Bible Commentaries

2 Peter 2:1-10 a.

Analysis:—Warning against the false prophets with reference to their inevitable punishment, illustrated by three examples

1But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall he false teachers among you, who¹ privily² shall bring in damnable heresies,³ even⁴ denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction 2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways,⁵ by reason of whom the way of truth⁶ shall be evil spoken of 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of⁷ you: whose judgment now of a long time⁸ lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not 4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains⁹ of darkness, to be reserved¹⁰ unto judgment; 5And spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an 7 ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered¹¹ just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation¹² of the wicked: 8(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds:) 9The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation,¹³and to reserve the unjust¹⁴ unto the day of judgment to be punished: 10But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Connection:—The Apostle, having exhorted them to give attention to the prophecy of Holy Scripture, 2 Peter 1:19, now warns them against the false prophets, delineating their character and adverting to their fearful end. As he often takes up the words of our Lord in the first Epistle, so he doubtless alludes here to passages like Matthew 24:11-12; Matthew 7:15 : “Beware of false prophets.” He makes the transition with reference to the false prophets in Israel, in order that the believers to whom he wrote might not be alarmed at the appearance of erroneous teachers. Paul also had prophesied concerning such erroneous teachers, Acts 20:29-30. Those seducers are referred to in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, the first of John, and the book of Revelation, but especially in the Epistle of Jude. In those writings they are mostly described as already existing.

[Alford remarks that ψευδο, in the latter, is ambiguous, the word being either subjective=pretenders, not real prophets, or objective=prophesiers of false things; cf. for the latter, Jeremiah 14:14, LXX, ψευδῆ οἱ προφῆται προφητεύουσιν….; ib. Jeremiah 14:15; Jeremiah 23:25.—M.] Dietlein: “Not a prophet or teacher who prophesies or teaches falsehood, but one who is not a prophet and yet falsely pretends to be one, cf. 2 Corinthians 11:13; Revelation 2:2.—[Better make ψευδο, in ψευδοδιδάσκολοι, ambiguous, and understand not only unauthorized pretenders, but also teachers of falsehood.—M.]—παρεισάξουσι, not to bring forward, but to bring in beside, introduce secretly. In Jude occurs the similar term παρεισέδυσαν, they crept in through a false door. Bengel: “Beside the salutary doctrine of Christ.—Αἳρεσις from αἱρέω, a doctrine, a school, a sect. In the New Testament it is applied to the religious parties among the later Jews, contending with one another, Acts 5:17; Acts 15:5; Acts 26:5; in a bad sense, Acts 24:5; Acts 24:14; Acts 28:22. So especially, Titus 3:10. “A man that is an heretic….. reject.” It denotes voluntary, deliberate deviating from purely Christian articles of belief, leading to divisions in the Church, cf. Herzog, Real. Encycl. Art. Häresie.—Ἀπωλείας intensifies the idea of αἱρέσεις. Not all heresies are equally pernicious, not all lead so decidedly to destruction. [Doubtful whether this distinction can be drawn; it certainly does not pertain ad rem; these false teachers, who surreptitiously bring in false teaching by the side of the true faith, bring upon themselves destruction. Their end is destruction, cf. Philippians 3:19.—M.]

Deniers of the Master that bought them.—Winer assumes that the two Participles ἀρνούμενοι and ἐπάγοντες are not cöordinate to each other, but that καὶ—ἐπάγοντες is to be connected with the principal verb thus: “Who shall bring in corrupting heresies, and also, denying the Lord, bring upon themselves swift destruction;” too artificial. Others take καί for even, “even denying the Lord,“ but this use of καί cannot be substantiated. Huther proposes to take the Participle ἐπάγοντες as the verbum finitum, but without any analogy. The construction, however, becomes quite simple by taking the three Participles coördinate and alike dependent on ἕσονται, and making ἐπάγοντες to refer to the two classes of seducers, without distinguishing them from each other. This precludes the necessity of changing the construction while καὶ retains its usual signification. The second form of seducers is a species of the former. The terms παρεισάξουσιν and ἐπάγοντες correspond: they introduce their errors by stealth, but they draw upon themselves open and manifest destruction. [The reader has Fronmüller’s construction in the translation, and may think it less artificial than awkward. The construction of Alford (who takes καὶ as the simple Copula, and regards ἀρνούμενοι as standing in the place of the finite verb, cöordinate with παρεισάξουσιν, followed, as a consequence, by ἐπάγοντες κ. τ. λ.) seems least difficult; he renders “and denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.”—M.]

