{"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":3,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["prophets--of the Old Testament. \n\nof us--The oldest manuscripts and Vulgate read, \"And of the commandment of the Lord and Saviour (declared) by YOUR apostles\" (so \"apostle of the Gentiles,\" Rom 11:13) --the apostles who live among you in the present time, in contrast to the Old Testament \"prophets.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["Knowing this first--from the word of the apostles. \n\nshall come--Their very scoffing shall confirm the truth of the prediction. \n\nscoffers--The oldest manuscripts and Vulgate add, \"(scoffers) in (that is, 'with') scoffing.\" As Rev 14:2, \"harping with harps.\" \n\nwalking after their own lusts-- (Pe2 2:10; Jde 1:16, Jde 1:18). Their own pleasure is their sole law, unrestrained by reverence for God.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["(Compare Psa 10:11; Psa 73:11.) Presumptuous skepticism and lawless lust, setting nature and its so-called laws above the God of nature and revelation, and arguing from the past continuity of nature's phenomena that there can be no future interruption to them, was the sin of the antediluvians, and shall be that of the scoffers in the last days. \n\nWhere--implying that it ought to have taken place before this, if ever it was to take place, but that it never will. \n\nthe promise--which you, believers, are so continually looking for the fulfilment of (Pe2 3:13). What becomes of the promise which you talk so much of? \n\nhis--Christ's; the subject of prophecy from the earliest days. \n\nthe fathers--to whom the promise was made, and who rested all their hopes on it. \n\nall things--in the natural world; skeptics look not beyond this. \n\nas they were--continue as they do; as we see them to continue. From the time of the promise of Christ's coming as Saviour and King being given to the fathers, down to the present time, all things continue, and have continued, as they now are, from \"the beginning of creation.\" The \"scoffers\" here are not necessarily atheists, nor do they maintain that the world existed from eternity. They are willing to recognize a God, but not the God of revelation. They reason from seeming delay against the fulfilment of God's word at all.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["Refutation of their scoffing from Scripture history. \n\nwillingly--wilfully; they do not wish to know. Their ignorance is voluntary. \n\nthey . . . are ignorant of--in contrast to Pe2 3:8, \"Be not ignorant of this.\" Literally, in both verses, \"This escapes THEIR notice (sagacious philosophers though they think themselves)\"; \"let this not escape YOUR notice.\" They obstinately shut their eyes to the Scripture record of the creation and the deluge; the latter is the very parallel to the coming judgment by fire, which Jesus mentions, as Peter doubtless remembered. \n\nby the word of God--not by a fortuitous concurrence of atoms [ALFORD]. \n\nof old--Greek, \"from of old\"; from the first beginning of all things. A confutation of their objection, \"all things continue as they were FROM THE BEGINNING OF CREATION.\" Before the flood, the same objection to the possibility of the flood might have been urged with the same plausibility: The heavens (sky) and earth have been FROM OF OLD, how unlikely then that they should not continue so! But, replies Peter, the flood came in spite of their reasonings; so will the conflagration of the earth come in spite of the \"scoffers\" of the last days, changing the whole order of things (the present \"world,\" or as Greek means, \"order\"), and introducing the new heavens and earth (Pe2 3:13). \n\nearth standing out of--Greek, \"consisting of,\" that is, \"formed out of the water.\" The waters under the firmament were at creation gathered together into one place, and the dry land emerged out of and above, them. \n\nin, &c.--rather, \"by means of the water,\" as a great instrument (along with fire) in the changes wrought on the earth's surface to prepare it for man. Held together BY the water. The earth arose out of the water by the efficacy of the water itself [TITTMANN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Whereby--Greek, \"By which\" (plural). By means of which heavens and earth (in respect to the WATERS which flowed together from both) the then world perished (that is, in respect to its occupants, men and animals, and its then existing order: not was annihilated); for in the flood \"the fountains of the great deep were broken up\" from the earth (1) below, and \"the windows of heaven\" (2) above \"were opened.\" The earth was deluged by that water out of which it had originally risen.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["(Compare Job 28:5, end). \n\nwhich are now--\"the postdiluvian visible world.\" In contrast to \"that then was,\" Pe2 3:6. \n\nthe same--Other oldest manuscripts read, \"His\" (God's). \n\nkept in store--Greek, \"treasured up.\" \n\nreserved--\"kept.\" It is only God's constantly watchful providence which holds together the present state of things till His time for ending it.