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2 Peter 2 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
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True prophets (<a href="/2_peter/1-21.htm" title="For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.">2Peter 1:21</a>) suggest false prophets, and false prophets suggest false teachers. On the character of the false teachers here attacked see <span class= "ital">Introduction, </span>IV. There are several prophecies in the New Testament similar to the one contained in this and the next chapter (<a href="/context/acts/20-28.htm" title="Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood.">Acts 20:28-31</a>; <a href="/context/2_thessalonians/2-3.htm" title="Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;">2Thessalonians 2:3-7</a>; <a href="/context/1_timothy/4-1.htm" title="Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;">1Timothy 4:1-7</a>; <a href="/context/2_timothy/3-1.htm" title="This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.">2Timothy 3:1-9</a>; <a href="/context/2_timothy/4-3.htm" title="For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;">2Timothy 4:3-4</a>; comp. <a href="/1_john/2-18.htm" title="Little children, it is the last time: and as you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.">1John 2:18</a>; <a href="/1_john/4-3.htm" title="And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof you have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.">1John 4:3</a>). Those in 2 Thess. and 2 Timothy 3 are specially worthy of comparison, as containing, like the present chapter, a mixture of future and present. (See <span class= "ital">Introduction, </span>I. <span class= "ital">c, y.</span>) The fervour and impetuosity with which the writer attacks the evil before him are thoroughly in harmony with St. Peter’s character. (Comp. Notes on Jude throughout.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-1.htm">2 Peter 2:1</a></div><div class="verse">But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.</div>FIRST PREDICTION: False teachers shall have great success and certain ruin (<a href="/context/2_peter/2-1.htm" title="But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.">2Peter 2:1-10</a>).<p>(1) <span class= "bld">But there were false prophets also.</span>—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 <span class= "ital">meaning</span> is, “There shall be false teachers among you, as there were false prophets among the Jews;” the <span class= "ital">form is, </span>“But (in contrast to the true prophets just mentioned) there were false prophets as well, even as,” &c.<p><span class= "bld">Shall be false teachers among you</span>.—We must add “also.” With this view of Christians as the antitype of the chosen people comp. <a href="/1_peter/2-9.htm" title="But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light;">1Peter 2:9</a>. The word for “false teachers” occurs here only. It is probably analogous to “false witnesses,” and means those who teach what is false, rather than to “false Christs,” in which case it would mean pretending to be teachers when they are not. “False prophets” has both meanings—sham prophets and prophesying lies. Justin Martyr, about A.D. 145 (<span class= "ital">Trypho, </span>lxxxii.), has “Just as there were false prophets contemporaneous with your holy prophets” (he is addressing a Jew), “so are there now many false teachers amongst us.” Another possible reference to this Epistle in Justin is given below on <a href="/2_peter/3-8.htm" title="But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.">2Peter 3:8</a>. As they occur close together, they seem to render it probable that Justin knew our Epistle. “There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in heresies of destruction,” is quoted in a homily attributed, on doubtful authority, to Hippolytus. (See below, on chap. iii. 3.)<p><span class= "bld">Privily shall bring in.</span>—Comp. <a href="/jude/1-4.htm" title="For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.">Jude 1:4</a>, and <a href="/galatians/2-4.htm" title="And that because of false brothers unawares brought in, who came in privately to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:">Galatians 2:4</a>; and see Notes in both places. Comp. also the <span class= "ital">Shepherd</span> of Hermas, <span class= "ital">Sim.</span> VIII. vi. 5.<p><span class= "bld">Damnable heresies.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">parties</span> (<span class= "ital">full</span>)<span class= "ital"> of destruction</span> (<a href="/philippians/1-28.htm" title="And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.">Philippians 1:28</a>), “whose end is destruction” (<a href="/philippians/3-19.htm" title="Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)">Philippians 3:19</a>). Wiclif and Rheims have “sects of perdition.” “Damnable heresies” comes from Geneva—altogether a change for the worse. The Greek word <span class= "ital">hairesis</span> is sometimes translated “sect” in our version (<a href="/acts/5-17.htm" title="Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation,">Acts 5:17</a>; <a href="/acts/15-5.htm" title="But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.">Acts 15:5</a>; <a href="/acts/24-5.htm" title="For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes:">Acts 24:5</a>), sometimes “heresy” (<a href="/acts/24-14.htm" title="But this I confess to you, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:">Acts 24:14</a>; <a href="/1_corinthians/11-19.htm" title="For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.">1Corinthians 11:19</a>; <a href="/galatians/5-20.htm" title="Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, jealousies, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,">Galatians 5:20</a>). Neither word gives quite the true meaning of the term in the New Testament, where it points rather to divisions than doctrines, and always to parties inside the Church, not to sects that have separated from it. The Greek word for “destruction” occurs six times in this short Epistle, according to the inferior texts used by our translators (in the best texts five times), and is rendered by them in no less than five different ways: “damnable” and “destruction” in this verse; “pernicious ways,” <a href="/2_peter/2-2.htm" title="And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.">2Peter 2:2</a>; “damnation,” <a href="/2_peter/2-3.htm" title="And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their damnation slumbers not.">2Peter 2:3</a>; “perdition,” <a href="/2_peter/3-7.htm" title="But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved to fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.">2Peter 3:7</a>; “destruction,” <a href="/2_peter/3-16.htm" title="As also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction.">2Peter 3:16</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Even denying the Lord that bought them.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">denying even the Master that bought them.</span> (See Note on <a href="/jude/1-4.htm" title="For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.">Jude 1:4</a>.) The phrase is remarkable as coming from one who himself denied his Master. Would a forger have ventured to make St. Peter write thus?<p>This text is conclusive against Calvinistic doctrines of partial redemption; the Apostle declares that these impious false teachers were redeemed by Jesus Christ. (Comp. <a href="/1_peter/1-18.htm" title="For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;">1Peter 1:18</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">And bring upon themselves.</span>—More literally, <span class= "ital">bringing upon themselves.</span> The two participles, “denying” and “bringing,” without any conjunction to connect them, are awkward, and show that the writer’s strong feeling is already beginning to ruffle the smoothness of his language.<p><span class= "bld">Swift destruction</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.</span>, coming suddenly and unexpectedly, so as to preclude escape; not necessarily coming <span class= "ital">soon.</span> (See first Note on <a href="/2_peter/1-14.htm" title="Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me.">2Peter 1:14</a>.) The reference, probably, is to Christ’s sudden return to judgment (<a href="/2_peter/3-10.htm" title="But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.">2Peter 3:10</a>), scoffing at which was one of the ways in which they “denied their Master.” By their lives they denied that He had “bought them.” He had bought them for His service, and they served their own lusts.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-2.htm">2 Peter 2:2</a></div><div class="verse">And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Many shall follow their pernicious ways.