Of the Master that bought them.—δεσπότης denotes an absolute ruler [an autocrat,—M.] of bondmen or slaves. It is used of God the Father, Luke 2:29; Acts 4:24; Revelation 6:10. Here the context requires us to apply it to Christ, cf. Judges 4, and Revelation 1:8, where Christ is called the Almighty. This term suits ἀγοράζειν better than κὐριος.—, 1 Peter 1:18, has λυτροῦσθαι for ἀγοράζειν, the former of which indicates the infinitely precious ransom, generally ἐξαγοράζειν, to buy back from, out of, Galatians 3:13; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 5:16; Colossians 4:5. The simple ἀγοράζειν occurs at 1 Corinthians 6:20; Revelation 5:9; Revelation 14:3-4. Calov: “The ransom is the blood of Christ, Matthew 20:28. Hebrews, to whom it has been paid, is God, who chiefly held us in prison, whereas the devil is only His prisonkeeper, from the hands of whom Christ has delivered us, Ephesians 5:2; Hebrews 9:14. God in virtue of His justice required a ransom for our deliverance; in virtue of His mercy He accepted the ransom, which Christ paid for us.”—Gerlach says: “These erroneous teachers had already become Christians, they had already experienced the saving effects of redemption, and had really left the service of the devil in Judaism or Paganism for the service of Christ.” In support of this view 2 Peter 2:21 may be cited. But ἀγοράζειν is generally used to denote absolutely the vicarious satisfaction of Christ extending to all men, and consequently also to these false teachers; it is not used with the limitation that the effect of it has been experienced, as Calvin maintains, cf. 1 Timothy 2:6; Ephesians 5:2; Hebrews 9:14. Gerhard makes use of the illustration of a Christian ruler who pays a certain ransom for the redemption of prisoners into the hands of the Turkish Sultan. Those prisoners are truly redeemed, although they should refuse to accept the benefit of their liberation and continue in their bonds.

Deniers of the Master.—Their wickedness is the more enormous, because they deny their greatest Benefactor, in the service and confession of whom they ought cheerfully to die. The manner of their denial is not further defined. Bengel adds: “By their doctrine and works.” Perhaps it is the same kind of denial as that of the false teachers in 1 John 2:23; 1 John 4:2; 1 John 5:12; 2 John 1:7; 2 John 1:9. The denial of the historical Christ, at once God and Man in one Person, as held and afterwards developed by the Gnostics into an anti-christian doctrine, partly with highly dangerous practical consequences.—Their denial may have had particular reference to the virtue of His sacrificial death and to His royal power over us, as His bondsmen.—[St. Peter, in inditing these words, doubtless felt deeply his own conduct in this respect, for notwithstanding the warning of Jesus, he denied Him thrice under the most painful circumstances. Matthew 26:70; Matthew 26:72.—M.] ταχινὴν ἀπώλειαν; ἀπώλεια, destruction, ruin in temporal and eternal death. This will be sudden, cf. 2 Peter 1:14; their end will be attended with terrors, Psalm 73:19. Destruction shall overtake them swiftly, 1 Thessalonians 5:3, just as the coming of Christ will be sudden.

2 Peter 2:2. And many shall follow after their licentiousnesses.—Cf. Matthew 24:11-12; 2 Timothy 2:17. Errors, particularly those which give free scope to the flesh, are very contagious. [For an account of the Gnostic false teachers see below under Doctrinal and Ethical, No4.—M.] ἀσελγείαις, licentiousnesses, dissolute habits, unclean living. We see from 2 Peter 2:19 that a false liberty [really libertinism.—M.] was the gospel of those false teachers. They confounded Christian liberty with unbridled license. The roots of the bold antinomian tendency, which we find in the second century among the Carpocratians and other Gnostics, descend to the middle of the first century. “The haughtiness of false spirituality and unbridled sensuality with them went hand-in-hand.” Gerlach. De Wette exhibits gross confusion in the remark that “αἱρέσεις being called here all of a sudden, ἀσέλγειαι, can only be explained from Judges 4.”

By reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.—δἰ οῦς; refer the relative to those who are seduced. The way of truth is an expression taken from the Old Testament, cf. Genesis 24:48; Psalm 139:24; Jeremiah 18:15; Amos 8:14. The right manner of worshipping and serving God. So Acts 19:9; Acts 19:23. As a way to a traveller such is true religion to us men. It is evil spoken of among the heathens and the worldly-minded [Bengel: “ab iis qui foris sunt, discrimen ignorantibus verorum et falsorum Christianorum.”—M.] who charge Christianity with the sins of false Christians. “They are wont to say: Look at the fruits of the Christian religion! The inference, although false, does harm, because it confirms those who draw it in their aversion to the truth and to Christ Himself.” Roos.—Peter in his first Epistle, 1 Peter 4:14, and Paul in Romans 2:24 (cf. James 2:7) allude to this evil speaking. [Oecumenius describes the Nicolaitans and Gnostics as most “unholy in their doctrines and most licentious in their lives.” Clem. Alex. states as a reason for his own writing, that false teachers, professing the name of Christians, and yet living shameless lives, have brought infamy (βλασφημίαν) upon the Christian name, even among the Gentiles, and that it was necessary to disabuse their minds of this illusion, and to vindicate the Gospel of Christ. See Wordsworth, who is very rich in illustrations on this subject.—M.]

