), however, the meaning of the construction is that the prophets uttered prophecies.

[3:2]  ¹⁴ sn Holy prophets…apostles. The first chapter demonstrated that the OT prophets were trustworthy guides (1:19-21) and that the NT apostles were also authoritative (1:16-18). Now, using the same catch phrase found in the Greek text of 1:20 (τοῦτο πρῶτον γινώσκοντες, touto prwton ginwskontes), Peter points to specific prophecies of the prophets as an argument against the false teachers.

[3:5]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Or “land,” “the earth.”

[2:4]  ¹⁵ tn The participle ἁμαρτησάντων (Jamarthsantwn) could either be attributive (“who sinned”) or adverbial (“when they sinned”). The relation to the judgment of the false teachers in v. 3 suggests that the objects of God’s judgment are not in question, but the time frame for the execution of justice is. If the participle is taken temporally, the point of comparison is not as acute. The objection that the illustrations following (the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah) are viewed temporally does not mitigate this translation, for in both instances only the time of executing judgment is in view. Further, in both instances the OT notes that God withheld punishment for a long time.

[2:4]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “casting them into Tartarus” or “holding them captive in Tartarus.” This verb, ταρταρόω (tartarow), occurs only here in the NT, but its meaning is clearly established in both Hellenistic and Jewish literature. “Tartarus [was] thought of by the Greeks as a subterranean place lower than Hades where divine punishment was meted out, and so regarded in Israelite apocalyptic as well” (BDAG 991 s.v.). Grammatically, it has been translated as an indicative because it is an attendant circumstance participle.

[2:4]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “handed them over.”

[2:4]  ¹⁸ tc The reading σειραῖς (seirai", “chains”) is found in Ì⁷² P Ψ 33 1739 Ï vg sy, while σιροῖς (sirois [or σειροῖς, seirois], “pits”) is found in א A B C 81 pc. The evidence is thus fairly evenly divided. Internally, the reading adopted here (σειραῖς) is a rarer term, perhaps prompting some scribes to replace it with the more common word. However, this more common term is not a synonym and hence does not follow the normal pattern of scribes. As well, the use of the genitive ζόφου (zofou) in “chains of darkness” is a bit awkward (a rare genitive of place), perhaps prompting some scribes to change the imagery to “pits of darkness” (in which case ζόφου is an attributive genitive). A further point that complicates the issue is the relationship of 2 Peter to Jude. Jude’s parallel (v. 6) has δεσμοῖς (desmois, “chains”). Apart from the issue of whether 2 Peter used Jude or Jude used 2 Peter, this parallel suggests one of two possibilities: either (1) since these two books obviously have a literary relationship, σειραῖς is original, or (2) early scribes, recognizing that these two books shared their material, changed σειροῖς to σειραῖς to conform the wording, at least conceptually, to Jude 6. On balance, σειραῖς looks to be original because scribes were not prone to harmonize extensively between books other than the Gospels (although 2 Peter and Jude do display some of this harmonizing). Further, such harmonization is often, if not usually, verbally exact, but δεσμοῖς is not a variant here.

[2:4]  ¹⁹ tn The genitive ζόφου (zofou) is taken as a genitive of place. See previous note for discussion.

[2:18]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “high-sounding words of futility.”

[2:18]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “they entice.”

[2:18]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “with the lusts of the flesh, with debauchery.”

[2:18]  ²⁰ tn Grk “those.”

[2:18]  ²¹ tn Or “those who are barely escaping.”

[2:18]  ²² tn Or “deceit.”

[2:20]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “defilements”; “contaminations”; “pollutions.”

[2:20]  ²⁰ sn Through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The implication is not that these people necessarily knew the Lord (in the sense of being saved), but that they were in the circle of those who had embraced Christ as Lord and Savior.

[2:20]  ²¹ tn Grk “(and/but) they.”

[2:20]  ²² tn Grk “they again, after becoming entangled in them, are overcome by them.”