2 Peter 2:4-9 “The Lord Knows How To Rescue And Punish”

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church Manhattan KS, 18 Feb. 2024

Introduction

      1. God’s punishment of the demons who rebelled against Him,

      2. God’s punishment of the corrupt world by a flood in Noah’s day,

      3. and God’s punishment of the lawless immorality of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire.

v. 4 God Judged Demons

v. 5 God Flooded the Ungodly But Preserved Noah’s Family

vs. 6-8 God Destroyed Sodom And Saved Lot

v. 9 God Will Punish The Unrighteous And Rescue The Godly

      1. The NET Bible, following the King James interpreted it as a purpose statement “kept in order to be punished [for punishment] on Judgment Day,”

      2. but it seems all the other contemporary English versions followed the old Geneva Bible, interpreting it as a description of the current circumstances: “keep under punishment [continuing their punishment now] until Judgment Day.”

Comparison of Bible Translations of 2 Peter 2:1-9


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 world, there have been also false prophets, as there will likewise be false teach­ers among you, who will X bring in destructive heresies, X denying the Lord that bought them; thus bringing on them­selves swift destruction.

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 raving words, they will make merchandise of you: whose judg­ment, of a long time, is not idle; and their destruc­tion slum­bereth not.

4̈ εἰAC γὰρ ὁ Θεὸς ἀγγέλωνAD ἁμαρτησάντωνAE οὐκ ἐφείσατο, ἀλλὰ σειραῖςAF ζόφουAG ταρταρ­ώσαςAH παρέδω­κεν εἰςAI κρίσιν τηρουμένουςAJ,

4 For, since God did not spare – but rather dungeoned – angels in chains of gloom when they sinned (He committed them so they are kept-secure for judgment.),

4 For if God spared not [the] angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, [and] delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

4 For if God spared not [the] angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by in­fernal ropes to the lower hell, [unto tor­ments,] to be reserved unto judgment:

4 For, if God spared not [the] angels that sinned, but cast them down to the infernal re­gions in chains of darkness, and delivered them up to be kept unto the judgment [of torture],

5̈ καὶ ἀρχαίου κόσμου οὐκ ἐφείσατο, ἀλλὰ ὄγδοονAK Νῶε δικαιοσύνης κήρυκα ἐφύλαξε, κατακλυσμὸνAL κόσμῳ ἀσεβῶν ἐπάξαςAM,

5 nor did He spare the ancient world, but rather protected the eight [under the name of] Noah the preacher of righteousness, after bringing on the flood upon the world of those who were ungodly,

5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

5 And spared not the ori­ginal world, but preserved Noe, the eighth per­son, the preacher of justice, bring­ing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.

5 and spared not the for­mer world, but preserved Noah the eighth per­son, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the wicked;

6 καὶ πόλεις ΣοδόμωνAN καὶ Γομόρρας τεφρώσαςAO καταστροφῃ῀AP κατέκρινενAQ, ὑπόδειγμα μελλόντωνAR ἀσεβε[σ]ῖνAS τεθεικώςAT,

6 and He condemned to catastrophe the cities of Sodom and of Gomor­rah, turning them to ash (thereby instituting an example of the things about to happen to the ungodly),

6 And turn­ing the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes con­demned them with an over­throw, making them an en­sample unto those that after should live ungodly;

6 And reduc­ing the cities of the Sodom­ites and of the Gomor­rhites into ashes, con­demned them to be overthrown, making [them] an example to those that should after act wickedly,

6 and burned up the cities of Sodom and Gomor­rah, and condemned them by an overthrow, making [them] a demonstra­tion to the wicked who should come after [them];

7̈ καὶ δίκαιον Λὼτ καταπονού­μενονAU ὑπὸ τῆς τῶν ἀθέσμωνAV ἐν ἀσελγείᾳAW ἀναστροφῆςAX ἐρρύσατο·

7 yet rescued righteous Lot, who was over­whelmed by the lifestyle of those who were depraved in immorality

7 And deliv­ered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conver­sation of the wicked:

7 And deliv­ered just Lot, oppressed by the injustice and lewd con­versation of the wicked:

7 and [also] delivered righteous Lot, who was tor­mented with the fil­thy conduct of the lawless;

8̈ βλέμματι γὰρ καὶ ἀκοῃ῀ ὁ δίκαιος, ἐγκατ­οικῶνAY ἐν αὐ­τοῖς, ἡμέραν ἐξ ἡμέρας ψυχὴν δικαίαν ἀνόμοις ἔργοις ἐβασάνιζεν·

8 (because while that righteous man was dwelling down among them, day by day, he was tormenting a righteous soul by seeing and by listening to unlawful exploits),

8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day [to] day with their unlaw­ful deeds;)

8 For in sight and hearing he was X just, dwelling among them [who] from day [to] day vexed [the] just soul with unjust works.

