2 Peter 1 (BHT-ATN)

“To: Those Who Have Received a Faith Every Bit as Precious as Ours”

1 From: Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus the Messiah.

To: Those who have received by God’s will+ a faith every bit as precious as ours, through+ the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus the Messiah.+

“May Grace, and Peace, Be Yours in Ever Greater Measure”

2 May grace, and peace, be ᵖyours+ in ever greater measure on account of your knowing+ God and Jesus our Lord,+ 3 just as all things pertaining to life and godly conduct are now ours as a gift bestowed by his divine power, on account of+ our knowing the one who summoned+ us for the sake of his own honor+ and renown.+ 4 In this way+ he has bestowed on us those priceless and most wonderful blessings he promised, so that by them you may come to share+ in the very character and likeness of God,+ having escaped the moral corruption that fills the world+ as a result of evil desires.

5 It is on account of these very things, moreover, doing everything you possibly can,+ that you must add to your faith virtue, and to virtue, knowledge, 6 and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, patient endurance, and to patient endurance, godly conduct, 7 and to godly conduct, brotherly affection and concern, and to brotherly affection and concern, love. 8 These qualities, you see, if they to you truly do belong and are yours in ever greater measure,+ will make you with respect to your knowledge of our Lord Jesus the Messiah very productive and fruitful. 9 If someone lacks these qualities, you see, he is blind, so completely nearsighted as he is, having lost all sight of the fact that the guilt generated by the sins of his former life was cleansed away.+ 10 That is why you must do everything you can, brothers and sisters, all the more urgently, to put God’s summons and choice of you+ beyond repeal.+ If these are the qualities that define your conduct,+ you see, you will never falter beyond recovery.+ 11 By adding them,+ you see, entry into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Messiah will be added to you most generously.+

12 That is why I am resolved to remind you about these things continually, even though you already know them and are already firmly established in the body of true teaching you received.+ 13 I think it only right for me, as long as I am in the tent of this mortal body,+ to stir you to action by keeping them before you,+ 14 knowing that I will very soon lay aside this weak and mortal tent of mine,+ as indeed our Lord Jesus the Messiah made clear to me.+ 15 And I will do everything I can to make sure that you have, too, after I’m gone, a way to keep these things before your minds at all times.

16 It wasn’t cleverly devised myths on which we were relying,+ you see, when we told you about our Lord Jesus the Messiah’s powerful coming; no, it was with our own eyes that we witnessed+ the awesome splendor in which he will return.+ 17 Indeed, we were there when he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came to him from the Majestic Glory a voice, saying,+ “This is my dearly loved Son, with whom I am very pleased.” 18 This voice, too, we ourselves heard when it came from heaven, because we were on the holy mountain right there with him. 19 And so we possess the message proclaimed by the prophets as something whose truth and reliability has now been made even more certain,+ with respect to which+ you will do well by paying close attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until that Day dawns+ and the morning star+ itself appears on the horizon,+ 20 in your hearts+ understanding this as of first importance: In the case of any prophecy in Scripture, it isn’t by a person’s own power of interpretation+ that its meaning is unraveled.+ 21 It wasn’t by an act of human will, you see, that a prophet’s oracle was uttered in days of old.+ No, it was as they were moved by the Holy Spirit that they spoke on God’s behalf as human messengers.+

