{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"2PE","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"2 Peter","commonName":"2 Peter","introduction":"AUTHENTICITY AND GENUINENESS.--If not a gross imposture, its own internal witness is unequivocal in its favor. It has Peter's name and apostleship in its heading: not only his surname, but his original name Simon, or Simeon, he thus, at the close of his life, reminding his readers who he originally was before his call. Again, in Pe2 1:16-18, he mentions his presence at the Transfiguration, and Christ's prophecy of his death! and in Pe2 3:15, his brotherhood with Paul. Again, in Pe2 3:1, the author speaks of himself as author of the former Epistle: it is, moreover, addressed so as to include (but not to be restricted to) the same persons as the first, whom he presupposes to be acquainted with the writings of Paul, by that time recognized as \"Scripture\" (Pe2 3:15, \"the long-suffering of God,\" compare Rom 2:4). This necessarily implies a late date, when Paul's Epistles (including Romans) already had become generally diffused and accepted as Scripture in the Church. The Church of the fourth century had, besides the testimony which we have of the doubts of the earlier Christians, other external evidence which we have not, and which, doubtless, under God's overruling providence, caused them to accept it. It is hard to understand how a book palpably false (as it would be if Peter be not the author) could have been accepted in the Canon as finally established in the Councils of Laodicea, A.D. 360 (if the fifty-ninth article be genuine), Hippo, and Carthage in the fourth century (393 and 397). The whole tone and spirit of the Epistle disprove its being an imposture. He writes as one not speaking of himself, but moved by the Holy Ghost (Pe2 1:21). An attempt at such a fraud in the first ages would have brought only shame and suffering, alike from Christians and heathen, on the perpetrator: there was then no temptation to pious frauds as in later times. That it must have been written in the earliest age is plain from the wide gulf in style which separates it and the other New Testament Scriptures from even the earliest and best of the post-apostolic period. DAILLE well says, \"God has allowed a fosse to be drawn by human weakness around the sacred canon to protect it from all invasion.\"\n\nTraces of acquaintance with it appear in the earliest Fathers. HERMAS [Similitudes, 6.4] (compare Pe2 2:13), Greek, \"luxury in the day . . . luxuriating with their own deceivings\"; and [Shepherd, Vision 3.7], \"They have left their true way\" (compare Pe2 2:15); and [Shepherd, Vision 4.3], \"Thou hast escaped this world\" (compare Pe2 2:20). CLEMENT OF ROME, [Epistle to the Corinthians, 7.9; 10], as to Noah's preaching and Lot's deliverance, \"the Lord making it known that He does not abandon those that trust in Him, but appoints those otherwise inclined to judgment\" (compare Pe2 2:5-7, Pe2 2:9). IRENÆUS, A.D. 178 (\"the day of the Lord is as a thousand years\"), and JUSTIN MARTYR seem to allude to Pe2 3:8. HIPPOLYTUS [On Antichrist], seems to refer to Pe2 1:21, \"The prophets spake not of their own private (individual) ability and will, but what was (revealed) to them alone by God.\" The difficulty is, neither TERTULLIAN, CYPRIAN, CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, nor the oldest Syriac (Peschito) version (the later Syriac has it), nor the fragment known as Muratori's Canon, mentions it. The first writer who has expressly named it is ORIGEN, in the third century (Homily on Joshua; also Homily 4 on Leviticus, and Homily 13 on Numbers), who names it \"Scripture,\" quoting Pe2 1:4; Pe2 2:16; however (in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 6.25]), he mentions that the Second Epistle was doubted by some. FIRMILIAN, bishop of Cappadocia, in Epistle to Cyrpian speaks of Peter's Epistles as warning us to avoid heretics (a monition which occurs in the Second, not the First Epistle). Now Cappadocia is one of the countries mentioned (compare Pe1 1:1 with Pe2 3:1) as addressed; and it is striking, that from Cappadocia we get the earliest decisive testimony. \"Internally it claims to be written by Peter, and this claim is confirmed by the Christians of that very region in whose custody it ought to have been found\" [TREGELLES].