8 for that up­right man dwell­ing among them, in seeing and hearing from day [to] day, [was] distres­sed [in his] right­eous soul by [their] lawless deeds;

9 οἶδε Κύριος εὐσεβεῖς ἐκ πειρασμοῦAZ ῥύεσθαι, ἀδίκους δὲ εἰς ἡμέραν κρίσεως κολαζομένουςBA τηρεῖν,

9 the Lord knows how to rescue those who are godly out of temptation and to keep the un­righteous for the Day of Judgment when they will be punished.

9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly from temptation, but to reserve the unjust unto the day of judg­ment to be tormented:

9 the Lord knoweth how to rescue from afflictions those who fear [him]; and he will re­serve the wick­ed for the day of judgment to be tormented,


1δεσμοῖς a synonym for the word Peter used

2Matthew 8:29 “Did you come here before the appointed time to make us suffer?’” (NAW)

3According to Ussher’s chronology.

4Underlining shows where the LXX used the same Greek word roots found in 2 Peter 2. The name “Noah” is also in common, but I didn’t underline that.

5So did Josephus, about 30 years later when he wrote his Antiquities of the Jews (1.3.1).

6My paraphrase of Brenton’s version: “And they said to him, ‘Stand back there, thou camest in to sojourn, was it also to judge? Now then we would harm thee more than them.’ And they pressed hard on [παρεβιάζοντο] the man, even Lot, and they drew nigh to break the door.” (Brenton)

7Cf. cf. Isaiah 46:4 “Even until old age I am He, and until gray hair I myself will carry you. I, I made you, and I, I lift you up, and I, I will carry, and I will deliver.” (NAW)
Hebrews 2:18 “for He Himself has suffered, having been tested; by such means He is able to come to the rescue with those who are being tempted.” (NAW)

8Job 5:19 “He shall deliver you in six troubles, Yes, in seven no evil shall touch you.” (NKJV)
Psalm 91:3 “Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence.” (NKJV)
Rev. 3:10 “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” (NKJV)

9Job 21:30 “For the wicked are reserved for the day of doom; They shall be brought out on the day of wrath.” (NKJV)

10Heb. 9:27 “And furthermore, it is in store for humans to die only-once, and for there to be judgment after this” (NAW)

11Luke 16:24 “And he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’” (NKJV)

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.

ACThis is not a hypothetical “if,” since it refers to historical facts as the grounds for knowing what God will do. Thus ATR calls it a first class conditional, even though it is not a textbook example. (Normally a first class condition would use present indicatives but this uses aorists.) This extended conditional contains three protases, and the apodosis is in v.9.

ADThe fact that “angels” has no definite article led ATR to believe it was emphatic “even angels.”
What historical event is Peter describing?
This Greek noun could mean “angels” or could mean human “messengers,” but nowhere else in the Greek Bible is this noun

The fact that it would be hard to understand this verse in 2 Peter without the book of Jude to explain it is a point in favor of Jude being written first and Peter alluding to Jude here.

AEThe contemporary English versions translate this participle temporally “when they sinned,” while the older versions translate it adjectivally “who/that sinned.” D.F. Zeller commented that “it is probably best to consider it as both [temporal and adjectival].”

AFThis noun occurs only two other places in the Greek Bible: in Judges 16:13-19 (Describing the seven ‘locks’ of Sampson’s hair) and in Prov. 5:22 (describing the way sin ‘binds up’ the wicked). The NASB (followed by the NLT) decided to use the odd spelling of a single Greek manuscript (Sinaiticus, the curators of which recognized that the original word was misspelled and corrected it in the margin to the root found in all other Greek manuscripts, two of which are older than Sinaiticus) and identified it with a Greek word used nowhere else in the Bible (“σιρός ... a pit for grain storage” ~NASEC). The parallel passage in Jude, however, uses a synonym for “chains,” not “pits,” and nowhere in the Bible is the place of the dead a plurality (as in “pits”), whereas “chains” are naturally plural. D. F. Zeller left his usual deference to the UBS to support “chains.”

AGcf. Jude 1:6 where this “gloomy darkness” is part of the punishment of rebellious angels, and Jude 1:12-13 (|| 2 Pet. 2:17) where this is part of the punishment for wicked men.

AHHapex Legomenon. A cognate noun appears 3 times in the Greek O.T. (Prov. 30:16; Job 40:20; 41:24) seeming to denote places so deep underwater or underground as to be inaccessible to mankind, but accessible to mysterious creatures. D. F. Zeller labeled it as “almost an apposition clause to… ‘delivered (them) over to the gloomy darkness.’”

