Notes on Second
Peter
From the Original 1599 Geneva Bible
Notes
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:
(i) Has been long practised in
saving and delivering the righteous.
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;
(12) Paul's epistles are allowed by
the express testimony of Peter.
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.
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