\n\nThe books disputed (Antilegomena), as distinguished from those universally recognized (Homologoumena), are Epistles Second Peter, James, Second and Third John, Jude, the Apocalypse, Epistle to Hebrews (compare EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 3.3,25]). The Antilegomena stand in quite a different class from the Spurious; of these there was no dispute, they were universally rejected; for example, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Revelation of Peter, the Epistle of Barnabas. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM (A.D. 348) enumerates seven Catholic Epistles, including Second Peter; so also GREGORY NAZIANZEN (A.D. 389), and EPIPHANIUS (A.D. 367). The oldest Greek manuscripts extant (of the fourth century) contain the Antilegomena. JEROME [On Illustrious Men], conjectured, from a supposed difference of style between the two Epistles, that Peter, being unable to write Greek, employed a different translator of his Hebrew dictation in the Second Epistle, and not the same as translated the First into Greek. Mark is said to have been his translator in the case of the Gospel according to Mark; but this is all gratuitous conjecture. Much of the same views pervade both Epistles. In both alike he looks for the Lord's coming suddenly, and the end of the world (compare Pe2 3:8-10 with Pe1 4:5); the inspiration of the prophets (compare Pe1 1:10-12 with Pe2 1:19-21; Pe2 3:2); the new birth by the divine word a motive to abstinence from worldly lusts (Pe1 1:22; Pe1 2:2; compare Pe2 1:4); also compare Pe1 2:9 with Pe2 1:3, both containing in the Greek the rare word \"virtue\" (Pe1 4:17 with Pe2 2:3).\n\nIt is not strange that distinctive peculiarities of STYLE should mark each Epistle, the design of both not being the same. Thus the sufferings of Christ are more prominent in the First Epistle, the object there being to encourage thereby Christian sufferers; the glory of the exalted Lord is more prominent in the Second, the object being to communicate fuller \"knowledge\" of Him as the antidote to the false teaching against which Peter warns his readers. Hence His title of redemption, \"Christ,\" is the one employed in the First Epistle; but in the Second Epistle, \"the Lord.\" Hope is characteristic of the First Epistle; full knowledge, of the Second Epistle. In the First Epistle he puts his apostolic authority less prominently forward than in the Second, wherein his design is to warn against false teachers. The same difference is observable in Paul's Epistles. Contrast Th1 1:1; Th2 1:1; Phi 1:1, with Gal 1:1; Co1 1:1. The reference to Paul's writings as already existing in numbers, and as then a recognized part of Scripture (Pe2 3:15-16), implies that this Epistle was written at a late date, just before Peter's death.\n\nStriking verbal coincidences occur: compare Pe1 1:19, end, with Pe2 3:14, end; \"His own,\" Greek, Pe2 1:3, Pe2 2:16; Pe2 3:17 with Pe1 3:1, Pe1 3:5. The omission of the Greek article, Pe1 2:13 with Pe2 1:21; Pe2 2:4-5, Pe2 2:7. Moreover, two words occur, Pe2 1:13, \"tabernacle,\" that is, the body, and Pe2 1:15, \"decease,\" which at once remind us of the transfiguration narrative in the Gospel. Both Epistles refer to the deluge, and to Noah as the eighth that was saved. Though the First Epistle abounds in quotations of the Old Testament, whereas the Second contains none, yet references to the Old Testament occur often (Pe2 1:21; Pe2 2:5-8, Pe2 2:15; Pe2 3:5-6, Pe2 3:10, Pe2 3:13). Compare Greek, \"putting away,\" Pe1 3:21, with Pe2 1:14; Greek, \"pass the time,\" Pe1 1:17, with Pe2 2:18; \"walked in,\" Pe1 4:3, with Pe2 2:10; Pe2 3:3; \"called you,\" Pe1 1:15; Pe1 2:9; Pe1 5:10, with Pe2 1:3.