2 Peter 2:13

2:13 suffering harm as the wages for their harmful ways. ¹  By considering it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight, ²  they are stains and blemishes, indulging ³  in their deceitful pleasures when they feast together with you.

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 3:7

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. ⁷ 

2 Peter 3:12

3:12 while waiting for and hastening ⁸  the coming of the day of God? ⁹  Because of this day, ¹⁰  the heavens will be burned up and ¹¹  dissolve, and the celestial bodies ¹²  will melt away in a blaze! ¹³ 

2 Peter 3:18

3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge ¹⁴  of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the honor both now and on ¹⁵  that eternal day. ¹⁶ 

[2:13]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Grk “considering carousing in the daytime a pleasure.”

[2:13]  ³ tn Or “carousing,” “reveling.” The participle ἐντρυφῶντες (entrufwnte") is a cognate to the noun τρυφή (trufh, “carousing”) used earlier in the verse.

[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.”

[3:7]  ⁷ tn Grk “the ungodly people.”

[3:12]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Grk “on account of which” (a subordinate relative clause in Greek).

[3:12]  ¹³ tn Grk “being burned up, will dissolve.”

[3:12]  ¹⁴ tn See note in v. 10 on “celestial bodies.”

[3:12]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “being burned up” (see v. 10).

[3:18]  ¹³ tn The term “knowledge” (γνῶσις, gnwsis) used here is not the same as is found in 2 Pet 1:2, 3, 8; 2:20. This term is found in 1:5 and 1:6.

[3:18]  ¹⁴ tn Or “until.”

[3:18]  ¹⁵ tc ‡ The vast bulk of mss add ἀμήν (amhn, “amen”) at the end of this letter, as they do almost all the rest of the NT books (only Acts, James, and 3 John lack a majority of witnesses supporting a concluding ἀμήν). The omission in B 1241 1243 1739* 1881 2298 appears to be original, although the fact that some of the best and earliest Alexandrian witnesses (Ì⁷² א A C P Ψ 33 co), along with the Byzantine text and early versions (vg sy), add the particle renders such a judgment less than iron-clad. NA²⁷ places the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.