SIL Translator’s Notes on 2 Peter 2000 – Page 7

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 1:19

Paragraph 1:19–21

The Transfiguration proved that the message about Jesus was true, but that is not all that proved it. The writings of the prophets also confirmed that this was a true message.

1:19a

We: This may refer to all believers. If it does, the pronoun is inclusive. Or it may refer to all the apostles, or just to the three apostles who had seen the Transfiguration. If the pronoun refers only to the apostles, it is exclusive. It seems more likely that the first interpretation is the correct one, because the words of the prophets in the OT are for all believers.

confirmed beyond doubt: The form of this word in the Greek text here can mean “very, very certain.” This meaning fits the context well. However some commentators think that here Peter was making a comparison and saying that people can now be even more confident that the words of the prophets are true than they could be before the Transfiguration because the apostles saw Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus at the Transfiguration. Here are some other ways that translate this:

so we have confirmation of what was said in prophecy (The Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
all this confirms for us the message of prophecy (New English Bible)

Peter referred to the words of the prophets to support what he taught about Christ’s return. In order to clearly communicate this, it may be necessary for you to include this implied information, as in the Display of 1:19a.

1:19b

a lamp shining in a dark place: Peter compared what the prophets wrote to a lamp shining in the darkness. Just as a lamp shining in a dark place shows people the right way to go, so the words that the prophets wrote will show people what is true and what is false.

1:19c

the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts: The type of lamp that Peter mentioned in 1:19b radiated light so that people could see until the morning star appeared and daylight returned. The morning star is the bright star (actually a planet, the planet Venus) which rises immediately before dawn. Does this star have a special name in your language? There are a number of examples in Scripture where the writers used similar metaphors in a way that shows that the morning star very probably refers to Christ. See Revelation 22:16 and Luke 1:78. In the same way that the morning star brings light to a dark world, the coming of Christ brings light into the hearts of believers and enables them to know God more fully. Peter was almost certainly thinking of Christ’s second coming, since “the day” in the NT usually referred to this, as in Romans 13:12.

General Comment about 1:19b–c: Here is one example of how you could translate 1:19b and 1:19c in order to clearly express all of the meaning of the metaphors:

You should listen well to those words until our Lord Jesus Christ returns. His coming will bring light like the dawn of a new day, and he will be like the morning star. At that time his light will shine in your hearts and reveal God to you clearly.

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 1:20

1:20

In this verse and the next Peter emphasized that people can rely on prophecy because the prophets did not speak by their own wisdom, but rather spoke what the Spirit of God inspired them to speak.

Above all: The literal meaning of the Greek is “first.” Peter wanted to emphasize that what he would say next would be very important.

no prophecy…comes from one’s own interpretation: The Greek here is more literally “No prophecy…is a matter of one’s own interpretation” (see Revised Standard Version). It is unclear whose “interpretation” Peter is referring to. There are two main ways to understand this part of the verse:

(1) Some scholars believe it refers to the prophet’s own interpretation, that is, none of the OT prophets spoke any prophecy by his own power. This meaning fits with verse 21 which says it was God’s Spirit who inspired them.

(2) Other scholars believe it refers generally to any person who hears or reads an OT prophecy. No one who hears or reads an OT prophecy should explain/interpret it by his own power. Peter was saying that no person had the right to interpret Scripture according to that person’s own ideas. If this interpretation is the correct one, then in this verse Peter was referring ahead to chapter 2 where he would speak about false teachers who twisted the meaning of Scripture as they wished. For example:

the interpretation of scriptural prophecy is never a matter for the individual (The Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
No one can interpret any prophecy of Scripture himself (New English Bible)

It is recommended that you follow the first interpretation (1). If, however, you decide to accept the second interpretation, you could translate it like this:

You must understand that when a person reads the words of the prophets in Scripture and explains the meaning of those words according to his own thinking, he is not acting rightly.

This verse is very important for doctrine, so if you have footnotes in your translation, you should include a note that explains the interpretation which you have not followed in the main text.

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SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 1:21

1:21a

no such prophecy was ever brought forth by the will of man: No prophecy originated from what the prophet himself wanted to say or from what other people wanted him to say.

1:21b

but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit: Instead of merely saying what they wanted to say, the OT prophets said what the Spirit of God moved or drove them to say. Luke used the same word in Acts 27:15 and Acts 27:17 to describe a ship that the wind was driving in a way that the people on the ship could not control. The prophets spoke and wrote “under the control of the Holy Spirit” (Good News Translation).

Paragraph 2:1–3

Peter warned that false teachers would come and deceive many people, but he also said that God would punish these false teachers in the end.