2 Peter 2:3. And in covetousness with feigned words they will make merchandise of you.—ἐν πλεονεξία; not only the lust of money, but also the lust of honour and pleasure. Ἐν is significant and denotes that they were sunk and immersed in it.—Πλαστοῖς λόγοις, another expression characteristic of Peter, with speeches deceitfully conceived and invented [“speciously fashioned in fair forms so as to allure and deceive,” Wordsworth; Wetstein quotes Artemid1, 53, πλάσσειν δοκεῖ……ἀγαθὸν ῥήτορσι……καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ἀπατεῶσι, διὰ τὸ τὰ μὴ ὅντα ὡς ὅντα δεικνύειν τὰς τέχνας ταύτας.—M. ] Cf. 2 Peter 1:16; Romans 16:18. Perhaps the reference is to fictitious stories of the life of Jesus and the Apostles.—Ἐμπορεύεσθαι, to trade ( James 4:13), to import goods, to traffic, to make gain of, to overreach, cheat, cf. Hosea 12:1; Proverbs 3:14; to deal in a thing, and to acquire a thing by traffic, is construed with the Accusative. Winer, p255, German ed, quotes from Josephus: ἐμπορ. τὴν ὥραν τὴν τοῦ σώματος, to trade in the beauty of the body; and from Philo: ἐνεπορεύετο τὴν λήθην τῶν δικαστῶν, he made profit of the forgetfulness of the judges. Hence Winer inclines to the rendering, “they will seek to get profit out of you, to make gain of you,” or as Dietlein puts it, “they will cheat you” (beschachern).—[The 6 th ed. of Winer, Engl. Transl, does not contain these quotations. Winer says plainly, p236, that the word here means, “make merchandise of you.”—M.] Gerlach: “They will sell you for coin the doctrines of their own inventing,” cf. 1 Timothy 6:5; Titus 1:11. The equally proven sense, “to cheat, to deceive,” seems to be most simple.

For whom judgment from of old lingereth not.—οἶς τὸ κρίμα ἔκπαλαι. De Wette thinks it necessary to connect κρίμα and ἔκπαλαι, as if it were the judgment from of old decreed and predicted ( [Alford renders “for whom the sentence from long since is not idle”—after Bengel: “non est otiosum,” who explains: i.e, “plane viget unum idemque est judicium super omnes peccantes, quod in animo Judicis sine intermissione agitatur dum erumpit: et in iis, qui puniti in Scriptura memorantur, ostenditur quid ceteros maneat; tametsi peccantes putant, illud cessare ipsique dormitant.”]

And whose destruction slumbereth not.—An original expression, peculiar to Peter. It is generally used only of men, as is shown in the passage from Plato cited by Huther: μηδὲν δεὶσθαι νυστάζοντος δικαστοῦ. Gerlach: “Punitive judgments live in God’s immutable decree and break forth at the appointed time, and the specific instances recorded in history teach us what is in store for all. God is awake as the Judges, while He seems to be sleeping; but they, the recreants, sleep the sleep of security, while they seem to be awake in undisturbed activity and work.” Hugo extends the expression to stings of conscience, which form already a part of hell, in Gerhard, p195.

2 Peter 2:4. For if God spared not the angels that had sinned.—Now follow three examples in illustration of ἔκπαλαι, which clearly exhibit the punitive justice alongside the saving justice of God.—εἰ γάρ. Winer, de Wette and al. assume here the existence of an anacoluthon; but the apodosis of the three pratases 1.—εἰ γάρ; 2. καὶ ἀρχ. κόσμ; 3. καὶ πόλεις.—M.] occurs at 2 Peter 2:9, although couched in more general terms than might have been expected, respect being had to the exhibition of Divine justice to the pious.

Spared not.—Bengel: “Severe judgment is announced upon those of whom we should have expected that they would be spared.” Complete the sentence thus: “If He did not spare those who stood higher and enjoyed greater dignity, much less will He spare the less.” [But in order to bring this out ἀγγέλων ἁμαρτησάντων should be rendered without the article, viz.: “For if God spared not angels having sinned,” then supply, “much less will He spare these false teachers.”—M.]