</span>—“Pernicious ways” is a translation of the plural of the word just rendered “destruction.” (See fourth Note on <a href="/2_peter/2-1.htm" title="But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.">2Peter 2:1</a>.) But here the reading is undoubtedly wrong. The margin has the right reading—<span class= "ital">lascivious ways</span> (or better, <span class= "ital">wanton ways</span>)—being the plural of the word translated “wantonness” in <a href="/2_peter/2-18.htm" title="For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.">2Peter 2:18</a>. Wiclif has “lecheries;” Rheims “riotousnesses.”<p>The connexion between false doctrine and licentiousness was often real, and is so still in some cases—<span class= "ital">e.g., </span>Mormonism. But it was often asserted and believed without foundation. Impurity was the common charge to bring against those of a different creed, whether between heathen and Christian or between different divisions of Christians.<p><span class= "bld">By reason of whom.</span>—The many who are led astray are meant, rather than the original seducers. (Comp. <a href="/romans/2-24.htm" title="For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.">Romans 2:24</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">The way of truth.</span>—(See Note on <a href="/acts/9-2.htm" title="And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.">Acts 9:2</a>.) “The way of truth” occurs in Clement of Alexandria (<span class= "ital">Cohort. ad Gentes, </span>x.), the only near approach to anything in 2 Peter in all the writings of his that have come down to us. This is strong evidence that he did not know the Epistle, especially as references are frequent to 1 Peter, which is sometimes quoted thus: “Peter in his Epistle says” (<span class= "ital">Strom.</span> iv. 20).<p><span class= "bld">Shall be evil spoken of.</span>—By the heathen, who will judge of the way of truth by the evil lives of the many who have really been seduced from it, though they profess still to follow it. In the homily commonly called the <span class= "ital">Second Epistle of Clement</span> (13) there is a remarkable amplification of this statement. Our Epistle was probably known to the writer of the homily, who to a considerable extent preaches against similar evils.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-3.htm">2 Peter 2:3</a></div><div class="verse">And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">And through covetousness.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">In covetousness.</span> This is the atmosphere in which they live. (See Notes on <a href="/2_peter/2-18.htm" title="For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.">2Peter 2:18</a> and <a href="/context/2_peter/1-1.htm" title="Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ:">2Peter 1:1-2</a>; <a href="/2_peter/1-4.htm" title="Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.">2Peter 1:4</a>; <a href="/2_peter/1-13.htm" title="Yes, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;">2Peter 1:13</a>.) Wiclif and Rheims have “in.” Simon Magus offering St. Peter money, which no doubt he was accustomed to take himself for his teaching, may illustrate this (<a href="/acts/8-18.htm" title="And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money,">Acts 8:18</a>; comp. <a href="/1_timothy/6-5.htm" title="Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw yourself.">1Timothy 6:5</a>; <a href="/context/titus/1-10.htm" title="For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:">Titus 1:10-11</a>). These false teachers, like the Greek Sophists, taught for money. A bombastic mysticism, promising to reveal secrets about the unseen world and the future, was a very lucrative profession in the last days of Paganism, and it passed over to Christianity as an element in various heresies. (Comp. the <span class= "ital">Shepherd</span> of Hermas, <span class= "ital">Sim.</span> IX. xix. 3.)<p><span class= "bld">Make merchandise of you.</span>—The verb means literally <span class= "ital">to travel, </span>especially as a merchant on business; and hence “to be a merchant,” “to trade,” and, with an accusative, “to deal in,” “make merchandise of.” (Comp. our commercial phrase, “to <span class= "ital">travel</span> in” such and such goods.) It may also mean simply “to gain,” or “gain over,” which would make good sense here; but our version is perhaps better. The word occurs elsewhere only in <a href="/james/4-13.htm" title="Go to now, you that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:">James 4:13</a>. “With feigned words” possibly refers back to “cunningly devised fables” (<a href="/2_peter/1-16.htm" title="For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.">2Peter 1:16</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Lingereth not</span>.—Literally, <span class= "ital">is not idle, </span>the cognate verb of the adjective in <a href="/2_peter/1-8.htm" title="For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.">2Peter 1:8</a>. Their sentence has long since been pronounced, is working, and in due time will strike them. We have a similar thought in <a href="/1_peter/4-17.htm" title="For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?">1Peter 4:17</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Their damnation slumbereth not.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">their destruction.</span> (See fourth Note on <a href="/2_peter/2-1.htm" title="But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.">2Peter 2:1</a>.) Wiclif and Rheims have “perdition.” The destruction involved in the judgment pronounced by God is awake and on its way to overtake them. The word for “slumbereth” occurs in <a href="/matthew/25-5.htm" title="While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.">Matthew 25:5</a> only.<p>We now pass on to see how it is that this judgment “<span class= "ital">of a long time”</span> has been working. It was pronounced against all sinners, such as they are, from the first beginning of the world.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-4.htm">2 Peter 2:4</a></div><div class="verse">For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast <i>them</i> down to hell, and delivered <i>them</i> into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;</div>(4-8) Three instances of divine vengeance, proving that great wickedness never goes unpunished.<p>(4) <span class= "bld">For if God.</span>—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 angels, Flood, Sodom and Gomorrha), while those in Jude are not (unbelievers in the wilderness, impure angels, Sodom and Gomorrha). Both arrangements are natural—this as being chronological, that of St. Jude for reasons stated in the Notes there. (See on <a href="/2_peter/2-5.htm" title="And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;">2Peter 2:5</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">The angels that sinned.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">the angels for their sin</span>: it gives the reason why they were not spared, and points to some definite sin. What sin is meant? Not that which preceded the history of the human race, commonly called the fall of the angels—of that there is no record in the Old Testament; and, moreover, it affords no close analogy to the conduct of the false teachers. St. Jude is somewhat more explicit (<a href="/jude/1-6.htm" title="And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness to the judgment of the great day.">Jude 1:6</a>); he says it was for not keeping their own dignity—for deserting their proper home; and the reference, both there and here, is either to a common interpretation of <a href="/genesis/6-2.htm" title="That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.">Genesis 6:2</a> (that by “the sons of God” are meant “angels”), or, more probably, to distinct and frequent statements in the <span class= "ital">Book of Enoch, </span>that certain angels sinned by having intercourse with women—<span class= "ital">e.g., </span>Enoch vii. 1, 2; cv. 13 (Lawrence’s translation). Not improbably these false teachers made use of this book, and possibly of these passages, in their corrupt teaching. Hence St. Peter uses it as an <span class= "ital">argumentum ad hominem</span> against them, and St. Jude, recognising the allusion, adopts it and makes it more plain; or both writers, knowing the <span class= "ital">Book of Enoch</span> well, and calculating on their readers knowing it also, used it to illustrate their arguments and exhortations, just as St. Paul uses the Jewish belief of the rock following the Israelites. (See Note on <a href="/1_corinthians/10-4.htm" title="And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.">1Corinthians 10:4</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Cast them down to hell.