2:1

In the history of the Jewish people there had been many false prophets. Peter warned that, in the same way, false teachers would come among the Christians.

2:1a

Now: At the end of chapter 1 Peter had been talking about true prophets. He used the word Now here to contrast these true prophets with the false prophets who had come among God’s people in the past. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version do not retain this link. Another way to show the link would be as follows:

But, in the past, even though there were true prophets, there were also men among God’s people who said that they were prophets, but they taught lies, not the truth.

false prophets: These are people who say that their messages come directly from God, but they are lying.

the people: Jews used the phrase “the people” to refer to themselves, God’s chosen people, the Jewish people. Here, Peter was referring to the Jewish people, the people of Israel, in the time of the OT.

2:1b-c

false teachers This refers to those who were teaching the “destructive heresies”.

secretly introduce: These words translate a single Greek verb that means “bring in,” and which sometimes means even more: “bring in secretly so that other people will not notice what is happening.” Many scholars believe that it has this extra meaning here. So Berean Standard Bible translates it secretly introduce, see also The Jerusalem Bible: “insinuate” and Revised Standard Version “secretly bring in.” But Good News Translation and New English Bible do not include this extra meaning.

destructive heresies: Heresy is a doctrine or teaching about God which is untrue. Such teachings lead people to live wickedly. When people live wickedly, God judges them. This is how heresies destroy them.

2:1d

denying the Master: The Greek word here that Berean Standard Bible translates denying means “to deny, disown someone.” Here it probably means that although these people said that they followed Christ, they showed by what they did and by what they taught other people, that they did not really follow his teachings. It could also mean that they were “denying” Christ by saying untrue things about him like “he didn’t die for our sins.”

Master: This translates the Greek word that usually in the NT refers to God, but here clearly Peter was using it about Christ. This is the word that people used to refer to a person who owned slaves. This word fits well here because of the next words which speak about Christ buying people.

who bought them: When Peter said Jesus “bought” people, he is using a metaphor. When Jesus died on the cross, the blood he shed was like the money someone gives the owner of a slave so that the slave can be free from his old master and can have a new master.

2:1e

bringing swift destruction on themselves: Peter said that the way the false teachers were behaving would cause God to destroy them.

swift: The Greek word which Berean Standard Bible translates swift can mean “sudden” or “imminent, soon.” It is the same word that Peter used in 1:14 when he said that he would die soon, and that is probably the meaning here. He is not saying that God would suddenly destroy the false teachers, but that he would do it soon.

destruction: The Greek word apōleia, “destruction,” is the same word as Berean Standard Bible translated “destructive” in 2:1c. It means “destruction, loss, ruin.” Here Peter was probably not referring to physical destruction, but spiritual ruin, or he may have meant that their influence over people would be destroyed.

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SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:2

2:2a

Many: This means many of the people who claimed to be Christians.

depravity: The Greek word means “very bad, immoral behavior.” It often refers specifically to sexual immorality, but not always. The other places that Peter used this word in his letters are 1 Peter 4:3, and 2 Peter 2:7, 2:18.

2:2b

the way of truth: This means the true way to live, the way Jesus and the true teachers had taught Christians to live.

will be defamed: The literal meaning of the Greek is “blaspheme, say bad things about.” Peter was saying that the bad behavior of the people who claimed to be Christians but who followed the false teachers would cause other people to say bad things about the Christian teaching about how to live.

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SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:3

2:3

Peter wrote that the false teachers would be greedy people who would lie in order to deceive other people. He wrote that this is how they would try to convince people to give them money, but that God would judge and destroy these false teachers.

2:3a

exploit: This means “profit dishonestly from someone, cheat someone.”

deceptive words: The literal meaning of the Greek is “forged/fabricated words.” This refers to the teaching of the false teachers. It is similar to the words which Peter used in 1:16a. There he said that what he and the other apostles taught were not fabricated stories. Now here in 2:3, Peter was saying that the false teachers would be the ones who would use stories that someone had fabricated.

2:3b

For a long time, even before Peter wrote these words, God had been ready to judge, condemn and destroy the false teachers.

The longstanding verdict against them remains in force: The literal meaning of the Greek is “for whom condemnation is not idle.” The Greek word that Berean Standard Bible translates as verdict means “judgement, decision.” It can refer to the decision a judge takes in court when he says that a person has done something wrong and deserves to be punished. Sometimes the word refers to the punishment itself. That is what it refers to here.