That had sinned.—In Judges 6, we have the addition, “who kept not their principality, but left their own habitation,” or according to Stier, “who left their original true dominion and dignity,” cf. John 8:44. Dietlein supposes on untenable grounds that 2 Peter 2:4-5 belong together, and that Peter therefore stands up as an authority that Genesis 6:2, refers not to the Sethites, but to angels; that he alludes more particularly to that last form of the development of sin when they entered into sexual relations with the daughters of men. As to Genesis 6:2 we are unable to abandon the view that it relates to the amalgamation of the Sethites and Cainites, cf. Luke 20:34-36. (Dettinger, Tübinger Zeitschrift, 1835, 1; Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, 1858, No29.)—ἁμαρτησ. ἀγγ. above, probably would never have been interpreted otherwise than as setting forth the first fall in the realm of spirits, unless the passage, Jude 67, had been believed to contain a reference to a πορνεία on the part of angels. But this view is founded on a false interpretation of τούτοις, which belongs not to the first mentioned angels, but clearly to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, hence the masculine τούτοις. So Keil. It, is alleged in the Evangelische Kirchenzeitung that ἐκπορν. is only used to describe that kind of incontinence which violates an existing bond, that Genesis 6 refers, to matrimony, while 2 Peter 2:3 discountenances altogether all reference to angels; that angels indeed denote sometimes fallen angels, 1 Corinthians 6:3 (against Stier); that Jude must not be interpreted by the book of Enoch, which, at the time when that Epistle was written, was perhaps not even extant (?). Hence the sinning on the part of angels in our passage can only be understood of the revolt of Satan and his associates, 1 John 3:8; 1 John 3:10. Kurtz, Delitzsch and al. interpret differently, while Keil (Lutherische Zeitschrift, 1855, 2), defends our view of Genesis 6:2 and 2 Peter 2:4, on weighty grounds. The angel interpretation is found in Justin, Athenagoras, Cyprian and al.; also in the Syrian Church; in the Hellenistic and Palestinian synagogue; the Sethite interpretation is held by writers of the Middle Ages, but also earlier by Julius Africanus, Ephrem the Syrian and al.; also by Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin.

But cast them in bonds of darkness into hell and committed them.—σειρά from εἴρειν, to tie, bind, wind(?), a cord, a rope, a band, a noose, not a chain. Judges 6 has instead, δεσμός, a bond, a band, a fetter. [But the most authentic reading (see Appar. Crit. on 2 Peter 2:4) is σειροῖς from σειρός=σίφος or σιῤῥός, σιρός, properly a cave where corn is stored (Demosth.); a pit, a wolf’s den; in that case render “dens of darkdess.” Cf. Alford and the Lexica.—M.]

Bonds of darkness.—The Book of Wisdom of Solomon 17:18, in connection with the plagues of Egypt, uses the following expression: “ἀλύσει σκότους ἐδέθησαν, they were bound with indissoluble (?) bonds of darkness.” As the bonds here are only a figure of the binding (?) power of darkness, so they are doubtless in our passage. Hence Bengel: “Darkness itself keeps them bound and is to them like a chain.” Jude 56 is more explicit: “he hath reserved them (bound) in everlasting chains under darkness.” In both passages ζόφος, profound, extreme darkness, is used for σκότος. Judges 13. gives both words to express the highest degree of darkness. Although these bonds must not be taken literally, the darkness must not be confined to the darkness of their wickedness, but should be taken to denote real darkness, and the custody in which they are kept, a real custody. But this custody of the evil angels, says Bengel, is as yet preliminary, and the servants of hell may still remain on earth, Luke 8:31; Ephesians 2:2; Acts 5:3; Acts 13:10; just as prisoners of war are sometimes permitted to go beyond the place of their confinement.—Ταρταρώσας, another term peculiar to Peter and not found in the LXX. Grotius rightly remarks that it denotes in Classic Greek to cast down into Tartarus, not to condemn to Tartarus. Nor does τάρταρος occur either in the N. T. or in the LXX.; the Greeks conceived it to be the lowest region of the earth, full of darkness and cold, not a region in the air, as Grotius, quoting Plutarch, supposes. So Tertullian, Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine, Theodoret. It is=ἄβυσσος, while ᾅδης describes the abode of the dead in general, and γέεννα denotes the final place of punishment, the lake of fire, Revelation 20:10-14; Matthew 25:44, consequently the preliminary place of confinement and state of spirits, similar to what Sheol is for men. Huther connects παρέδωκε with σειραῖς; but the most simple construction is to connect ταρταρώσας with σειραῖς.

Being kept unto judgment.—Εἰς κρίσιν τηρουμένους belong together. A judgment has probably been passed upon them already, but the final judgment is still in store for them, cf. Matthew 8:29; Revelation 20:10; James 2:19. The Epistle of Jude amplifies “unto the judgment of the great day.”—Τηρουμένους, as criminals that are now reserved for judgment [from a present point of view.—M.] Winer, p358.—“They are as unable to work themselves out of their darkness as is a prisoner to extricate himself from his chains.”—Roos. But this author errs when he continues: “Just as the word prison, Job 36:13, and the term hell, 1 Samuel 2:6, do not describe a place, but a condition, so the term tartarize with reference to the apostate angels does not describe a being locked up in a bad place, but rather the translation to a bad condition. These angels, be they wherever they may, are in a tartaric condition.” The latter is true, but the abstraction, which precedes it, is not biblical.—Grotius sees in their being reserved a particular reference to their inability of going beyond the confines of the place assigned to them, and of doing any thing without permission. Stier calls attention to the deep irony which he detects in these words, whereby the Almighty holds those mighty ones up to derision, an irony of the initial judgment of their perverse doings. “They would not keep their first estate and appointed habitation, and for this they must now, in virtue of the new power exerted against them by the Creator, be sadly kept and held fast unto guilt and punishment in the state of sin of which they made deliberate choice.” This is perhaps too ingenious.

