2 Peter 2:20-21
2:20 For if after they have escaped the filthy things 1 of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 2 they 3 again get entangled in them and succumb to them, 4 their last state has become worse for them than their first.
2:21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them.
1 tn Grk “defilements”; “contaminations”; “pollutions.”
2 sn Through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The implication is not that these people necessarily knew the Lord (in the sense of being saved), but that they were in the circle of those who had embraced Christ as Lord and Savior.
3 tn Grk “(and/but) they.”
4 tn Grk “they again, after becoming entangled in them, are overcome by them.”