II. By a perfectly natural transition, _we_ pass to an entirely different subject — from exhortation to show forth Christian graces to a warning against corrupt doctrine. True prophets (2 Peter 1:21) suggest false prophets, and false prophets suggest false teachers. On the character of the false tea... [ Continue Reading ]
FIRST PREDICTION: False teachers shall have great success and certain ruin (2 Peter 2:1). (1) BUT THERE WERE FALSE PROPHETS ALSO. — To bring out the contrast between true and false prophets more strongly, the clause that in meaning is secondary has been made primary in form. The _meaning_ is, “Ther... [ Continue Reading ]
MANY SHALL FOLLOW THEIR PERNICIOUS WAYS. — “Pernicious ways” is a translation of the plural of the word just rendered “destruction.” (See fourth Note on 2 Peter 2:1.) But here the reading is undoubtedly wrong. The margin has the right reading — _lascivious ways_ (or better, _wanton ways_) — being th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THROUGH COVETOUSNESS. — Better, _In covetousness._ This is the atmosphere in which they live. (See Notes on 2 Peter 2:18 and 2 Peter 1:1; 2 Peter 1:4; 2 Peter 1:13.) Wiclif and Rheims have “in.” Simon Magus offering St. Peter money, which no doubt he was accustomed to take himself for his teachi... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IF GOD. — The sentence has no proper conclusion. The third instance of God’s vengeance is so prolonged by the addition respecting Lot, that the apodosis is wanting, the writer in his eagerness having lost the thread of the construction. The three instances here are in chronological order (wanton... [ Continue Reading ]
(4-8) Three instances of divine vengeance, proving that great wickedness never goes unpunished.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SPARED NOT THE OLD WORLD. — The fact that the Flood is taken as the second instance of divine vengeance gives us no clue as to the source of the first instance. In the _Book of Enoch_ the Flood follows closely upon the sin of the angels, as in Genesis 6 upon that of the sons of God, so that in e... [ Continue Reading ]
AND TURNING.... — The construction still depends upon the “if” in 2 Peter 2:4. (See Note on Jude 1:7.) CONDEMNED THEM WITH AN OVERTHROW. — Or, perhaps, _to an overthrow,_ like “condemn to death” in Matthew 20:18. The very word here used for “overthrow” — _catastrophe_ — is used by the LXX. of the o... [ Continue Reading ]
AND DELIVERED JUST LOT. — Better, _righteous Lot_; it is the same adjective as occurs twice in the next verse. These repetitions of the same word, of which there are several examples in this Epistle (“destruction” thrice, 2 Peter 2:1; various repetitions, 2 Peter 3:10; “look for” thrice, 2 Peter 3:1... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THAT RIGHTEOUS MAN. — This epithet, here thrice given to Lot, seems at first sight to be at variance with his willingness to remain, for the sake of worldly advantages, in the midst of such wickedness. But “righteous is a relative term; and in this case we must look at Lot both in comparison wit... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD KNOWETH. — This is the main sentence to which the various conditional clauses beginning 2 Peter 2:4 (see Note there) have been leading. But the construction is disjointed, owing to the eagerness of the writer, and the main clause does not fit on to the introductory clauses very smoothly. Ev... [ Continue Reading ]
THEM THAT WALK AFTER THE FLESH. — Less definite than Jude 1:7. Here there is nothing about going _away_ or _astray,_ nor about the flesh being “other” than is allowed. This is natural; Jude’s remark applying to the inhabitants of the cities of the plain in particular, this to sensual persons general... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREAS ANGELS. — Literally, _Where angels — i.e.,_ in circumstances in which angels. This verse, if it refers to the same incident as Jude 1:9, seems at first sight to tell somewhat in favour of the priority of Jude; for then, only when compared with Jude 1:9, does it become intelligible. The infer... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THESE, AS NATURAL BRUTE BEASTS. — Omit “natural.” This verse appears to tell strongly in favour of the priority of our Epistle. The literary form of Jude 1:10, is so very superior; the antithesis (quite wanting here) between abusing what they cannot know and misusing what they cannot help knowin... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SHALL RECEIVE. — Literally, _about to receive_ (as they are). (Comp. 1 Peter 1:9; 1 Peter 5:4; see also _Epistle of Barnabas,_ iv. 12.) AS THEY THAT COUNT. — We must begin a fresh sentence, and somewhat modify the translation. “To riot” is too strong; the word means “delicate fare, dainty living... [ Continue Reading ]
OF ADULTERY. — Literally, _of an adulteress._ This verse has no counterpart in Jude. THAT CANNOT CEASE FROM SIN. — Literally, _that cannot be made to cease from sin._ (Comp. attentively 1 Peter 4:1.) It was precisely because these men refused to “suffer in the flesh,” but, on the contrary, gave the... [ Continue Reading ]
THE RIGHT WAY. — (Comp. Acts 13:10.) In the _Shepherd of_ Hermas (I. _Vis._ III. vii. 1) we have “Who have believed indeed, but through their doubting _have forsaken their true way.”_ (See Notes on 2 Peter 2:1; 2 Peter 2:3; 2 Peter 2:13; 2 Peter 2:20; 2 Peter 3:5.) ARE GONE ASTRAY. — The main verb o... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT WAS REBUKED FOR HIS INIQUITY. — Literally, _But had a conviction of his own transgression_ — _i.e.,_ was convicted of it, or rebuked for it. His transgression was that, although as a prophet he knew the blessedness of Israel, and although God gave him leave to go only on condition of his blessin... [ Continue Reading ]
THESE ARE WELLS. — Or, _springs;_ same word as John 4:6. These men are like dried-up watering-places in the desert, which entice and mock the thirsty traveller; perhaps leading him into danger also by drawing him from places where there is water. (Comp. Jeremiah 2:13; Jeremiah 14:3.) The parallel pa... [ Continue Reading ]
GREAT SWELLING WORDS OF VANITY. — Exaggeration, unreality, boastfulness, and emptiness are expressed by this phrase. It carries on the same idea as the waterless wells and the driven mists — great pretensions and no results. The rebuke here is not unlike the warning in 1 Peter 5:5. ALLURE. — Transl... [ Continue Reading ]
PROMISE THEM LIBERTY. — A specimen of the “great swelling words” — loud, high-sounding talk about liberty. The doctrines of Simon Magus, as reported by Irenæus (I., chap. xxiii. 3) and by Hippolytus (_Refut._ VI., chap. xiv.), show us the kind of liberty that such teachers promised — being “freed fr... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IF AFTER THEY HAVE ESCAPED THE POLLUTIONS OF THE WORLD. — Applying the general statement of the preceding verse to the case of these false teachers. In the _Shepherd_ of Hermas (I. _Vis._ IV. iii. 2.) “the black there is the world in which we dwell, and the fire-and-blood-colour (indicates) that... [ Continue Reading ]
IT HAD BEEN BETTER FOR THEM NOT TO HAVE KNOWN. — There are many things of which the well-known lines. “’Tis better to have loved and lost, Than never to have loved at all,” do not hold good. To have loved a great truth, to have loved a high principle, and after all to lose them, is what often caus... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT IT IS HAPPENED UNTO THEM ACCORDING TO THE TRUE PROVERB. — More literally, _There has happened to them what the true proverb says; “_but_”_ is of very doubtful authority. The word for “proverb” is the one used elsewhere only by St. John in his Gospel, and there translated once “parable” and thric... [ Continue Reading ]