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. ¹  These false teachers ²  will ³  infiltrate your midst ⁴  with destructive heresies, ⁵  even to the point of ⁶  denying the Master who bought them. As a result, they will bring ⁷  swift destruction on themselves.

2 Peter 2:3

2:3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their ⁸  condemnation pronounced long ago ⁹  is not sitting idly by; ¹⁰  their ¹¹  destruction is not asleep.

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. ¹² 

2 Peter 3:16

3:16 speaking of these things in all his letters. ¹³  Some things in these letters ¹⁴  are hard to understand, things ¹⁵  the ignorant and unstable twist ¹⁶  to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures. ¹⁷ 

2 Peter 2:6

2:6 and if he turned to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when he condemned them to destruction, ¹⁸  having appointed ¹⁹  them to serve as an example ²⁰  to future generations of the ungodly, ²¹ 

2 Peter 2:12

2:12 But ²²  these men, ²³  like irrational animals – creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed ²⁴  – do not understand whom ²⁵  they are insulting, and consequently ²⁶  in their destruction they will be destroyed, ²⁷ 

2 Peter 2:2

2:2 And many will follow their debauched lifestyles. ²⁸  Because of these false teachers, ²⁹  the way of truth will be slandered. ³⁰ 

2 Peter 2:19

2:19 Although these false teachers promise ³¹  such people ³²  freedom, they themselves are enslaved to ³³  immorality. ³⁴  For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved. ³⁵ 

2 Peter 1:4

1:4 Through these things ³⁶  he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised ³⁷  you may become partakers of the divine nature, ³⁸  after escaping ³⁹  the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire. ⁴⁰ 

2 Peter 2:13

2:13 suffering harm as the wages for their harmful ways. ⁴¹  By considering it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight, ⁴²  they are stains and blemishes, indulging ⁴³  in their deceitful pleasures when they feast together with you.

2 Peter 3:9

3:9 The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, ⁴⁴  as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish ⁴⁵  for any ⁴⁶  to perish but for all to come to repentance. ⁴⁷ 

2 Peter 3:12

3:12 while waiting for and hastening ⁴⁸  the coming of the day of God? ⁴⁹  Because of this day, ⁵⁰  the heavens will be burned up and ⁵¹  dissolve, and the celestial bodies ⁵²  will melt away in a blaze! ⁵³ 

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

[2:1]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Grk “will bring in,” often with the connotation of secretiveness; “your midst” is implied.

[2:1]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Grk “even.” The καί (kai) is ascensive, suggesting that the worst heresy is mentioned in the words that follow.

[2:1]  ⁷ tn Grk “bringing.” The present participle ἐπάγοντες (epagonte") indicates the result of the preceding clause.

[2:3]  ⁸ tn Grk “to whom,” introducing a subordinate relative clause.

[2:3]  ⁹ tn Grk “the ancient judgment.”

[2:3]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “is not idle.”

[2:3]  ¹¹ tn Greek has “and their.” As introducing a synonymous parallel, it is superfluous in English.

[3:7]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “the ungodly people.”

[3:16]  ²² tn Grk “as also in all his letters speaking in them of these things.”

[3:16]  ²³ tn Grk “in which are some things hard to understand.”

[3:16]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ tn Or “distort,” “wrench,” “torture” (all are apt descriptions of what heretics do to scripture).

[3:16]  ²⁶ 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.

[2:6]  ²⁹ tc Several important witnesses omit καταστροφῇ (katastrofh, “destruction”; such as Ì^72* B C* 1241 1739 1881 pc), but this is probably best explained as an accidental omission due to homoioarcton (the word following is κατέκρινεν [katekrinen, “he condemned”]).

[2:6]  ³⁰ tn The perfect participle τεθεικώς (teqeikw") suggests an antecedent act. More idiomatically, the idea seems to be, “because he had already appointed them to serve as an example.”

[2:6]  ³¹ tn “To serve as” is not in Greek but is implied in the object-complement construction.