2 Peter 2:5. And spared not the old world, but preserved Noah, the eighth person, a herald of righteousness.—The second example, which is not given by Jude, is taken from the flood.

The old world, the world primeval. Dietlein: “Not absolutely the antediluvian race; it includes impersonal creation in so far as it surrounded that primordial race and being, as it were, its body, participated both in its corruption and punishment.”—Ὄγδοον Νῶε. As the Apostle in 1 Peter 3:20, attaches importance to the small number of the saved, so he does here in the case of Noah and his wife, three sons and their three wives; cf. on this use of the ordinal, Winer, p263. “The eight souls are contrasted with the most numerous world of the ungodly.”—Bengel. Among the Patriarchs Noah is the tenth. There is here consequently no room for a prophetico-symbolical reference. The allusion is plainly to the small number of the saved at all times. [Wordsworth: “Seven is the number of completion and rest, the Sabbatical number: and in Enoch—the seventh from Adam—who walked with God, and did not die, but was translated from the turmoil of this world to a heavenly rest, and taken up to God, there appears to be a figurative adumbration of the Sabbath of heavenly rest, which remaineth to the people of God, Hebrews 4:9.” Wordsworth has this note with reference to Judges 1:14 : “Enoch, the seventh from Adam,” and thinks that Peter not only calls attention to the fact that Noah was saved with seven others, but that it places him as it were at the highest point of the climax.—M.]

Herald, preacher of righteousness.—He stood up against the world, denounced its unrighteousness and corruption, and exhorted it to repentance and conversion. Διακοσύνη. Huther: “Here not=righteousness of faith, but in the Old Testament sense=piety exhibited in obedience to the will of God.” [Alford: The fact that Noah was thus a preacher of (moral) righteousness to the depravity of his age, is found alluded to in Joseph. Antiq., I, 31,—Ὁ Νώεος δὲ, τοἳς πραττομένοις ὑπ̓ αὐτῶν δυσχεραίνων καὶ τοῖς βουλεύμασιν ἀηδως ἔχων, ἔπειθεν ἐπὶ τὸ κρεῖττον αὐτοὺς τὴν διάνοιαν καὶ τὰς πράξεις μεταφέρειν. Bereschith Rabba, XXX:6, in Wetstein: “κῆρυξ generationis diluvii, id Esther, Noachus.”—M.]

Bringing the flood upon the world of the ungodly.—κατακλυσμόν from κατακλύζω, the deluge, confluence of the seas, cf 2 Peter 6. מַבּוּל Genesis 6:17.—Ἐπάξας, that which here is referred to the operation of God, is described in 2 Peter 2:1, as the guilt of man. The two should go together. [Human depravity the cause of Divine punishment.—M.]

2 Peter 2:6. And burning to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, etc.—The third example is the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, cf. Judges 7.—Τεφροῦν from τέφρα, to burn to ashes.—Καταστροφῇ κατέκρινεν. Dietlein and al. translate: “He condemned them actually by overthrow;” but we prefer rendering with de Wette, Huther and al.: “He condemned them to overthrow,” like κατακρίνειν θανατῷ, Matthew 20:18; Mark 10:33.—Καταστροφή, cf. Genesis 19:29, LXX. 2 Timothy 2:14; Jude amplifies, see 2 Peter 2:7.—Ὑπόδειγμα τεθεικώς=παράδειγμα: Jude has δεῖγμα, proof, figure, example, similitude, by which something is shown, cf. James 5:10; Hebrews 4:11; Hebrews 8:5; John 13:15.—Dietlein strangely accounts for the use of the word by Peter’s preference for ὑπό. The Perfect is very emphatic, being usually employed to denote an action completed, conceived as continuing in its effects, cf. Winer, p286. Bengel: “It was an irrefragable monument of God and of the Divine judgment.”—Peter probably alludes here to 3 Maccabees 2:5.

2 Peter 2:7. And delivered righteous Lot, etc.—Καταπονούμενον, cf. Acts 7:24, καταπονέω to wear down or tire out, to oppress, to harass beyond bearing (Alf.). Connect with ὑπὸ τῆς—ἀναστροφῆς. Others join ὑπὸ with ἐῤῥύσατο, rendering “out of the power of the bad conversation, under the influence of which he had been left,” cf. Winer, p386.—Ἐν ἀσελγείᾳ ἀναστροφή, cf. 1 Peter 1:17.—Ἂθεσμος from θεσμός, a lawless, abandoned man, an antinomian; Bengel: “One who sins against nature;” Gerhard: “One who cares neither for right nor law.” Only here and eh. 2 Peter 3:17.

