Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church Manhattan KS, 11 Feb. 2024
My Translation: 1:19 ...we have the more-confirmed prophetic word – to which you do well when you are paying attention – as to a lamp bringing light in a dingy place until whenever the day shall shine through and the Light-bearer shall rise in y'all's hearts – knowing, first-of-all, that not any prophecy of Scripture originates from a private interpretation, for it was not by the will of a man that prophecy was brought forth back then, but rather, it was while being led by the Holy Spirit that holy men of God made utterance. 2:1 Nevertheless, there were also false prophets among the people, as also among y’all there will be false teachers – those who will slip destructive heresies in, even denying the Master Who bought them, thus bringing upon themselves sudden destruction. And many will follow into their immoralities, on account of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. In greed they will also market themselves to y’all using plastic words, against whom the judgment from of old is not inactive, and their destruction is not dormant.
At the end of chapter 1, Peter introduced the important role of Scripture in the lives of Christians, beginning with the ministry of the prophets in writing the Old Testament, and mentioning (somewhat obliquely) his own ministry as an apostle of “reminding” believers through the writing of the New Testament. The Holy Scriptures are the touchstone for discerning false religion from true.
Now, in chapter 2, Peter begins to turn the spotlight on false religious teachers. He has already hinted at the problem in chapter 1:
In vs. 3 & 8, he spoke of “true knowledge,” implying that falsehood was a problem,
and in v.4, he mentioned “the corruption of the world,”
and in v.9, the problem of being “blind” and “forgetting purification from sins”
and the danger in v.10 of “stumbling,”
then in v.16, he implies that there is competition to the gospel in the form of “cleverly-devised myths,” and he denies in v. 21 that Biblical “prophecy ever came from a human” source (even though it was transmitted through humans).
Now at the opening of chapter 2, Peter comes right out and says that...
There have been false prophets in the past.
In the early 700’s BC, the Biblical prophet Micah called out the false prophets of his day who were “mak[ing the LORD’s] people stray” and who were “divin[ing] for money...” (Micah 3:5& 11, NKJV)
The Greek term for “false-prophet” here in 2 Peter also shows up in the ancient Greek versions of Zechariah (13:2) and Jeremiah (6:13; 33:7-16, and 34:9-36:8). These passage make it clear that there were “false prophets” “among the people” (that is, the Jewish people) during the times of these true prophets.
Jeremiah chapters 34-36 describes one false prophet in particular named Hananiah who antagonized Jeremiah by disrupting a prophecy God had told Jeremiah to make. God had told Jeremiah to put a wooden yoke around his neck and tell the Jews that they would be taken captive by the king of Babylon as punishment for their rebellion against God, but Hananiah broke the yoke off of Jeremiah’s neck, saying that it was no big deal because it would only last 2 years. But God told Jeremiah it would be 70 years of captivity (ch. 36), “And Jeremias said to Ananias, ‘The Lord has not sent thee; and thou hast caused this people to trust in unrighteousness. Therefore thus said the Lord: “Behold, I will cast thee off from the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die.”’ So he died in the seventh month.” (Jer. 35:15-17, Brenton)
Jeremiah also warned God’s people not to listen to the false prophets in places like Lam. 2:14 “Your prophets have seen for you False1 and deceptive visions; They have not uncovered your iniquity, To bring back your captives, But have envisioned for you false prophecies and delusions.” (NKJV)
The N.T. uses the same word for “false prophets” in several other places, telling us that there will continue to be false prophets until Christ returns, just as Peter himself said in v.1.
The book of Revelation speaks three times of the coming of a singular “false prophet” who will ultimately be cast into hell (16:13; 19:20; 20:10).
