2 Peter 3:1-2

The False Teachers’ Denial of the Lord’s Return

3:1 Dear friends, this is already the second letter I have written ¹  you, in which ²  I am trying to stir up ³  your pure mind by way of reminder: 3:2 I want you to recall ⁴  both ⁵  the predictions ⁶  foretold by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. ⁷ 

2 Peter 3:17-18

3:17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, ⁸  be on your guard that you do not get led astray by the error of these unprincipled men ⁹  and fall from your firm grasp on the truth. ¹⁰  3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge ¹¹  of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the honor both now and on ¹²  that eternal day. ¹³ 

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¹ tn Grk “I am already writing this [as] a second letter.” The object-complement construction is more smoothly rendered in English a bit differently. Further, although the present tense γράφω (grafw) is used here, English convention employs an epistolary past tense. (The Greek epistolary aorist might have been expected here, but it also occurs in situations unlike its English counterparts.)

² tn The relative pronoun is plural, indicating that the following statement is true about both letters.

³ tn Or “I have stirred up, aroused.” The translation treats the present tense verb as a conative present.

⁴ tn Grk “to remember.” “I want you” is supplied to smooth out the English. The Greek infinitive is subordinate to the previous clause.

⁵ tn “Both” is not in Greek; it is supplied to show more clearly that there are two objects of the infinitive “to remember” – predictions and commandment.

⁶ tn Grk “words.” In conjunction with πρόειπον (proeipon), however, the meaning of the construction is that the prophets uttered prophecies.

⁷ sn Holy prophets…apostles. The first chapter demonstrated that the OT prophets were trustworthy guides (1:19-21) and that the NT apostles were also authoritative (1:16-18). Now, using the same catch phrase found in the Greek text of 1:20 (τοῦτο πρῶτον γινώσκοντες, touto prwton ginwskontes), Peter points to specific prophecies of the prophets as an argument against the false teachers.

⁸ tn Grk “knowing beforehand.”

⁹ tn Or “lawless ones.”

sn These unprincipled men. The same word is used in 2:7, suggesting further that the heretics in view in chapter 3 are the false teachers of chapter 2.

¹⁰ tn Grk “fall from your firmness.”

¹¹ tn The term “knowledge” (γνῶσις, gnwsis) used here is not the same as is found in 2 Pet 1:2, 3, 8; 2:20. This term is found in 1:5 and 1:6.

¹² tn Or “until.”

¹³ tc ‡ The vast bulk of mss add ἀμήν (amhn, “amen”) at the end of this letter, as they do almost all the rest of the NT books (only Acts, James, and 3 John lack a majority of witnesses supporting a concluding ἀμήν). The omission in B 1241 1243 1739* 1881 2298 appears to be original, although the fact that some of the best and earliest Alexandrian witnesses (Ì⁷² א A C P Ψ 33 co), along with the Byzantine text and early versions (vg sy), add the particle renders such a judgment less than iron-clad. NA²⁷ places the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

tn Grk “day of eternity.”