2 Peter 2

2 Peter 2:1

But as among those prophets sent and incited by the Holy Ghost, ch. i. 21, some false ones also sly crept in, so also now, according to Christ’s prediction, Matt. xxiv. 11, shall there be false teachers among you, viz. the Gnostic Christians, bringing into the true faith, under pretence of greater perfection, most destructive doctrines of liberty and licentiousness, and that count it an indifferent thing to deny Christ in time of persecution, (see 1 Peter ii. 21, and note [b] Rev. ii.) and forswear him who redeemed them, that are thus unlike him, as not to venture any danger for him who died for them; and do also by this means most imprudently incur the dangers which they desire (and pay so dear) to avoid, by complying with the Jews, come to speedy destruction with them, according to that of Christ, Matt. xvi. 25.

2 Peter 2:2

And these carnal doctrines of theirs shall have many followers, Matt. xxiv. 11, and thereby the glorious pure gospel of Christ shall be much defamed, when Christian professors shall live such filthy lives.

2 Peter 2:3

And with cunning discourses shall they circum- ²⁷ of their own incitation, motion, letting loose.

²⁸ For prophecy was not any time brought, Οὐ γὰρ ἠνέχθη ποτὲ προφητεία.

²⁹ being carried, φερόμενοι. ³⁰ being carried, φερόμενοι. ³¹ and that denying, καὶ ἀρνούμενοι.

³² Or, filthiness: for so many ancient copies, the King’s MS. and that in Magdalene college, Oxford, read ἀσελγείας.

³³ Or, the glory of the truth: for the King’s MS. reads ἡ δόξα.

⁴⁴ with feigned speeches they will gain you to inordinate lusts, ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ πλαστοῖς λόγοις ὑμᾶς ἐμπορεύσονται.

2 Peter 2:4

For if God, when the angels rebelled against him, punished them severely, and having decreed them to eternal hell, cast them presently out of heaven into the abyss, a kind of dungeon or dark prison, there to be reserved, as condemned malefactors, to the day of judgment, the time of their execution;

2 Peter 2:5

And if he punished the whole world of sinners in Noah’s time, bringing a deluge on them, and only preserved Noah, (with seven more,) who warned them to amend their abominable lives, or else that vengeance would befall them;

[a] the eighth person] Why the word ὄγδος, the eighth, is here prefixed to the mention of Noah, might be matter of some inquiry, were it not so ordinary and proverbial among all writers, Jewish as well as heathens, to express the persons that were saved in the deluge by this style, the eight. Hence the very mountain whereon the ark rested is found to be expressed and called by this style, Themanim, that is, τῶν ὀκτῶ, the mountain of the eight. So Georgius Elmacinus, Hist. Saracen. I. 1. c. 1, “Heraclius weut thence,” פִּי קְרִית הַכְּאֹנִין, to the town so called the town of the eight, from תַּאֲמִין, octo, which is here rendered Themaninum, “and ascending to the hill גֻּדּוֹ,” it should sure be read גֻּדּוֹ, Gordi, (so those mountains are called promiscuously Cardiei, Cordyei, Cordueni, Gordi, Cordæi, Curdi,) “he saw the place of the ark, the highest of all that region.” So m Geographus Nubiensis, Mons יָמִין (Jemanin) it should be תַּמְנִין, Themanin) idem qui Algoude (it should be אַלְגּוֹרְדִי, Algordi, that is, Gordieus) in quo requievit navis illa, navis Noæ, cui pax, “The hill Themanin, which is also called Algordi, on which the ark rested, the ark of Noah—. So n Agathias, Ἀμφὶ τὰ Καρδούχια ὄρη, εἰς κώμην Θαμανῶν, “About the Cardian mountains, at the town called Themanin,” that is, “the eight.”

