2 Peter 2:2

2:2 And many will follow their debauched lifestyles. ¹  Because of these false teachers, ²  the way of truth will be slandered. ³ 

2 Peter 2:15

2:15 By forsaking the right path they have gone astray, because they followed the way of Balaam son of Bosor, ⁴  who loved the wages of unrighteousness, ⁵ 

2 Peter 2:21

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.

2 Peter 3:1

The False Teachers’ Denial of the Lord’s Return

3:1 Dear friends, this is already the second letter I have written ⁶  you, in which ⁷  I am trying to stir up ⁸  your pure mind by way of reminder:

2 Peter 1:11

1:11 For thus an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be richly provided for you.

2 Peter 1:13

1:13 Indeed, as long as I am in this tabernacle, ⁹  I consider it right to stir you up by way of a reminder,

2 Peter 3:11

3:11 Since all these things are to melt away ¹⁰  in this manner, ¹¹  what sort of people must we ¹²  be, conducting our lives in holiness and godliness, ¹³ 

2 Peter 2:7

2:7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man in anguish over the debauched lifestyle of lawless ¹⁴  men, ¹⁵ 

2 Peter 2:3

2:3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their ¹⁶  condemnation pronounced long ago ¹⁷  is not sitting idly by; ¹⁸  their ¹⁹  destruction is not asleep.

2 Peter 2:14

2:14 Their eyes, ²⁰  full of adultery, ²¹  never stop sinning; ²²  they entice ²³  unstable people. ²⁴  They have trained their hearts for greed, these cursed children! ²⁵ 

2 Peter 2:6

2:6 and if he turned to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when he condemned them to destruction, ²⁶  having appointed ²⁷  them to serve as an example ²⁸  to future generations of the ungodly, ²⁹ 

2 Peter 2:13

2:13 suffering harm as the wages for their harmful ways. ³⁰  By considering it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight, ³¹  they are stains and blemishes, indulging ³²  in their deceitful pleasures when they feast together with you.

2 Peter 2:20

2:20 For if after they have escaped the filthy things ³³  of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, ³⁴  they ³⁵  again get entangled in them and succumb to them, ³⁶  their last state has become worse for them than their first.

2 Peter 3:9

3:9 The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, ³⁷  as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish ³⁸  for any ³⁹  to perish but for all to come to repentance. ⁴⁰ 

2 Peter 3:16

3:16 speaking of these things in all his letters. ⁴¹  Some things in these letters ⁴²  are hard to understand, things ⁴³  the ignorant and unstable twist ⁴⁴  to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures. ⁴⁵ 

[2:2]  ¹ tn “Debauched lifestyles” is literally “licentiousnesses,” “sensualities,” “debaucheries.”

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

[2:2]  ³ tn Or “blasphemed,” “reviled,” “treated with contempt.”

[2:15]  ⁴ tn Although many modern translations (e.g., NASB, TEV, NIV, CEV, NLT) read “Beor” here, this is due to harmonization with the OT rather than following a variant textual reading. The Greek text of NA²⁷ reads “Bosor,” an otherwise unattested form of the name of Balaam’s father.

[2:15]  ⁵ tn “Wages of unrighteousness” in Greek is the same expression found in v. 13, “wages for harmful ways.” The repetition makes the link between the false teachers and Balaam more concrete.

[3:1]  ⁷ tn Grk “I am already writing this [as] a second letter.” The object-complement construction is more smoothly rendered in English a bit differently. Further, although the present tense γράφω (grafw) is used here, English convention employs an epistolary past tense. (The Greek epistolary aorist might have been expected here, but it also occurs in situations unlike its English counterparts.)

[3:1]  ⁸ tn The relative pronoun is plural, indicating that the following statement is true about both letters.

[3:1]  ⁹ tn Or “I have stirred up, aroused.” The translation treats the present tense verb as a conative present.

[1:13]  ¹⁰ tn Or “tent.” The author uses this as a metaphor for his physical body.