\n\nMoreover, more verbal coincidences with the speeches of Peter in Acts occur in this Second, than in the First Epistle. Compare Greek, \"obtained,\" Pe2 1:1 with Act 1:17; Greek, \"godliness,\" Pe2 1:6, with Act 3:12, the only passage where the term occurs, except in the Pastoral Epistles; and Pe2 2:9 with Act 10:2, Act 10:7; \"punished,\" Pe2 2:9, with Act 4:21, the only places where the term occurs; the double genitive, Pe2 3:2, with Act 5:32; \"the day of the Lord,\" Pe2 3:10, with Act 2:20, where only it occurs, except in Th1 5:2.\n\nThe testimony of Jude, Jde 1:17-18, is strong for its genuineness and inspiration, by adopting its very words, and by referring to it as received by the churches to which he, Jude, wrote, \"Remember the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.\" Jude, therefore, must have written after Second Peter, to which he plainly refers; not before, as ALFORD thinks. No less than eleven passages of Jude rest on similar statements of Second Peter. Jde 1:2, compare Pe2 1:2; Jde 1:4, compare Pe2 2:1; Jde 1:6, compare Pe2 2:4; Jde 1:7, compare Pe2 2:6; Jde 1:8, compare Pe2 2:10; Jde 1:9, compare Pe2 2:11; Jde 1:11, compare Pe2 2:15; Jde 1:12, compare Pe2 2:17; Jde 1:16, compare Pe2 2:18; Jde 1:18, compare Pe2 2:1; Pe2 3:3. Just in the same way Micah, Mic 4:1-4, leans on the somewhat earlier prophecy of Isaiah, whose inspiration he thereby confirms. ALFORD reasons that because Jude, in many of the passages akin to Second Peter, is fuller than Second Peter, he must be prior. This by no means follows. It is at least as likely, if not more so, that the briefer is the earlier, rather than the fuller. The dignity and energy of the style is quite consonant to what we should expect from the prompt and ardent foreman of the apostles. The difference of style between First and Second Peter accords with the distinctness of the subjects and objects.\n\nTHE DATE, from what has been said, would be about A.D. 68 or 69, about a year after the first, and shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem, the typical precursor of the world's end, to which Pe2 3:10-13 so solemnly calls attention, after Paul's ministry had closed (compare Greek aorist tense, \"wrote,\" past time, Pe2 3:15), just before Peter's own death. It was written to include the same persons, and perhaps in, or about the same place, as the first. Being without salutations of individuals, and entrusted to the care of no one church, or particular churches as the first is, but directed generally \"to them that have obtained like precious faith with us\" (Pe2 1:1), it took a longer time in being recognized as canonical. Had Rome been the place of its composition or publication, it could hardly have failed to have had an early acceptance--an incidental argument against the tradition of Peter's martyrdom at Rome. The remote scene of its composition in Babylon, or else in some of the contiguous regions beyond the borders of the Roman empire, and of its circulation in Cappadocia, Pontus, &c., will additionally account for its tardy but at last universal acceptance in the catholic Church. The former Epistle, through its more definite address, was earlier in its general acceptance.\n\nOBJECT.--In Pe2 3:17-18 the twofold design of the Epistle is set forth; namely, to guard his readers against \"the error\" of false teachers, and to exhort them to grow in experimental \"knowledge of our Lord and Saviour\" (Pe2 3:18). The ground on which this knowledge rests is stated, Pe2 1:12-21, namely, the inspired testimony of apostles and prophets. The danger now, as of old, was about to arise from false teachers, who soon were to come among them, as Paul also (to whom reference is made, Pe2 3:15-16) testified in the same region. The grand antidote is \"the full knowledge of our Lord and Saviour,\" through which we know God the Father, partake of His nature, escape from the pollutions of the world, and have entrance into Christ's kingdom. The aspect of Christ presented is not so much that of the past suffering, as of the future reigning, Saviour, His present power, and future new kingdom. This aspect is taken as best fitted to counteract the theories of the false teachers who should \"deny\" His Lordship and His coming again, the two very points which, as an apostle and eye-witness, Peter attests (His \"power\" and His \"coming\"); also, to counteract their