[2:6]  ³² tn Grk “an example of the things coming to the ungodly,” or perhaps “an example to the ungodly of coming [ages].”

[2:12]  ³⁶ tn 2 Pet 2:12 through 16 constitute one cumbersome sentence in Greek. It is difficult to tell whether a hard break belongs in the middle of v. 13, as the translation has it, or whether the compounding of participles is meant in a loosely descriptive sort of way, without strong grammatical connection. Either way, the sentence rambles in a way that often betrays a great “vehemence of spirit” (A. T. Robertson, Grammar, 435). The author is obviously agitated at these false teachers who are to come.

[2:12]  ³⁷ tn The false teachers could conceivably be men or women, but in v. 14 they are said to have eyes “full of an adulteress.” This can only refer to men. Hence, both here and in v. 17 the false teachers are described as “men.”

[2:12]  ³⁸ tn Grk “born for capture and destruction.”

[2:12]  ³⁹ tn Grk “with [reference to] whom.”

[2:12]  ⁴⁰ tn There is no conjunction joining this last clause of v. 12 to the preceding (i.e., no “and consequently”). The argument builds asyndetically (a powerful rhetorical device in Greek), but cannot be naturally expressed in English as such.

[2:12]  ⁴¹ tn This cryptic expression has been variously interpreted. (1) It could involve a simple cognate dative in which case the idea is “they will be utterly destroyed.” But the presence of αὐτῶν (autwn; their, of them) is problematic for this view. Other, more plausible views are: (2) the false teachers will be destroyed at the same time as the irrational beasts, or (3) in the same manner as these creatures (i.e., by being caught); or (4) the false teachers will be destroyed together with the evil angels whom they insult. Because of the difficulties of the text, it was thought best to leave it ambiguous, as the Greek has it.

[2:2]  ⁴³ tn “Debauched lifestyles” is literally “licentiousnesses,” “sensualities,” “debaucheries.”

[2:2]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “because of whom,” introducing a subordinate clause to the first part of the verse.

[2:2]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “blasphemed,” “reviled,” “treated with contempt.”

[2:19]  ⁵⁰ tn Verse 19 is a subordinate clause in Greek. The masculine nominative participle “promising” (ἐπαγγελλόμενοι, epangellomenoi) refers back to the subject of vv. 17-18. At the same time, it functions subordinately to the following participle, ὑπάρχοντες (Juparconte", “while being”).

[2:19]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “them.”

[2:19]  ⁵² tn Grk “slaves of.” See the note on the word “slave” in 1:1.

[2:19]  ⁵³ tn Or “corruption,” “depravity.” Verse 19 constitutes a subordinate clause to v. 18 in Greek. The main verbal components of these two verses are: “uttering…they entice…promising…being (enslaved).” The main verb is (they) entice. The three participles are adverbial and seem to indicate an instrumental relation (by uttering), a concessive relation (although promising), and a temporal relation (while being [enslaved]). For the sake of English usage, in the translation of the text this is broken down into two sentences.

[2:19]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “for by what someone is overcome, to this he is enslaved.”

[1:4]  ⁵⁷ tn Verse 4 is in Greek a continuation of v. 3, “through which things.”

[1:4]  ⁵⁸ 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]  ⁵⁹ 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]  ⁶⁰ 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]  ⁶¹ tn Grk “the corruption in the world (in/because of) lust.”

[2:13]  ⁶⁴ tn There is a play on words in Greek, but this is difficult to express adequately in English. The verb ἀδικέω (adikew) as a passive means “to suffer harm,” or “to suffer an injustice.” The noun ἀδικία (adikia) means “unrighteousness.” Since the Greek verb has a wider field of meaning than the English, to translate it as suffer an injustice is unwarranted, for it implicitly attributes evil to God. As R. Bauckham notes, “in English it is impossible to translate ἀδικούμενοι as a morally neutral term and ἀδικίας with a morally pejorative term, while retaining the play on words” (Jude, 2 Peter [WBC], 265).

