Discovery Box2 Peter 1:8 
Context1:8 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 2:12
Context2:12 But 7 these men, 8 like irrational animals – creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed 9 – do not understand whom 10 they are insulting, and consequently 11 in their destruction they will be destroyed, 12
2 Peter 3:17
Context3:17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, 13 be on your guard that you do not get led astray by the error of these unprincipled men 14 and fall from your firm grasp on the truth. 15
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 2 Pet 2:12 through 16 constitute one cumbersome sentence in Greek. It is difficult to tell whether a hard break belongs in the middle of v. 13, as the translation has it, or whether the compounding of participles is meant in a loosely descriptive sort of way, without strong grammatical connection. Either way, the sentence rambles in a way that often betrays a great “vehemence of spirit” (A. T. Robertson, Grammar, 435). The author is obviously agitated at these false teachers who are to come.
8 tn The false teachers could conceivably be men or women, but in v. 14 they are said to have eyes “full of an adulteress.” This can only refer to men. Hence, both here and in v. 17 the false teachers are described as “men.”
9 tn Grk “born for capture and destruction.”
10 tn Grk “with [reference to] whom.”
11 tn There is no conjunction joining this last clause of v. 12 to the preceding (i.e., no “and consequently”). The argument builds asyndetically (a powerful rhetorical device in Greek), but cannot be naturally expressed in English as such.
12 tn This cryptic expression has been variously interpreted. (1) It could involve a simple cognate dative in which case the idea is “they will be utterly destroyed.” But the presence of αὐτῶν (autwn; their, of them) is problematic for this view. Other, more plausible views are: (2) the false teachers will be destroyed at the same time as the irrational beasts, or (3) in the same manner as these creatures (i.e., by being caught); or (4) the false teachers will be destroyed together with the evil angels whom they insult. Because of the difficulties of the text, it was thought best to leave it ambiguous, as the Greek has it.
13 tn Grk “knowing beforehand.”
14 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.
15 tn Grk “fall from your firmness.”