evil example in practice, blaspheming the way of truth, despising governments, slaves to covetousness and filthy lusts of the flesh, while boasting of Christian freedom, and, worst of all, apostates from the truth. The knowledge of Christ, as being the knowledge of \"the way of righteousness,\" \"the right way,\" is the antidote of their bad practice. Hence \"the preacher\" of righteousness, Noah, and \"righteous Lot,\" are instanced as escaping the destruction which overtook the \"unjust\" or \"unrighteous\"; and Balaam is instanced as exemplifying the awful result of \"unrighteousness\" such as characterized the false teachers. Thus the Epistle forms one connected whole, the parts being closely bound together by mutual relation, and the end corresponding with the beginning; compare Pe2 3:14, Pe2 3:18 with Pe2 1:2, in both \"grace\" and \"peace\" being connected with \"the knowledge\" of our Saviour; compare also Pe2 3:17 with Pe2 1:4, Pe2 1:10, Pe2 1:12; and Pe2 3:18, \"grow in grace and knowledge,\" with the fuller Pe2 1:5-8; and Pe2 2:21; and Pe2 3:13, \"righteousness,\" with Pe2 1:1; and Pe2 3:1 with Pe2 1:13; and Pe2 3:2 with Pe2 1:19.\n\nThe germs of Carpocratian and Gnostic heresies already existed, but the actual manifestation of these heresies is spoken of as future (Pe2 2:1-2, &c.): another proof that this Epistle was written, as it professes, in the apostolic age, before the development of the Gnostic heresies in the end of the first and the beginning of the second centuries. The description is too general to identify the heresies with any particular one of the subsequent forms of heresy, but applies generally to them all.\n\nThough altogether distinct in aim from the First Epistle, yet a connection may be traced. The neglect of the warnings to circumspection in the walk led to the evils foretold in the Second Epistle. Compare the warning against the abuse of Christian freedom, Pe1 2:16 with Pe2 2:19, \"While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption\"; also the caution against pride, Pe1 5:5-6 with Pe2 2:18, \"they speak great swelling words of vanity.\" \n\n\n\nNext: 2 Peter Chapter 1\n\n","order":61,"numberOfChapters":3,"sha256":"98cbad19e846b8e1e8f19c25989dcd7a1fae118d73e4542e3e8dc170d33fb49a","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/2PE/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"2PE","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":3,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/2PE/3.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"2PE","chapter":3},"totalNumberOfVerses":58},"chapter":{"number":2,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["follow--out: so the Greek. \n\npernicious ways--The oldest manuscripts and Vulgate read, \"licentiousness\" (Jde 1:4). False doctrine and immoral practice generally go together (Pe2 2:18-19). \n\nby reason of whom--\"on account of whom,\" namely, the followers of the false teachers. \n\nthe way of truth shall be evil spoken of--\"blasphemed\" by those without, who shall lay on Christianity itself the blame of its professors' evil practice. Contrast Pe1 2:12.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["through, &c.--Greek, \"IN covetousness\" as their element (Pe2 2:14, end). Contrast Co2 11:20; Co2 12:17. \n\nof a long time--in God's eternal purpose. \"Before of old ordained to condemnation\" (Jde 1:4). \n\nlingereth not--though sinners think it lingers; \"is not idle.\" \n\ndamnation--Greek, \"destruction\" (see on Pe2 2:1). Personified. \n\nslumbereth not--though sinners slumber.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["if--The apodosis or consequent member of the sentence is not expressed, but is virtually contained in Pe2 2:9. If God in past time has punished the ungodly and saved His people, He will be sure to do so also in our days (compare end of Pe2 2:3). \n\nangels--the highest of intelligent creatures (compare with this verse, Jde 1:6), yet not spared when they sinned. \n\nhell--Greek, \"Tartarus\": nowhere else in New Testament or the Septuagint: equivalent to the usual Greek, \"Gehenna.