Jesus mentioned “false prophets” in Matthew 7:15-17 “Stay away from the false prophets, which come to y'all in sheep's clothing, but inside they are [sheep-]snatching wolves. You will recognize them by their fruit. They don't gather grapes off brambles, or figs off sand-burs, do they? Likewise, every good tree makes nice fruit, but the rotten tree makes bad fruit.” (NAW)
Jesus indicated in Matt. 24:4-27 that a proliferation of false prophets would be a “sign” of the “close of the age” before His “return”: “...See to it that nobody shall cause y'all to wander astray, for many will come using my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will cause many to wander astray… 11 and many false prophets will be raised up, and they will cause many to wander astray, and on account of the proliferation of the lawlessness, the love of the many will evaporate... 23 At that time, if someone happens to say to y'all, ‘Here the Messiah is!’ or ‘There he is!’ don't believe it for one second, for false messiahs and false prophets will be raised up, and they will give great signs and wonders so as to cause, if it were in their power, even the chosen ones to wander astray... Therefore, if they happen to say to y'all, 'Look, He is in the wilderness!' don't start going out [there, or if they say,] 'Look in the inner rooms!' Don't believe [them – even for a second]! For just as the lightening comes out of the East and flashes as far as the West, thus will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
Later on, Paul and Barnabas ran into a false prophet in Crete on their first missionary journey in Acts 13:6-11 “Now when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus... seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. Then … Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, ‘O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.’ And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.” (NKJV)
Later, in Galatians 2:4, Paul related how “false brothers secretly brought in… came… that they might bring us into bondage” but “we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue…” (NKJV)
The Apostle John also addressed the problem of false prophets and told us how to recognize them: 1 John 4:1-3 “Loved ones, do not believe in every spirit, but rather, judge the spirits whether they are out of God, because many false prophets have come out into the world. By this y'all know the Spirit of God: every spirit which agrees that Jesus Christ has come in a physical body is out of God, and every spirit which does not agree with Jesus Christ [having come in a physical-body] is not out of God, and this is the [spirit] of the anti-christ, which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is in the world already.” (NAW)
Summing up to this point, false prophets are marked by deception, contradicting God’s word, bondage to human authority, and complacency regarding sin. They lead people away from trusting in Jesus to save them from their sin and away from believing the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
As I rattled off that summary, perhaps some modern-day false prophets came to mind.
In the 19th Century there were
Schliermacher, the Christian theology teacher who de-emphasized the Bible and the Gospel in favor of feelings and Humanism and paved the way for contemporary Secular Humanism.
There was also Joseph Smith, who founded Mormonism, promoting bondage to human authority, adding to the Bible, and denying what the Bible says about Jesus,
likewise the false prophecies of William Miller and Charles Russell concerning the second coming of Christ which spawned the Adventist movement and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose Watchtower Society re-wrote the Bible to deny the deity of Christ.
The 19th century was rife with false prophets – too many to list.
In the 20th century, there were also too many to list, but I think especially of:
Barth, Brunner, Niebuhr, Tillich, and others in the Neo-orthodox camp who objected to the historical accuracy of the Gospels and removed everything supernatural from the Bible, forming the theological basis for most mainline denominations today.
I remember when the book 1994? came out, predicting the return of Christ that year. One of my friends stopped attending church because the author, Harold Camping, said that all the churches except for his Family Radio ministry were apostate. (Of course, that is not a new idea; ever since the early church, there have been sects which claimed to be the only true church, the largest, of course, being the Roman Catholics, and that is a sure sign of a cult.)
We also saw the rise of aberrant Charismatic movements from the 20th Century into remarkable prominence in the 21st Century (although, again, such movements have been around since the early church). They became aberrant when they got so obsessed with getting new revelation from the Holy Spirit that they detached themselves from the Bible, inadvertently opening themselves up to influence from demons, and became devoted to controlling human leaders.
We need to be on our guard still today against false prophecy.
Peter says at the end of v.1 that false prophets/teachers will “slip in heresies of destruction:”
The word “heresy” is actually a transliteration of the Greek word αἱρέσεις, which means to choose to lift up one idea (or group of people who believe that idea) over another.
The Apostle Paul used the same Greek word to describe the competing factions in the church in 1 Corinthians 11:18-19, and used the parallel term “schisms/divisions” to describe them.
And he wrote in Gal. 5:20 that sectarianism/factiousness/heresy is a “work of the flesh” – right up there with “sorcery” and “murder,” in opposition to “the fruit of the Spirit.”
And, by the way, they don’t come out and say, “Hi, I’m a heretic! Let me teach you some false doctrine!” No, Peter says they literally “slip in from the side” so that most folks won’t notice that what they’re saying is subversive.
One heresy in particular – the worst of all – is highlighted in 2 Peter 2:1, and that is the “denial of the Master who bought them2” - or at least “the Master whom they profess to have bought them3.”
In Acts 3:13, Peter used the same verb to describe the Jews doing this to Jesus “...the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate…” The Jews’ denial of (and crucifixion of) Jesus, and their continuation of the religion of Judaism without its fulfillment in Jesus as Messiah, may be the specific kind of false teaching Peter is squaring off against, although this is by no means the only kind of false teaching to guard against.
