2 Peter 1:4

1:4 Through these things ¹  he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised ²  you may become partakers of the divine nature, ³  after escaping ⁴  the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire. ⁵ 

2 Peter 2:20

2:20 For if after they have escaped the filthy things ⁶  of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, ⁷  they ⁸  again get entangled in them and succumb to them, ⁹  their last state has become worse for them than their first.

2 Peter 3:16

3:16 speaking of these things in all his letters. ¹⁰  Some things in these letters ¹¹  are hard to understand, things ¹²  the ignorant and unstable twist ¹³  to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures. ¹⁴ 

[1:4]  ¹ tn Verse 4 is in Greek a continuation of v. 3, “through which things.”

[1:4]  ² tn Grk “through them.” The implication is that through inheriting and acting on these promises the believers will increasingly become partakers of the divine nature.

[1:4]  ³ sn Although the author has borrowed the expression partakers of the divine nature from paganism, his meaning is clearly Christian. He does not mean apotheosis (man becoming a god) in the pagan sense, but rather that believers have an organic connection with God. Because of such a connection, God can truly be called our Father. Conceptually, this bears the same meaning as Paul’s “in Christ” formula. The author’s statement, though startling at first, is hardly different from Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians that they “may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (3:19).

[1:4]  ⁴ tn The aorist participle ἀποφυγόντες (apofugonte") is often taken as attendant circumstance to the preceding verb γένησθε (genhsqe). As such, the sense is “that you might become partakers…and might escape…” However, it does not follow the contours of the vast majority of attendant circumstance participles (in which the participle precedes the main verb, among other things). Further, attendant circumstance participles are frequently confused with result participles (which do follow the verb). Many who take this as attendant circumstance are probably viewing it semantically as result (“that you might become partakers…and [thereby] escape…”). But this is next to impossible since the participle is aorist: Result participles are categorically present tense.

[1:4]  ⁵ tn Grk “the corruption in the world (in/because of) lust.”

[2:20]  ⁶ tn Grk “defilements”; “contaminations”; “pollutions.”

[2:20]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Grk “(and/but) they.”

[2:20]  ⁹ tn Grk “they again, after becoming entangled in them, are overcome by them.”

[3:16]  ¹¹ tn Grk “as also in all his letters speaking in them of these things.”

[3:16]  ¹² tn Grk “in which are some things hard to understand.”

[3:16]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Or “distort,” “wrench,” “torture” (all are apt descriptions of what heretics do to scripture).

[3:16]  ¹⁵ 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.