</span>—The Greek word occurs nowhere else, but its meaning is plain—<span class= "ital">to cast down to Tartarus</span>; and though “Tartarus” occurs neither in the Old nor in the New Testament, it probably is the same as Gehenna. (See Note on <a href="/matthew/5-22.htm" title="But I say to you, That whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whoever shall say, You fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.">Matthew 5:22</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Into chains of darkness.</span>—Critical reasons seem to require us to substitute <span class= "ital">dens, </span>or <span class= "ital">caves, </span>for “chains.” The Greek words for “chains” and for “caves” here are almost exactly alike; and “caves” may have been altered into “chains” in order to bring this passage into closer harmony with <a href="/jude/1-6.htm" title="And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness to the judgment of the great day.">Jude 1:6</a>, although the word used by St. Jude for “chains” is different. (See Note there.) If “chains of darkness” be retained, comp. <a href="//apocrypha.org/wisdom_of_solomon/17-17.htm" title="For whether he were husbandman, or shepherd, or a labourer in the field, he was overtaken, and endured that necessity, which could not be avoided: for they were all bound with one chain of darkness.">Wisdom Of Solomon 17:17</a>. There still remains the doubt whether “into chains of darkness” should go with “delivered” or with “cast down into hell.” The former arrangement seems the better.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-5.htm">2 Peter 2:5</a></div><div class="verse">And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth <i>person</i>, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;</div>(5) <span class= "bld">And spared not the old world</span>.—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 <span class= "ital">Book of Enoch</span> the Flood follows closely upon the sin of the angels, as in Genesis 6 upon that of the sons of God, so that in either case the first instance would naturally suggest the second.<p><span class= "bld">Noah the eighth person.</span>—According to a common Greek idiom, this means <span class= "ital">Noah and seven others</span>; and the point of it is that the punishment must have been signal indeed if only eight persons out of a whole world escaped. The coincidence with <a href="/1_peter/3-20.htm" title="Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.">1Peter 3:20</a> must not pass unobserved, especially as there the mention of “spirits in prison” immediately precedes, just as here, the angels in “caves of darkness.” The suggestion that eight is here a mystical number (the sabbatical seven and one over) is quite gratuitous; as also that “eighth” may mean eighth from Enos, which would be utterly pointless, there being neither mention of Enos nor the faintest allusion to him. (Comp. Clement I. vii. 6; ix. 4; and see Note on <a href="/2_peter/2-9.htm" title="The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished:">2Peter 2:9</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Bringing in the flood upon the world.</span>—“In” should be omitted. The phrase is exactly parallel to “bring upon themselves swift destruction “in <a href="/2_peter/2-1.htm" title="But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.">2Peter 2:1</a>. The word for “bring” is the same in both cases.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-6.htm">2 Peter 2:6</a></div><div class="verse">And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned <i>them</i> with an overthrow, making <i>them</i> an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;</div>(6) <span class= "bld">And turning. . . .</span>—The construction still depends upon the “if” in <a href="/2_peter/2-4.htm" title="For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved to judgment;">2Peter 2:4</a>. (See Note on <a href="/jude/1-7.htm" title="Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.">Jude 1:7</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Condemned them with an overthrow</span>.—Or, perhaps, <span class= "ital">to an overthrow, </span>like “condemn to death” in <a href="/matthew/20-18.htm" title="Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death,">Matthew 20:18</a>. The very word here used for “overthrow”—<span class= "ital">catastrophe</span>—is used by the LXX. of the overthrow of these cities (<a href="/genesis/19-29.htm" title="And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelled.">Genesis 19:29</a>); in the New Testament it occurs in <a href="/2_timothy/2-4.htm" title="No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier.">2Timothy 2:4</a> only.<p><span class= "bld">An ensample unto those.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">an ensample of those</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>of the punishment which such sinners must expect. (Comp. “Are set forth for an example,” <a href="/jude/1-7.htm" title="Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.">Jude 1:7</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-7.htm">2 Peter 2:7</a></div><div class="verse">And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:</div>(7) <span class= "bld">And delivered just Lot.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">righteous Lot</span>; 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, <a href="/context/2_peter/2-1.htm" title="But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.">2Peter 2:1-3</a>; various repetitions, <a href="/context/2_peter/3-10.htm" title="But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.">2Peter 3:10-12</a>; “look for” thrice, <a href="/context/2_peter/3-12.htm" title="Looking for and hastening to the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?">2Peter 3:12-14</a>, &c), and which have been stigmatised as showing poverty of language, are perfectly natural in St. Peter, and not like the laboured efforts of a writer endeavouring to personate him. A person writing under strong emotion does not stop to pick his words; he uses the same word over and over again if it expresses what he means and no other word at once occurs to him. This is still more likely to be the case when a person is writing in a foreign language. The fact that such repetitions are frequent in the Second Epistle, but not in the First, is not only fully explained by the circumstances, but, as being so entirely in harmony with them, may be regarded as a mark of genuineness. “Delivered righteous Lot.” Here, as in the case of the Flood (<a href="/2_peter/2-5.htm" title="And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;">2Peter 2:5</a>), the destruction of the guilty suggests the preservation of the innocent. Is it fanciful to think that these lights in a dark picture are characteristic of one who had himself “denied the Master who bought him,” and yet had been preserved like Noah and rescued like Lot? This brighter side is wanting in Jude, so that in the strictly historical illustrations this Epistle is more full than the other (see Note on <a href="/2_peter/2-15.htm" title="Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;">2Peter 2:15</a>); it is where apocryphal books seem to be alluded to that St. Jude has more detail.<p><span class= "bld">The filthy conversation.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">behaviour in wantonness</span> (comp. <a href="/2_peter/2-2.htm" title="And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.">2Peter 2:2</a>; <a href="/2_peter/2-18.htm" title="For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.">2Peter 2:18</a>)—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>licentious mode of life. The word for “conversation,” or “behaviour,” is a favourite one with St. Peter—six times in the First Epistle, twice in this (<a href="/2_peter/3-11.htm" title="Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness,">2Peter 3:11</a>); elsewhere in the New Testament only five times.<p><span class= "bld">Of the wicked.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">of the lawless</span>—a word peculiar to this Epistle; we have it again in <a href="/2_peter/3-17.htm" title="You therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.">2Peter 3:17</a>. The word translated “abominable” in <a href="/1_peter/4-3.htm" title="For the time past of our life may suffice us to have worked the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, parties, and abominable idolatries:">1Peter 4:3</a> is closely allied to it.<p>The judgment on Sodom and Gomorrha forms a fitting complement to that of the Flood as an instance of God’s vengeance, a judgment by fire being regarded as more awful than a judgment by flood, as is more distinctly shown in <a href="/context/2_peter/3-6.htm" title="Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:">2Peter 3:6-7</a>, where the total destruction of the world by fire is contrasted with the transformation of it wrought by the Flood.