Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

2 Peter 1:15

2 Peter 1:15. But I shall also give diligence (or, diligently provide) that at all times ye may be able after my decease to call up the memory of these things. The A. V. is slightly at fault here both as to terms and as to arrangement. ‘Moreover' less correctly conveys the idea than ‘but' or (as in the R. V.) ‘yea' For the writer is rather resuming and amplifying the statement made in 2 Peter 1:12, than explaining some additional provision which he meant to make. The ‘always,' which the A. V. connects with the ‘have in remembrance,' rather defines the ‘may be able after my decease.' The word, too, properly speaking, means ‘on each occasion,' or ‘at all times as they rise.' The phrase rendered ‘have in remembrance' is one found nowhere else in the N. T. In Classical Greek it means to ‘make mention of.' It is possible that it has that meaning here, and that the writer expresses his desire to make it possible for his readers to report these things to others. It is generally taken, however, in the modified sense of recalling to memory; which has the analogy of similar modes of expression (e.g. in Romans 1:9; Ephesians 2:16), and is in harmony with the thought of the previous verses. Various views are entertained of what is exactly referred to in this promise or resolution. It is supposed, e.g., that Peter alludes to the two Epistles as a written provision he was to leave behind him. But the form of the resolution, ‘I shall give diligence,' does not easily fit in with that. It is supposed, too, that he may have in view the training and appointment of teachers to succeed him, or the transcription of copies of his Epistles for wide distribution, or the preparation of a Gospel (namely, that of Mark) under his direction. Most probably, however, he is simply expressing his intention to continue to communicate with them, as he had already been doing, on the great truths of the Gospel as long as opportunity presented itself, and thus to arm them to the utmost against the peril of forget fulness. Not a few Roman Catholic interpreters, including some of the very best, have construed this into a statement of Peter's permanent supervision of the Church, and even his heavenly intercession in behalf of it. Notice that the word rendered ‘decease' here means literally ‘exodus,' and is the very term used in Luke's account of the Transfiguration (Luke 9:31). Elsewhere it occurs only once, and that in the literal sense, viz. in Hebrews 11:22, where it is translated ‘departing.'

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

2 Peter 1:15

Old Testament

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