2 Peter 1:5

1:5 For this very reason, ¹  make every effort ²  to add to your faith excellence, ³  to excellence, knowledge;

2 Peter 3:3

3:3 Above all, understand this: ⁴  In the last days blatant scoffers ⁵  will come, being propelled by their own evil urges ⁶ 

2 Peter 3:5

3:5 For they deliberately suppress this fact, ⁷  that by the word of God ⁸  heavens existed long ago and an earth ⁹  was formed out of water and by means of water.

2 Peter 3:8

3:8 Now, dear friends, do not let this one thing escape your notice, ¹⁰  that a single day is like a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand years are like a single day.

[1:5]  ¹ tn The Greek text begins with “and,” a typical Semitism.

[1:5]  ² tn The participle is either means (“by making every effort”) or attendant circumstance (“make every effort”). Although it fits the normal contours of attendant circumstance participles, the semantics are different. Normally, attendant circumstance is used of an action that is a necessary prelude to the action of the main verb. But “making every effort” is what energizes the main verb here. Hence it is best taken as means. However, for the sake of smoothness the translation has rendered it as a command with the main verb translated as an infinitive. This is in accord with English idiom.

[1:5]  ³ tn Or “moral excellence,” “virtue”; this is the same word used in v. 3 (“the one who has called us by his own glory and excellence”).

[3:3]  ⁴ tn Grk “knowing this [to be] foremost.” Τοῦτο πρῶτον (touto prwton) constitute the object and complement of γινώσκοντες (ginwskonte"). The participle is loosely dependent on the infinitive in v. 2 (“[I want you] to recall”), perhaps in a telic sense (thus, “[I want you] to recall…[and especially] to understand this as foremost”). The following statement then would constitute the main predictions with which the author was presently concerned. An alternative is to take it imperativally: “Above all, know this.” In this instance, however, there is little semantic difference (since a telic participle and imperatival participle end up urging an action). Cf. also 2 Pet 1:20.

[3:3]  ⁵ tn The Greek reads “scoffers in their scoffing” for “blatant scoffers.” The use of the cognate dative is a Semitism designed to intensify the word it is related to. The idiom is foreign to English. As a Semitism, it is further incidental evidence of the authenticity of the letter (see the note on “Simeon” in 1:1 for other evidence).

[3:3]  ⁶ tn Grk “going according to their own evil urges.”

[3:5]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Or “land,” “the earth.”

[3:8]  ¹⁰ tn The same verb, λανθάνω (lanqanw, “escape”) used in v. 5 is found here (there, translated “suppress”).