Second Peter
From the Original 1599 Geneva Bible Notes
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2Pe 1:1
1:1 Simon {1} Peter, a
servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like
precious faith with us through the {a} righteousness of God and our Saviour
Jesus Christ:
(1) A greeting, in which he
gives them to understand that he deals with them as Christ's ambassadors,
and otherwise agrees with them in the same faith which is grounded on the
righteousness of Jesus Christ, our God and Saviour.
(a) In that God, in standing by his promises, showed himself faithful, and
therefore just to us.
2Pe 1:2
1:2 Grace and peace be
multiplied unto you {2} through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
(2) Faith is the
acknowledging of God and Christ, from which all our blessedness issues and
flows.
2Pe 1:3
1:3 {3} According as his {b}
divine power hath given unto us all things that [pertain] unto {c} life and
godliness, through the {d} knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and
virtue:
(3) Christ sets forth
himself to us plainly in the Gospel, and that by his only power, and gives
us all things which are required both for eternal life, in which he has
appointed to glorify us, and also to godliness, in that he furnishes us with
true virtue.
(b) He speaks of Christ, whom he makes God and the only Saviour.
(c) To salvation.
(d) This is the sum of true religion, to be led by Christ to the Father, as
it were by the hand.
2Pe 1:4
1:4 {4} Whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be
partakers of the {e} divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in
the world through lust.
(4) An explanation of the
former sentence, declaring the causes of so great benefits, that is, God and
his free promise, from which all these benefits proceed, I say, these most
excellent benefits, by which we are delivered from the corruption of this
world, (that is, from the wicked lusts which we carry about in us) and are
made like God himself.
(e) By the divine nature he means not the substance of the Godhead, but the
partaking of those qualities, by which the image of God is restored in us.
2Pe 1:5
1:5 {5} And beside this,
giving all diligence, {h} add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
(5) Having laid the
foundation (that is, having declared the causes of our salvation and
especially of our sanctification) now he begins to exhort us to give our
minds wholly to the true use of this grace. He begins with faith, without
which nothing can please God, and he warns us to have it fully equipped with
virtue (that is to say, with good and godly manners) being joined with the
knowledge of God's will, without which, there is neither faith, neither any
true virtue.
(h) Supply also, and support or aid.
2Pe 1:6
1:6 {6} And to knowledge
temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
(6) He brings up certain
and other principal virtues, of which some pertain to the first table of the
law, others to the last.
2Pe 1:8
1:8 {7} For if these things
be in you, and abound, they make [you that ye shall] neither [be] barren nor
unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(7) As those fruits do
spring from the true knowledge of Christ, so in like sort the knowledge
itself is fostered and grows by bringing forth such fruits, in so much that
he that is unfruitful, did either never know the true light, or has
forgotten the gift of sanctification which he has received.
2Pe 1:9
1:9 But he that lacketh these
things is blind, and (i) cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was
purged from his old sins.
(i) He that has not an
effectual knowledge of God in him, is blind concerning the kingdom of God,
for he cannot see things that are afar off, that is to say, heavenly things.
2Pe 1:10
1:10 {8} Wherefore the
rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for
if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
(8) The conclusion:
Therefore seeing our calling and election is approved by those fruits, and
is confirmed in us, and moreover seeing this is the only way to the
everlasting kingdom of Christ, it remains that we set our minds wholly on
that way.
2Pe 1:12
1:12 {9} Wherefore I will not
be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know
[them], and be established in the present truth.
(9) An amplifying of the
conclusion joined with a modest excuse, in which he declares his love
towards them, and tells them of his death which is at hand.
2Pe 1:13
1:13 Yea, I think it meet, as
long as I am in this {k} tabernacle, to stir you up by putting [you] in
remembrance;
2Pe 1:16
1:16 {10} For we have not
followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
(10) Another amplification
taken from both the great certainty and also the excellency of his doctrine,
of which our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God is author, whose glory the
apostle both saw and heard.
2Pe 1:19
1:19 {11} We have also a more
sure word of prophecy; {12} whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a
light that shineth in a dark place, until the day {l} dawn, and the {m} day
star arise in your hearts:
(11) The truth of the
gospel is by this revealed, in that it agrees wholly with the foretellings
of the prophets.
(12) The doctrine of the apostles does not contradict the doctrine of the
prophets, for they confirm each other by each others testimonies, but the
prophets were like candles which gave light to the blind, until the
brightness of the gospel began to shine.
(l) A more full and open knowledge, than was under the shadows of the law.
(m) That clearer doctrine of the gospel.
