2 Peter 1:8

1:8 For if ¹  these things are really yours ²  and are continually increasing, ³  they will keep you from becoming ⁴  ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of ⁵  knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately. ⁶ 

2 Peter 2:18

2:18 For by speaking high-sounding but empty words ⁷  they are able to entice, ⁸  with fleshly desires and with debauchery, ⁹  people ¹⁰  who have just escaped ¹¹  from those who reside in error. ¹² 

2 Peter 3:5

3:5 For they deliberately suppress this fact, ¹³  that by the word of God ¹⁴  heavens existed long ago and an earth ¹⁵  was formed out of water and by means of water.

2 Peter 3:16

3:16 speaking of these things in all his letters. ¹⁶  Some things in these letters ¹⁷  are hard to understand, things ¹⁸  the ignorant and unstable twist ¹⁹  to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures. ²⁰ 

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¹ tn The participles are evidently conditional, as most translations render them.

² tn The participle ὑπάρχοντα (Juparconta) is stronger than the verb εἰμί (eimi), usually implying a permanent state. Hence, the addition of “really” is implied.

³ sn Continually increasing. There are evidently degrees of ownership of these qualities, implying degrees of productivity in one’s intimacy with Christ. An idiomatic rendering of the first part of v. 8 would be “For if you can claim ownership of these virtues in progressively increasing amounts…”

⁴ tn Grk “cause [you] not to become.”

⁵ tn Grk “unto,” “toward”; although it is possible to translate the preposition εἰς (eis) as simply “in.”

⁶ tn Grk “the [rich] knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Verse 8 in Greek does not make a full stop (period), for v. 9 begins with a subordinate relative pronoun. Contemporary English convention requires a full stop in translation, however.

⁷ tn Grk “high-sounding words of futility.”

⁸ tn Grk “they entice.”

⁹ tn Grk “with the lusts of the flesh, with debauchery.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “those.”

¹¹ tn Or “those who are barely escaping.”

¹² tn Or “deceit.”

¹³ tn The Greek is difficult at this point. An alternative is “Even though they maintain this, it escapes them that…” Literally the idea seems to be: “For this escapes these [men] who wish [it to be so].”

¹⁴ tn The word order in Greek places “the word of God” at the end of the sentence. See discussion in the note on “these things” in v. 6.

¹⁵ tn Or “land,” “the earth.”

¹⁶ tn Grk “as also in all his letters speaking in them of these things.”

¹⁷ tn Grk “in which are some things hard to understand.”

¹⁸ tn Grk “which.” The antecedent is the “things hard to understand,” not the entirety of Paul’s letters. A significant principle is seen here: The primary proof texts used for faith and practice ought to be the clear passages that are undisputed in their meaning. Heresy today is still largely built on obscure texts.

¹⁹ tn Or “distort,” “wrench,” “torture” (all are apt descriptions of what heretics do to scripture).

²⁰ sn This one incidental line, the rest of the scriptures, links Paul’s writings with scripture. This is thus one of the earliest affirmations of any part of the NT as scripture. Peter’s words were prophetic and were intended as a preemptive strike against the heretics to come.