Discovery Box2 Peter 1:4 
Context1:4 Through these things 1 he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised 2 you may become partakers of the divine nature, 3 after escaping 4 the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire. 5
2 Peter 2:1
Context2:1 But false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. 6 These false teachers 7 will 8 infiltrate your midst 9 with destructive heresies, 10 even to the point of 11 denying the Master who bought them. As a result, they will bring 12 swift destruction on themselves.
1 tn Verse 4 is in Greek a continuation of v. 3, “through which things.”
sn The phrase these things refers to God’s glory and excellence.
2 tn Grk “through them.” The implication is that through inheriting and acting on these promises the believers will increasingly become partakers of the divine nature.
3 sn Although the author has borrowed the expression partakers of the divine nature from paganism, his meaning is clearly Christian. He does not mean apotheosis (man becoming a god) in the pagan sense, but rather that believers have an organic connection with God. Because of such a connection, God can truly be called our Father. Conceptually, this bears the same meaning as Paul’s “in Christ” formula. The author’s statement, though startling at first, is hardly different from Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians that they “may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (3:19).
4 tn The aorist participle ἀποφυγόντες (apofugonte") is often taken as attendant circumstance to the preceding verb γένησθε (genhsqe). As such, the sense is “that you might become partakers…and might escape…” However, it does not follow the contours of the vast majority of attendant circumstance participles (in which the participle precedes the main verb, among other things). Further, attendant circumstance participles are frequently confused with result participles (which do follow the verb). Many who take this as attendant circumstance are probably viewing it semantically as result (“that you might become partakers…and [thereby] escape…”). But this is next to impossible since the participle is aorist: Result participles are categorically present tense.
5 tn Grk “the corruption in the world (in/because of) lust.”
6 sn There will be false teachers among you. Peter uses the same verb, γίνομαι (ginomai), in 2 Pet 2:1 as he had used in 1:20 to describe the process of inspiration. He may well be contrasting, by way of a catchword, the two kinds of prophets.
7 tn Grk “who”; verse 1 is one sentence in Greek, the second half constituting a relative clause.
8 sn By the use of the future tense (will infiltrate), Peter is boldly prophesying the role that false teachers will have before these Gentile believers. It was necessary for him to establish both his own credentials and to anchor his audience’s faith in the written Word before he could get to this point, for these false teachers will question both.
9 tn Grk “will bring in,” often with the connotation of secretiveness; “your midst” is implied.
10 tn Or “destructive opinions,” “destructive viewpoints.” The genitive ἀπωλείας (apwleia") could be taken either attributively (“destructive”) or as a genitive of destination (“leading to destruction”). Although the preferable interpretation is a genitive of destination, especially because of the elaboration given at the end of the verse (“bringing swift destruction on themselves”), translating it attributively is less cumbersome in English. Either way, the net result is the same.
11 tn Grk “even.” The καί (kai) is ascensive, suggesting that the worst heresy is mentioned in the words that follow.
12 tn Grk “bringing.” The present participle ἐπάγοντες (epagonte") indicates the result of the preceding clause.