2 Peter 2:8. For seeing and hearing the righteous man, etc.—Parenthetical explanation of καταπονούμενον. Instead of the lawless tormenting his soul, it was Hebrews, the righteous man, who tormenting his righteous soul.—Βλέμματι καὶ ἀκοῇ belong to ἐβασάνιζεν. Wherever he turned and saw and heard, his soul was distressed at the wickedness that surrounded him. The sense here is similar to John 11:33, where it is said of Jesus that He ἐτάραξεν ἑαυτόν. Dietlein: “Pain at one’s own sin and at sin in general must not only be felt, but it must be a pain effected by the soul itself by reason of its turning to God.”—Καταπονούμενον denotes the passive side of the pain. Bede connects δίκαιος with βλέμματι καὶ ἀκοῇ, and renders, “righteous because he did not suffer himself to be seduced by seeing and hearing.”—Ἀνόμοις ἔργοις denotes the object of his distress.

2 Peter 2:9. The Lord knoweth, etc.—The apodosis is expressed in terms which apply the preceding examples not only to the lawless, but also to the pious.—Οἷδε. Knowledge and power combined. Κύριος, God the Father, according to 2 Peter 2:4.—εὐσεβεῖς, those who like Noah and Lot walk in faith in the living God.

Out of temptation, cf. 1 Peter 1:6; 1 Peter 4:12; Matthew 6:13; Matthew 26:41; Luke 8:13; Acts 20:19; 1 Corinthians 10:13; 1 Timothy 6:9; Hebrews 3:8; James 1:2; Revelation 3:10.—To deliver (rescue,) cf. Jeremiah 39:11; Jeremiah 39:18; Jeremiah 45:5; Exodus 18:10.—Κολαζομένους τηρεῖν.—Some take κολ. as Future, but Winer remarks that this is unnecessary, because the idea of the Future is already implied in τηρεὶν εἰς ἠμέραν; and the Present seems to have been chosen intentionally in order to show that their punishment has already begun before the last judgment, cf. 2 Peter 2:4.

2 Peter 2:10. But chiefly those who go after the flesh.—Jude 2 Peter 2:7, applies to the cities of the plain that which here is affirmed of the false teachers, viz, “Πόλεις…. ἐκπορνεύσασαι καὶ ἀπελθοῦσαι ὀπίσω σαρκὸς ἑτέρας. Then in 2 Peter 2:8 it is said of the false teachers, that “likewise these…. defile the flesh.” The comparison of the two passages will show that Jude amplifies and explains more fully than is the case in our passage. Stier interprets ἐκπορνεύειν with reference to the next following expression, as=excess of debauchery, to commit fornication out of all rule and order, beyond the limits of nattire.—Ὀπίσω σαρκὸς ἑτέρας, besides the horrors of sensuality, mentioned in Genesis 19:5, and Romans 1:27, refers evidently to the terrible sins of Sodom, which are enumerated in Leviticus 18:22-24 among the horrors of the Canaanite heathen.—Our passage, on the other hand, is kept more in general; they seek their pasture in the flesh, in all manner of sensuality, they go in their infamous lust after every flesh.

In lust of defilement.—Ἐπιθυμίᾳ μιασμοῦ, not as Dietlein contends, “in lust, which is defilement,” nor like Huther, “in lust after impure, polluting enjoyment,” for where does μιασμός signify “polluting enjoyment?” It denotes defilement, stain, intercourse; connect it with the lust of concupiscence, 1 Thessalonians 4:5; cf. Romans 1:24-27; Ephesians 4:18-19. Μιασμός also peculiar to Peter, and found only here in the New Testament. The description of these erroneous teachers reminds us of the Balaamites and Nicolaitanes in Revelation 2:14-15; Revelation 2:20; Revelation 2:24, in whom we recognize a stem of the fourfold Gnosticism of the second century. The circumstance that Peter now passes from the Future ἔσονται, 2 Peter 2:1, to the Present, must not be turned with de Wette into a reason for suspecting the genuineness of this Epistle. It may be accounted for in part by the Apostle’s prophetically exalted frame of mind, for his fiery language shows him throughout as a φερόμενος ὑπὸ πνεύματος ἁγίου (cf. 2 Peter 1:21,) and in part by the fact that the beginnings of those melancholy phenomena were already stirring. A forger of that capacity, which the Epistle presupposes, would have consistently adhered to the position he had taken at 2 Peter 2:1.

And despise lordship.—The first mark of those false teachers was the denial of Christ, 2 Peter 2:1; the second, covetousness, 2 Peter 2:3; the third, unbridled sensuality, 2 Peter 2:10; the last, arrogant despising of lordship. Κυριότητος καταφρονοῦντας. Judges 8 has κυριότητα ἀθετοῦσι, which goes further than καταφρ., and is its consequence. Κυριότητα should be taken in a general sense; every and any lordship, whatever shall be and shall be called Lord, all Divine and human authority. So Stier. The word must not be limited to the dignity of Christ’s lordship, because that had already been referred to 2 Peter 2:1. Dietlein applies it to Divine and superhuman powers, cf. Ephesians 1:21; Colossians 1:16; Colossians 2:18; Calvin, to earthly governments; Huther understands it of the Divine Being, because all power and authority repose in It; while with reference to the book of Enoch he explains δόξαι of the halo of glory surrounding the Being of God.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. We must not believe that those false teachers passed theoretically from the denial of Christ’s redeeming grace and lordship to their moral libertinism and sensual enormities; the usual psychological course is rather that the heart is first corrupted, that the will is sold to sin, and that then the understanding becomes darkened.

