2 Peter 1:3

τῆς θείας δυνάμεως is originally a philosophic term (Plato, Ion. 534 C., Arist. Pol. vii. 4) cf. τὸ θεῖον as used by St. Paul in speaking to philosophers at Athens (Acts 17:29). The subject is Christ (cf. δύναμις κυρίου, Luke 10:17; 1 Corinthians 5:4; 2 Corinthians 12:9; and 2 Peter 1:16, of this chapter). The phrase θεία δύναμις is contained in an inscription of Stratonicea in Caria in honour of Zeus Panhemerios and Hekate, belonging to the early Imperial period. 2 Peter would thus be availing himself of one of “the familiar forms and formulæ ol religious emotion” (Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 367). αὐτοῦ is taken as referring to Κυρίου in 2 Peter 1:2, which would confirm the reading adopted. πάντα … τὰ πρὸς ζωὴν καὶ εὐσέβειαν. ζωή is the new life that belongs to believers in Christ. εὐσέβεια is also found in the inscription quoted above. This word and its cognates are found in N.T. only in Acts, ihis Epistle, and in the Pastoral Epistles. They are also common in inscriptions of Asia Minor, and were apparently familiar terms in the religious language of the Imperial period. In εὐσέβεια, the emphasis of meaning lies towards “godliness” in its practical, rather than its devotional aspect, i.e., what God requires of man “pious conduct”. In 1 Timothy 3:16 Christ is spoken of as “the secret of piety” (τὸ τῆς εὐσεβείας μυστήριον). The conjunction of the two ideas ζωή and εὐσέβεια is significant. Religion does not narrow, but expand the province of life. The life in Christ is not “a little province of peculiar emotion.… If we fear that it may lose itself in the vast and often lawless universe of life beneath, the danger is to be averted not by wilfully contracting it within a narrower field, but by seeking greater intensity of life in deeper and more submissive communion with the Head Himself in the heavens” (Hort, The Way, the Truth, and the Life, p. 147). δεδωρημένης (= “gifted” or “granted”). This word and its cognates always carry a certain regal sense describing an act of large-handed generosity. Cf. Mark 15:45 of the giving by Pilate of the body of Jesus to Joseph; John 4:10; James 1:17. The same sense is found in Genesis 30:20; Proverbs 4:2; Isaiah 62:3; and O.G.I.S. 517 7 (iii. A.D.) with reference to the gift by Marcus Aurelius of a new law-court, ὁπότε ἐδω [ρ] ήσατο τῆι πατρίδι ἡμῶν [τ] ὴν ἀγορὰν τῶν δικῶν. τοῦ καλέσαντος ἡμᾶς. Judging from usage elsewhere in N.T., the reference would here be to God, who is always the Caller. 2 Peter, however, shows great independence of thought in other directions, and it is more likely that the reference is to Christ, especially as ἐπίγνωσις is used consistently in relation to Christ (2 Peter 1:8; 2 Peter 2:20). (So Spitta, Von Soden, Mayor). “Cognitionem dei praesupponit haec epistula, 2 Peter 1:3. Cognitionem autem Domini nostri, nempe Jesu Christi urget proprie” (Bengel). Cf. 2. Clem. ix. 5. χριστὸς … ἐγένετο σὰρξ καὶ οὕτως ἡμᾶς ἐκάλεσεν. ἰδίᾳ δόξῃ καὶ ἀρετῇ. Has ἰδίᾳ an intensive force here, or has it an exhausted sense merely equivalent to a personal pronoun? The emphasis conveyed in the former interpretation would better carry on the sense of πάντα. δόξα is used in sense of John 1:14. ἀρετή is an interesting word. There is considerable evidence to prove that it is not used here in the ordinary Greek philosophical sense of “virtue,” although the combination of δόξα and ἀρετή is not infrequently found in philosophical writings (cf. Plat. Symp. 208 D. Plut. Mor. 535). Deissmann, following the Stratonicean inscription already mentioned, renders “manifestation of power,” i.e., in miracle (op. cit. pp. 95 97). In 1 Peter 2:9 it is used in plural, in LXX sense = “praises” תּהִלָּה. (Cf. Thuc. i. 33.) In P. Hib. xv. 3 ff. (iii. B.C.) the younger men are exhorted to employ their bodies εὐκαίρως τὴν ἀπόδειξιν ποιησαμένους τῆς αὐτῶν ἀρετῆς, “in a timely display of their prowess” (G. and H.). In later papyri ἀρετή is used as title of courtesy, e.g., P. Oxy. 71, ii. 18 (iv. A.D.). εἴ σου δόξειεν τῇ ἀρετῇ = “if it please your Excellency”. Foucart defines ἀρετή as “vim divinam quae mirabilem in modum hominibus laborantibus salutem afferret” (cf. Hort's note, 1 Peter, p. 129 and MME, Sept. 1908).

The phrase τοῦ καλέσαντος … ἀρετῃ contains one of the finest ideas in the N.T. What could be a more effective answer to the intellectualism of the Gnostic teachers or its modern equivalent, than the impression produced on the lives of men, and especially the early disciples, by the Personality of Jesus? They beheld His glory in the evidences of miraculous knowledge and power which Jesus showed at the time of their call (John 1:42; John 1:47-51; Luke 5:4). Their sense of His moral greatness overcame all resistance on their part (Luke 5:8; John 1:49). If 2 Pet. is lacking in devotional expression, his apologetic for the person of Christ is cast on most effective lines. Reason can only compass the facts of Revelation, in terms of antinomies, and it is vain to meet inadequate theories of the person of Christ by dogmatic subtlety. The Life and Death of our Lord, if its significance is to be fully understood, must be looked upon largely as an acted parable, and Christian experience the impression of δόξα καὶ ἀρετή is an indispensable constituent of dogmatic expression.