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-8.htm">2 Peter 2:8</a></div><div class="verse">(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed <i>his</i> righteous soul from day to day with <i>their</i> unlawful deeds;)</div>(8) <span class= "bld">For that righteous man.</span>—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 with the defective morality of the age and also with the licentiousness of those with whom he is here contrasted. Moreover, in the midst of this corruption he preserves some of the brighter features of his purer nomad life, especially that “chivalrous hospitality” (<a href="/context/genesis/19-2.htm" title="And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and you shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, No; but we will abide in the street all night.">Genesis 19:2-3</a>; <a href="/genesis/19-8.htm" title="Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out to you, and do you to them as is good in your eyes: only to these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.">Genesis 19:8</a>) to which the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews seems to point as a model: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (<a href="/genesis/13-2.htm" title="And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.">Genesis 13:2</a>). Add to this the fact of God’s rescuing him and his family, especially in connexion with the declaration that ten “righteous” people would have saved the whole city (<a href="/genesis/18-32.htm" title="And he said, Oh let not the LORD be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.">Genesis 18:32</a>), and his ready belief and obedience when told to leave all, and also the fact that Zoar was saved at his intercession (<a href="/genesis/19-21.htm" title="And he said to him, See, I have accepted you concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which you have spoken.">Genesis 19:21</a>), and we must then admit that the epithet “righteous” as applied to Lot is by no means without warrant.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-9.htm">2 Peter 2:9</a></div><div class="verse">The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:</div>(9) <span class= "bld">The Lord knoweth.</span>—This is the main sentence to which the various conditional clauses beginning <a href="/2_peter/2-4.htm" title="For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved to judgment;">2Peter 2:4</a> (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. Even the main clause itself is interrupted by the insertion of “to deliver the godly out of temptations.” What the writer <span class= "ital">specially</span> wishes to prove is that “the Lord knoweth how to reserve the ungodly unto the day of judgment under punishment,” as is shown by the “for” connecting <a href="/2_peter/2-4.htm" title="For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved to judgment;">2Peter 2:4</a> with <a href="/2_peter/2-3.htm" title="And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their damnation slumbers not.">2Peter 2:3</a>.<p><span class= "bld">To be punished.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">being punished, </span>or <span class= "ital">under punishment.</span> They are already suffering punishment while waiting for their final doom. The error in our version is parallel to that in <a href="/acts/2-47.htm" title="Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.">Acts 2:47</a>, where “such as should be saved” stands instead of “those who were being saved.” The participle is present, not future.<p>The same double moral—that God will save the righteous and punish the ungodly—is drawn from the same historical instance by Clement of Rome (<span class= "ital">Epistle to the Corinthians, </span>xi.): “For his hospitality and godliness Lot was saved from Sodom, when all the country round was judged by fire and brimstone; the Master having thus foreshown that He forsaketh not them who set their hope on Him, but appointeth unto punishment and torment them who swerve aside.” <span class= "greekheb">Λ</span> possible, but not a certain, reference to our Epistle. (See Note below on <a href="/2_peter/3-4.htm" title="And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.">2Peter 3:4</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-10.htm">2 Peter 2:10</a></div><div class="verse">But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous <i>are they</i>, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Them that walk after the flesh.</span>—Less definite than <a href="/jude/1-7.htm" title="Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.">Jude 1:7</a>. Here there is nothing about going <span class= "ital">away</span> or <span class= "ital">astray, </span>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 generally.<p><span class= "bld">In the lust of uncleanness.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">in the lust of pollution</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the lust that causes pollution. The exact word occurs nowhere else; the same word, all but the termination, occurs in <a href="/2_peter/2-20.htm" title="For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.">2Peter 2:20</a>, and nowhere else.<p><span class= "bld">Despise government.</span>—(Comp. “despise dominion,” <a href="/jude/1-8.htm" title="Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.">Jude 1:8</a>.) Our version is minutely perverse. The word translated “government” here and “dominion” in Jude is one and the same in the Greek: whereas the words translated in both places “despise” are different.<p><span class= "bld">Presumptuous are they.</span>—A fresh verse should begin here; the construction is entirely changed, and a fresh start made. From “the unjust” to “government” the reference is to ungodly and sensual people in general; here we return to the false teachers in particular. <span class= "ital">Audacious</span> would be more literal than “presumptuous.” The word is found here only. On the change to the present tense, see <span class= "ital">Introduction, </span>I., <span class= "ital">c, <span class= "greekheb">γ</span>.</span><p><span class= "bld">Speak evil of dignities.</span>—The exact meaning of “dignities,” or “glories,” is not clear, either here or in <a href="/jude/1-8.htm" title="Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.">Jude 1:8</a>. The context in both places seems to show that spiritual powers alone are intended, and that earthly powers, whether civil or ecclesiastical, are not included, much less exclusively indicated. The construction here resembles that in <a href="/2_peter/1-19.htm" title="We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto you do well that you take heed, as to a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:">2Peter 1:19</a> : “Do not tremble in (or, <span class= "ital">while</span>) speaking evil of dignities,” like “ye do well in taking heed.” These men deny the existence of, or irreverently speak slightingly of, those spiritual agencies by means of which God conducts the government of the world.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-11.htm">2 Peter 2:11</a></div><div class="verse">Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">Whereas angels.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">Where angels—i.e., </span>in circumstances in which angels. This verse, if it refers to the same incident as <a href="/jude/1-9.htm" title="Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you.">Jude 1:9</a>, seems at first sight to tell somewhat in favour of the priority of Jude; for then, only when compared with <a href="/jude/1-9.htm" title="Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you.">Jude 1:9</a>, does it become intelligible. The inference is that this is an abbreviation of Jude, rather than Jude an amplification of this. But (1) such an inference is at best only probable. The writer of this Epistle might possibly count on his readers at once understanding his allusion to a tradition that may have been well known, while St. Jude thought it best to point out the allusion more plainly. (2) It is possible that the contest alluded to is not that between Satan and Michael about the body of Moses, but that between Satan and the angel of the Lord about Joshua the high priest (<a href="/context/zechariah/3-1.htm" title="And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.">Zechariah 3:1-2</a>). (3) It is also possible that it does not refer to any contest with Satan at all, but merely to angels not denouncing these false teachers before God, but leaving them to His judgment. If either (2) or (3) is correct, the argument for the priority of Jude falls to the ground. If (1) is right, then the argument really favours the priority of 2 Peter; for if the author of 2 Peter had Jude before him (and this is maintained by those who contend for the priority of Jude), and wished to make use of St. Jude’s illustration, why should he so deface St. Jude’s statement of it as to make it almost unintelligible? The reason suggested is altogether inadequate—that reverential feelings made him wish to avoid mentioning Michael’s name—a name that every Jew was perfectly familiar with in the Book of Daniel.