\" Not inconsistent with Pe1 5:8; for though their final doom is hell, yet for a time they are permitted to roam beyond it in \"the darkness of this world.\" Slaves of Tartarus (called \"the abyss,\" or \"deep,\" Luk 8:31; \"the bottomless pit,\" Rev 9:11) may also come upon earth. Step by step they are given to Tartarus, until at last they shall be wholly bound to it. \n\ndelivered--as the judge delivers the condemned prisoner to the officers (Rev 20:2). \n\ninto chains-- (Jde 1:6). The oldest manuscripts read, \"dens,\" as ALFORD translates: the Greek, however, may, in Hellenistic Greek, mean \"chains,\" as Jude expresses it. They are \"reserved\" unto hell's \"mist of darkness\" as their final \"judgment\" or doom, and meanwhile their exclusion from the light of heaven is begun. So the ungodly were considered as virtually \"in prison,\" though at large on the earth, from the moment that God's sentence went forth, though not executed till one hundred twenty years after.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["eighth--that is, Noah, and seven others. Contrasted with the densely peopled \"world of the ungodly.\" \n\npreacher--not only \"righteous\" himself (compare Pe2 2:8), but also \"a preacher of righteousness\": adduced by Peter against the licentiousness of the false teachers (Pe2 2:2) who have no prospect before them but destruction, even as it overtook the ungodly world in Noah's days.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["with, &c.--\"TO overthrow\" [ALFORD]. \n\nensample--\"of (the fate that should befall) those who in after-time should live ungodly.\" Compare Jde 1:7, \"set forth for an example.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["just--righteous. \n\nfilthy conversation--literally, \"behavior in licentiousness\" (Gen 19:5). \n\nthe wicked--Greek, \"lawless\": who set at defiance the laws of nature, as well as man and God. The Lord reminds us of Lot's faithfulness, but not of his sin in the cave: so in Rahab's case.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["vexed--Greek, \"tormented.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["knoweth how--He is at no loss for means, even when men see no escape. \n\nout of--not actually from. \n\ntemptations--trials. \n\nto be punished--Greek, \"being punished\": as the fallen angels (Pe2 2:4), actually under sentence, and awaiting its final execution. Sin is already its own penalty; hell will be its full development.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["chiefly--They especially will be punished (Jde 1:8). \n\nafter--following after. \n\nlust of uncleanness--defilement: \"hankering after polluting and unlawful use of the flesh\" [ALFORD]. \n\ngovernment--Greek, \"lordship,\" \"dominion\" (Jde 1:8). \n\nPresumptuous--Greek, \"Darers.\" Self-will begets presumption. Presumptuously daring. \n\nare not afraid--though they are so insignificant in might; Greek, \"tremble not\" (Jde 1:8, end). \n\nspeak evil of--Greek, \"blaspheme.\" \n\ndignities--Greek, \"glories.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["which are--though they are. \n\ngreater--than these blasphemers. Jude instances Michael (Jde 1:9). \n\nrailing accusation--Greek, \"blaspheming judgment\" (Jde 1:9). \n\nagainst them--against \"dignities,\" as for instance, the fallen angels: once exalted, and still retaining traces of their former power and glory. \n\nbefore the Lord--In the presence of the Lord, the Judge, in reverence, they abstain from judgment [BENGEL]. Judgment belongs to God, not the angels. How great is the dignity of the saints who, as Christ's assessors, shall hereafter judge angels! Meanwhile, railing judgments, though spoken with truth, against dignities, as being uttered irreverently, are of the nature of \"blasphemies\" (Greek, Co1 4:4-5). If superior angels dare not, as being in the presence of God, the Judge, speak evil even of the bad angels, how awful the presumption of those who speak evil blasphemously of good \"dignities.\" Sa2 16:7-8, Shimei; Num 16:2-3, Korah, &c., referred to also in Jde 1:11; Num 12:8, \"Were ye (Aaron and Miriam) not afraid to speak evil of My servant Moses?