2Pe 1:20
1:20 {13} Knowing this first,
that no prophecy of the {n} scripture is of any {o} private interpretation.
(13) The prophets are to be
read, but so that we ask of God the gift of interpretation, for he who is
the author of the writings of the prophets, is also the interpreter of them.
(n) He joins the Scripture and prophecy together, to distinguish true
prophecies from false.
(o) For all interpretation comes from God.
2Pe 1:21
1:21 For the prophecy came
not in old time by the will of man: but {p} holy men of God spake [as they
were] {q} moved by the Holy Ghost.
(p) The godly interpreters
and messengers.
(q) Inspired by God: their actions were in very good order, and not as the
actions of the profane soothsayers, and foretellers of things to come.
2Pe 2:1
2:1 But {1} there were false
prophets also among the {a} 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.
(1) As in times past there
were two kinds of prophets, the one true and the other false, so Peter tells
them that there will be true and false teachers in the Church, so much so
that Christ himself will be denied by some, who nonetheless will call him
redeemer.
(a) Under the law, while the state and policy of the Jews was yet standing.
2Pe 2:2
2:2 {2} And many shall follow
their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken
of.
(2) There shall not only be
heresies, but also many followers of them.
2Pe 2:3
2:3 {3} And through
covetousness shall they with feigned words make {b} merchandise of you: {4}
whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation
slumbereth not.
(3) Covetousness for the
most part is a companion of heresy, and makes trade in souls.
(b) They will abuse you, and sell you as they sell cattle in an auction.
(4) Comfort for the godly: God who cast the angels that fell away from him,
headlong into the darkness of hell, to eventually be judged; and who burned
Sodom, and saved Lot, will deliver his elect from these errors, and will
utterly destroy those unrighteous.
2Pe 2:4
2:4 For if God spared not the
angels that sinned, but cast [them] down to {c} hell, and delivered [them]
into {d} chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
(c) So the Greeks called
the deep dungeons under the earth, which should be appointed to torment the
souls of the wicked in.
(d) Bound them with darkness as with chains: and by darkness he means that
most miserable state of life that is full of horror.
2Pe 2:5
2:5 And spared not the {e}
old world, but saved Noah the eighth [person], a {f} preacher of
righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
(e) Which was before the
flood: not that God made a new world, but because the world seemed new.
(f) For one hundred and twenty years, he did not cease to warn the wicked
both by word and deed, of the wrath of God hanging over their heads.
2Pe 2:8
2:8 (For that righteous man
dwelling among them, in {g} seeing and hearing, {h} vexed [his] righteous soul
from day to day with [their] unlawful deeds;)
(g) Whatever way he looked,
and turned his ears.
(h) He had a troubled soul, and being vehemently grieved, lived a painful
life.
2Pe 2:9
2:9 The Lord {i} knoweth how
to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the
day of judgment to be punished:
2Pe 2:10
2:10 {5} But chiefly them
that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government.
Presumptuous [are they], selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of {k}
dignities.
(5) He goes to another type
of corrupt men, who nonetheless are within the bosom of the Church, who are
wickedly given, and do seditiously speak evil of the authority of
magistrates
(which the angels themselves that minister before God, do not discredit.) A
true and accurate description of the Romish clergy (as they call it.)
(k) Princes and great men, be they ever so high in authority.
2Pe 2:12
2:12 {6} But these, as
natural brute beasts, {l} made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the
things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their {m} own
corruption;
{6} An accurate description
of the same persons, in which they are compared to beasts who are made for
destruction, while they give themselves to fill their bellies: For there is
no greater ignorance than is in these men: although they most impudently
find fault with those things of which they know not: and it shall come to
pass that they shall destroy themselves as beasts with those pleasures with
which they are delighted, and dishonour and defile the company of the godly.
(l) Made to this end to be a prey to others: So do these men willingly cast
themselves into Satan's snares.
(m) Their own wicked conduct shall bring them to destruction.
2Pe 2:13
2:13 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 {n} while they feast with you;
(n) When by being among the
Christians in the holy banquets which the Church keeps, they would seem by
that to be true members of the Church, yet they are indeed but blots on the
Church.
2Pe 2:14
2:14 {7} Having eyes full of
adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart
they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:
(7) He condemns those men,
showing even in their behaviour and countenance an unmeasurable lust, making
trade of the souls of vain persons, as men exercised in all the crafts of
covetousness, to be short, as men that sell themselves for money to curse
the sons of God in the same way Balaam did, whom the dumb beast reproved.
2Pe 2:17
2:17 {8} These are {o} wells
without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of {p}
darkness is reserved for ever.
