d Or be vigilant
e Gk your brotherhood
f Gk She who is
g Other ancient authorities add Amen
5.1–5 To elements of a household code (2.13–3.7) are added elements of a congregational code.
5.1 An elder myself, a rare self-reference by the author (see 1.1; 2.11). Elders were authoritative persons whose presence is noted in many early Christian writings.
5.2 Tend the flock. See Jn 21.16, Jesus’ command to Peter. Proper tending is described by three pairs of contrasts (not…but) here and in v. 3.
5.3 The command not to lord it over others prohibits the kind of harsh authority some have experienced from outsiders (see 2.18).
5.4 You will win (lit. “you will receive payment”). This eschatological reward stands in contrast to the greed forbidden in v. 2.
5.5 Younger, probably simply an age group. Elders, officials who are also older. Humility. See 3.8; 4.7–11. God…humble. Prov 3.34.
5.6–11 A final promise of vindication.
5.6 On exalting the humble, see Lk 14.11; 18.14; Phil 2.8.
5.7 Anxiety. See Mt 6.25–34.
5.8–9 Resisting the devil, God’s enemy, points to the larger struggle between good and evil within which the Christians are to understand their suffering.
5.10 Four parallel verbs reinforce the expectation that he may exalt you (v. 6).
5.11 See 4.11c.
5.12–14 Final exhortation and greetings.
5.12 Through Silvanus. Silvanus is the letter bearer, not the author’s secretary; see Acts 15.22 (“Silas”); 1 Thess 1.1; 2 Thess 1.1. Encourage. See 2.11 (where the same word is translated urge) and 5.1 (where it is translated exhort). Stand fast in God’s grace (see 1.13). This exhortation closes the body of the Letter.
5.13 Babylon, the author’s name for Rome (see Rev 17.5, 18). Mark. See Acts 12.12–17.
5.14 The kiss of love (see Rom 16.16) is familial, i.e., for members of the household of God (4.17). The farewell mentions peace, a concluding wish that reflects the conflict situation addressed by the Letter; see 1.2; 3.11.
The Second Letter of PETER
1 | 2 | 3 |
THE SECOND LETTER of Peter is presented as Peter’s testament, i.e., an account of Peter’s teaching as he wished it to be remembered after his death (1.12–15). If Peter himself wrote it, he must have done so shortly before his martyrdom in Rome in 64/65 CE. Most scholars, however, now believe it was written after Peter’s death by a writer following a literary convention of the time that allowed an author to attribute a “testament” to a great figure of the past. 2 Peter may well have been sent from the church of Rome and therefore attributed to the apostle who had for a time played a role in the leadership of that church. By writing in Peter’s name, the author was able to restate and defend Peter’s teaching in a situation in which opponents were criticizing the apostolic message. He also expressed the normative value of the apostolic teaching for the period after the death of the apostles.
Date
2 PETER HAS OFTEN BEEN CONSIDERED the latest book in the New Testament (even as late as 150 CE), but the basis for this view is weak. The best clue to the date of 2 Peter lies in 3.3–4. These verses seem to reflect a time when the early Christian expectation that Christ would come in glory within the lifetime of the first Christian generation had been disappointed. Because the problem this posed for Christian hope was soon surmounted, these verses seem to date 2 Peter around 80–90 CE.
Opponents
2 PETER DEFENDS PETER’S TEACHING against critics who probably wanted to free the Christian message from features that were embarrassing to the church in a pagan environment. Jewish-Christian moral strictness made life difficult for Christians in a more permissive pagan society, so the opponents argued that Christians were free from moral constraints. The Christian hope that Christ would come to judge the world and to establish a new world of righteousness was also alien to pagan views, so the opponents argued that the idea of a coming judgment was simply mistaken. This skepticism reinforced their moral libertinism. In reply, 2 Peter insists that the Christian hope is essential to the gospel and provides a motive for righteous living.
Purpose
2 PETER FACES THE PROBLEMS of Christianity’s twin transition from a Jewish to a pagan context and from the apostolic to the postapostolic age. 2 Peter insists on the ethical demand and the future hope of the gospel, maintaining these typically Jewish aspects of early Christian teaching, while also (esp. in 1.3–11) contextualizing them by translating them from Jewish into more typically Hellenistic cultural terms.
Form and Structure
2 PETER IS A TESTAMENT in the form of a letter. Four passages in which Peter foresees the future and provides for his teaching to be remembered reflect the Jewish testament genre (1.3–11, 12–15; 2.1–3a; 3.1–4). Attached to these are passages defending Peter’s teaching against the opponents (1.16–19, 20–21; 2.3b–10a; 3.5–10) and two passages contrasting the evil ways of the opponents (2.10b–22) with the righteous conduct expected of the readers (3.11–16).
Relationship to Jude
PARTS OF 2 PETER (esp. 2.1–18; 3.1–3) are closely related to the Letter of Jude. Most scholars now agree that the author of 2 Peter was dependent on Jude’s Letter, from which he adapted material for his own purpose. [RICHARD J. BAUCKHAM]
2 Peter 1
Salutation
1Simeona Peter, a servantb and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:c
2May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
The Christian’s Call and Election
3His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us byd his own glory and goodness. 4Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature. 5For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, 6and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, 7and godliness with mutuale affection, and mutualf affection with love. 8For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9For anyone who lacks these things is short-sighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. 10Therefore, brothers and sisters,g be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. 11For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
12Therefore I intend to keep on reminding you of these things, though you know them already and are established in the truth that has come to you. 13I think it right, as long as I am in this body,h to refresh your memory, 14since I know that my deathi will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
Eyewitnesses of Christ’s Glory
16For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved,j with whom I am well pleased.” 18We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.