Paul described the characteristic denial of Christ by false teachers in Titus 1:16 “They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him...”
Likewise the Apostle John noted the same trait of denying Christ: 1 John 2:18-23 “...now many antichrists have come into existence, by which we know that it is a last hour. They came out of us, but they were not out of us; for if they were out of us, they would have remained with us; but [they didn't] in order that they might be exposed... Who is the liar, if not the one who is making the declamation that Jesus is not the Christ? This man is the antichrist – the one who is denying the Father and the Son. All who are denying the Son also don’t have the Father.” (NAW)
The Apostle Jude also weighed in on this: Jude 1:4 “...certain men have settled in alongside [you] who have already been prescribed to this judgment, ungodly men who are displacing the grace of our God with licentiousness and who deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. (NAW)
Whereas Jude calls Jesus the “Master” and “Lord” and “Christ,” Peter just calls Him “Master/despot” to emphasize Jesus’ ownership and rightful authority over His people whom He bought with His own blood on the cross.
Revelation 5:9 “You are worthy... For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood...” (NKJV)
1 Corinthians 6:20 “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's… 7:23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.” (NKJV)
Peter calls these heresies “destructive/damnable” in v.1 because they destroy faith in Jesus, they destroy churches, and they will be punished with eternal destruction in hell.
When God’s punishment comes, it will be “swift” as we’ll see in chapter 3, but we will also see in chapter 3 that this swiftness doesn’t refer to the stretch of time between the commission of sin and the coming of judgment, but rather to the judgment day itself.
And when judgment comes it will be “destructive” too: Paul backs this up in his epistles:
Philippians 1:27-28 “...stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition [destruction], but to you of salvation, and that from God…. 3:8-9 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction…” (cf. 2 Th. 2:1-4)
Denying Christ is deadly-serious: “...If we deny Him, He also will deny us” on Judgment Day. (2 Timothy 2:12, NKJV)
Later in 2 Peter 3:15-18 we read, “Paul... has written to you... epistles... which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (NKJV)
In v.2, Peter states the same reality that Jesus did when he says in v.2 that “many will follow after” false teachers.
Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way leading on into the destruction is broad, and the ones who are entering through it are many [following false prophets]” (Matthew 7:13, NAW).
You can expect that there will be a lot of folks following false teachers; that’s a given.
That’s one reason why the popularity of a pastor is not a valid Biblical criteria for whether or not you should follow their teaching. God does allow some good teachers to gain a large following, but merely counting followers is not a safe way to determine whether you should follow a given influencer. Rather, we should be looking for someone who accepts the truth of the Bible and accepts the divine authority of Jesus Christ.
Otherwise we will be dragged down into the “pernicious/destructive/shameful ways/sensuality” of false teachers.
The moment a leader lets go of the authority of Jesus Christ, fails to operate under the control of the Holy Spirit, and begins to fudge on the word of God, all he (or she) has left to operate-under is their flesh, and they will do what their flesh wants to do.
The Greek word here in v.2 has to do with a “lack of restraint.” Without accountability to God’s law, moral boundaries evaporate, and false teachers and their followers indulge their senses.
I was intrigued when I saw the synonym “unconstrained” also connected with Marxism in an insightful review of a book called Stalin and the Scientists. I’m not sure if it was the wording of the reviewer, Mark Ambler, or of the author, Simon Ings, but he wrote, “As an anti-god ideology, Marxism demanded material explanations... leading to cruelty and death on a massive scale. It was ethically unconstrained… In the words of one of the influential Russian scientists of the time, they would be in charge of a world where ‘all living nature will live, thrive, and die at none other than the will of man...’ (p. 194).” That is the inevitable result of rejecting the divine authority of Jesus Christ and making mortal man the measure of all things.
But God’s word is clear that sensuality (we might also call it Hedonism, Existentialism, Marxism, or Libertarianism today) is a huge problem:
Galatians 5:19 tells us that “sensuality” is one of the “works of the flesh4” in opposition to the “fruit of the Spirit.”