\" The angels who sinned still retain the indelible impress of majesty. Satan is still \"a strong man\": \"prince of this world\"; and under him are \"principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world.\" We are to avoid irreverence in regard to them, not on their account, but on account of God. A warning to those who use Satan's name irreverently and in blasphemy. \"When the ungodly curseth Satan, he curseth his own soul.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["(Jde 1:19). \n\nBut--In contrast to the \"angels,\" Pe2 2:11. \n\nbrute--Greek, \"irrational.\" In contrast to angels that \"excel in strength.\" \n\nbeasts--Greek, \"animals\" (compare Psa 49:20). \n\nnatural--transposed in the oldest manuscripts, \"born natural,\" that is, born naturally so: being in their very nature (that is, naturally) as such (irrational animals), born to be taken and destroyed (Greek, \"unto capture and destruction,\" or corruption, see on Gal 6:8; compare end of this verse, \"shall perish,\" literally, \"shall be corrupted,\" in their own corruption. Jde 1:10, naturally . . . corrupt themselves,\" and so destroy themselves; for one and the same Greek word expresses corruption, the seed, and destruction, the developed fruit). \n\nspeak evil of--Greek, \"in the case of things which they understand not.\" Compare the same presumption, the parent of subsequent Gnostic error, producing an opposite, though kindred, error, the worshipping of good angels\": Col 2:18, \"intruding into those things which he hath not seen.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["receive--\"shall carry off as their due.\" \n\nreward of--that is, for their \"unrighteousness\" [ALFORD]. Perhaps it is implied, unrighteousness shall be its own reward or punishment. \"Wages of unrighteousness\" (Pe2 2:15) has a different sense, namely, the earthly gain to be gotten by \"unrighteousness.\" \n\nin the daytime--Translate as Greek, \"counting the luxury which is in the daytime (not restricted to night, as ordinary revelling. Or as Vulgate and CALVIN, \"the luxury which is but for a day\": so Heb 11:25, \"the pleasures of sin for a season\"; and Heb 12:16, Esau) to be pleasure,\" that is, to be their chief good and highest enjoyment. \n\nSpots--in themselves. \n\nblemishes--disgraces: bringing blame (so the Greek) on the Church and on Christianity itself. \n\nsporting themselves--Greek, \"luxuriating.\" \n\nwith--Greek, \"in.\" \n\ndeceivings--or else passively, \"deceits\": luxuries gotten by deceit. Compare Mat 13:22, \"Deceitfulness of riches\"; Eph 4:22, \"Deceitful lusts.\" While deceiving others, they are deceived themselves. Compare with English Version, Phi 3:19, \"Whose glory is in their shame.\" \"Their own\" stands in opposition to \"you\": \"While partaking of the love-feast (compare Jde 1:12) with you,\" they are at the same time \"luxuriating in their own deceivings,\" or \"deceits\" (to which latter clause answers Jde 1:12, end: Peter presents the positive side, \"they luxuriate in their own deceivings\"; Jude, the negative, \"feeding themselves without fear\"). But several of the oldest manuscripts, Vulgate, Syriac, and Sahidic Versions read (as Jude), \"In their own love-feasts\": \"their own\" will then imply that they pervert the love-feasts so as to make them subserve their own self-indulgent purposes.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["full of adultery--literally, \"full of an adulteress,\" as though they carried about adulteresses always dwelling in their eyes: the eye being the avenue of lust [HORNEIUS]. BENGEL makes the adulteress who fills their eyes, to be \"alluring desire.\" \n\nthat cannot cease--\"that cannot be made to cease from sin.\" \n\nbeguiling--\"laying baits for.\" \n\nunstable--not firmly established in faith and piety. \n\nheart--not only the eyes, which are the channel, but the heart, the fountain head of lust. Job 31:7, \"Mine heart walked after mine eyes.\" \n\ncovetous practices--The oldest manuscripts read singular, \"covetousness.\" \n\ncursed children--rather as Greek, \"children of curse,\" that is, devoted to the curse. Cursing and covetousness, as in Balaam's case, often go together: the curse he designed for Israel fell on Israel's foes and on himself. True believers bless, and curse not, and so are blessed.