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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