2 Peter 2:6

And if he adjudged the cities and suburbs of Sodom and Gomorrha to utter destruction by fire from heaven, and made them an exemplary spectacle and document to all that should ever live in their sins;

2 Peter 2:7

At that time delivering Lot, (and his family,) who was a person so far from being guilty of that lewdness and unnatural filthiness, that he was extremely vexed and molested by dwelling among those that lived in those villainies;

2 Peter 2:8

(For he being a very pure and chaste person, yet inhabiting among them that were so impure, was from day to day continually afflicted and tormented to see them do as they did;)

2 Peter 2:9

If, I say, all these examples of vengeance on wicked, obdurate rebels and carnal persons, (the patterns of the crucifying Jews and lewd Gnostics,) and withal the deliverances afforded to the righteous in these passages of story, be considered, we may then sure learn from hence, how ready and able God now is to rescue the persecuted, constant Christian out of the persecutors’ hand, and to reserve the persecutors themselves, and all wicked livers that join or comply with them, by cutting them off here, to eternal perdition in another world: (see note [b] Rom. xiii.)

2 Peter 2:10

Of this sort especially are the Gnostics, whose character it is to commit all filthiness, and to despise all kind of authority of magistrates or masters, (1 Tim. iii. 6,) a bold, insolent sort of men, that can without any trembling or fear speak contumeliously of the apostles themselves: (see note [b] on Jude.)

2 Peter 2:11

Whereas the angels of light, being sure in a condition of greater power and height than any Christians or men on earth, do not deal so with the rulers of darkness, (see note [c] Jude 9,) when upon any occasion they accuse or implead them before God, or wage any dispute with them, Jude 9.

2 Peter 2:12

But these men, like beasts, ruled only by their natural or brutish appetites, without any reason to restrain and temper them, which are good for nothing but (as vultures, to tear and pollute, so these) to spoil and debauch all they come near, venturing to speak reproachfully of all that they do not understand, and so consequently of the mysteries of Christianity, taught by apostles, but despised by them, (see note [d] on Jude,) shall be destroyed in their bestial sins,

[b] made to be taken] The word ἄλωσις, catching, is here in an active sense to prey, or take, or catch, and not to be taken; and γεγενημένα εἰς ἄλωσιν, made for taking, are creatures, beasts or birds of prey, vultures. So Job xxiv. 5, לְפָרָף (rendered by the Greek εἰς ἄλωσιν, to catch) is in the Chaldee Paraphrase expressed by rising up early to their

m Clim. 4. Par. 6. n L. 4. p. 135.

2 Peter 2:13

And receive that vengeance that is due to them; those, I mean, that in the daytime take pleasure in those villainies which are wont to need the night to cover the shame of them, that are become the reproachers of Christianity, committing all villainy in their sacred assemblies and festivities, and making use of their false doctrines to turn your Christian feasts into unclean lascivious meetings.

[c] deceivings] That which is read here ἐν ἀπάταις, in deceits, may not improbably be mistaken by the scribe for ἐν ἀγάπαις αὐτῶν, in their Christian feasts, instituted in order to maintaining of charity, but defiled by the luxury of carnal gospellers. Thus it is read in Jude, ver. 12, (which in most things is agreeable with this second of Peter,) and that verse in the other parts of it is directly parallel to this; there, σπιλίδες, spots, as here, σπίλοι καὶ μῶμοι, spots and blemishes; there, συνενωχούμενοι, feasting together, as here in the same word, and so probably also in this word, which differs so little from ἀπάταις, that it might be easily mistaken for it.

2 Peter 2:14

Their eyes are so filled with unlawful objects, that they can receive nothing else, nor ever take them off from beholding them; they corrupt young new-converted Christians, and have their hearts, as their eyes, always busied with base, filthy thoughts, persons fit for nothing but a curse:

15, 16. Which have forsaken the Christian doctrine, and brought in heathenish, (so did Simon Magus mix paganism with Christianity; Carpocrates brought in Hesiod’s theology to Christ, and adored

[d] full of adultery] Μοιχαλὶς signifies distinctly an adulteress, (not adultery,) and the phrase of having eyes full of her, is very agreeable to that of the rhetorician cited by Plutarch De Verecund., who, describing an impure unchaste person, (an ἀναίσχυντος, one without shame,) rhetorically said of him, οὐ κόρας ἀλλὰ πόρνας ἐν τοῖς ὄμμασιν ἔχει, that “he had whores in his eyes instead of κόρας,” which is an equivocal word, and signifies both a maid (or virgin, opposite to πόρνη, whore) and the pupilla oculi, the apple of the eye, also, and is therefore made use of in that rhetor.