Ephesians 4:17-19 “...y'all are no longer to walk also as the nations walk. In the futility of their minds they continue to exist, having been darkened in their understanding, having been alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that continues to exist in them through the hardness of their hearts; who, having become apathetic, they delivered themselves into sensuality – into every impure work in greed.” (NAW)
1 Peter 4:3-5 “...the will of the nations... proceeded into immoralities, lusts, alcohol-binges, orgies, parties and illicit idolatries... Those guys will render an account to the One who is preparing to judge the living and the dead…” (NAW)
Jude 1:4 “...prescribed to this judgment [are] ungodly men who are displacing the grace of our God with licentiousness and who deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.” (NAW)
But following the “sensuality” of false teachers isn’t the worst of it. “Bring[ing] the way of truth into disrepute,” when the world sees us “following… false teachers... into immoralities,” is even worse!
“The way of truth” is an old Jewish phrase describing devotion to the one true God. It’s used in the Apocrypha and also by the Pharisees in Jesus’ day5, but it’s also in Psalm 119:30 “I have chosen the way of truth; Your judgments I have laid before me.” (NKJV)
Peter seems to be using this phrase that both Jews and Christians would be comfortable with, and saying that Christians acting licentiously will destroy the reputation of Judeo-Christianity.
The Apostle Paul mentioned this same problem among Jewish-background Christians earlier in Romans 2:21-24 “You, therefore, who teach ... that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ do you commit adultery? ... You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For ‘THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,’ as it is written.” (NKJV) Written, that is, in Isaiah 52:5, where God comments on how Israel’s rebellion against God, punished by their exile, resulted in God’s name coming into disrepute among the neighboring nations6.
But “immorality” that invites the world to “blaspheme” isn’t just a Jewish problem:
Cult leaders are infamous for being polygamous – or downright philanderers.
Furthermore, all the revelations in recent years of church leaders years sexually abusing children, has placed a truly-dark stain upon the reputation of Christianity in our day. Why would anyone want to become a Christian if, in their mind, it meant risking their children being molested? And so “the way of truth is maligned.”
And what about pornography?
I just read some surveys indicating that over half of the church pastors in our country look at pictures of undressed prostitutes at least once a month basis, and the rate of porn use among church members is even higher.
This kind of “immoral/sensuality/licentiousness” also comes from believing false teaching (some of which may have come from the church, much of which comes from the world). False ideas cause Christians to form disconnects with the Word of God and the authority of Christ, leaving them susceptible to immorality.
Many years ago, a friend agreed to host me and a couple of other pastors at his house while we were attending a conference. A day or two into the conference, my friend pulled me aside and said, “I keep track of the things accessed through my home Internet connection, and so I know that one of the pastors staying here spent the evening looking at porn.” That was around the time that my friend told me he was not a Christian. The hypocrisy of Christians tears down respect for Christ, and that’s a problem!
In addition to their heretical teachings and licentious lifestyles, we see a couple more characteristics of false teachers in v.3, namely their “greed/covetuousness” and their use of “deceptive/feigned/made-up words to market themselves and their false teaching.
Concerning their “greed/coveting,” it stands to reason again that when a person cuts loose from saying to God, “Thy will be done,” the next step for a self-centered person is to say, “My will be done,” and “I will have whatever I want!” Voila, there is coveting! And it is that self-directed will which motivates false teachers to market themselves and their ideas in order to draw glory and power to themselves (Cf. Jeremiah 6:13 & 8:10).
This is in stark contrast to the ministry of the Biblical Apostles who upheld the value of Holy Scripture and operated under the authority of Christ and so were not greedy or man-centered7.
This “covetous/greed” is the exact opposite of relying on God’s word, according to Psalm 119:36 “Incline mine heart to thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.” (Brenton)
Biblical prophets spoke out against covetousness in the leaders of their days (Jeremiah 22:17, Ezek. 22:27), and Jesus said, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” (Luke 12:15, NKJV)
In Ephesians 4:1-19, the Apostle Paul added, “...you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” (NKJV) That is life without the truth of the Bible or the divine authority of Christ.
And in that attitude of covetous greed, says Peter in v.3, false teachers will try to “sell” their fraudulent ideas to you.
This Greek verb denotes “doing business/conducting trade/marketing” and is in the middle voice, which means that they are literally “marketing themselves” in a con-game to get you to trust them enough to follow their false teachings.
And they do this “using deceptive/feigned/made-up words.” This Greek word plastois is the word from which we get “plastic” - “plastic words” that can be made to mean anything.
In his book, 1984, George Orwell coined the term “Newspeak” to refer to this same phenonomenon of words invented to manipulate.