[2:13]  ⁶⁵ tn Grk “considering carousing in the daytime a pleasure.”

[2:13]  ⁶⁶ tn Or “carousing,” “reveling.” The participle ἐντρυφῶντες (entrufwnte") is a cognate to the noun τρυφή (trufh, “carousing”) used earlier in the verse.

[3:9]  ⁷¹ tn Or perhaps, “the Lord is not delaying [the fulfillment of] his promise,” or perhaps “the Lord of the promise is not delaying.” The verb can mean “to delay,” “to be slow,” or “to be hesitant.”

[3:9]  ⁷² tn Grk “not wishing.” The participle most likely has a causal force, explaining why the Lord is patient.

[3:9]  ⁷³ sn He does not wish for any to perish. This verse has been a battleground between Arminians and Calvinists. The former argue that God wants all people to be saved, but either through inability or restriction of his own sovereignty does not interfere with peoples’ wills. Some of the latter argue that the “any” here means “any of you” and that all the elect will repent before the return of Christ, because this is God’s will. Both of these positions have problems. The “any” in this context means “any of you.” (This can be seen by the dependent participle which gives the reason why the Lord is patient “toward you.”) There are hints throughout this letter that the readership may be mixed, including both true believers and others who are “sitting on the fence” as it were. But to make the equation of this readership with the elect is unlikely. This would seem to require, in its historical context, that all of these readers would be saved. But not all who attend church know the Lord or will know the Lord. Simon the Magician, whom Peter had confronted in Acts 8, is a case in point. This is evident in contemporary churches when a pastor addresses the congregation as “brothers, sisters, saints, etc.,” yet concludes the message with an evangelistic appeal. When an apostle or pastor addresses a group as “Christian” he does not necessarily think that every individual in the congregation is truly a Christian. Thus, the literary context seems to be against the Arminian view, while the historical context seems to be against (one representation of) the Calvinist view. The answer to this conundrum is found in the term “wish” (a participle in Greek from the verb boulomai). It often represents a mere wish, or one’s desiderative will, rather than one’s resolve. Unless God’s will is viewed on the two planes of his desiderative and decretive will (what he desires and what he decrees), hopeless confusion will result. The scriptures amply illustrate both that God sometimes decrees things that he does not desire and desires things that he does not decree. It is not that his will can be thwarted, nor that he has limited his sovereignty. But the mystery of God’s dealings with humanity is best seen if this tension is preserved. Otherwise, either God will be perceived as good but impotent or as a sovereign taskmaster. Here the idea that God does not wish for any to perish speaks only of God's desiderative will, without comment on his decretive will.

[3:9]  ⁷⁴ tn Grk “reach to repentance.” Repentance thus seems to be a quantifiable state, or turning point. The verb χωρέω (cwrew, “reach”) typically involves the connotation of “obtain the full measure of” something. It is thus most appropriate as referring to the repentance that accompanies conversion.

[3:12]  ⁷⁸ tn Or possibly, “striving for,” but the meaning “hasten” for σπουδάζω (spoudazw) is normative in Jewish apocalyptic literature (in which the coming of the Messiah/the end is anticipated). Such a hastening is not an arm-twisting of the divine volition, but a response by believers that has been decreed by God.

[3:12]  ⁷⁹ sn The coming of the day of God. Peter elsewhere describes the coming or parousia as the coming of Christ (cf. 2 Pet 1:16; 3:4). The almost casual exchange between “God” and “Christ” in this little book, and elsewhere in the NT, argues strongly for the deity of Christ (see esp. 1:1).

[3:12]  ⁸⁰ tn Grk “on account of which” (a subordinate relative clause in Greek).

[3:12]  ⁸¹ tn Grk “being burned up, will dissolve.”

[3:12]  ⁸² tn See note in v. 10 on “celestial bodies.”

[3:12]  ⁸³ tn Grk “being burned up” (see v. 10).