The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament (276 page)

Bold and wilful, they are not afraid to revile the glorious ones,
¹¹
whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a reviling judgment upon them before the Lord.
¹²
But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed, reviling in matters of which
they are ignorant
, will be destroyed in the same destruction with them,
¹³
suffering wrong for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their dissipation,
^g
carousing with you
.
¹⁴
They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!
¹⁵
Forsaking the right way they have gone astray; they have followed
the way of Balaam
, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing,
¹⁶
but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless
donkey spoke
with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.

17
 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest gloom of darkness has been reserved.
¹⁸
For, uttering loud boasts of folly, they entice with licentious passions of the flesh men who have barely escaped from those who live in error.
¹⁹
They
promise them freedom
, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved.
²⁰
For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
they are again entangled
in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
²¹
For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from
the holy commandment
delivered to them.
²²
It has happened to them according to the
true proverb
, The dog turns back to his own vomit, and the sow is washed only to wallow in the mire.

The Promise of the Lord's Coming

3
  
This is now
the second letter
that I have written to you, beloved, and in both of them I have aroused your sincere mind by way of reminder;
²
that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through
your apostles
.
³
First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will come in
the last days
with scoffing, following their own passions
⁴
and saying, "
Where is the promise of his coming
? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation."
⁵
They deliberately ignore this fact, that by
the word of God
heavens existed long ago, and an earth formed out of water and by means of water,
⁶
through which the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
⁷
But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist have been stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

8
 
But do not ignore this one fact
, beloved, that with the Lord
one day is as a thousand years
, and a thousand years as one day.
⁹
The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you,
^h
not wishing that any should perish, but that
all should reach repentance
.
¹⁰
But
the day of the Lord
will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.

11
 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in
lives of holiness
and godliness,
¹²
waiting for and
hastening
ⁱ
the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire!
¹³
But according to his promise we wait for
new heavens and a new earth
in which righteousness dwells.

Final Exhortation and Doxology

14
 Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
¹⁵
And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother
Paul wrote to you
according to the wisdom given him,
¹⁶
speaking of this
 
*
as he does in
all his letters
. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
¹⁷
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability.
¹⁸
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To him be the glory
both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Commentary on The Second Letter of Saint Peter

1:1 Simon:
Several ancient manuscripts list the name as
Symeoon,
a Greek rendering of the Hebrew name "Simeon" (Lk 2:25; Rev 7:7). Symeon is probably the original reading, though it is unclear why the name is used here but not in 1 Pet 1:1. It appears elsewhere only in Acts 15:14.
Peter:
The name Jesus gave to Simon, meaning "rock". See word study:
Peter
at Mt 16:18.
To those who:
The readers are not identified beyond the fact that they are Christians. See introduction:
Destination.
our God and Savior:
The expression in Greek indicates that both titles are given to Christ, the former affirming his divinity and the latter affirming his redemptive mission. This same construction is used elsewhere in the letter to assert that he is both "our Lord and Savior" (2 Pet 1:11; 2:20; 3:18). Some translate the phrase "our God and the Savior", thereby distinguishing the Father from the Son, but this rendering is less likely to represent the author's intention (see textual note
a
). 
Back to text.

1:2 May grace and peace:
The identical formula appears in 1 Pet 1:2 but nowhere else in the NT. In general, however, opening wishes of grace and peace are standard in early Christian letters (Rom 1:7; Phil 1:2; Rev 1:4).
knowledge:
A key concept of the letter (1:3, 8; 2:20; 3:18). Growth in knowledge means increasing our understanding of God's ways and deepening our relationship with him. True knowledge is emphasized because false knowledge was beginning to seep into the Christian community (2:1-3; 3:17). 
Back to text.

1:3-11
Everything necessary to mature in godliness and attain glory is made available by God to believers. Our proper response is to supplement the gift of faith with a full range of virtues that conform us to Christ and grant us admittance to his kingdom (1:11) (CCC 1810-13). For similar lists that begin with "faith" and end with "love", see Rom 5:1-5 and 2 Cor 8:7. 
Back to text.