For hundreds of years, Americans used the Bible as the foundation for education, including literature, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, history, and penmanship. And, until 1900, the King James Version was just about all we had. The result of such centrality of God’s Word was that American English, as a language, had a very stable vocabulary, literacy rates were close to 100%, and the average person could comprehend very-academic writing. But with the onslaught of Secular Humanism over the course of the 20th Century, most of our nation’s schools disconnected from the Bible and turned from the lordship of Christ to the supremacy of human consensus, and now, not only are literacy and comprehension rates abysmally-low, we are also in a situation where an overwhelming amount of new vocabulary is invented every year (both at the academic level and at the slang level), and the very shape of our language has shifted.
It also happens at the nitty-gritty level; all the adults in this room can probably tell a story of a time when they were swindled by a sales pitch that was intentionally misleading.
Christians must not get caught up in the “plastic words” game. Certainly we can follow God in being creative with words and in communicating cross-culturally with skill, but we must do so under the authority of Christ and informed by the Bible which gives us God’s vocabulary and thought-patterns, as well as boundaries – like truth and integrity.
Now, how should we respond when false teachers try to market themselves to us?
We can try to refute them (Titus 1:9-11), but if they are not open to instruction, God’s word says to “withdraw” yourself and “avoid” them, because false teachers are downright dangerous, not only to your soul but also the the church community:
The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 16:17-18 “...I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly [there’s that denial of our Master and the resulting sensuality and covetousness Peter warned about], and [who] by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.” (NKJV)
1 Timothy 6:3-5 “If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy [there’s that covetousness again, and] … useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.” (NKJV, cf. 2 Tim. 3:5)
The end of verse 3 reminds us that accountability is just around the corner:
“The judgment from of old is not idle against them, and their destruction is not falling asleep.”
Although the wording of this verse seems a little peculiar, the overall gist is clear: Jesus is going to return and judge all mankind, and in that judgment, everyone who has ignored God’s word and rebelled against the divine authority of Jesus is going to be held accountable by Jesus Himself.
Our sin is not something He has “stopped” judging and forgotten about. He has not “fallen asleep” or cancelled His plan to punish those in rebellion against Him. Both of the Greek verbs at the end of v.3 for “being in suspension” and for “falling asleep” are emphatically negated here,
and both are in the Present tense, emphasizing the current-ness of the operations of God’s judgment. The laws of God, communicated to us by the Old Testament prophets, and the consequences for breaking those laws8, are still very much in effect; Jesus is alert and active even now in His role as judge. You may not see most of His activity now, but when He returns, you will!9
So, be on guard against anyone who denies the divine authority of Jesus and His coming judgment and don’t let the fact that you are in the minority shake your confidence in Christ.
“Unless one is so mad is so mad as to sell the salvation of his soul to false teachers, let him close up every avenue that may lead to their wicked inventions.” ~John Calvin, 1554, AD
GNTA |
NAWB |
KJVC |
MurdockD (Peshitta) |
RheimsE (Vulgate) |
1 ᾿Εγένοντο δὲ καὶ ψευδοπροφῆταιF ἐν τῳ῀ λαῳ῀, ὡς καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν ἔσονταιG ψευδοδιδάσκαλοιH, οἵτινεςI παρεισάξουσινJ αἱρέσειςK ἀπωλείαςL, καὶM τὸν ἀγοράσανταN αὐτοὺς δεσπότηνO ἀρνούμενοιP, ἐπάγοντεςQ ἑαυτοῖς ταχινὴνR ἀπώλειαν· |
1 Nevertheless, there were also false prophets among the people, as also among y’all there will be false teachers – those who will slip destructive heresies in, even denying the Master Who bought them, thus bringing upon themselves sudden destruction. |
1 But there were false prophets also among the 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 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there shall be among you lying teachers who shall X bring in sects of perdition and deny the Lord who bought them: bringing upon themselves swift destruction. |
1
But in the |
2̈ καὶ πολλοὶ ἐξακολουθήσουσινS αὐτῶν ταῖς ἀσελγείαιςT, δι᾿ οὓςU ἡ ὁδὸς τῆς ἀληθείας βλασφημηθήσεται· |
2 And many will follow into their immoralities, on account of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. |
2 And many shall follow X their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. |
2 And many shall follow X their riotousness, throughV whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. |
2 And many will go after X their profaneness; on account of whom, the way of truth will be reproached. |
3̈ καὶ ἐν πλεονεξίᾳW πλαστοῖςX λόγοις ὑμᾶς ἐμπορεύσονταιY, οἷς τὸ κρῖμα ἔκπαλαιZ οὐκ ἀργεῖAA, καὶ ἡ ἀπώλεια αὐτῶν οὐ νυστάζειAB. |
3 In greed they will also market themselves to y’all using plastic words, against whom the judgment from of old is not inactive, and their destruction is not dormant. |
3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment [now] of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. |
3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you. Whose judgment [now] of a long time lingereth not: and their perdition slumbereth not. |
3
And, in
the cupidity
of |
1LXX =μάταια MT=שָׁ֣וְא = lit. “empty” The same word occurs again toward the end of this verse.