AILander chose Louw & Nida semantic domain #89.57 (“intent... expected result - 'for the purpose of, in order to.'), and most English versions were thinking along the same lines when they rendered this preposition “for” or “unto.” The ESV, NET, and NLT, however, rendered it temporally “until,” which is the second meaning for this word listed in Arndt & Gingrich’s Greek lexicon.

AJHalf of the oldest-known manuscripts add the word “be punished/tortured” which made it into the Vulgate and Peshitta, but not into the popular Greek editions. The Textus Receptus turns the present tense spelling into a perfect tense (tethrhmenouV), which makes slightly clearer sense historically (“they have been kept” rather than “they are being kept”), but is not supported by any known Greek manuscripts, and the KJV & NKJV which followed the T.R. didn’t even give it a perfect tense translation. The Present tense emphasizes that the incarceration of these demons is the present situation and that it is ongoing. Most English versions translated this participle with an English infinitive, but the participle denotes the purpose for which God delivered/committed the demons: so that they will be kept secure for judgment.

AKThe spelling of this word is ordinal, so it is literally “eighth,” the previous seven (Noah’s wife, three sons, and their wives) going unnamed. It is lost on me why the NASB, NIV, and ESV should think that changing the number to “seven” and adding the word “others” is any more accurate a translation than the old versions (“the eighth person”). Lightfoot wrote of another possible interpretation: “Noah, the eighth preacher of righteousness,” calculating from Enos, but why would Enos be the starting point? And, since the Bible doesn’t associate any form of the word for “righteousness” with any of Noah’s ancestors, what basis is there to assume they were all “preachers of righteousness”?

ALThe is the word the LXX uses for Noah’s “flood” in Gen. 6-9.

AMThe Aorist tense of this participle denotes that the flood came on before God’s guardianship of the eight, however, all the English versions translate this participle as though it were in present tense and happened only during the flood. This is only a minor point, but the Greek Aorist adds the consideration that God’s preservation of the eight lasted beyond the flood itself so that they could survive and repopulate the world.

ANMoule, ATR, and Wallace all considered “of Sodom” and “of Gomorrah” to be “genitives of apposition,” identifying what was meant by “cities,” but, as ATR admitted, they could just as well be genitives of possession, because there were cities or suburbs surrounding these capitols which were part of their political body.

AOApocryphal instances make clear that this has to do with “ash” but this root appears nowhere else in the Greek Bible. I think many translators chose to pair it with the word “turn” because “στροφη/turn” is part of the following word (“catastrophe”). DFZ believed that the root not only contained the idea of “ash” but also of “covering with ash,” however, he didn’t explain why, and I found no other source confirming him. The Aorist tense could mean that God prepared ashes to be the means of destruction before the condemnation.

APLit. “downturn” This is transliterated “catastrophe,” and it is the word used of God’s destruction of those cities by fire and brimstone in the LXX (Genesis 19:28-29 “And he looked towards Sodom and Gomorrha, and towards the surrounding country, and saw, and behold a flame went up from the earth, as the smoke of a furnace. And it came to pass that when God destroyed [ἐκτρῖψαι] all the cities of the region round about, God remembered Abraam, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when the Lord overthrew those cities in which Lot dwelt.” ~Brenton) The word is often translated “overthrow” in the Bible, although it shouldn’t be conceived of here in terms of one human agency overthrowing another, but of God wiping out a people whose wickedness could no longer be tolerated (and who were utterly unresponsive to warning or grace). About half of the oldest-known Greek manuscripts do not have the word, but the word was carried through into the Vulgate and Peshitta and into the overwhelming majority of later manuscripts and therefore into both the traditional and (most of the) critical editions. Its omission does not damage the overall meaning, since “condemned, burning to ashes” is not significantly different from “condemned to catastrophe, burning to ashes.” The KJV translated the Dative case of this word with the English word “with,” whereas the contemporary versions translated the Dative case with the English word “to,” the ESV following what Turner suggested in 1963 in his Grammar, “to extinction.”

AQThis is the main verb of Peter’s third instance of God’s judgment: “God did not spare…. Nor did He spare… He also condemned…,” and there are two participles dependent on this main verb: “turning to ash,” and “having set an example.”

ARThe Genitive case of this participle should be more naturally translated “of” than “to,” predisposing the meaning to “of the things about to happen” (NIV, ESV) rather than “to the men about to come” (Alford, NKJV, NASB). The root meaning has to do with what is “impending,” not what is “after.” ATR and DFZ agreed.

ASAbout 10 Greek manuscripts, including a couple of the oldest-known ones, insert a sigma into the ending, transforming the infinitive (“to be ungodly”) into a dative noun (“to the ungodly men”), which makes good sense, and was followed by the ancient Syriac, Coptic, and Armenian versions as well as most contemporary critical Greek editions. The infinitive spelling in the majority of Greek manuscripts (as well as the Textus Receptus and Greek Orthodox editions and the ancient Latin versions) seems odd as a verb, but could be interpreted as a substantive infinitive, meaning the same as the noun form, so the variants aren’t substantially different.