+1:1Lit have received by lot. ME/IT (see BDAG, 581, sv λαγχάνω 1; BSL, 2 Pt 2:1, sv λαγχάνω; L-N, 57.127). Cf, eg, various English translations of λαγχάνω ( lanchanō) at Lk 1:9 and Ac 1:17.+1:1Or in.+1:1Cf Ac 10:44-48, 15:14.+1:2Unless otherwise marked (through superscript—ˢyou), all second person pronouns are in the second person plural.+1:2Or because you know, or as you know, or in the knowledge of.+1:2Cf Jn 17:3; 1 Co 1:9; Php 3:8-11; 1 Th 2:12.+1:3Or through.+1:3Or called, or invited.+1:3Or praise, or glory.+1:3Or summoned us by his own glorious power and mighty act. Cf Is 42:8, 42:12, 43:7, 43:21, 48:9; Zc 6:13.+1:4Or through these things, or because of these things. Cf TEV; REB and TNT in ESS (2 Pt), 22.+1:4Lit so that you may become sharers. ME. Cf TEV; REB in ESS (2 Pt), 24. Cf Ac 10; Ga 3:7-9; Eph 1:11-14.+1:4Lit become partakers of/sharers in the divine nature. ME (see JFB, 2:517; L-N, 58.8; NAC [1 and 2 Pt, Jud], 294; UBSHS [2 Pt], 76). Cf Rm 6:5-6, 8:29; 1 Co 15; 2 Co 3:18, 4:7-5:5; Eph 4:24; Php 3:23; Col 3:4; 1 Pt 5:1; Heb 12:10; 1 Pt 1:15-16, 4:6, 5:1; 1 Jn 3:2.+1:4Lit the corruption that is in the world.+1:5Lit bringing to bear all diligence/eagerness/urgency/effort. ME (see BDAG, 939, sv σπουδαίως 1; L-N, 68.64, UBSHS [2 Pt], 78). Cf also L-N, 68.74 (ἀγωνίζομαι).+1:8Lit to you being and increasing/and multiplying. ME. Cf CJB, HCSB, NIV, TEV. The first participle denotes possession, while the meaning of the second participle is similar to 2 Pt 1:2 above.+1:9Lit getting forgetfulness of the cleansing of his past sins. ME(H/OTB) (see ESS [2 Pt], 39; L-N, 29.13; NAC [1 and 2 Pt, Jud], 302; UBSHS [2 Pt], 82. See also Timothy Miller, “Paul’s Priestly Mission and Salvation from the Coming Wrath: A Missiological Probe of Romans 15:16 and the Question of Divine Anger through the Worldview of Leviticus” [PhD diss., Columbia International University, 2024]).+1:10Lit the summons/calling and election of you, or your calling/summons and election. God is obviously the implied subject here. Cf NASB, NCV, NLT, TEV.+1:10Or to put God’s summons and choice of you beyond doubt. Lit to make the summons/call and choice of you firm/secure. ME (see BDAG, 172, sv βέβαιος 3; interpretation 2 in ESS [2 Pt], 41; L-N, 71.15). Cf NJB, TEV. According to BDAG, βεβαίαν τὴν κλῆσιν καὶ ἐκλογὴν ποιεῖσθαι ( bebaian tēn klēsin kai eklogēn poieisthai) in this context means to “to keep the call in force” (see BDAG, 172, sv βέβαιος 3). Since the supporting statement that follows most likely refers to apostasy (see NAC [1 and 2 Pt, Jud], 305), which is in turn followed by another supporting statement whose content pertains to entry into the Kingdom of God, the interpretation represented in BDAG is most likely correct here. This is further confirmed by the broader context (see, eg, 2 Pt 2:20-22). The implied warning is similar to that of Heb 4:1 and 4:11 (note that σπουδάζω [ spoudazō], the verb used here in 2 Pt 1:10, is also used at Heb 4:11). Cf also Is 50:1; Ezk 3:16-27,14:14, 18:21-29; Jn 15:2; Rm 2:6-10; 1 Co 9:24-10:1-13; 2 Co 6:1; 2 Ti 2:12; 2 Pt 2:20-22; Heb 3:14, 6:1-12; Jud 5; Re 2-3.+1:10Lit these things doing. Cf L-N, 41.7. “These things” refers to the virtues mentioned in vv 5-7.+1:10Or never fall away, or never be overthrown/defeated, or never be lost, or never stumble in sin. Lit never stumble, or never fall. ME(OTB) (see BDAG, 894, sv πταίω 2; ESS [2 Pt], 42; LALS, sv πταίω; Little Kittel, 968, sv πταίω; UBSHS [Rm], 214; UBSHS [2 Pt], 84). Cf, eg, Jb 4:1-6; Ps 37:23-24, 73:1-2; Pr 24:16; Mic 7:8; Rm 11:11.+1:11Lit in this way (referring to the virtues of vv 5-7). The antecedent has been restated in translation because of the play on words Peter makes in this verse.+1:11Cf Re 21:7-8, 26-27.+1:12Lit in the truth that is present. ME (see BDAG, 42, sv ἀλήθεια 2.b.; UBSHS [2 Pt], 87; translation and notes at 2 Th 2:15.). Cf NLT, NRSV, TEV.+1:13Lit in this tabernacle. ME/IT (see L-N, 23.91; translation and notes at 2 Co 5:1). Cf CJB, ISV, NIV, NCV.