2:3c

their destruction does not sleep: This use of the negative not is really a vivid way of saying the opposite: “destruction is on the way” (New Living Translation (2004 Revision)). This is similar in form and meaning to 2:3b. Peter spoke about destruction as if it were a person doing something. If you are unable to do this in your language, you will need to state the meaning in a different form as you did in 2:3b. God is the one who will destroy the false teachers, just as he was the one who would condemn and punish them in 2:3b.

destruction: See note on 2:1e.

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SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:4

Paragraph 2:4–10a

Peter wrote this paragraph mainly to support what he said in 2:3b–c. He supported what he had said by telling three examples from the OT of how God punished wicked people and rescued people who obeyed him. These were examples with which the people to whom he wrote this letter would have been familiar.

In the Greek this whole paragraph is one long sentence, but it may be necessary for you to break it up. Read Good News Translation and notice how that version has broken the one sentence into several shorter sentences. Perhaps you should begin this paragraph with “See” or “You know that.” Think about whether that would help people who read your translation to understand that Peter was starting to prove a point here. You may even need to repeat the “See” or “You know that” each time Peter used a new example.

Although verses 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9 begin with “if” in the Berean Standard Bible, this is not because the events which Peter was talking about may not have happened. These events all did happen. This use of “if” in English (and Greek) was to prove a point, here what Peter said in verse 9. The Good News Translation shows one way to communicate this meaning without using the word “if” at all.

2:4

For: Peter was now going to say why God would certainly punish the false teachers. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version consider the link between the previous paragraph and the one that starts here in 2:4 to be clear enough, so they do not include any explicit translation of “For.” If it is necessary to clearly state the link in your language, you could say something like:

I say that God is going to punish them because…

2:4a

God did not spare the angels: This means that he did not overlook their sin. Instead, he punished them.

angels: The first example from the OT that Peter wrote about is what happened to the wicked angels. Scholars do not know for certain which angels were being referred to. (Bible scholars are not certain who these angels were. Some think the angels are “the sons of God” that Genesis 6:1–4 mentions, who came down to earth and married human women. But other scholars strongly disagree. They say that the phrase “sons of God” in Genesis does not refer to angels at all but rather to the descendants of Adam’s son, Seth. (One of the reasons they say that Genesis 6 does not refer to angels is because Jesus said in Mark 12:25 that angels do not marry.))

2:4b

hell: The Jews and Greeks who lived at the time when Peter was writing his letter believed that there was a deep pit under the earth where God imprisoned wicked angels and humans in order to punish them.

2:4c

chains of darkness: There is a problem in the Greek text here. Some manuscripts have “chains (seirais) of gloom” while others have “pits (sirois) of gloom.” That is why Berean Standard Bible says “chains of darkness” while some translations say “gloomy dungeons.” But the meaning of the two possible Greek phrases is almost the same. They both mean that God has imprisoned the wicked angels.

darkness: This means “nearly dark.” The word describes what a place looks like when there is almost no light there.

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SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:5

2:5a

The second example that Peter mentioned here are the wicked people of Noah’s time. God punished them by causing a flood to cover the earth and drown them, but he saved Noah who was a good man. You can read about this in Genesis 6–9.

the ancient world: This refers to the world long ago at the time of Noah.

its ungodly people: This means people who do not fear/respect God and therefore behave in a wicked way because they do not obey him. See also 2:6b and 3:7b.

2:5b

preacher of righteousness: Here Peter probably meant that Noah was telling the people they should live in a way that God considered good. However some scholars think it means that Noah himself was righteous, a good man. Or Peter may have meant to include both these ideas.

2:5c

the eight: These were the members of Noah’s family; his wife, his three sons and their wives (see Genesis 8:18).

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SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:6

2:6

The third example Peter gave in this chapter is of the wicked people of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God sent down fire upon these cities and destroyed them so completely that nothing was left of them but ashes. This also shows that God will punish ungodly, wicked people. You can read about this in Genesis 19:1–29.

2:6a

if He condemned…to destruction, reducing them to ashes: God, as a judge, had looked at the evil way the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were behaving and decided that they deserved to be punished.

condemned…to destruction: The version of the Greek Bible that the Berean Standard Bible follows, says condemned…to destruction (instead of just “condemned”). Here are some other translations that follow this text:

he condemned them to extinction (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
condemned them to total destruction (New English Bible)

Whether you use the translation condemned…to destruction or simply “condemned”, the basic meaning is the same.

the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah: Although Peter said that God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, he meant that God condemned the people who were in those cities. It may be necessary for you to make that clear in your translation.

2:6b

the ungodly: See the note on 2:5a.

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Source: SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2000

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 1:19

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 1:20

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 1:21

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:2

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:3

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:4

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:5

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:6

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