Page 532 - Demo

The Flight from Sodom. Lot’s wife is changed into a statue of salt, by Raphael (1438-1520)
2:4 The fall of the rebel angels is not recounted in the Old Testament, but it is alluded to in the Bible. The sin of the angels was the sin of pride, of seeking to take the place of God. What happened to them is the same thing that will happen to false teachers, who set their own teachings over God’s wisdom.
The Prophet Amos, by Gustave Doré (1866)
2:15 In the Old Testament book of Numbers, a man named Balaam is given a prophetic task by God. A reluctant prophet, he runs in the opposite direction. God sends an angel with a sword to block the way, but only Balaam’s donkey sees the angel and keeps trying to carry Balaam back in the direction God wants him to go. The donkey nally turns and speaks to Balaam, whose eyes are opened (Numbers 22-24).
d. [2:4] Jude 6.
e. [2:5] Gn 8:15–19; Heb 11:7.
f. [2:6] Gn 19:24–25; Jude 7.
g. [2:9] 1 Cor 10:13; Rev 3:10.
h. [2:10] Jude 8.
i. [2:11] Jude 9.
j. [2:12] Ps 49:13–15; Jude 10.
k. [2:13] Jude 12.
l. [2:15] Nm 31:16; Jude 11.
520 m.
[2:16] Nm 22:28–33.
Lessons from the Past. 4* For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but condemned them to the chains of Tartarus* and handed them over to be kept for judgment;d 5* and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, together with seven
others, when he brought a ood upon the godless world;e 6and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah [to destruction], reducing them to ashes, making them an example for the godless [people] of what is coming;f 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man oppressed by the licentious conduct of unprincipled people 8(for day after day that righteous man living among them was tormented in his righteous soul at the lawless deeds that he saw and heard), 9then the Lord knows how to rescue the devout from trial and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,g 10and especially those who follow the esh with its depraved desire and show contempt for lordship.h
False Teachers Denounced.* Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to revile glorious beings,* 11* whereas angels,i despite their superior strength and power, do not bring a reviling judgment against them from the Lord. 12But these people, like irrational animals born by nature for capture and destruction, revile things that they do not understand, and in their destruction they will also be destroyed,j 13su ering wrong* as payment for wrongdoing. Thinking daytime revelry a delight, they are stains and de lements as they revel in their deceits while carousing with you.k 14Their eyes are full of adultery and insatiable for sin. They seduce unstable people, and their hearts are trained in greed. Accursed children! 15Abandoning the straight road, they have gone astray, following the road of Balaam, the son of Bosor,* who loved payment for wrongdoing,l 16but he received a rebuke for his own crime: a mute beast spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.m
17These people are waterless springs and mists driven by a gale; for
* [2:4–6] The false teachers will be punished just as surely and as severely as were the fallen angels (2 Pt 2:4; cf. Jude 6; Gn 6:1–4), the sinners of Noah’s day (2 Pt 2:5; Gn 7:21–23), and the inhabitants of the cities of the Plain (2 Pt 2:6; Jude 7; Gn 19:25). Whereas there are three examples in Jude 5–7 (Exodus and wilderness; rebellious angels; Sodom and Gomorrah), 2 Peter omitted the rst of these, has inserted a new illustration about Noah (2 Pt 2:5) between Jude’s second and third examples, and listed the resulting three examples in their Old Testament order (Gn 6; 7; 19).
* [2:4] Chains of Tartarus: cf. Jude 6; other manuscripts in 2 Peter read “pits of Tartarus.” Tartarus: a term borrowed from Greek mythology to indicate the infernal regions.
* [2:5–10a] Although God did not spare the sinful, he kept and saved the righteous, such as Noah (2 Pt 2:5) and Lot (2 Pt 2:7), and he knows how to rescue the devout (2 Pt 2:9), who are contrasted with the false teachers of the author’s day. On Noah, cf. Gn 5:32–9:29, especially 7:1. On Lot, cf. Gn 13 and 19.
* [2:10b–22] Some take 2 Pt 2:10b, 11 with the preceding paragraph. Others begin the new paragraph with 2 Pt 2:10a, supplying from 2 Pt 2:9 The Lord knows how. . .to keep. . .under punishment, with reference to God and probably speci cally Christ (2 Pt 2:1). The conduct of the false teachers is described and condemned in language similar to that of Jude 8–16. This arrogance knows no bounds; animal-like, they are due to be caught and destroyed. They seduce even those who have knowledge of Christ (2 Pt 2:20).
* [2:10b] Glorious beings: literally, “glories”; cf. Jude 8. While some think that illustrious personages are meant or even political o cials behind whom (fallen) angels stand, it is more likely that the reference is to glorious angelic beings (cf. Jude 9).
* [2:11] From the Lord: some manuscripts read “before the Lord”; cf. Jude 9.
* [2:13] Su ering wrong: some manuscripts read “receiving a reward.” In their deceits: some
manuscripts read “in their love feasts” (Jude 12).
* [2:15] Balaam, the son of Bosor: in Nm 22:5, Balaam is said to be the son of Beor, and it is this name
that turns up in a few ancient Greek manuscripts by way of “correction” of the text. Balaam is not portrayed in such a bad light in Nm 22. His evil reputation and his madness (2 Pt 2:16), and possibly his surname Bosor, may have come from a Jewish tradition about him in the rst/second century, of which we no longer have any knowledge.