2 Peter

From Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. To those who have received a faith just as valuable as ours, through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

1Simon 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 Saviour Jesus Christ:

Note"Apostle" means one who is sent, an authorized messenger who speaks on behalf of the person who sent him. "Servant" translates a word for a slave, someone wholly owned by a master, though it was also used as a title of honor for a ruler's trusted officials. The Greek behind "of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" can be read two ways: as naming two (God, and our Savior Jesus Christ) or as one description of Jesus (our God and Savior, Jesus Christ). The wording is genuinely open.

2May grace and peace be given to you again and again, through knowing God and Jesus our Lord.

2Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

Note"Grace and peace" is the standard opening of a letter in this collection, blending the Greek greeting, grace, with the Hebrew one, peace, shalom. Grace is favor freely given; peace means wholeness and well-being, not just the absence of conflict.

3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and for living in a way that honors God. This comes through knowing the one who called us by his own glory and goodness.

3According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

NoteKJV "virtue" and the rendering's "goodness" translate a Greek word meaning excellence, the quality that makes a thing good at being what it is. Applied to people it means moral excellence, and it could also mean a praiseworthy deed or the reputation such deeds earn.

4Through that glory and goodness he has given us his very great and valuable promises. By means of these promises you may share in God's own nature, now that you have escaped the rot in the world that comes from wrong desires.

4Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Note"Corruption" translates a word for decay, the process by which flesh and food and timber rot and fall apart. Talk of sharing in "the divine nature" was familiar vocabulary in the Greek religious and philosophical writing of the period, so the first readers would have heard a common phrase rather than a strange one.

5For this very reason, make every effort: add goodness to your faith, and knowledge to your goodness,

5And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

NoteVerses 5 to 7 form a chain, each quality named again as the starting point of the next. This was a standard device in ancient moral writing and does not mean the qualities are acquired one at a time in that order. The verb behind "add" means to supply lavishly, from a word used of a wealthy citizen who paid the whole cost of training a chorus for a public festival; the same verb comes back in verse 11.

6and self-control to your knowledge, and patient endurance to your self-control, and a life that honors God to your endurance,

6And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

NoteKJV "temperance" means self-control in general, not abstaining from alcohol in particular. KJV "patience" translates a word for holding up under a load, staying in place under pressure; it is closer to endurance than to waiting calmly.

7and kindness toward fellow believers to that godly life, and love to that kindness.

7And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

NoteKJV "charity" means love. In 1611 the word had not yet narrowed to mean giving money to the poor. "Brotherly kindness" translates the word for affection between members of a family, used here of fellow believers.

8If you have these qualities, and keep growing in them, they will keep you from being useless or unproductive in knowing our Lord Jesus Christ.

8For 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.

NoteKJV "barren" here means idle or ineffective rather than childless. "Barren nor unfruitful" is a farming image: ground that yields no crop.

9But anyone who lacks these things is blind, or at least so nearsighted that he sees nothing far off. He has forgotten that he was washed clean from his past sins.

9But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

NoteThe Greek word behind "cannot see afar off" means shortsighted, and can also describe someone squinting or deliberately shutting his eyes. Both senses are possible here. "Purged" means cleansed or washed.

10So, brothers and sisters, work all the harder to make certain that God has really called you and chosen you. If you do these things, you will never stumble and fall.

10Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

Note"Election" in 1611 English means simply being chosen; it has nothing to do with voting. "Calling" is the summons, "election" the choosing behind it.

11And you will be given a rich welcome into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

11For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Note"An entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly" uses the same lavish-patron word as verse 5. The picture is a formal, generous reception, like a city throwing open its gates for an honored arrival.

12So I will not neglect to remind you of these things again and again, even though you already know them and stand firm in the truth you now have.

12Wherefore 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.

Note"The present truth" means the truth you now have, the message already delivered to these readers, not truth for the present moment as opposed to some earlier time.

13As long as I live in this tent, my body, I think it is right to stir up your memory by reminding you.

13Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;

NoteKJV "tabernacle" here means a tent, a temporary shelter, used as a figure for the body. "I think it meet" means "I think it fitting" or "I think it right."

14I know that I must soon put this tent aside, just as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.

14Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.

Note"Put off this my tabernacle" is literally taking the tent down, the way a traveler strikes camp and moves on.

15So I will do my best to make sure that, after I am gone, you will always be able to call these things to mind.

15Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.

NoteKJV "decease" translates the Greek word exodos, a going out or departure, the same word used of Israel's exodus from Egypt. "Endeavour" means to make every effort.

16When we told you about the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and about his coming, we were not passing on cleverly invented stories. We saw his majesty with our own eyes.

16For 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.

Note"Fables" translates mythos, a story or legend, the word used of tales told about the gods. "Coming" translates parousia, the everyday word for an arrival or official visit, commonly used of a king or emperor entering a city in state. The word behind "eyewitnesses" was also used of those admitted to see the innermost rites of the Greek mystery religions.

17He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love. I am very pleased with him."

17For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Note"The excellent glory" is a reverent way of referring to God without naming him, much as "the Majestic Glory" does. Jewish writers of the period regularly used such substitutes. The words quoted are the ones reported at the transfiguration, when Jesus appeared transformed in brightness before three of his followers.

18We heard that voice ourselves. It came from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.

18And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

Note"The holy mount" is the mountain where that scene took place. The accounts do not say which mountain it was.

19We also have the word of the prophets, made all the more certain. You do well to pay close attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

19We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

NoteThe Greek is open here in a way English struggles to hold: it can mean that the prophets' word has been made more certain by what the writer saw and heard, or that the prophets' word is more certain than that experience was. "Day star" translates phosphoros, the morning star, the planet Venus, which rises just before sunrise; it also carried the sense of a royal or ruling figure.

20Understand this above all: no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of anyone's own interpretation.

20Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

Note"Private" in 1611 English means "one's own." The sentence can be taken in more than one way: that a prophecy did not arise from the prophet's own reading of what he saw, or that its meaning is not for an individual reader to settle on his own.

21For no prophecy ever came because a human being wanted it to. Instead, holy men of God spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

21For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Note"Holy Ghost" is 1611 English for "Holy Spirit"; "ghost" then meant simply spirit, with no suggestion of a haunting. "Moved" translates a verb used of a ship carried along by the wind, driven rather than steering itself.