2. The account of the angels given in 2 Peter 2:4 falls in with what the Bible teaches concerning angels in general, and must not excite in us the suspicion that it is apocryphal. It is doubtless founded on special revelations.

3. It is remarkable that anti-Christian phenomena, similar to those which threatened to overthrow the foundation of the Church in the beginning, spring up in our time. Stier refers more particularly to the rapidly spreading, fearful doctrines of the liberty of the flesh, and to the sins darkly skulking among the ungodly men of our time, especially to self-abuse.

4. [The principal heresies which sprung up in the Apostolical age, and developed themselves before the close of the first century, were:

1. Simonianism, or the opinions held by followers of Simon Magus, who taught that the three Persons of the Trinity were only three revelations of the same Person, and that Simon was the great power which emanated from the invisible God. Neander thinks it possible that the words of which Simon made use are contained in the apocryphal writings of the Simonians; see Jerome’s Comm. on Matthew, 24 : “Ego sum sermo Dei (ὁ λόγος), ego sum speciosus, ego paracletus.”

2. Docetism, or the doctrine of the Docetæ, who denied the reality of the human body of Christ, of His crucifixion, resurrection and ascent to heaven.

3. The doctrine of the Nicolaitans, who were noted for their licentiousnesses.

4. Ebionism, or the heresy of the Ebionites, who denied the Divinity of Christ, and maintained that He was a mere man, descended from Joseph and Mary.

5. The doctrine of the Cerinthians; who separated Jesus from Christ, and asserted that Christ descended from the Father into the person of Jesus at His baptism, in the form of a dove, preached during His ministry and worked miracles, that at the end of His ministry Christ flew away from Jesus, and did not suffer death, and that only the man Jesus was crucified.

These all “denied the Lord that bought them.”—M.]

5. [The following note of Wordsworth on evil angels embodies much valuable information. He says: This passage and the parallel in St. Judges 6, are two important texts on the present condition and future destiny of evil angels, and, consequently, of those persons who yield to their solicitations (cf. Matthew 25:41); these two texts declared:

1. That some angels sinned, and, as a penalty for their sin, were cast out of their original habitation; and,

2. That they have been committed in custody to chains of darkness; and that they are now being kept in them, and they there endure some punishment.

3. That they there remain even to the end of the world, and are reserved there for the judgment of the great day.

This appears also from the language of the devils themselves to Christ: “Art thou come to torment us before the season (καιροῦ) of judgment?” See Matthew 8:29; Luke 8:31.

It is also evident from our Lord’s words, describing the transactions of the great day. He there pre-announces that He will then say to them on the left hand, “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, that hath been prepared for the devil and his angels.” They are, therefore, not yet cast into it.

It is also further apparent from the Apocalypse, revealing the casting of the devil into the lake of fire, as an event which has not taken place, but is yet future, Revelation 20:10.

4. Comparing also these texts with other portions of Holy Scripture ( 1 Peter 5:8), where the devil is compared to a roaring lion walking about, seeking whom he may devour; and ( Revelation 20:7), where Satan is described as loosed; and with the clear assertions of the Apostolic writings, describing his present liberty, energy, and influence, and designating him as “the prince of the power of the air” (ἀέρος, not αἰθέρος, Ephesians 2:2), and as “the god of this world” ( 2 Corinthians 4:4), we must conclude, that the chains of darkness, of which the Apostles St. Peter and St. Jude speak, and to which Satan and his associates are now confined, and in which they will be kept even till the day of judgment, are of such power as to restrain them from ever recovering their place in the regions of light; but not such as to prevent them from exercising great power over those persons in the lower world who allow themselves “to be taken captive by them at their will.” See Wordsw. on Ephesians 2:2, and Revelation 20:1-8.

The book of Enoch in like manner describes the evil angels as chained under the earth, till the day of judgment, when they will be cast into the lake of fire. See there Enoch5:16; 10:6; 14:4; 21:6; 22:4. Huther, p205. Cf, also, the Catena here, p91, where we read, that “at the end of the world, Christ will condemn to severer punishment those evil angels whom He has already shut up (in the abyss), and this He will do by casting them into everlasting fire.” And Bede says here: “The apostate angels are yet to be condemned to the penalties of the final judgment; for although they have already received the nether regions of the murky air as a prison house, which, when compared with the bright glories of heaven, where they once dwelt, may be called an inferno, yet there is a deeper gulf below, which awaits them.”