+1:13Lit by way of reminder, or by way of calling your attention to them.+1:14Lit the removing/setting aside of the tabernacle of me is soon. ME (see note at v 13 above; L-N, 23.111). ME. Cf CJB, HCSB, ISV, NCV, NIV, TEV.+1:14Cf Jn 21:18-19.+1:16Lit that we followed. ME (see UBSHS [2 Pt], 91). Cf TEV; REB and TNT in ESS (2 Pt), 59.+1:16Lit we were eyewitnesses of. ME. Cf CJB, NCV, NLT, TEV.+1:16Lit the majestic splendor of that one. Since the Second Coming is in view here, the verbal information compressed in the verb is meant to be understood as pointing forward to that event (cf translation and notes at Mt 16:28). The point here, as v 19 makes clear, is that the transfiguration was a visionary foreshadowing of the glory in which the Messiah will return at the Second Coming.+1:17Lit such a voice having been brought to him by the Majestic Glory. ME. Cf CJB, NCV, NIV, NLT, TEV. The mismatch in languages here is obvious.+1:19Lit And we have the prophetic word as more firm. ME/IT (see BDAG, 173, sv βεβαιόω 1; L-N, 28.43, 31.90). Cf CJB, ISV, NET, NIV, NLT, TEV. Cf also the translation at Rm 15:8.+1:19Or to which. The LSGNT Notes mark ᾧ ( hō) as a dative of reference.+1:19Cf Is 13:6-9; Ezk 13:5, 30:3; Jl 1:15, 2:1-31, 3:14; Am 5:18, 20; Ob 15; Zp 1:7-14; Ml 4:5; 2 Co 1:14; Php 1:6-10, 2:16; 1 Th 5:2; 2 Th 2:2.+1:19The “morning star” here is most likely a reference to the planet Venus, though some think it possibly refers to the sun (see, eg, ANLEX, 404, sv φωσφόρος; BSL, 2 Pt 1:19, sv φωσφόρος; DBL Greek, #5892; NAC [1 and 2 Pt, Jud], 321; L-N, 1.32). Apart from the sun, Venus is the brightest “star” in the sky, reaching its maximum brightness just before sunrise or just after sunset, depending on where it is in its orbit of the sun. Just as the morning star heralds the end of the night and the beginning of the new day, so the Second Coming will mark the end of this age of darkness and the beginning of His Day. Cf Gn 1:14-19; Jb 9:9, 38:32; Ps 19:1-6, 84:11; Is 40:25-26, 60:1-2; Ml 4:2; Lk 1:78; Rm 10:14-18, 13:11-12.+1:19Cf Nu 24:17; Re 22:16.+1:20Most English translations group “in your hearts” with “rises” here. However, it is just as reasonable (contra Kelly; see ESS [2 Pt], 79) for it to be grouped with what follows (cf Green in ESS [2 Pt], 79), since in the NT the heart is understood not only as the seat of the emotions, but of the thoughts and will as well (see translation and notes at Mk 3:5). Cf, eg, Mt 9:4; Mk 2:8; Lk 2:19, 5:22, 21:14, 24:38; Rm 10:6-9. Shreiner’s assertion that in this instance the “the objective event and the subjective experience seem to be confused” ( NAC [1 and 2 Pt, Jud], 322) is unwarranted.+1:20Or it isn’t by private interpretation.+1:20Or No prophecy in Scripture comes about by the prophet’s own interpretation/explanation. Lit Every prophecy of Scripture does not become of one’s own/his own unraveling. ME (see BSL, 2 Pt 1:20, sv ἐπίλυσις; NAC [1 and 2 Pt, Jud], 322; UBSHS [2 Pt], 99). For a summary of interpretive options here, see ESS (2 Pt), 83. If ἐπίλυσις ( epilusis) means interpretation/explanation (as is almost certainly the case; see, eg, L-N, 33.141; NAC [1 and 2 Pt, Jud], 322), then in this context γίνομαι ( ginomai) means to “become explained,” or to “become interpreted (accurately),” ie, become understood/unraveled. Hence the translation here. Cf Lk 24:25-35; Eph 3:4-5.+1:21Lit For not by the will of man was a prophecy conveyed in the past (or at any time). ME (see BDAG, 1052, sv φέρω 7). προφητεία ( prophētia) here means essentially the same thing as τὸν προφητικὸν λόγον ( ton prophētikon) in v 19 (cf ISV, NCV, NIV, NLT, TEV there; NLT here). ποτέ ( pote) here has a meaning similar to what it has at 1 Pt 3:5 (cf CJB, HCSB, KJV, NASB, NCV, NET, NIV, NKJV, NLT, TEV there). The true prophets, rather than the false, are obviously meant here. Cf Jr 23; Ezk 13.+1:21Lit spoke from God men. ME. Cf REB in ESS (2 Pt), 89.