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["be not ignorant--as those scoffers are (Pe2 3:5). Besides the refutation of them (Pe2 3:5-7) drawn from the history of the deluge, here he adds another (addressed more to believers than to the mockers): God's delay in fulfilling His promise is not, like men's delays, owing to inability or fickleness in keeping His word, but through \"long-suffering.\" \n\nthis one thing--as the consideration of chief importance (Luk 10:42). \n\none day . . . thousand years-- (Psa 90:4): Moses there says, Thy eternity, knowing no distinction between a thousand years and a day, is the refuge of us creatures of a day. Peter views God's eternity in relation to the last day: that day seems to us, short-lived beings, long in coming, but with the Lord the interval is irrespective of the idea of long or short. His eternity exceeds all measures of time: to His divine knowledge all future things are present: His power requires not long delays for the performance of His work: His long-suffering excludes all impatient expectation and eager haste, such as we men feel. He is equally blessed in one day and in a thousand years. He can do the work of a thousand years in one day: so in Pe2 3:9 it is said, \"He is not slack,\" that is, \"slow\": He has always the power to fulfil His \"promise.\" \n\nthousand years as one day--No delay which occurs is long to God: as to a man of countless riches, a thousand guineas are as a single penny. God's œonologe (eternal-ages measurer) differs wholly from man's horologe (hour-glass). His gnomon (dial-pointer) shows all the hours at once in the greatest activity and in perfect repose. To Him the hours pass away, neither more slowly, nor more quickly, than befits His economy. There is nothing to make Him need either to hasten or delay the end. The words, \"with the Lord\" (Psa 90:4, \"In Thy sight\"), silence all man's objections on the ground of his incapability of understanding this [BENGEL].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["slack--slow, tardy, late; exceeding the due time, as though that time were already come. Heb 10:37, \"will not tarry.\" \n\nhis promise--which the scoffers cavil at. Pe2 3:4, \"Where is the promise?\" It shall be surely fulfilled \"according to His promise\" (Pe2 3:13). \n\nsome--the \"scoffers.\" \n\ncount--His promise to be the result of \"slackness\" (tardiness). \n\nlong-suffering--waiting until the full number of those appointed to \"salvation\" (Pe2 3:15) shall be completed. \n\nto us-ward--The oldest manuscripts, Vulgate, Syriac, &c., read, \"towards YOU.\" \n\nany--not desiring that any, yea, even that the scoffers, should perish, which would be the result if He did not give space for repentance. \n\ncome--go and be received to repentance: the Greek implies there is room for their being received to repentance (compare Greek, Mar 2:2; Joh 8:37).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["The certainty, suddenness, and concomitant effects, of the coming of the day of the Lord. FABER argues from this that the millennium, &c., must precede Christ's literal coming, not follow it. But \"the day of the Lord\" comprehends the whole series of events, beginning with the pre-millennial advent, and ending with the destruction of the wicked, and final conflagration, and general judgment (which last intervenes between the conflagration and the renovation of the earth). \n\nwill--emphatical. But (in spite of the mockers, and notwithstanding the delay) come and be present the day of the Lord SHALL. \n\nas a thief--Peter remembers and repeats his Lord's image (Luk 12:39, Luk 12:41) used in the conversation in which he took a part; so also Paul (Th1 5:2) and John (Rev 3:3; Rev 16:15). \n\nthe heavens--which the scoffers say' shall \"continue\" as they are (Pe2 3:4; Mat 24:35; Rev 21:1). \n\nwith a great noise--with a rushing noise, like that of a whizzing arrow, or the crash of a devouring flame. \n\nelements--the component materials of the world [WAHL]. However, as \"the works\" in the earth are mentioned separately from \"the earth,\" so it is likely by \"elements,\" mentioned after \"the heavens,\" are meant \"the works therein,\" namely, the sun, moon, and stars (as THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH [p. 22, 148, 228]; and JUSTIN MARTYR [Apology, 2.44], use the word \"elements\"): these, as at creation, so in the destruction of the world, are mentioned [BENGEL]. But as \"elements\" is not so used in Scripture Greek, perhaps it refers to the component materials of \"the heavens,\" including the heavenly bodies; it clearly belongs to the former clause, \"the heavens,\" not to the following, \"the earth,\" &c. \n\nmelt--be dissolved, as in Pe2 3:11. \n\nthe works . . . therein--of nature and of art.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Your duty, seeing that this is so, is to be ever eagerly expecting the day of God. \n\nthen--Some oldest manuscripts substitute \"thus\" for \"then\": a happy refutation of the \"thus\" of the scoffers, Pe2 3:4 (English Version, \"As they were,\" Greek, \"thus\"). \n\nshall be--Greek, \"are being (in God's appointment, soon to be fulfilled) dissolved\"; the present tense implying the certainty as though it were actually present. \n\nwhat manner of men--exclamatory. How watchful, prayerful, zealous! \n\nto be--not the mere Greek substantive verb of existence (einai), but (huparchein) denoting a state or condition in which one is supposed to be [TITTMANN]. What holy men ye ought to be found to be, when the event comes! This is \"the holy commandment\" mentioned in Pe2 3:2. \n\nconversation . . . godliness--Greek, plural: behaviors (towards men), godlinesses (or pieties towards God) in their manifold modes of manifestation.