<p><span class= "bld">Greater in power and might.</span>—This is taken in two ways—either “greater than these audacious, self-willed men,” which is the simpler and more natural explanation; or “greater than other angels,” as if it were a periphrasis for “archangels,” which is rather awkward language. But either explanation makes good sense.<p><span class= "bld">Railing accusation against them.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">a railing judgment.</span> Wiclif has “doom,” all the rest “judgment” both superior to “accusation.” “Against them,” if the reference is either to the contest about the body of Moses or to <a href="/context/zechariah/3-1.htm" title="And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.">Zechariah 3:1-2</a>, must mean against “dignities,” and “dignities” must here mean <span class= "ital">fallen</span> angels, who are considered still to be worthy of reverence on account of their original glory and indefectible spiritual nature. The position is, therefore, that what angels do not venture to say of devils, this, and worse than this, these audacious men dare to say of angels and other unseen powers. But “against them” may possibly mean “against the false teachers,” <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>they speak evil of angels, yet the angels bring no denunciation against them, but leave all judgment to God (<a href="/context/deuteronomy/32-35.htm" title="To me belongs vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come on them make haste.">Deuteronomy 32:35-36</a>; <a href="/romans/12-19.htm" title="Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, said the Lord.">Romans 12:19</a>; <a href="/hebrews/10-30.htm" title="For we know him that has said, Vengeance belongs to me, I will recompense, said the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.">Hebrews 10:30</a>). This explanation avoids the awkwardness of making “dignities” in <a href="/2_peter/2-10.htm" title="But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.">2Peter 2:10</a> mean unseen powers generally, and chiefly <span class= "ital">good</span> ones; while “against dignities” in this verse has to mean against <span class= "ital">evil</span> powers <span class= "ital">only.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-12.htm">2 Peter 2:12</a></div><div class="verse">But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;</div>(12) <span class= "bld">But these, as natural brute beasts.</span>—Omit “natural.” This verse appears to tell strongly in favour of the priority of our Epistle. The literary form of <a href="/jude/1-10.htm" title="But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.">Jude 1:10</a>, is so very superior; the antithesis (quite wanting here) between abusing what they cannot know and misusing what they cannot help knowing is so telling, and would be so easily remembered, that it is improbable that a writer who was willing to adopt so much would not have adopted in this respect also; and whichever writer is second, it is evident that he was willing to adopt his predecessor’s material almost to any extent. On the other hand, there is nothing improbable in a writer who knew this verse improving upon it by writing <a href="/jude/1-10.htm" title="But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.">Jude 1:10</a>. The verses, similar as they are in much of their wording, are very different in their general drift. <a href="/jude/1-10.htm" title="But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.">Jude 1:10</a>, is simply an epigrammatic description of these ungodly men; this verse is a denunciation of final ruin against them.<p><span class= "bld">Made to be taken and destroyed.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">born naturally for capture and destruction. “</span>Natural” comes in better here as a kind of adverb than as an additional epithet to beasts. The force of it is that these animals cannot help themselves—it is their nature to rush after what will prove their ruin; but the false teachers voluntarily seek their own destruction against nature. This verse contains one of the repetitions noticed above (see on <a href="/2_peter/2-7.htm" title="And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:">2Peter 2:7</a>) as characteristic of this Epistle. The word for “destruction” and “corruption” is one and the same in the Greek, the destroying being literal in the first case, moral in the second. Moreover, the word for “perish” is from the same root. “Like brutes born for capture and <span class= "ital">destruction, </span>these men shall be <span class= "ital">destroyed</span> in their <span class= "ital">destruction.</span>” But such a translation would be misleading in English.<p><span class= "bld">Shall utterly perish.</span>—A reading of higher authority gives us, <span class= "ital">shall even perish.</span><p><span class= "bld">In their own corruption.</span>—“Own” may be omitted. Their present evil life anticipates and contains within itself the elements of their final destruction. Thus they “bring it upon themselves” (<a href="/2_peter/2-1.htm" title="But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.">2Peter 2:1</a>). The right division of the sentences here cannot be decided with certainty; the Apostle hurries on, in the full flood of his denunciation, without paying much attention to the precise form of his language. On the whole, it seems best to place only a comma at the end of <a href="/2_peter/2-12.htm" title="But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;">2Peter 2:12</a>, with a full stop or colon at “unrighteousness,” and to make what follows part of the long sentence, of which the main verb is “are gone astray” in <a href="/2_peter/2-15.htm" title="Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;">2Peter 2:15</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-13.htm">2 Peter 2:13</a></div><div class="verse">And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, <i>as</i> they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots <i>they are</i> and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;</div>(13) <span class= "bld">And shall receive.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">about to receive</span> (as they are). (Comp. <a href="/1_peter/1-9.htm" title="Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.">1Peter 1:9</a>; <a href="/1_peter/5-4.htm" title="And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fades not away.">1Peter 5:4</a>; see also <span class= "ital">Epistle of Barnabas, </span>iv. 12.)<p><span class= "bld">As they that count.</span>—We must begin a fresh sentence, and somewhat modify the translation. “To riot” is too strong; the word means “delicate fare, dainty living, luxury,” and if the exact meaning be retained, this will necessitate a change of “in the day time.” For though “rioting in the day time” makes good sense—revelry even among professed pleasure seekers being usually confined to the night (<a href="/1_thessalonians/5-7.htm" title="For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.">1Thessalonians 5:7</a>)—“dainty fare in the day time” does not seem to have much point. The meaning is, perhaps, “for the day,” without thought for the morrow, <span class= "ital">counting luxury for the moment a pleasure</span>—the doctrine of the Cyrenaics and the instinct of “brute beasts.” In the <span class= "ital">Shepherd</span> of Hermas (<span class= "ital">Sim. VI.</span> iv. 4) there is a passage which may possibly be an echo of this: “The time of luxury and deceit is one hour, but the hours of torment have the power of thirty days; if, then, a man luxuriates for one day,” &c. &c. (See below on <a href="/2_peter/2-15.htm" title="Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;">2Peter 2:15</a>; <a href="/2_peter/2-20.htm" title="For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.">2Peter 2:20</a>; <a href="/2_peter/3-5.htm" title="For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:">2Peter 3:5</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Sporting themselves.</span>—The word is a compound of the one just translated “luxury”; hence <span class= "ital">luxuriating.