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["have--Some of the seducers are spoken of as already come, others as yet to come. \n\nfollowing--out: so the Greek. \n\nthe way-- (Num 22:23, Num 22:32; Isa 56:11). \n\nson of Bosor--the same as Beor (Num 22:5). This word was adopted, perhaps, because the kindred word Basar means flesh; and Balaam is justly termed son of carnality, as covetous, and the enticer of Israel to lust. \n\nloved the wages of unrighteousness--and therefore wished (in order to gain them from Balak) to curse Israel whom God had blessed, and at last gave the hellish counsel that the only way to bring God's curse on Israel was to entice them to fleshly lust and idolatry, which often go together.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["was rebuked--Greek, \"had a rebuke,\" or conviction; an exposure of his specious wickedness on his being tested (the root verb of the Greek noun means to \"convict on testing\"). \n\nhis--Greek, \"his own\": his own beast convicted him of his own iniquity. \n\nass--literally, \"beast of burden\"; the ass was the ordinary animal used in riding in Palestine. \n\ndumb--Greek, \"voiceless-speaking in man's voice\"; marking the marvellous nature of the miracle. \n\nforbade--literally, \"hindered.\" It was not the words of the ass (for it merely deprecated his beating it), but the miraculous fact of its speaking at all, which withstood Balaam's perversity in desiring to go after God had forbidden him in the first instance. Thus indirectly the ass, and directly the angel, rebuked his worse than asinine obstinacy; the ass turned aside at the sight of the angel, but Balaam, after God had plainly said, Thou shalt not go, persevered in wishing to go for gain; thus the ass, in act, forbade his madness. How awful a contrast--a dumb beast forbidding an inspired prophet!\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["(Jde 1:12-13.) \n\nwells--\"clouds\" in Jude; both promising (compare Pe2 2:19) water, but yielding none; so their \"great swelling words\" are found on trial to be but \"vanity\" (Pe2 2:18). \n\nclouds--The oldest manuscripts and versions read, \"mists,\" dark, and not transparent and bright as \"clouds\" often are, whence the latter term is applied sometimes to the saints; fit emblem of the children of darkness. \"Clouds\" is a transcriber's correction from Jde 1:12, where it is appropriate, \"clouds . . . without water\" (promising what they do not perform); but not here, \"mists driven along by a tempest.\" \n\nmist--blackness; \"the chilling horror accompanying darkness\" [BENGEL].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["allure--Greek, \"lay baits for.\" \n\nthrough--Greek, \"in\"; the lusts of the flesh being the element IN which they lay their baits. \n\nmuch wantonness--Greek, \"by licentiousness\"; the bait which they lay. \n\nclean escaped--Greek, \"really escaped.\" But the oldest manuscripts and Vulgate read, \"scarcely,\" or \"for but a little time\"; scarcely have they escaped from them who live in error (the ungodly world), when they are allured by these seducers into sin again (Pe2 2:20).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["promise . . . liberty--(Christian)--These promises are instances of their \"great swelling words\" (Pe2 2:18). The liberty which they propose is such as fears not Satan, nor loathes the flesh. Pauline language, adopted by Peter here, and Pe1 2:16; see on Pe1 2:16; (compare Pe2 3:15; Rom 6:16-22; Rom 8:15, Rom 8:21; Gal 5:1, Gal 5:13; compare Joh 8:34). \n\ncorruption--(See on Pe2 2:12); \"destroyed . . . perish . . . corruption.\" \n\nof whom--\"by whatever . . . by the same,\" &c.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["after they--the seducers \"themselves\" have escaped (Pe2 2:19; see on Heb 6:4-6). \n\npollutions--which bring \"corruption\" (Pe2 2:19). \n\nthrough--Greek, \"in.\" \n\nknowledge--Greek, \"full and accurate knowledge.