2 Peter 1:17

2 Peter 1:17. For he received from God the Father honour and glory. In the original it is ‘For having received,' etc., the sentence being broken by what is said about the voice, and the writer hurrying on to the conclusion unmindful of the fact. The title ‘Father' is appropriately introduced here, as the testimony which Christ received from God was one to His own Sonship. The same conjunction of ‘honour' and ‘glory,' or ‘praise,' occurs in Romans 2:7; Romans 2:10. In 1 Peter 1:7 we have the richer conjunction of ‘praise and honour and glory,' or, as the better reading gives it, ‘praise and glory and honour.' Certain distinctions are attempted between the two terms here. The ‘honour' being supposed to refer, e.g., specially to the honourable witness borne by the voice, and the ‘glory' to the light that shone about Christ, or broke forth from Him. Such distinctions, however, are precarious. The thing dwelt on is not the splendour of Christ's own appearance on the occasion, but the tribute which came by the voice. The two terms, therefore, are generally descriptive either of the magnificence of the scene, or of the majesty of that particular tribute. Compare with this the words of another eye-witness of the same event; John 1:14.

when such a voice was borne to him by the sublime glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The voice is called ‘ such a voice,' that is to say, ‘such as I am now to record,' or perhaps ‘a voice so wonderful in kind.' It is also described, both here and in the next verse, not as ‘coming,' but as being ‘borne' or ‘brought' to him, the verb employed being that which is applied again to the prophets as ‘moved' or ‘ borne by the Holy Spirit (in 2 Peter 1:21), and also to the ‘ rushing' (as it is there rendered) mighty wind, noticed by Luke in his narrative of the Pentecostal descent (Acts 2:2). The next words are rendered ‘from the excellent glory' by the A. V.; in which it follows Cranmer and the Genevan. Tyndale gives ‘from excellent glory;' Wycliffe, ‘from the great glory;' the Khemish, ‘from the magnificent glory.' ‘Excellent' is a somewhat weak representation of the adjective, which means rather ‘magnificent' or ‘sublime.' This is its only New Testament occurrence. The ‘from' also is in reality ‘by,' the preposition being the one regularly used with that sense after passive verbs. Hence many of the best recent interpreters regard the words as a designation of God, and translate them ‘by the sublime majesty.' In support of this, Matthew 26:64 is referred to, where the term ‘power' is taken to be a title of God. It is possible that the peculiar phrase is due to Peter mentally likening the cloud out of which the voice broke to the glory-cloud of the Shechinah, which was to Israel the visible sign of the Divine presence. The testimony uttered by the voice differs very slightly from the form in which it is reported in Matthew's Gospel. A shorter form is given in Mark (Mark 9:7) and Luke (Luke 9:35). Here the reading which is preferred by the most recent editors gives it still greater intensity. It may be represented thus ‘My Son, My beloved One, this is, in whom I am well pleased.' The ‘well pleased' is given in the past tense (= ‘on whom I set My good pleasure'), as expressive of the changelessness of the satisfaction once for all placed in Him.