2 Peter 2:15

[e] Bosor] The name Bosor here is Beor in the Old Testament, the Hebrew being בָּעִיר, and the Chaldee pronouncing the ע by פ; and accordingly the Arabic translation reads here the son of Beor, the same that (as here, so Jude 11, Rev. xi. 14.) is made use of to exemplify the heretics that were thus easily crept into the church, the Gnostics so often spoken of. As for the fitness of representing this heresy by ἡ ὁδὸς τοῦ Βαλαὰμ, the way of Balaam, three things may especially be observed. First, that he being a prophet of the true God did yet join in idol-worship with the king of Moab, Num. xxii. 41, being taken up with him into the high places of Baal, and, xxiii. 2, 14, 29, building altars, and offering up sacrifices there. And this was remarkable in the Gnostics, (whose whole divinity was a mixture of Christian and Jewish with heathen doctrine; they made no scruple, for the saving or gaining any thing to themselves, to join with those who offered sacrifice to idols. Secondly, that he complied and joined in faction with the Moabites and Midianites, the enemies of God’s people, was very willing to assist them to his uttermost; and when God permitted him not to curse Israel, yet he associated with the Midianites, as appears Num. xxxi. 8, where he

2 Peter 2:17

These take upon them to be fountains of all deep knowledge, but have no drop either of truth or good practice among them; they pretend to be sublime above other men, but are only like clouds in the air that darken the sky, but never distil into rain, and those driven impetuously by every wind, be it never so black or dark, from one vicious, hellish doctrine and practice to another; and to these black souls is reserved in the just judgment of God eternal darkness and blackness.

2 Peter 2:18

For attributing divinity to Simon and Helena, and exalting them idolatrously above the God of Israel, (see note [i] on Jude,) they entice and catch again, bring back to all manner of carnality and filthiness those who had not long since gotten out of the heathen bestiality, (see note [b] on Jude,) and really given them over;

2 Peter 2:19

And this upon pretence of giving them liberty; whereas they are themselves the greatest slaves in the world, to wit, enslaved to all baseness and filthiness, (see note [b] ch. i,) for the title of victory giving dominion, they must needs be slaves of those lusts which have conquered them, to whom they have yielded themselves captives.

2 Peter 2:20

This being a principle known to all, that no scripture prophecy is without particular mission and appointment from God; that which the prophets there have foretold being not the suggestions of their own spirits, what they thought good, but what God inspired and moved them to by his Spirit’s coming upon them.

And this is so far from being extenuated by the privilege of their being Christians, that it is become the greater and more dangerous guilt by this means; for certainly they that have been converted from all their heathen sins by accepting of the faith of Christ, and then again relapse and return to them, this latter estate of theirs, this Christian heathenism, is worse than their bare heathenism at first.

[h] interpretation] Ἐπίλυσις here seems to be an agonistical word, to signify the starting, or watchword, or sign, upon which the racers set out or begin their course. The place from whence they set out is called ἀφετήρια, where, when they set out, they are said to be let loose, and this is literally ἐπιλύεσθαι. To this is the sending of prophets here compared, who are said to run, Jer. xxiii. 21, Ezek. xiii. 6, 7, They run, and I sent them not, that is, οὐκ ἐπέλυσα, I gave them no watchword to run; as in the Psalmist, God gave the word, great was the company of preachers. When any undertakes to prophesy without God’s sending, this is ἰδίας ἐπιλύσεως, of his own starting, and this is here denied of the prophets of the Old Testament; for, as it follows, οὐ θελήματι ἀνθρώπου ἡνίχθη ποτέ, it was never brought by the will of man, that is, it was never ἰδίας ἐπιλύσεως, of their own incitation, but holy men, φερόμενοι ὑπὸ πνεύματος, carried by the Spirit, θεοφορούμενοι, inspired and carried by God, did prophesy, &c.

2 Peter 2:21

For none of the prophets of any time have undertaken that office on their own heads, or prophesied their own fancies or persuasions, but all the scripture prophets have been men called and sent by God on his messages, and inspired and instructed by the holy Spirit of God every word which they have delivered. And therefore you cannot run any hazard in depending upon that which they have foretold shall come to pass in these, which they called the last days, Joel ii. 28. 30, 31, 32, and in many other places.

CHAP. II.

BUT there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, ¹ even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

For it had been more for the advantage of such never to have been taught the doctrine of Christ and Christian practice, than when they have under-