</span> It is worth noting that the words for “spots and blemishes” exactly correspond to the words translated “without blemish and without spot” in <a href="/1_peter/1-19.htm" title="But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:">1Peter 1:19</a>. (See below on <a href="/2_peter/3-14.htm" title="Why, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.">2Peter 3:14</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">With their own deceivings</span>.—Better, <span class= "ital">in their deceits, </span>if this is the right reading. But both here and in <a href="/jude/1-12.htm" title="These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit wither, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;">Jude 1:12</a>, the reading is uncertain, authorities being divided between <span class= "ital">agapai, </span>“love-feasts,” and <span class= "ital">apatai, </span>“deceits.” In Jude the balance on purely critical grounds is decidedly in favour of “love-feasts;” here (though much less decidedly) in favour of “deceits.” In Jude the context confirms the reading “love-feasts;” here the context is neutral, or slightly inclines to “love-feasts,” to which “while they feast with you” must in any case refer. But if “love-feasts” be right in Jude (and this is so probable that we may almost assume it), this in itself is strong support to the same reading here. Whichever writer is prior, so strange a change from “deceits” to “love-feasts” would hardly have been made deliberately; whereas, in copying mechanically, the interchange might easily be made, the words being so similar. The change from “spots” to “rocks,” if such a change has been deliberately made by either writer (see on <a href="/jude/1-12.htm" title="These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit wither, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;">Jude 1:12</a>), would not be parallel to a change between “deceits” and “love-feasts.” The one is a mere variation of the metaphor, the other an alteration of the meaning. In <a href="/2_thessalonians/2-10.htm" title="And with all delusion of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.">2Thessalonians 2:10</a> there is possibly an intentional play upon the similarity of these two words.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-14.htm">2 Peter 2:14</a></div><div class="verse">Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:</div>(14) <span class= "bld">Of adultery</span>.—Literally, <span class= "ital">of an adulteress.</span> This verse has no counterpart in Jude.<p><span class= "bld">That cannot cease from sin.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">that cannot be made to cease from sin.</span> (Comp. attentively <a href="/1_peter/4-1.htm" title="For as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin;">1Peter 4:1</a>.) It was precisely because these men refused to “suffer in the flesh,” but, on the contrary, gave the flesh all possible licence on principle, that they could not “cease from sin.”<p><span class= "bld">Beguiling</span>.—Strictly, <span class= "ital">enticing with bait.</span> We have <span class= "ital">the</span> same word in <a href="/2_peter/2-18.htm" title="For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.">2Peter 2:18</a>, <a href="/james/1-14.htm" title="But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.">James 1:14</a>, and nowhere else. If “deceits” be the right reading in <a href="/2_peter/2-13.htm" title="And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;">2Peter 2:13</a>, this clause throws some light on it. In any case, the metaphor from fishing, twice in this Epistle and only once elsewhere, may point to a fisherman of Galilee. (Comp. <a href="/matthew/17-27.htm" title="Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go you to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first comes up; and when you have opened his mouth, you shall find a piece of money: that take, and give to them for me and you.">Matthew 17:27</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">With covetous practices</span>.—Better, <span class= "ital">in covetousness.</span> The word is singular, as in <a href="/2_peter/2-3.htm" title="And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their damnation slumbers not.">2Peter 2:3</a>, according to all the best MSS. and versions.<p><span class= "bld">Cursed children</span>.—Rather, <span class= "ital">children of malediction.</span> So Rheims; Wiclif has “sones of cursynge.” They are devoted to execration; malediction has adopted them as its own. (Comp. “son of perdition,” <a href="/john/17-12.htm" title="While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name: those that you gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.">John 17:12</a>; <a href="/2_thessalonians/2-3.htm" title="Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;">2Thessalonians 2:3</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-15.htm">2 Peter 2:15</a></div><div class="verse">Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam <i>the son</i> of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;</div>(15) <span class= "bld">The right way</span>.—(Comp. <a href="/acts/13-10.htm" title="And said, O full of all subtlety and all mischief, you child of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?">Acts 13:10</a>.) In the <span class= "ital">Shepherd of</span> Hermas (I. <span class= "ital">Vis.</span> III. vii. 1) we have “Who have believed indeed, but through their doubting <span class= "ital">have forsaken their true way.”</span> (See Notes on <a href="/2_peter/2-1.htm" title="But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.">2Peter 2:1</a>; <a href="/2_peter/2-3.htm" title="And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their damnation slumbers not.">2Peter 2:3</a>; <a href="/2_peter/2-13.htm" title="And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;">2Peter 2:13</a>; <a href="/2_peter/2-20.htm" title="For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.">2Peter 2:20</a>; <a href="/2_peter/3-5.htm" title="For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:">2Peter 3:5</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Are gone astray</span>.—The main verb of this long sentence. Here parallels with Jude begin again. In the historical incident of Balaam, as in that of Sodom and Gomorrha, our Epistle is more detailed than Jude (see on <a href="/2_peter/2-7.htm" title="And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:">2Peter 2:7</a>). The past tenses in this verse are quite in harmony with the view that this chapter is a genuine prediction. (Comp. <a href="/genesis/49-9.htm" title="Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, you are gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?">Genesis 49:9</a>; <a href="/genesis/49-15.htm" title="And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant to tribute.">Genesis 49:15</a>; <a href="/context/genesis/49-23.htm" title="The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:">Genesis 49:23-24</a>.) The future foretold with such confidence as to be spoken of as already past is a common form for prophecy to assume.<p><span class= "bld">Balaam the son of Bosor</span>.—Bosor seems to be a dialectical variation from Beor, arising out of peculiar Aramaic pronunciation—a slight indication that the writer was a Jew of Palestine. The resemblance between these false teachers and Balaam consisted in their running counter to God’s will for their own profit, and in prostituting their office to an infamous purpose, which brought ruin on the community. He, like they, had “enticed unstable souls,” and had “a heart exercised in covetousness.” A comparison of this passage with <a href="/context/revelation/2-14.htm" title="But I have a few things against you, because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.">Revelation 2:14-15</a>, gives countenance to the view that among the false teachers thus stigmatised the Nicolaitans may be included. In <a href="/jude/1-11.htm" title="Woe to them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.">Jude 1:11</a>, these ungodly men are compared not only to Balaam, but also to Cain and Korah. It seems more likely that St. Jude should add these two very opprobrious comparisons than that the vehement writer of this Epistle should reject material so suitable to his invective. If so, we have here another argument for the priority of our Epistle. (See on <a href="/2_peter/2-12.htm" title="But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;">2Peter 2:12</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-16.htm">2 Peter 2:16</a></div><div class="verse">But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">But was rebuked for his iniquity.