2There is an alternate interpretation which Gordon Clark summarized as “God rescued you from Egypt; do you therefore repay him with heresy and immorality?” See Endnotes for discussion on this.
3“Peter is not saying that Christians can lose their salvation (John 10:28, 29, Rom 8:28-30), but is describing the false teachers in terms of their own profession (vv. 20, 21). By teaching and practicing immorality they despise the lordship of Christ and prove their profession to be false (1 John 2:3, 4, 19).” ~New Geneva Study Bible
4“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality…[and more]” (ESV)
5Tob. 1:3, Wis. 5:6, Mk. 12:14 || Lk. 20:21
6Isaiah 52:5 “‘But now, what have I here?’ declares Yahweh, ‘for my people were taken gratuitously, their rulers howl [with laughter],’ declares Yahweh, ‘and all the day long my name is blasphemed.’” (NAW)
71 Thess. 2:4-6 “But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness--God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ.” ~NKJV
8For instance, Deut. 13:1-5 “If there arises among you a prophet... saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’... you shall not listen to the words of that prophet... You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him... But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death…” (NKJV)
9“Long ago that judgment started on its destroying path, and the fate of sinning angels, and the deluge, and the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah were but incidental illustrations of its power; nor has it ever since lingered.… It advances still, strong and vigilant as when first it sprang from the bosom of God, and will not fail to reach the mark to which it was pointed from of old.” ~Salmond and Lillie, c.1850, AD
A1904 "Patriarchal" edition of the Greek Orthodox Church, as published by E-Sword in June 2016. Annotated by NAW where the 27th edition of the Nestle-Aland GNT differs.
BNathan A Wilson’s translation
CKing James Version of the Holy Bible (a.k.a. Authorized Version), 1769 edition, as published by E-Sword in July 2019.
DTranslation of the Peshito Syriac New Testament into English by James Murdock. Published in 1851. Republished by E-sword in June 2016.
ERheims New Testament first published by the English College at Rheims, A.D. 1582, Revised by Bishop Richard Challoner, A.D. 1749-1752, as published by E-sword in June 2016.
FThis term “false-prophet” shows up in Zechariah 13:2 and Jeremiah 6:13; 33:7-16, and 34:9-36:8. In the NT, Jesus mentioned “false-prophets” in Matt. 7:15-17 and indicated that a proliferation of false prophets would be a “sign” of the “close of the age” before His “return” in Matt. 24:4-27 . Paul and Barnabas ran into a false prophet in Crete on their first missionary journey in Acts 13:6-11, and John mentioned how to identify false prophets in 1 John 4:1-3 and prophesied of the coming of a singular “false prophet” who will ultimately be cast into hell in Rev. 16:13, 19:20, and 20:10.
G“Peter
speaks of them as future, and Jude (Jude 1:4) as present.”
~Vincent
Gordon Clark theorized that if there were an initial
peaceful stage in church-planting without challenges from false
teachers yet, followed by the inevitable rise of false teachers,
this could explain the difference between Peter’s future tense and
Jude’s present tense.
D.F.
Zeller suggested that it was a “future of certainty” referring
to present conditions which should be taken for granted in the
future.
HHapex Legomenon. “The change in wording from pseudo prophetai to pseudo didaskaloi may indicate that prophets and apostles are on a level, but that teachers are on a lower level. At any rate, the Christian community of the second century, as well as the first, made a sharp distinction.” ~Gordon Clark
I“This indefinite relative pronoun is used qualitatively in order to bring out the characteristic, or the class of people to which these false teachers belonged.” ~D.F. Zeller
JHapex Legomenon. An adjectival form occurs once in Galatians 2:4, when Paul relates how “false brothers secretly brought in… came… that they might bring us into bondage” but “we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue…” (NKJV)
KFausset: “heresies — self-chosen doctrines, not emanating from God (compare “will-worship,” Col. 2:23).”
