complete verse (2 Peter 2:19)

Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Peter 2:19:

  • Uma: “Those teachers say: ‘If you follow our (excl.) teaching, you will be released from law, you can do whatever you want.’ But in fact it is they themselves who live like slaves, for behavior that cause the downfall of mankind control them. For if we have desires that control us, we are enslaved by those desires of ours.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “They promise the people that if they follow them, they can do whatever they want because they have no master. But this is the truth, even they themselves are like slaves to their bad customs. For whoever is addicted to do a certain thing, he is enslaved by that which he is doing.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Those teachers say that we can be saved by means of following them, for they say that any kind of behaviour is permitted to us, however, they are more deeply enslaved by activites which can destroy, for we (incl.) know that a person is a slave of anything which controls him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “They promise that a person will be free if he follows what they teach, but the truth of it is, they themselves are enslaved by the sins which defile (lit. cause-to-be-filthy) and ruin them. Because a person, he becomes a slave of whatever/whoever defeats him.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “They even promise that whoever will follow/obey their teaching, they really are now free, it now being possible/acceptable to do whatever they want to, for they are no longer slaves to the will of another. But well, as for the ones putting out that (idea), they are in fact slaves themselves to destructive/dangerous evil. Because the truth is, we people are slaves to whatever has control of us.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “They tell the people to do whatever they want to do. But they themselves cannot depart from the evil life they live. For every person, the road he takes, he finds that he can’t leave it.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Eastern Arrernte “They say to people, ‘You don’t have to obey God or any man,’ but they themselves continue to obey the devil. Look, the person who obeys his evil desires, for him his evil desires act as boss over him.” (Source: Carl Gross)

Translation commentary on 2 Peter 2:19

They refers to the false teachers, and them to the new converts referred to in the previous verse. The freedom that is promised is not political but spiritual freedom. Many suggestions have been made as to what this freedom refers to, among which are the following:

1. It is freedom from fear of punishment at the end of the world. As verse 3 and chapter 3 indicate, the false teachers seem to have become skeptical regarding judgment in general and about the second coming of Christ in particular. In view of this they no longer believe in the idea of a final judgment.

2. It is freedom from corruption or perishability. This means that the false teachers taught that they and their followers are already beyond the bounds of human mortality. This also connects the idea of freedom with what follows in the verse, where the false teachers are described as “slaves of corruption.”

3. If the false teachers are Gnostics, then the freedom that they are talking about is freedom from the enslavement of powers in the universe that are inferior to God, with the result that people feel they are completely free. However, there is no agreement among scholars that these false teachers are Gnostics.

4. It may be freedom from the law, that is, freedom from any rules and regulations that govern the Christian life. This results in a life completely free of any moral restraints. This relates “freedom” to the attitude of the false teachers, who considered themselves completely free from the law and therefore able to do anything they please, including immorality and debauchery.

Although alternative 4 is the most likely interpretation, translators should, if possible, use a general word for freedom. However, in the case of languages that require an object of freedom, we will need to say, for example, “freedom from rules and regulations.”

These people who promise freedom to others are themselves slaves of corruption. This again is a Hebrew idiom; to be a slave of something is to be so controlled and overcome by that thing that you become helpless and hopeless in the face of it. Corruption is one of the keywords in 2 Peter; it is used also in 1.4 and 2.12 (“destruction”). It can mean moral depravity, and certainly this was true of the false teachers with their moral laxness and their indulgence in immoral acts. But more probably corruption here puts emphasis not so much on moral character as on final and ultimate destruction as a result of sin. Thus Good News Translation “destructive habits” is closer to the meaning than slaves of corruption. Other ways of rendering this are “completely controlled by destructive habits” or “completely controlled by habits that will destroy them.” They themselves is emphatic in the Greek.

Peter reinforces his argument with a popular proverb. Whatever (Good News Translation “anything”) translates a dative form that can be taken as masculine, “to whom,” thus “to whomever one becomes subject.” This fits the origin of the proverb, which stemmed from the practice of slave trading; the slaves are first overcome before they are sold. The masculine also fits the context, since the main subject of the discussion is the false teachers. However, it is perhaps more likely that what we have here is a generic neuter, whatever referring to any force, whether personal or impersonal; thus “to whatever one becomes subject.” Overcomes means “defeats” or “overpowers.” Enslaved translates a passive verb that brings out the idea of taking upon oneself the characteristics of slaves, among which are complete ownership by someone, absence of any rights, absolute obedience and loyalty to owners, and helplessness in overcoming such a degrading condition. The final part of this verse may also be rendered “for a person is completely under the control of anything that has conquered him (or, defeated him).”

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 .

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:19

2:19

The false teachers taught the people who had recently become Christians that they could live however they wanted to live because they were free. In other words, these teachers taught that God no longer required people to obey his laws. But in fact, the teachers were slaves to their own wicked behavior, and they themselves were not free to do what was right.

2:19a

freedom: Peter did not specify what the false teachers promised freedom from. Most probably they were promising that those who followed them would be free from the need to obey any rules on how a Christian should behave. They were probably teaching that Christians could therefore behave just as they wanted to, even immorally. In languages where there is no word for freedom, you could translate this as: “You are no longer under the law,” or “God does not require you to obey his laws any more.”

2:19b

slaves to depravity: The Greek word that Berean Standard Bible translates depravity is the same word that Peter used in 1:4, where Berean Standard Bible translated it “corruption.” See note on 1:4b. The wicked way that they behaved controlled them and would ruin them.

2:19c

For: This word links 19c to 19b. You may need to make the link clearer by saying something like “I call them slaves because….”

a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him: This was probably a well-known proverb. Peter quoted it to explain why he had called the false teachers “slaves of depravity” in 19b. They had allowed their desire to do wicked and immoral things control them and so now they were like slaves to those wicked actions and could behave in no other way.

mastered: The Greek word here means “overcome by, defeated by.”

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