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">But had a conviction of his own transgression</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>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 blessing Israel, he went still cherishing a hope of being able to curse, and so winning Balak’s promised reward.<p><span class= "bld">The dumb ass</span>.—Literally, <span class= "ital">a dumb beast of burden.</span> The same word is rendered “ass” in <a href="/matthew/21-5.htm" title="Tell you the daughter of Sion, Behold, your King comes to you, meek, and sitting on an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.">Matthew 21:5</a>, in the phrase “foal of an ass.” In Palestine the ass was the most common beast of burden, horses being rare, so that in most cases “beast of burden” would necessarily mean “ass.”<p><span class= "bld">Forbad the madness</span>.—Strictly, <span class= "ital">hindered the madness</span>; and thus the trivial discrepancy which some would urge as existing between this passage and Numbers 22 disappears. It has been objected that not the ass but the angel forbad Balaam from proceeding. But it was the ass which hindered the infatuation of Balaam from hurrying him to his own destruction (<a href="/numbers/22-33.htm" title="And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain you, and saved her alive.">Numbers 22:33</a>). The word for “madness” is probably chosen for the sake of alliteration with “prophet<span class= "ital">”—prophétou paraphronian.</span> It is a very rare formation, perhaps coined by the writer himself.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-17.htm">2 Peter 2:17</a></div><div class="verse">These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">These are wells</span>.—Or, <span class= "ital">springs;</span> same word as <a href="/john/4-6.htm" title="Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.">John 4:6</a>. 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. <a href="/jeremiah/2-13.htm" title="For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.">Jeremiah 2:13</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/14-3.htm" title="And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.">Jeremiah 14:3</a>.) The parallel passage, <a href="/context/jude/1-12.htm" title="These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit wither, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;">Jude 1:12-13</a>, is much more full than the one before us, and is more like an amplification of this than this a condensation of that—<span class= "ital">e.g., </span>would a simile so admirably suitable to false guides as “wandering stars” have been neglected by the writer of our Epistle? A Hebrew word which occurs only twice in the Old Testament is translated by the LXX. in the one place (<a href="/genesis/2-6.htm" title="But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.">Genesis 2:6</a>) by the word here used for “well,” and in the other (<a href="/job/36-27.htm" title="For he makes small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapor thereof:">Job 36:27</a>) by the word used in <a href="/jude/1-12.htm" title="These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit wither, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;">Jude 1:12</a>, for “cloud.” Thus the same Hebrew might have produced “wells without water” here and “clouds without water” in Jude. This is one of the arguments used in favour of a Hebrew original of both these Epistles. Coincidences of this kind, which may easily be mere accidents of language, must be shown to be numerous before a solid argument can be based upon them. Moreover, we must remember that the writers in both cases were Jews, writing in Greek, while thinking probably in Hebrew, so that the same Hebrew thought might suggest a different Greek expression in the two cases. When we have deducted all that might easily be accounted for in this way, and also all that is perhaps purely accidental, from the not very numerous instances of a similar kind that have been collected, we shall not find much on which to build the hypothesis of these Epistles being translations from Hebrew originals. (See <span class= "ital">Introduction to Jude, </span>II.)<p><span class= "bld">Clouds that are carried with a tempest.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">mists driven by the storm-wind.</span> Wiclif has “myistis.” The words for “clouds” and “carried about” in <a href="/jude/1-12.htm" title="These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit wither, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;">Jude 1:12</a>, are quite different, so that our version creates a false impression of great similarity. The idea is not very different from that of the “wells without water.” These mists promise refreshment to the thirsty soil (<a href="/genesis/2-6.htm" title="But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.">Genesis 2:6</a>), and are so flimsy that they are blown away before they do any good. So these false teachers deceived those who were thirsting for the knowledge and liberty promised them by raising hopes which they could not satisfy.<p><span class= "bld">To whom the mist of darkness.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">for whom the gloom of darkness.</span> (See Note on <a href="/jude/1-6.htm" title="And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness to the judgment of the great day.">Jude 1:6</a>.) “For ever” is wanting in authority; the words have probably been inserted from the parallel passage in Jude.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-18.htm">2 Peter 2:18</a></div><div class="verse">For when they speak great swelling <i>words</i> of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, <i>through much</i> wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">Great swelling words of vanity.</span>—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 <a href="/context/1_peter/5-5.htm" title="Likewise, you younger, submit yourselves to the elder. Yes, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble.">1Peter 5:5-6</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Allure.</span>—Translated “beguile” in <a href="/2_peter/2-14.htm" title="Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:">2Peter 2:14</a>, where see Note.<p><span class= "bld">Through the lusts of the flesh.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">in</span> <span class= "ital">the lusts of the flesh</span> (as in <a href="/2_peter/2-3.htm" title="And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their damnation slumbers not.">2Peter 2:3</a>, and <a href="/context/2_peter/1-1.htm" title="Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ:">2Peter 1:1-2</a>; <a href="/2_peter/1-4.htm" title="Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.">2Peter 1:4</a>; <a href="/2_peter/1-13.htm" title="Yes, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;">2Peter 1:13</a>). <span class= "ital">The preposition</span> “in” points to the sphere in which the enticement takes place; “through” should be reserved for “wantonness” (see Note on <a href="/2_peter/2-2.htm" title="And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.">2Peter 2:2</a>), which is the bait used to entice.<p><span class= "bld">Were clean escaped.</span>—Both verb and adverb require correction. The margin indicates the right reading for the adverb—“for a little,” or better, <span class= "ital">by a little; scarcely.</span> The verb should be present, not past—<span class= "ital">those who are scarcely escaping, </span>viz., the “unstable souls” of <a href="/2_peter/2-14.htm" title="Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:">2Peter 2:14</a>. Wiclif has “scapen a litil;” Rheims “escape a litle.” The word translated “scarcely” occurs nowhere else in the New Testament; that translated here “clean,” and elsewhere “indeed,” or “certainly,” is frequent (<a href="/mark/11-32.htm" title="But if we shall say, Of men; they feared the people: for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed.">Mark 11:32</a>; <a href="/luke/23-47.htm" title="Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.">Luke 23:47</a>; <a href="/luke/24-34.htm" title="Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon.">Luke 24:34</a>, &c. &c). Hence the change, an unfamiliar word being, by a slight alteration, turned into a familiar one. The two Greek words are much alike.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-19.htm">2 Peter 2:19</a></div><div class="verse">While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">Promise them liberty.</span>—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 (<span class= "ital">Refut.</span> VI., chap. xiv.), show us the kind of liberty that such teachers promised—being “freed from righteousness” to become “the slaves of sin.”<p><span class= "bld">Servants of corruption.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">bond-servants, </span>or <span class= "ital">slaves of corruption.