Accordingly, Jerome (in Ephesians 6) delivers it as the opinion of all the doctors of the Church, that “the devils have now their abode in the space between heaven and earth.” And Augustine (de Civ, Dei, 8, 22) says, “that the devils dwell in this nether air, and being cast down from heaven for their sin, they are here pre-condemned as in a prison, suitable to their sin.” And it is asserted as an article of the Catholic faith by Irenæus (1, 2), that “Jesus Christ will come again hereafter, to raise all bodies, and to judge all men, and to cast the rebel angels into everlasting fire.” Justin Martyr, Origen, in Numbers, cap. 22, Irenæus (5, 26), and Eusebius (4, 17), were of opinion “that the devils never openly blasphemed God before the publication of the Gospel, because they did not know till then what their future punishment would be,” which opinion, whether true or no, shows that those ancient writers did not imagine that the devil has, as yet, been cast into hell. See the discourse of Joseph Mede; Works, p25, Disc. 5.—M.]

6. [The Gnostic teachers, says Wordsworth, despised and annulled κυριότητα, or lordship, in various ways:

1. With regard to God the Father, the Κύριος Κυρίω, Lord of Lords. Tillemont (2, pp17, 23), “all who took the name of Gnostics distinguished the Creator of the world from the God who reveals Himself by His Son; thus they made two gods,” i.e., they despised lordship by their dualism.

2. With regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Ebionites, as we have seen above, regarded Jesus as a mere man; the Cerinthians separated Jesus from Christ, and denied the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, by which He had acquired universal lordship over the Church and the world; they also invoked other mediators in place of Christ. They denied the Lord that bought them, and would not call Him Lord (Iren1,1.).

3. With regard to earthly rules, by affirming themselves to be free to do all things, and to be exempt from all civil restraints. See more in Wordsworth, from whom this note is taken in a condensed form.—M.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The history of the Divine judgments an earnest monitor for all times.—The great comfort of the doctrine of universal redemption,—It is not enough that we teach sound doctrine, we must also denounce false teachers.—The rise of false teachers among the people of God is a historical necessity, 1 Corinthians 11:19; Matthew 7:15.—In how many different ways may Christ be denied?—Which is the greatest gain?

Chrysostom:—“We admire Abraham, Lot and Moses, because they shone like bright stars in the darkness of night, because they were as roses among thorns, and as sheep among countless wolves.”

The pious are distressed at the wickedness of the godless, 1. because it sullies the glory of God; 2. because it shows that they are tyrannized by Satan; 3. because it conduces to their condemnation.

Gerhard:—“The pious are not preserved from every distress and affliction, but they are rescued from them, so that the help of God is so much the more manifest. Thus it fared with Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, David, Daniel and the three men in the furnace.”

Starke:—Try the spirits whether they are of God, 1 John 4:1. Although they wear a rough garment ( Zechariah 13:4), ye shall know them by their fruits, and shall not take up with their party.—God has no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked, Ezekiel 23:11.—No wonder that the many take the broad way that leadeth to condemnation, because they find in it so many things which are agreeable to the flesh.—A false and godless teacher is apt to have more followers than a true and godly teacher, but his condemnation also will be so much the greater, because he draws many people into his own destruction, Acts 5:36-37.—To delay is not to annul [German proverb: Aufgeschoben ist nicht aufgehoben.—M.]. God is long-suffering; He forbears long, but His punishment is terrible. O! man, may His long-suffering lead thee to repentance, Romans 2:4.—The devils are condemned, but their full judgment, without any hope of redemption, is yet future, Matthew 8:29.—Let us walk in the light, if we would escape the darkness of hell, 1 John 1:7.—God has His elect and pious ones among the great multitude of the ungodly, whom He can and will miraculously preserve from universal punishment, Malachi 3:17.—No country is so fertile, no city so beautiful, glorious and rich, but that they may be laid waste and destroyed, if their sins multiply.—God has many ways of saving His people: one way is His preserving them from communion with evil, and His strengthening them spiritually to endure evil with patience, 2 Corinthians 1:6.—Should not the sincere servants of God be pained and grieved, if their teaching, prayers and exhortations notwithstanding, it fares ill with their congregations? Woe to you, over whom they sigh! their sighs will rest heavily on you, Jeremiah 13:17.—The sufferings of believers are only temporal; their redemption is at the door, 2 Corinthians 1:9-10. If not before, a happy death is sure to bring perfect redemption, Psalm 73:17; Psalm 73:19.—As there are degrees among believers, and as some excel others in spiritual gifts, and as they will be distinguished in glory, so there is also a difference in point of sin and punishment among the ungodly. Some excel others in wickedness; so the punishment of some will excel that of others, Hebrews 10:29.

Lisco:—The enemies of the citizens of the kingdom.

Roos:—If the kingdom of God cometh with power, the power of darkness is also astir. False teachers should stir up and incite the children of light diligently to search for the truth, and instantly and believingly to pray God for more enlightenment.

[ 2 Peter 2:4. Critici Sacr. Thes., 2, 789, “De malorum angelorum Ταρταρώσει.”

2 Peter 2:9. South, Three sermons, Works, vol6, pp121, 169, 209.

1. Deliverance from temptation, the privilege of the righteous.

2. Cause of the deliverance of the pious out of temptation.

3. Deliverance from temptation, why to be reputed a great mercy.—M.]

Footnotes