L“Descriptive genitive” ~A.T. Robertson. Regarding this “destruction,” cf. Phil. 1:27-28 & 3:8-9, 2 Thess. 2:1-4, and 2 Peter 3:15-18.
MLander tagged this conjunction as Louw & Nida semantic domain #89.93a “even, indeed (ascensive).” “Heresies” is plural, so the singular action of “denying Christ” seems to describe the worst of (or epitome of?) these heresies.
NJohn Gill, J.B. Mayor, and Gordon Clark postulated that this is referring to Yahweh who redeemed the Jews from slavery in Egypt rather than to Christ redeeming His elect by His blood on the cross. They argue that the absense of any other name for Christ but “despot” and the absense of anything else about the theology of redemption and the cross, and the presuppositions of the Jewish-background audience of Peter’s ministry would all support this interpretation. Gill and Clark were further motivated to by their reformed theology to avoid asserting that God had actually redeemed these false teachers, an assertion that A.T. Robertson didn’t hesitate to make. Problems with this position include the strong parallel with Jude which identifies the “despot” as “Jesus Christ” and the fact that nowhere in the Old Testament is this verb root used to referr to God’s redemption of the Jews from Egypt, whereas it is used to refer to the redemption of Christians by Jesus on the cross in four places in the New Testament (1 Cor. 6:20 & 7:23, and Rev. 5:9 & 14:3-4). John Calvin, Matthew Henry, Alford, Lenski, and D.F. Zeller interpreted it as Jesus’ redemption of Christians, and A.R. Fausset concurred, “The denial of His propitiatory sacrifice is included in the meaning (compare 1 Jn. 4:3).” Lenski and Alford used this as a platform to advocate universalism, whereas the others did not grapple with the problem of a redeemed person being a false teacher. The New Geneva Study Bible seems to offer the best solution that this is “describing the false teachers in terms of their own profession,” in other words, “the Master whom [they profess to have] bought them” - and, as such they should not be in rebellion against Him, but since their profession is fake, they are not actually redeemed but destined for perdition.
OAlthough uncommon as a designation for God, this term is used as such in the N.T. a few other times: Lk. 2:29, Acts 4:24, 2 Tim. 2:21, Jude 1:4, and Rev. 6:10. It matches the Accusative Masculine Singular substantive participle “the one who bought.”
PThis Present tense participle is epexegetical, explaining at least one (perhaps the worst) of the aforementioned heresies. It is the same verb Peter used to describe what the Jews did to Jesus in Acts 3:13. (See also: 2 Tim. 2:12, Titus 1:16, 1 John 2:22-23, Jude 1:4, Rev. 2:13 & 3:18.)
QThis Present tense participle denotes the result of the previous action. Fausset commented, “[C]ompare ‘God bringing in the flood upon the world,’ 2 Pet. 2:5. Man brings upon himself the vengeance which God brings upon him.”
RWhen
God’s “punishment” comes, it will be “swift” and
“destructive,” as we’ll see in chapter 3, but, as we will also
see in chapter 3, that “swiftness” does not necessarily
characterize the entire length of time between the commission of sin
and the judgment of it.
“Peter’s death is tachine;
the destruction of the false teachers is tachinen.
It seems to make little difference whether we translate it as
suddenly or swiftly.” ~G. Clark
SThis verb is used in the NT only in 2 Peter. Cf. 1:16 “... it was not after following sophisticated stories that we made [Christ] known to y'all...” and 2:15 “...following the way of Balaam…” In the LXX, it appears in Job 31:9; Amos 2:4; Isa. 56:11; Jer. 2:2; and Dan. 3:41, sometimes indicating faithfully “following” God, and sometimes indicating “following” ungodly influences into apostasy. The standard English versions are missing something by translating this word as simply “follow.”
TCf. Gal. 5:19, Eph. 4:17-19, 1 Peter 4:3-5, and Jude 1:4. Textus Receptus reads apwleiaiV (“destructions”), which is why the NKJV reads “destructive ways,” but there is no known Greek manuscript which contains that word. The word in all the Greek manuscripts is the alpha-privative of the Greek word for “continent.” But in both the Greek manuscripts and the T.R., this noun is Dative. It is appropriate to render the Dative case by the English preposition “into,” but no standard English translation does this, perhaps because, in almost every occurrence of this verb “follow” in the Greek Bible, the thing followed is in the Dative case (the exception being Dan. 3:41), so it is assumed by many that the verb requires the Dative case and that the Dative case therefore has no lexical meaning in this instance, but I am not convinced, nor was A.T. Robertson, who labelled this as an “Associative instrumental.”