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["hasting unto--with the utmost eagerness desiring [WAHL], praying for, and contemplating, the coming Saviour as at hand. The Greek may mean \"hastening (that is, urging onward [ALFORD]) the day of God\"; not that God's eternal appointment of the time is changeable, but God appoints us as instruments of accomplishing those events which must be first before the day of God can come. By praying for His coming, furthering the preaching of the Gospel for a witness to all nations, and bringing in those whom \"the long-suffering of God\" waits to save, we hasten the coming of the day of God. The Greek verb is always in New Testament used as neuter (as English Version here), not active; but the Septuagint uses it actively. Christ says, \"Surely I come quickly. Amen.\" Our part is to speed forward this consummation by praying, \"Even so, come, Lord Jesus\" (Rev 22:20). \n\nthe coming--Greek, \"presence\" of a person: usually, of the Saviour. \n\nthe day of God--God has given many myriads of days to men: one shall be the great \"day of God\" Himself. \n\nwherein--rather as Greek, \"on account of (or owing to) which\" day. \n\nheavens--the upper and lower regions of the sky. \n\nmelt--Our igneous rocks show that they were once in a liquid state.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Nevertheless--\"But\": in contrast to the destructive effects of the day of God stand its constructive effects. As the flood was the baptism of the earth, eventuating in a renovated earth, partially delivered from \"the curse,\" so the baptism with fire shall purify the earth so as to be the renovated abode of regenerated man, wholly freed from the curse. \n\nhis promise-- (Isa 65:17; Isa 66:22). The \"we\" is not emphatical as in English Version. \n\nnew heavens--new atmospheric heavens surrounding the renovated earth. \n\nrighteousness--dwelleth in that coming world as its essential feature, all pollutions having been removed.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["that ye . . . be found of him--\"in His sight\" [ALFORD], at His coming; plainly implying a personal coming. \n\nwithout spot--at the coming marriage feast of the Lamb, in contrast to Pe2 2:13, \"Spots they are and blemishes while they feast,\" not having on the King's pure wedding garment. \n\nblameless-- (Co1 1:8; Phi 1:10; Th1 3:13; Th1 5:23). \n\nin peace--in all its aspects, towards God, your own consciences, and your fellow men, and as its consequence eternal blessedness: \"the God of peace\" will effect this for you.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["account . . . the long-suffering . . . is salvation--is designed for the salvation of those yet to be gathered into the Church: whereas those scoffers \"count it (to be the result of) slackness\" on the Lord's part (Pe2 3:9). \n\nour beloved brother Paul--a beautiful instance of love and humility. Peter praises the very Epistles which contain his condemnation. \n\naccording to the wisdom given unto him--adopting Paul's own language, Co1 3:10, \"According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master-builder.\" Supernatural and inspired wisdom \"GIVEN\" him, not acquired in human schools of learning. \n\nhath written--Greek aorist, \"wrote,\" as a thing wholly past: Paul was by this time either dead, or had ceased to minister to them. \n\nto you--Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, the same region as Peter addresses. Compare \"in peace,\" Pe2 3:14, a practical exhibition of which Peter now gives in showing how perfectly agreeing Paul (who wrote the Epistle to the Galatians) and he are, notwithstanding the event recorded (Gal 2:11-14). Col 3:4 refers to Christ's second coming. The Epistle to the Hebrews, too (addressed not only to the Palestinian, but also secondarily to the Hebrew Christians everywhere), may be referred to, as Peter primarily (though not exclusively) addresses in both Epistles the Hebrew Christians of the dispersion (see on Pe1 1:1). Heb 9:27-28; Heb 10:25, Heb 10:37, \"speak of these things\" (Pe2 3:16) which Peter has been handling, namely, the coming of the day of the Lord, delayed through His \"long-suffering,\" yet near and sudden.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["also in all his epistles-- Rom 2:4 is very similar to Pe2 3:15, beginning. The Pauline Epistles were by this time become the common property of all the churches. The \"all\" seems to imply they were now completed. The subject of the Lord's coming is handled in Th1 4:13; Th1 5:11; compare Pe2 3:10 with Th1 5:2. Still Peter distinguishes Paul's Epistle, or Epistles, \"TO YOU,\" from \"all his (other) Epistles,\" showing that certain definite churches, or particular classes of believers, are meant by \"you.