</span> Our translators have often done well in translating the Greek word for “slave” by “servant” (see Note on <a href="/2_peter/1-1.htm" title="Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ:">2Peter 1:1</a>), but here the full force of the ignominious term should be given. Tyndale, Cranmer, and Geneva have “bond-servants;” Rheims “slaves.” (Comp. “bondage of corruption,” <a href="/romans/8-21.htm" title="Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.">Romans 8:21</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Brought in bondage.</span>—Or, <span class= "ital">enslaved.</span> We seem here to have an echo of <a href="/john/8-34.htm" title="Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin.">John 8:34</a> (see Notes there): “Every one who continues to commit sin is the slave of sin,” words which St. Peter may have heard. Comp. <a href="/context/romans/6-16.htm" title="Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?">Romans 6:16-20</a>, which the writer may also have had in his mind. There is nothing improbable in St. Peter being well acquainted with the Epistle to the Romans during the last years of his life; the improbability would rather be in supposing that he did not know it.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-20.htm">2 Peter 2:20</a></div><div class="verse">For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world.</span>—Applying the general statement of the preceding verse to the case of these false teachers. In the <span class= "ital">Shepherd</span> of Hermas (I. <span class= "ital">Vis.</span> IV. iii. 2.) “the black there is the world in which we dwell, and the fire-and-blood-colour (indicates) that this world must perish through blood and fire; but the golden part are ye <span class= "ital">who have escaped this world.”</span> Another <span class= "ital">possible</span> reminiscence of our Epistle. (See above on <a href="/2_peter/2-1.htm" title="But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.">2Peter 2:1</a>; <a href="/2_peter/3-13.htm" title="Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.">2Peter 3:13</a>; <a href="/2_peter/3-15.htm" title="And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given to him has written to you;">2Peter 3:15</a>; and below, <a href="/2_peter/3-5.htm" title="For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:">2Peter 3:5</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Through the knowledge.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">in knowledge</span> the preposition “in” pointing to that in which the escape consists. (See on <a href="/2_peter/2-18.htm" title="For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.">2Peter 2:18</a>, and comp. <a href="/luke/1-77.htm" title="To give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins,">Luke 1:77</a>.) The knowledge is of the same mature and complete kind as that spoken of in <a href="/context/2_peter/1-2.htm" title="Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,">2Peter 1:2-3</a>; <a href="/2_peter/1-8.htm" title="For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.">2Peter 1:8</a> (where see Notes), showing that these <span class= "ital">men</span> were well-instructed Christians.<p><span class= "bld">Entangled therein, and overcome.</span>—Or, <span class= "ital">entangled and overcome thereby, </span>which, from the latter part of <a href="/2_peter/2-19.htm" title="While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.">2Peter 2:19</a>, seems to be the more probable construction.<p><span class= "bld">The latter end is worse with them than the beginning.</span>—Most certainly this should be made to correspond with <a href="/matthew/12-45.htm" title="Then goes he, and takes with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also to this wicked generation.">Matthew 12:45</a>, of which it is almost an exact reproduction—<span class= "ital">their last state is worse than the first.</span> The only difference is that the word for “is” in <a href="/matthew/12-45.htm" title="Then goes he, and takes with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also to this wicked generation.">Matthew 12:45</a> means literally “becomes,” and here “has become.” (Comp. the <span class= "ital">Shepherd, Sim.</span> IX. xvii. 5.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-21.htm">2 Peter 2:21</a></div><div class="verse">For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known <i>it</i>, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">It had been better for them not to have known.</span>—There are many things of which the well-known lines.<p>“’Tis better to have loved and lost,<p>Than never to have loved at all,”<p>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 causes the shipwreck of a life. To have loved Jesus Christ and lost Him is to make shipwreck of eternal life.<p><span class= "bld">The way of righteousness.</span>—The life of the Christian. That which from a doctrinal point of view is “the way of truth” (<a href="/2_peter/2-2.htm" title="And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.">2Peter 2:2</a>), from a moral point of view is “the way of righteousness.” So also “the faith delivered to the saints” of <a href="/jude/1-3.htm" title="Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write to you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write to you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.">Jude 1:3</a>, is the doctrinal equivalent of “the holy commandment delivered unto them” of this verse.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_peter/2-22.htm">2 Peter 2:22</a></div><div class="verse">But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog <i>is</i> turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb.</span>—More literally, <span class= "ital">There has happened to them what the true proverb says; “</span>but<span class= "ital">”</span> 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 thrice “proverb.” “Parable,” or “allegory,” would have been best in all four cases (<a href="/john/10-6.htm" title="This parable spoke Jesus to them: but they understood not what things they were which he spoke to them.">John 10:6</a>, where see Note; <a href="/john/16-25.htm" title="These things have I spoken to you in proverbs: but the time comes, when I shall no more speak to you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father.">John 16:25</a>; <a href="/john/16-29.htm" title="His disciples said to him, See, now speak you plainly, and speak no proverb.">John 16:29</a>). The first proverb is found, <a href="/proverbs/26-11.htm" title="As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly.">Proverbs 26:11</a>, and if that be the source of the quotation, we have here an independent translation of the Hebrew, for the LXX. gives an entirely different rendering, “dog” being the only word in common to the two Greek versions. The word for “vomit” here is possibly formed by the writer himself; that for “wallowing” is also a rare word. The LXX. adds, “and becomes abominable,” which has no equivalent in the existing Hebrew text; and it has been suggested that these words may misrepresent the Hebrew original of the second proverb here. But it is quite possible that both proverbs come from popular tradition, and not from Scripture at all. If, however, the Book of Proverbs be the source of the quotation, it is worth while noting that no less than four times in as many chapters does St. Peter recall passages from the Proverbs in the First Epistle (<a href="/1_peter/1-7.htm" title="That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found to praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:">1Peter 1:7</a>; <a href="/1_peter/2-17.htm" title="Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.">1Peter 2:17</a>; <a href="/1_peter/4-8.htm" title="And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.">1Peter 4:8</a>; <a href="/1_peter/4-18.htm" title="And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?">1Peter 4:18</a>). In the Greek neither proverb has a verb, as so often in such sayings—<span class= "ital">a dog that has returned to his own vomit; a washed sow to wallowing in the mire;</span> just as we say “the dog in the manger,” “a fool and his money.”<p>The word for “mire,” not a very common one, is used by Irenæus of the Gnostic false teachers of his day, who taught that their fine spiritual natures could no more be hurt by sensuality than gold by mire. “For in the same way as gold when plunged in mire does not lay aside its beauty, but preserves its own nature, the mire having no power to injure the gold, so they say that they, no matter what kind of material actions they may be involved in, cannot suffer any harm, nor lose their spiritual essence.” (chap. vi. 2). 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