_Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ_ The Greek MSS. for the most part give the less usual form Symeon, which, as applied to St Peter, only meets us elsewhere in Acts 15:14. The variation may, it is obvious, be looked on from different points of view. On the one hand it may be urge... [ Continue Reading ]
_Grace and peace be multiplied unto you_ Here the writer falls into the phraseology of the First Epistle (see note on 1 Peter 1:2), but adds to the simple benediction the words "through (better IN) the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord." The word for "knowledge" (_epignosis_) hovers between the me... [ Continue Reading ]
_According as his divine power_ Better, SEEING THAT.… The Greek word for "divine" is found elsewhere in the New Testament only in 2 Peter 1:4 and Acts 17:29. _life and godliness_ The words at first suggest the union of outward and spiritual blessings, the things needful for body and soul. The words... [ Continue Reading ]
_whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises_ Better, the verb being the same as in the previous verse, THROUGH WHICH (the glory and the virtue just mentioned) HE HATH GIVEN UNTO US. The nature of the promises is indicated by the words that follow. They included pardon, peace, et... [ Continue Reading ]
_and beside this, giving all diligence_ Better, ON THIS VERY ACCOUNT. The Apostle does not contemplate the elements of Christian holiness which he proceeds to specify as additions to our participation in the Divine Nature, but rather dwells on that very fact, as a reason for pressing onward in the C... [ Continue Reading ]
_and to knowledge temperance_ Better, as before, AND BY KNOWLEDGE TEMPERANCE. The word for "temperance" has a wider range than the modern sense of the English term. "_Self-government_" or "_self-control_" would be better equivalents. In Sir 18:30 we have, under the heading in the LXX. of "self-contr... [ Continue Reading ]
_and to godliness brotherly kindness_ Better, perhaps, LOVE OF THE BRETHREN. See note on 1 Peter 1:22. The recurrence of the words may be noted as evidence in favour of identity of authorship. _and to brotherly kindness charity_ Better, LOVE. See note on 1 Peter 4:8. It is to be regretted, as has b... [ Continue Reading ]
_if these things be in you_ The Greek verb expresses the idea of permanent property or possession, as in Matthew 19:21; 1 Corinthians 13:3. For "abound," better MULTIPLY, as expressing the activity of life in each as reproducing itself in manifold acts. _they make you that ye shall neither be barren... [ Continue Reading ]
_But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see far off_ More accurately, FOR HE TO WHOM THESE THINGS ARE NOT PRESENT IS BLIND, NEAR-SIGHTED. The causal conjunction is important in the sequence of thought. We are to press on from height to height of Christian excellence, _for_, if we do n... [ Continue Reading ]
_give diligence to make your calling and election sure_ We hardly need to prove that the "calling and election" of which St Peter speaks were thought of by him as Divine acts according to the Divine foreknowledge (1 Peter 1:2; 1 Peter 2:21). He was not hindered, however, by any speculative difficult... [ Continue Reading ]
_for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly_ Better, THE ENTRANCE SHALL BE RICHLY BESTOWED or SUPPLIED. The verb is the same as that which is translated "add" in 2 Peter 1:5, where see note. The Greek has the article with the noun as defining the entrance to be that which was the wel... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore I will not be negligent_ Many of the better MSS. have the reading "I will proceed to put you in remembrance," but the Received Text is fairly supported. The words in either case indicate the anxiety with which the Apostle looked on the threatening dangers of the time. In the addition of ... [ Continue Reading ]
_Yea, I think it meet_ More accurately, BUT I THINK IT RIGHT. Though he knows them to be established in the truth, he yet looks on it as his duty to remind them of what they know. _as long as I am in this tabernacle_ The term chosen is interesting (1) as a parallel to St Paul's use of the same imag... [ Continue Reading ]
_knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle_ Better, KNOWING THAT SWIFT WILL BE THE PUTTING OFF OF MY TABERNACLE. He speaks not so much of the nearness of his death, as of the suddenness with which it would come upon him, and he is therefore anxious to make all necessary preparations for... [ Continue Reading ]
_Moreover I will endeavour that you may be able after my decease_ The word "endeavour" in the modern sense is perhaps slightly too weak, the Greek verb implying diligent and earnest effort. In the Greek word for "decease" (_exodos_), we meet with another suggestive coincidence with the history of th... [ Continue Reading ]
_For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you_ More accurately, FOR IT WAS NOT AS FOLLOWING CUNNINGLY DEVISED FABLES THAT WE MADE KNOWN the connexion being one not of time but of causation. The "fables" or "myths" referred to are probably those of which St Paul spea... [ Continue Reading ]
_For he received from God the Father honour and glory_ The Greek construction is participial, FOR HAVING RECEIVED …, the structure of the sentence being interrupted by the parenthetical clause which follows, and not resumed. The English version may be admitted, though it conceals this fact, as a fai... [ Continue Reading ]
_And this voice which came from heaven we heard_ More accurately, as better expressing the force of the special word used here as in the previous verse, AND THIS VOICE BORNE FROM HEAVEN WE HEARD.… The "we" is emphatic, as giving prominence to the fact of the personal testimony of the Apostle and his... [ Continue Reading ]
_We have also a more sure word of prophecy_ Better, AND WE HAVE YET MORE STEADFAST THE PROPHETIC WORD. The force of the comparative must have its full significance. The "prophetic word" was for the Apostle, taught as he had been in his Master's school of prophetic interpretation, and himself possess... [ Continue Reading ]
_knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation_ The true meaning of the passage turns partly on the actual significance of the last word, partly on the sequence of thought as connected with the foregoing. The noun itself does not occur elsewhere in the New Te... [ Continue Reading ]
_For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man_ More accurately, FOR PROPHECY WAS NOT SENT (or BORNE) AT ANY TIME BY THE WILL OF MAN. The article before "prophecy" in the Greek simply gives to the noun the generic sense which is better expressed in English by the absence of the article. T... [ Continue Reading ]