(8) Another note by which
it may be known what manner of men they are, because they have inwardly
nothing but that which is utterly vain or very harmful, although they make a
show of some great goodness, yet they shall not escape unpunished for it,
because under pretence of false freedom, they draw men into the most
miserable slavery of sin.
(o) Who boast of knowledge and have nothing in them.
(p) Most gross darkness.
2Pe 2:18
2:18 For when they speak
great {q} swelling [words] of vanity, they {r} allure through the lusts of the
flesh, [through much] wantonness, those that were {s} clean escaped from them
who live in error.
(q) They deceive with vain
and swelling words.
(r) They take them, as fish are taken with the hook.
(s) Unfeignedly and indeed, clean departed from idolatry.
2Pe 2:20
2:20 {9} 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.
(9) It is better to have
never known the way of righteousness, than to turn back from it to the old
filthiness: and men that do so, are compared to dogs and swine.
2Pe 3:1
3:1 This {1} second epistle,
beloved, I now write unto you; in [both] which I stir up your pure minds by
way of remembrance:
(1) The remedy against
those wicked enemies, both of true doctrine and holiness, is to be sought
for by the continual meditation of the writings of the prophets and
apostles.
2Pe 3:3
3:3 {2} Knowing this first,
that there shall come in the last days {a} scoffers, walking after their own
lusts,
(2) He vouches the second
coming of Christ against the Epicureans by name.
(a) Monstrous men, who will seem wise by their contempt of God, and wicked
boldness.
2Pe 3:4
3:4 {3} 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.
(3) The reason that these
mockers pretend that the course of nature is as it was from the beginning,
therefore the world was from everlasting, and shall be forever.
2Pe 3:5
3:5 {4} For this they
willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old,
and the {b} earth standing out of the water and in the water:
(4) He sets against them
the creation of heaven and earth by the word of God, which these men are
willingly ignorant of.
(b) Which appeared, when the waters were gathered together into one place.
2Pe 3:6
3:6 {5} Whereby the world
that then was, being overflowed with {c} water, perished:
(5) Secondly he sets
against them the universal flood, which was the destruction of the whole
world.
(c) For the waters returning into their former place, this world, that is to
say, this beauty of the earth which we see, and all living creatures which
live upon the earth, perished.
2Pe 3:7
3:7 {6} But the heavens and
the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto
fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
(6) Thirdly, he pronounces
that it will not be harder for God to burn heaven and earth with fire, in
that day which is appointed for the destruction of the wicked (which he will
also do) than it was for him in times past to create them only with his
word, and afterward to overwhelm them with water.
2Pe 3:8
3:8 {7} 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.
(7) The taking away of an
objection: in that he seems to desire this judgment for a long time, in
respect of us it is true, but not before God, which whom there is no time
either long or short.
2Pe 3:9
3:9 {8} The Lord is not slack
concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; {9} but is longsuffering
to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance.
(8) The Lord will surely
come, because he has promised: and neither sooner nor later than he has
promised.
(9) A reason why the last day does not come too soon, because God patiently
waits until all the elect are brought to repentance, that none of them may
perish.
2Pe 3:10
3:10 {10} 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 {d} noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,
the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
(10) A very short
description of the last destruction of the world, but in such sort as
nothing could be spoken more gravely.
(d) With the violence of a storm.
2Pe 3:11
3:11 {11} [Seeing] then
[that] all these things shall be dissolved, what manner [of persons] ought ye
to be in [all] holy conversation and godliness,
(11) An exhortation to
purity of life, setting before us that horrible judgment of God, both to
bridle our wantonness, and also to comfort us, so that we are found watching
and ready to meet him at his coming.
2Pe 3:12
3:12 Looking for and {e}
hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire
shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
(e) He requires patience
from us, yet such patience as is not slothful.
2Pe 3:13
3:13 Nevertheless we,
according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, {f} wherein
dwelleth righteousness.
2Pe 3:14
3:14 Wherefore, beloved,
seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him
in {g} peace, without spot, and blameless.
(g) that you may try to
your benefit, how gently and profitable he is.
2Pe 3:15
3:15 And account [that] the
longsuffering of our Lord [is] salvation; {12} even as our beloved brother
Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
2Pe 3:16
3:16 As also in all [his]
epistles, speaking in them of these things; {13} in which are some things hard
to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as [they
do] also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
(13) There are some things
that are obscure and dark which the ignorant use to overthrow men who are
not established, wrestling the testimony of the scripture for their own
destruction. But this is the remedy against such deceit, to labour that we
may daily more and more grow up and increase in the knowledge of Christ.