1:4 escape:
The aim of Christian living is to rise above the sinful and decaying world toward an imperishable life with God (2:20).
partakers of the divine nature:
This does not mean that believers are made deities or come to stand on an equal footing with God. Similar expressions were used in the Hellenistic world to say that man was made in the likeness of divine immortality (Wis 2:23), that a king could imitate the divine nature by governing men as God does (Philo,
On Abraham
144), or that some had come to share in the divine nature by possessing extraordinary wisdom and foresight (Josephus,
Against Apion
1, 232). Here it denotes human participation in the divine life of God, a mystery of grace that Paul describes as the indwelling of the Son (Rom 8:10; Gal 2:20) and the Spirit (Rom 8:11; 1 Cor 6:19). Believers thus become sons and daughters of God by sharing in the divine Sonship of Christ (Rom 8:14-16; Gal 4:4-7). This doctrine of "deification" or "divinization" is grounded on the truth that Jesus Christ assumed our humanity in order to fill it with his divinity (CCC 460). • Participation in the divine life is a gift that comes to us through the sacraments (CCC 1692). It is especially in the Eucharist that we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity (CCC 1129, 19962000). • Since he granted us his image and his Spirit, and we failed to guard them, he took to himself our poor and weak nature in order to cleanse us, to make us incorruptible, and to establish us once again as partakers of his divinity (St. John of Damascus,
Orthodox Faith
4, 13). 
Back to text.

1:5 virtue:
I.e., a life of moral excellence. See word study:
Excellence
at Phil 4:8. 
Back to text.

1:9 cleansed from . . . sins:
Experienced first in Baptism (Acts 22:16) and then in an ongoing way by confessing our faults and seeking the Lord's mercy (Mt 6:12; 1 Jn 1:9). The point here is that forgiveness obliges us to mend our ways and to make progress in holiness (2 Pet 1:3). 
Back to text.

1:10 your call and election:
Believers are chosen and called by God to be his own people in Christ (1 Pet 2:9). This status is maintained and confirmed by living the faith and attaining the virtues of gospel morality outlined in 2 Pet 1:5-7. It is jeopardized, however, if one becomes reentangled in a life of sin (2:20-22). The danger that one might
fall
shows that confirming one's election is a matter of real and crucial importance, i.e., it cannot be reduced to a merely subjective or personal reassurance that one's salvation has already been eternally secured. 
Back to text.

1:11 the eternal kingdom:
Union with God in heaven is the kingdom of God in its fullness and perfection (2 Tim 4:18). 
Back to text.

1:12-15
Peter wants readers to remember what he taught them after his death. This focus on the future leads some scholars to claim that 2 Peter exhibits characteristics of a "testament", a popular literary form in Judaism in which great figures of biblical history bequeath to posterity a series of prophesies and ethical instructions on their deathbeds. 
Back to text.

1:13 this body:
Literally, "this tent", an image that signifies the temporary duration of our bodily life on earth (Wis 9:15; Is 38:12). For the saints, these tents are folded away at death and give way to a permanent dwelling in resurrected bodies.
See note on 2 Cor 5:1
. 
Back to text.

1:14 Christ showed me:
Jesus warned Peter that he would die as a martyr in old age (Jn 21:18-19). Now that Peter is an elderly man writing in the early or mid-60s, he knows that the end of his life is drawing near. Some think that Peter is referring to a personal revelation from Christ that is not recorded in the NT but concerns the timing of his death. 
Back to text.

1:15 my departure:
Or, "my exodus". See word study:
Departure
at Lk 9:31. 
Back to text.

1:16 eyewitnesses:
The apostles Peter, James, and John accompanied Jesus on the mountain of Transfiguration (Mt 17:18). Their testimony to Christ was therefore based on the facts of history and firsthand experience, quite unlike the imaginative tales spun by the false teachers denounced in the letter (2 Pet 2:3). This
past
revelation of Christ's glory is considered a preview of the
future
revelation of Christ's glory at his Second Coming (CCC 554-55). 
Back to text.

1:18 the holy mountain:
Traditionally identified as Mount Tabor in lower Galilee. Perhaps an analogy is implied with Mount Sinai, which was likewise sanctified or made holy by the manifestation of God's glory (Ex 3:1-5).
See note on Mt 17:1-8
. 
Back to text.