This verse, together with verse 19, describes the teaching of the false teachers and the effect of such teaching both on themselves and others, especially new converts to the Christian faith.

What they say is characterized as “bombastic nonsense” (New Revised Standard Version), literally, uttering loud boasts of folly. The expression loud boasts is also found in Jude 16 and translates a Greek word that means “boastful,” “haughty,” “bombastic,” “high sounding,” in other words, something that sounds much more impressive than it really is. Folly on the other hand translates a word that means “worthlessness,” “emptiness,” “futility,” or “purposelessness.” What it means, then, is that the false teachers make impressive, high sounding, and boastful speeches that are in fact worthless and devoid of any value whatsoever.

The effect of such teaching is that they entice with licentious passions of the flesh new converts to the faith. For entice see comments on verse 14; for licentious see comments on 2 Peter 2.2; and for passions see comments on verse 10, where the word is translated “lust.” The whole expression licentious passions of the flesh refers to sexual desires that are characterized by lust and that lead people to indulge in excessive and uncontrolled immorality. How do the false teachers use this to entice people? It seems that through their teaching they have justified indulgence in immoral acts by presenting these sexual acts as legitimate expressions of Christian freedom. And since this kind of life characterizes those who belong to pagan religions, those who are most easily affected by this attitude are the new converts. These new converts are described as people who have barely escaped from those who live in error. The word barely may mean “to a small extent,” which indicates that these people are not yet completely free of pagan influences. In favor of this view is the fact that escaped is a present participle, which can be rendered “in the process of escaping.” These people, then, were in the process of making a complete break with pagan society as a whole. More probably, however, barely means “for a short time” or “newly,” which indicates that these people are new converts who are not yet firmly established in the Christian faith and are therefore easily swayed by non-Christian influences.

Those who live in error are most probably non-Christians or pagans (as in Jerusalem Bible “who have only just escaped from paganism”). This use of error for pagan living is in accordance with New Testament usage (see, for instance, Rom 1.27; Titus 3.3 “led astray”). Live translates a verb that means “act,” “behave,” or “conduct oneself.” Error is literally “wandering,” but it is used figuratively for straying from truth, hence “deceit,” “deception,” when the wandering is caused by others. This final clause who have barely escaped from those who live in error should not be understood to mean that these people are literally running away from other people (pagans) who stray from the truth. What it means is that they have just begun to stop believing like those people who live their lives according to wrong ideas.

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Second Letter from Peter. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .