Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

2 Peter 1:20

τοῦτο πρῶτον γινώσκοντες. “Recognising this truth above all else” (in your reading of Scripture). The False Teachers appealed to the O.T. scriptures in support of their doctrine. ὅτι πᾶσα … οὐ γίνεται. πᾶσα … οὐ need not be regarded as a Hebraism. It is as normal as in 1 John 2:21; John 3:16. ἰδίας ἐπιλύσεως. This passage is a noted crux. (1) Hardt, followed by Lange, Spitta and others interpret ἐπιλυς. = dissolutio. “No prophecy of S. is of such a kind that it can be annulled”. But no satisfactory instance of ἐπιλυς. in this sense can be adduced. (2) Accepting the sense of ἰδ. ἐπιλ. = “private,” or “human interpretation,” Von Soden sees a reference to the methods of the false teachers in their attitude to Scripture (cf. 2 Peter 1:16; 2 Peter 2:1). ἰδίας “is opposed to the φωνὴ ἐνεχθεῖσα of 2 Peter 1:17 ”. (3) It seems most satisfactory to understand ἰδ. ἐπιλ. as the meaning of the prophet himself, or what was in the prophet's mind when he wrote; the fulfilment in any particular generation or epoch. “The special work of the prophet is to interpret the working of God to his own generation. But in doing this, he is laying down the principles of God's action generally. Hence there may be many fulfilments of one prophecy, or to speak more exactly, many historical illustrations of some one principle of Providential Government” (Mayor, p. 196). The genitive ἐπιλύσεως is gen. of definition and not of origin. “No prophecy is of such a nature as to be capable of a particular interpretation.”

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

2 Peter 1:20

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