2:10a

God will punish all people who do wrong. In verses 4–9, Peter had been talking about such people in general, but now in verse 10, he returned to the false teachers whom, he said, God would punish especially severely. He gave two reasons for this: their immoral behavior and the way they despised authority.

the flesh: The Berean Standard Bible translates the Greek word literally as flesh. This refers to the fact that people want to do what their bodies desire to do, even if this is something wrong. In this verse, Peter was referring to sinful sexual behavior which causes people to think and behave in an impure way.

authority: This probably refers to the right that God and Christ have to rule people. Good News Translation: “and despise God’s authority.” But some scholars think it means the right that any person has to rule people. If these scholars are correct, Peter was talking about people who not only despised God’s right to rule people but also despised the right that humans, for example government and church leaders, have to rule other people.

Paragraph 2:10b–13a

Peter was saying that the false teachers did all kinds of wicked things. They did not show respect for anyone, not even those greater than themselves. They behaved like wild animals, doing only what their bodies desired to do. Because they were so evil, and because they enticed others to behave as they themselves did, God would destroy them.

2:10b

Bold: This word can mean “courageous,” which is something good. But here it described people who dared to do all kinds of wrong things because they did not respect and fear God as people should respect and fear him, and because they did not care about other people.

self-willed: This word described people who were proud and stubborn. They did not listen to anyone else. Instead, they did exactly what they wanted to do.

2:10c

unafraid to slander: Most versions interpret these words like Berean Standard Bible in a way that refers to only one action. This is the most likely interpretation. Here is another example:

are not afraid of offending the glorious ones (The Jerusalem Bible)

Good News Translation follows the other interpretation and refers to two actions:

“they show no respect—instead they insult them.”

glorious beings: The literal meaning of the Greek is “glorious ones.” It is difficult to know to whom Peter was referring. The word may refer to:

(1) angels or other heavenly beings, maybe the wicked angels that Peter mentioned in verse 4. The parallel verses 8–11 in Jude clearly refer to angels.

(2) important people such as emperors, magistrates, or important church leaders. But this is less likely since the word usually refers to spiritual beings.

If possible, it is better to choose a neutral expression which could refer to any living beings, heavenly or human leaders. But if this is impossible, choose one of these interpretations and translate it that way. Then if you are using footnotes, explain the other interpretation in a note.

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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.