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.