UThe Greek is unclear whether this relative pronoun in the Accusative case (“whom”) relates to the Nominative (“many”) or to the Genitive “their” (presumably identical with the Nominative “pseudo-prophets” and “pseudo-didactics” in the previous verse). Calvin thought it was the former, but Fausset, ATR, Clark, Zeller, and I think the latter.
VThis Greek preposition indicates instrumentality (“through/by means of”) when its object is Genitive, but causality (“because/on account of”) when its object is Accusative, and the object is Accusative here.
WThe Dative case of this noun indicates the emotional state “in” which the false teachers exist and which motivates them to “market” falsehood (cf. Fausset & Vincent). It occurs again in v.14. This is in stark contrast to the ministry of the Biblical Apostles who upheld the value of Holy Scripture and operated under the authority of Christ and so were not greedy or man-centered. (1 Thess. 2:4-6 “But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness--God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ.” ~NKJV) This “covetous/greed” is the exact opposite of relying on God’s word according to Psalm 119:36 “Incline mine heart to thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.” (Brenton) Biblical prophets spoke out against covetousness in the leaders of their days (Jeremiah 22:17, Ezek. 22:27), and Jesus said, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” (Luke 12:15, NKJV) In Ephesians 4:1-19, the Apostle Paul adds, “...you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” (NKJV) That is life without the truth of the Bible or the divine authority of Christ.
XHapex
Legomenon. The tendency
for Secular
Humanists
to fabricate new vocabulary is an intriguing thesis. (c.f.
Orwell’s 1984)
“...not
necessarily ‘false’ words, but... words suited to their
objective – greed for money… [I]n the papyri and Josephus it is
used to refer to a forged document.” ~D.F. Zeller
YThis Greek word denotes “doing business/conducting trade/marketing,” and nowhere else in the Bible does it connote doing so dishonestly, as all the contemporary English versions imply here (Viz. Gen. 34:10, 21; 42:34; 2 Chr. 1:16; 9:14; Prov. 3:14; 31:14; Hos. 12:2; Amos 8:6; Ezek. 27:13, 21; Jas. 4:13. A noun form is in John 2:16 “...my Father’s house an emporium.”). This verb is in the middle voice, which would normally mean that they “market themselves.” Throughout the Biblical use of this verb, the things traded are marked with the Dative (or Genitive) case, whereas the persons with whom the trade is conducted are marked with the Accusative case; “y’all” here is accusative, so “y’all” are the ones to whom they are trying to “market themselves” (i.e. their false teachings).
ZThe only other occurrence of this word is in 3:5, where it describes the “being of the heavens.” Without the ek- prefix, the root refers to the “beginning” of things – as in creation in Isa. 37:26 & 48:5-7 (and probably Heb. 1:1), or to relatively “long ago” in Matt. 11:21 || Lk. 10:13 (“they would have repented long ago”), or to a “long duration” of time Mk. 15:44 (“has he been dead long?”). (See also 2 Cor. 12:19 & Jude 1:4). Fausset, Vincent, Clark, and Zeller advocated for “long ago” over “of long duration.”
AAThis verb is found nowhere else in the NT, but is in Ezr. 4:24, 2 Mac. 5:25, Eccl. 12:3, and Sir. 33:28, indicating people pausing an activity. The NIV is quite a stretch from this idea of “not suspending.”
ABCuriously, the majority of Greek manuscripts throw this word into the future tense (nustaxei), emphasizing the future-ness of the judgment, but all 5 of the oldest-known manuscripts, as well as a sizable minority of the Byzantine manuscripts, read Present tense (nustazei, matching the previous verb “is idle”), emphasizing the current-ness of the operations of God’s judgment. The latter is followed by both Critical GNT editions and Textus Receptus editions, as well as by the ancient Latin and Syriac versions and all the standard English versions (except for the NIV, which oddly rendered both verbs perfect tense). Greek Orthodox GNT editions are split between the two spellings. It is often paired with the verb for “sleep” coming after it, so it could indicate the early stages of falling asleep. It is also found in Matt. 25:5 and in the LXX 2 Sam. 4:6, Ps. 75:7, 120:3-4, Prov. 6:10, 24:33, Nah. 3:18, Isa. 5:27, 56:10, & Jer. 23:31.