19So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men
and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.k
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a Other ancient authorities read Simon
b Gk slave
c Or of our God and the Savior Jesus Christ
d Other ancient authorities read through
e Gk brotherly
f Gk brotherly
g Gk brothers
h Gk tent
i Gk the putting off of my tent
j Other ancient authorities read my beloved Son
k Other ancient authorities read but moved by the Holy Spirit saints of God spoke
1.1–2 The opening address and greeting are characteristic of early Christian letters.
1.3–11 A summary of Peter’s teaching as it is to be remembered after his death, stressing both God’s grace and the need for moral effort if Christians are to attain final salvation.
1.4 To become participants of the divine nature does not mean to share God’s essence but to receive “godlike” immortality.
1.5–7 In this “ladder” of virtues, each virtue is the means of producing the next (this sense of the Greek is lost in translation). All the virtues grow out of faith, and all culminate in love.
1.12–15 Peter’s teaching will be his permanent bequest to the church.
1.16–21 This section replies to the opponents’ charges that the apostles’ prediction of Christ’s future coming was their own invention (vv. 16–19) and that OT prophecies of it did not come from God (vv. 20–21).
1.16–18 At the transfiguration (Mt 17.1–8), the apostles saw Jesus appointed by God as the Messiah who will come to judge and rule the world (Ps 2.6–9).
1.19 The prophetic message, OT prophecy in general. The morning star, Christ at his coming in glory (Num 24.17; Rev 22.16).
1.20 One’s own interpretation, probably not interpretation of scripture by its readers, but the prophets’ interpretation of their visions.
1.21 See Jer 20.9; 23.16–32; Am 3.8.
2 Peter 2
False Prophets and Their Punishment
1But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Even so, many will follow their licentious ways, and because of these teachersa the way of truth will be maligned. 3And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
4For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hellb and committed them to chainsc of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on a world of the ungodly; 6and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinctiond and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;e 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless 8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard), 9then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment 10—especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust, and who despise authority.
Bold and willful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones,f 11whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not bring against them a slanderous judgment from the Lord.g 12These people, however, are like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed. They slander what they do not understand, and when those creatures are destroyed,h they also will be destroyed, 13sufferingi the penalty for doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their dissipationj while they feast with you. 14They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor,k who loved the wages of doing wrong, 16but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
17These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved. 18For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with licentious desires of the flesh they entice people who have justl escaped from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for people are slaves to whatever masters them. 20For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was passed on to them. 22It has happened to them according to the true proverb,
“The dog turns back to its own vomit,”
and,
“The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud.”
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a Gk because of them
b Gk Tartaros
c Other ancient authorities read pits
d Other ancient authorities lack to extinction
e Other ancient authorities read an example to those who were to be ungodly
f Or angels; Gk glories
g Other ancient authorities read before the Lord; others lack the phrase
h Gk in their destruction
i Other ancient authorities read receiving
j Other ancient authorities read love-feasts
k Other ancient authorities read Beor
l Other ancient authorities read actually
2.1–3a Peter’s prediction of the arrival of false teachers after his death.
2.1 The false teachers probably deny Christ by flouting his moral authority (as in Titus 1.16; Jude 4).
2.3b–10a A reply to the opponents’ claim that the expected judgment of the world is not going to happen. Examples of God’s judgment in the past (see Jude 6–7) are cited, along with examples of righteous people spared from judgment (see Wis 10.4–9). The judgments are warnings for the wicked; Noah and Lot are models for the righteous in a wicked world.
2.4 Angels, the “sons of God” of Gen 6.1–4, as interpreted in Jewish literature.
2.5 Noah is a herald of righteousness because, according to tradition, he preached repentance before the flood.
2.6–8 See Gen 18.16–19.29.
2.7 For Lot as a righteous man, see Gen 18.23–25; Wis 10.6; 19.17.
2.10b–22 Denunciation of the opponents.
2.10b–11 See Jude 8–9, but here the glorious ones are the powers of evil, for whom the opponents fail to show a healthy fear.
2.12 Probably meaning that when the powers of evil are destroyed (see text note a on p. 2070), these people who now scoff at them will perish with them.
2.13 Their dissipation, lit. “their deceits” (Greek apatais), which means deceitful pleasures and is also a pun on “love feasts” (Greek agapais; see Jude 12). The opponents are turning the church’s fellowship meals into mere shams.
2.15–16 See Num 22.21–35; Jude 11.
2.17 See Jude 12–13.
2.19 The freedom the opponents promise is liberation from fear of divine judgment and so from moral constraint, but as slaves to sin they cannot give freedom from sin (see Rom 6.15–23; 8.21; 1 Pet 2.16).
2.20 See Mt 12.43–45.
2.22 The first quotation is Prov 26.11; the second is an ancient oriental proverb.
3.1–4 A second prediction of the coming of the false teachers.
2 Peter 3
The Promise of the Lord’s Coming
1This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you; in them I am trying to arouse your since
re intention by reminding you 2that you should remember the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken through your apostles. 3First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts 4and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died,a all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!” 5They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water, 6through which the world of that time was deluged with water and perished. 7But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the godless.
8But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. 9The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you,b not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.c
11Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, 12waiting for and hasteningd the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? 13But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
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