[3:11]  ¹³ tn Grk “all these things thus being dissolved.”

[3:11]  ¹⁴ tn Or “thus.”

[3:11]  ¹⁵ tc ‡ Most mss have a pronoun with the infinitive – either ὑμᾶς (Jumas, “you”; found in A C^[*^] P Ψ 048^vid 33 1739 Ï, as well as the corrector of Ì⁷² and second corrector of א), ἡμᾶς (Jhmas, “we”; read by א* 630 2464 al), or ἑαυτούς (Jeautous, “[you your]selves/[we our]selves,” read by 1243). But the shorter reading (with no pronoun) has the support of Ì^72*,74vid B pc. Though slim, the evidence for the omission is nevertheless the earliest. Further, the addition of some pronoun, especially the second person pronoun, seems to be a clarifying variant. It would be difficult to explain the pronoun’s absence in some witnesses if the pronoun were original. That three different pronouns have shown up in the mss is testimony for the omission. Thus, on external and internal grounds, the omission is preferred. For English style requirements, however, some pronoun has to be added. NA ²⁷ has ὑμᾶς in brackets, indicating doubt as to its authenticity.

[3:11]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “in holy conduct and godliness.”

[2:7]  ¹⁶ tn Or “unprincipled.”

[2:7]  ¹⁷ tn This verse more literally reads “And [if] he rescued righteous Lot, who was deeply distressed by the lifestyle of the lawless in [their] debauchery.”

[2:3]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “to whom,” introducing a subordinate relative clause.

[2:3]  ²⁰ tn Grk “the ancient judgment.”

[2:3]  ²¹ tn Grk “is not idle.”

[2:3]  ²² tn Greek has “and their.” As introducing a synonymous parallel, it is superfluous in English.

[2:14]  ²² tn Grk “having eyes.” See note on “men” at the beginning of v. 12.

[2:14]  ²³ tn Grk “full of an adulteress.”

[2:14]  ²⁴ tn Grk “and unceasing from sin.” Some translate this “insatiable for sin,” but such a translation is based on a textual variant with inadequate support.

[2:14]  ²⁵ tn Grk “enticing.” See note on “men” at the beginning of v. 12.

[2:14]  ²⁶ tn “People” is literally “souls.” The term ψυχή (yuch) can refer to one’s soul, one’s life, or oneself.

[2:14]  ²⁷ tn Grk “having hearts trained in greediness, children of cursing.” The participles continue the general description of the false teachers, without strong grammatical connection. The genitive κατάρας (kataras, “of cursing”) is taken attributively here.

[2:6]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁷ tn “To serve as” is not in Greek but is implied in the object-complement construction.

[2:6]  ²⁸ tn Grk “an example of the things coming to the ungodly,” or perhaps “an example to the ungodly of coming [ages].”

[2:13]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ tn Grk “considering carousing in the daytime a pleasure.”

[2:13]  ³⁰ tn Or “carousing,” “reveling.” The participle ἐντρυφῶντες (entrufwnte") is a cognate to the noun τρυφή (trufh, “carousing”) used earlier in the verse.

[2:20]  ³¹ tn Grk “defilements”; “contaminations”; “pollutions.”

[2:20]  ³² 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]  ³³ tn Grk “(and/but) they.”

[2:20]  ³⁴ tn Grk “they again, after becoming entangled in them, are overcome by them.”

[3:9]  ³⁴ 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]  ³⁵ tn Grk “not wishing.” The participle most likely has a causal force, explaining why the Lord is patient.

[3:9]  ³⁶ 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]  ³⁷ 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.

[3:16]  ³⁷ tn Grk “as also in all his letters speaking in them of these things.”

[3:16]  ³⁸ tn Grk “in which are some things hard to understand.”

[3:16]  ³⁹ 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]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “distort,” “wrench,” “torture” (all are apt descriptions of what heretics do to scripture).

[3:16]  ⁴¹ 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.