ATThe perfect tense of this participle is hard to translate. The NASB and NET are the only English versions I found which actually translated it (“having made [them] an example”). The idea is that at the time of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, God set up an example of judgment which still stands as an example in the present.

AUOnly here and Acts 7:24 (describing a Hebrew slave being mercilessly beaten by an Egyptian) but also in 3 Maccabees 2:2&13. I wonder if this might correlate with παρεβιάζοντο in the LXX of Genesis 19:9. The “righteousness” of Lot and his being “tormented” by the sins of Sodom are hard to reconcile with his greedy choice to edge his uncle Abraham out of the best pastureland, the compromises he made to live in Sodom, the ungodly character of his wife and children and in-laws, and his cowardly permission to the Sodomites to abuse his daughters. But the reason Lot was “righteous” was because God decided to make Abraham righteous, and so everyone in Abraham’s household was holy, from the hundreds of foreign slaves Abraham retained, to his children, to his nephew Lot who lived with him for a time. Before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham had haggled God down to committing not to destroy those cities if there were at least 10 “righteous” persons residing there (Gen. 18:32).

AVRare alpha-privative of tithemi (“not positioned” or “dis-oriented” or “de-ranged”) only here and 3:17, where it is also translated “wicked/unprincipled/lawless.” (It’s also in 3 Macc. 5:12.) It reminds me of Rom. 1:28 and Psalm 81:11-12. In Greek, the prepositional phrase “by their conduct” is interrupted by the two prepositional phrases “of the unprincipled/lawless men” and “in sensuality/immorality,” so “in sensuality/filthy” is grouped together with “of unprincipled/lawless/wicked men” and together, the phrases “of those who are disoriented/lawless in sensuality/immorality” then describes what kind of “conduct” was “distressing/oppressing/vexing” Lot.

AWcf. v.2, where the KJV, NKJV, NIV, Murdock, & Rheims all translated it differently. Here, it is a prepositional phrase “in licentiousness,” but all standard English versions translated it as an adverb, which is a legitimate possibility, but curious that this less-usual way of translating it would be unanimous.

AXLit. “upturn” Even if you count Hebrews under Paul’s writings, Peter still uses this word twice as many times, more than any other Biblical author (1 Pet. 1:15, 18; 2:12; 3:1-2, 16; 2 Pet. 2:7; 3:11). It denotes one’s lifestyle and its outcome.

AYHapex Legomenon. The egkata- prefix means “in,” so it emphasizes “making your home among.DFZ noted, “...Lot was living there as a resident, not just a temporary visitor,” and added, “Here is another participle which can be described as having both a temporal and adjectival emphasis.”

AZ10 Greek manuscripts (the oldest being Sinaiticus) spelled “temptations” plural, and the KJV/NKJV, followed by Scrivener’s and Tischendorf’s editions of the Greek New Testament, followed by the NIV, NET, ESV, and NLT all render “temptations” plural. However, the majority of Greek manuscripts (including P72, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, and Ephraemi Rescriptus) all spell “temptation” singular, and the editions of the GNT which follow the majority text are the Textus Receptus, Patristic and contemporary Greek Orthodox, Westcott-Hort, Nestle-Aland, Tregelles, and UBS. Among the versions, the ancient Latin Vulgate, the Geneva Bible, and the ASV/NASB kept it singular. There is no significant difference in meaning, for in the whole counsel of Scripture, it is never suggested that God will only rescue us once or twice – or three times but then no more after that. The idea is that God keeps his people from losing faith in Him whenever they face any temptation, however many temptations that may be. We also see from the rest of Scripture that “rescuing from temptation” does not mean protecting you from ever experiencing hardships.

BAThis word only occurs here and Acts 4:21 in the Greek Bible, but there are 21 more instances in the Apocrypha. English versions interpret the participial form in two different ways: (1) Calvin, KJV, NET, Rheims, and Murdock interpreted it as purposive: “kept in order to be punished on Judgment Day,” (2) The Geneva Bible, Vincent, NKJV, NASB, NIV, ESV, and NLT interpreted it as descriptive of the circumstances of the main verb: “keep under punishment until Judgment Day,” implying that God punishes before He judges. Of those two options, the former makes better sense to me, but I would suggest that yet another interpretation could be made which is temporal, the present tense of the participle making it contemporary to the event described in the phrase immediately prior to it, namely Judgment Day, thus punishment starting on the day the judgment comes down, although this does not preclude punishment coming before the event as well. DFZ was the only commentator I found to say anything about this, and what he said was, “...where they go first is only temporary… incarceration awaiting the final sentencing which is described in Rev. 20:10, and there is some degree of punishment as they wait for the judgment.”

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