\" \n\nin which--Epistles. The oldest manuscripts read the feminine relative (hais); not as Received Text (hois), \"in which things.\" \n\nsome things hard to be understood--namely, in reference to Christ's coming, for example, the statements as to the man of sin and the apostasy, before Christ's coming. \"Paul seemed thereby to delay Christ's coming to a longer period than the other apostles, whence some doubted altogether His coming\" [BENGEL]. Though there be some things hard to be understood, there are enough besides, plain, easy, and sufficient for perfecting the man of God. \"There is scarce anything drawn from the obscure places, but the same in other places may be found most plain\" [AUGUSTINE]. It is our own prejudice, foolish expectations, and carnal fancies, that make Scripture difficult [JEREMY TAYLOR]. \n\nunlearned--Not those wanting human learning are meant, but those lacking the learning imparted by the Spirit. The humanly learned have been often most deficient in spiritual learning, and have originated many heresies. Compare Ti2 2:23, a different Greek word, \"unlearned,\" literally, \"untutored.\" When religion is studied as a science, nothing is more abstruse; when studied in order to know our duty and practice it, nothing is easier. \n\nunstable--not yet established in what they have learned; shaken by every seeming difficulty; who, in perplexing texts, instead of waiting until God by His Spirit makes them plain in comparing them with other Scriptures, hastily adopt distorted views. \n\nwrest--strain and twist (properly with a hand screw) what is straight in itself (for example, Ti2 2:18). \n\nother scriptures--Paul's Epistles were, therefore, by this time, recognized in the Church, as \"Scripture\": a term never applied in any of the fifty places where it occurs, save to the Old and New Testament sacred writings. Men in each Church having miraculous discernment of spirits would have prevented any uninspired writing from being put on a par with the Old Testament word of God; the apostles' lives also were providentially prolonged, Paul's and Peter's at least to thirty-four years after Christ's resurrection, John's to thirty years later, so that fraud in the canon is out of question. The three first Gospels and Acts are included in \"the other Scriptures,\" and perhaps all the New Testament books, save John and Revelation, written later. \n\nunto their own destruction--not through Paul's fault (Pe2 2:1).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["Ye--warned by the case of those \"unlearned and unstable\" persons (Pe2 3:16). \n\nknowing . . . before--the event. \n\nled away with--the very term, as Peter remembers, used by Paul of Barnabas' being \"carried,\" Greek, \"led away with\" Peter and the other Jews in their hypocrisy. \n\nwicked--\"lawless,\" as in Pe2 2:7. \n\nfall from--(grace, Gal 5:4 : the true source of) \"steadfastness\" or stability in contrast with the \"unstable\" (Pe2 3:16): \"established\" (Pe2 1:12): all kindred Greek terms. Compare Jde 1:20-21.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["grow--Not only do not \"fall from\" (Pe2 3:17), but grow onward: the true secret of not going backward. Eph 4:15, \"Grow up into Him, the Head, Christ.\" \n\ngrace and . . . knowledge of . . . Christ--\"the grace and knowledge of Christ\" [ALFORD rightly]: the grace of which Christ is the author, and the knowledge of which Christ is the object. \n\nfor ever--Greek, \"to the day of eternity\": the day that has no end: \"the day of the Lord,\" beginning with the Lord's coming.\n\n\n\n\n\nNext: 1 John Introduction\n\n"]}],"introduction":"SURENESS OF CHRIST'S COMING, AND ITS ACCOMPANIMENTS, DECLARED IN OPPOSITION TO SCOFFERS ABOUT TO ARISE. GOD'S LONG SUFFERING A MOTIVE TO REPENTANCE, AS PAUL'S EPISTLES SET FORTH; CONCLUDING EXHORTATION TO GROWTH IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST. (2Pe. 3:1-18)\n\nnow--\"This now a second Epistle I write.\" Therefore he had lately written the former Epistle. The seven Catholic Epistles were written by James, John, and Jude, shortly before their deaths; previously, while having the prospect of being still for some time alive, they felt it less necessary to write [BENGEL]. \n\nunto you--The Second Epistle, though more general in its address, yet included especially the same persons as the First Epistle was particularly addressed to. \n\npure--literally, \"pure when examined by sunlight\"; \"sincere.\" Adulterated with no error. Opposite to \"having the understanding darkened.\" ALFORD explains, The mind, will, and affection, in relation to the outer world, being turned to God [the Sun of the soul], and not obscured by fleshly and selfish regards. \n\nby way of--Greek, \"in,\" \"in putting you in remembrance\" (Pe2 1:12-13). Ye already know (Pe2 3:3); it is only needed that I remind you (Jde 1:5).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/2PE/3.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"2PE","chapter":3},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/1JN/1.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"1JN","chapter":1},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/2PE/2.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"2PE","chapter":2},"numberOfVerses":17}