\" \n\nthe Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ--solemnly expressing in full the great and gracious One from whom they fall. \n\nlatter end is worse . . . than the beginning--Peter remembers Christ's words. \"Worse\" stands opposed to \"better\" (Pe2 2:21).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["the way of righteousness--\"the way of truth\" (Pe2 2:2). Christian doctrine, and \"the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour.\" \n\nturn--back again; so the Greek. \n\nfrom the holy commandment--the Gospel which enjoins holiness; in opposition to their corruption. \"Holy,\" not that it makes holy, but because it ought to be kept inviolate [TITTMANN]. \n\ndelivered--once for all; admitting no turning back.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["But--You need not wonder at the event; for dogs and swine they were before, and dogs and swine they will continue. They \"scarcely\" (Pe2 2:18) have escaped from their filthy folly, when they again are entangled in it. Then they seduce others who have in like manner \"for a little time escaped from them that live in error\" (Pe2 2:18). Peter often quoted Proverbs in his First Epistle (Pe1 1:7; Pe1 2:17; Pe1 4:8, Pe1 4:18); another proof that both Epistles come from the same writer.\n\n\n\n\nNext: 2 Peter Chapter 3\n\n"]}],"introduction":"FALSE TEACHERS TO ARISE: THEM BAD PRACTICES AND SURE DESTRUCTION, FROM WHICH THE GODLY SHALL BE DELIVERED, AS LOT WAS. (2Pe. 2:1-22)\n\nBut--in contrast to the prophets \"moved by the Holy Ghost\" (Pe2 1:21). \n\nalso--as well as the true prophets (Pe2 1:19-21). Paul had already testified the entrance of false prophets into the same churches. \n\namong the people--Israel: he is writing to believing Israelites primarily (see on Pe1 1:1). Such a \"false prophet\" was Balaam (Pe2 2:15). \n\nthere shall be--Already symptoms of the evil were appearing (Pe2 2:9-22; Jde 1:4-13). \n\nfalse teachers--teachers of falsehood. In contrast to the true teachers, whom he exhorts his readers to give heed to (Pe2 3:2). \n\nwho--such as (literally, \"the which\") shall. \n\nprivily--not at first openly and directly, but by the way, bringing in error by the side of the true doctrine (so the Greek): Rome objects, Protestants cannot point out the exact date of the beginnings of the false doctrines superadded to the original truth; we answer, Peter foretells us it would be so, that the first introduction of them would be stealthy and unobserved (Jde 1:4). \n\ndamnable--literally, \"of destruction\"; entailing destruction (Phi 3:19) on all who follow them. \n\nheresies--self-chosen doctrines, not emanating from God (compare \"will-worship,\" Col 2:23). \n\neven--going even to such a length as to deny both in teaching and practice. Peter knew, by bitter repentance, what a fearful thing it is to deny the Lord (Luk 22:61-62). \n\ndenying--Him whom, above all others, they ought to confess. \n\nLord--\"Master and Owner\" (Greek), compare Jde 1:4, Greek. Whom the true doctrine teaches to be their OWNER by right of purchase. Literally, \"denying Him who bought them (that He should be thereby), their Master.\" \n\nbought them--Even the ungodly were bought by His \"precious blood.\" It shall be their bitterest self-reproach in hell, that, as far as Christ's redemption was concerned, they might have been saved. The denial of His propitiatory sacrifice is included in the meaning (compare Jo1 4:3). \n\nbring upon themselves--compare \"God bringing in the flood upon the world,\" Pe2 2:5. Man brings upon himself the vengeance which God brings upon him. \n\nswift--swiftly descending: as the Lord's coming shall be swift and sudden. As the ground swallowed up Korah and Dathan, and \"they went down quick into the pit.\" Compare Jde 1:11, which is akin to this passage.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/2PE/2.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"2PE","chapter":2},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/2PE/3.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"2PE","chapter":3},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/2PE/1.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"2PE","chapter":1},"numberOfVerses":21}