SIL Translator’s Notes on 2 Peter 2000

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:8

2:8

This verse describes more about how Lot felt about his wicked neighbors. The wicked actions he saw and heard “tormented” his heart. “Tormented” is even stronger than “distressed” in verse 7.

lawless deeds: Although the Greek word for lawless that Peter used here is different from the one he used in 2:7b, the meaning is the same. (The Berean Standard Bible translates both Greek words as “lawless”. These were the actions of people who did not fear or respect God.

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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 1:7

1:7a

brotherly kindness: This is one word in Greek. It refers to how brothers and sisters of the same family love each other and show that they care about each other. Christians in Peter’s time used it also to refer to how Christians loved other Christians.

1:7b

love: The Greek word Peter used here means “love” for all people, not only for families and other Christians.

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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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SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 1:18

1:18

Peter emphasized that “we ourselves” heard this voice, so you should emphasize “we” in your translation also. If your language has a special pronoun that people use to emphasize “we,” you should use that pronoun here.

holy mountain: The mountain was holy because of what happened there. If the only word available in your language means “pure, clean,” then it is better to say “God’s mountain.”

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SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 3:9

3:9b

patient with you: Peter once again addressed his readers directly with the pronoun “you.” Perhaps the false teachers were influencing some of the people to whom Peter wrote this letter, and so he appealed directly to the people who would read his letter, rather than saying “patient with people.”

3:9c

perish: The Greek verb here belongs to the same group of words as the word translated “destruction” in 2:1e. See the note in that verse.

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SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:9

2:9

This is what Peter used the examples in 2:4–8 to prove. The three examples show that God will punish wicked people and rescue good people.

2:9a

if all this is so: These words are not in the Greek text, but Berean Standard Bible includes them to show that Peter was now stating what all that he had said from verse 4 to 8 proved. The Display line of 2:9a shows a longer way to express this link. Here is a short way to express this link:

therefore

the Lord knows how to: The meaning here is not just that God knows how to rescue godly people, but that he will certainly do it. It could also mean “he is accustomed to do it.”

the Lord: Here the Lord refers to God, not Jesus, and it may be necessary for you to translate it as “Lord God” to make this clear.

the godly: This is the opposite of the word translated “ungodly” in 2:5, 6. Godly people are those who do fear God and, as a result, behave in the way God wants them to. See also the note on “godliness” in 1:3a.

trials: Peter was thinking here about how Christians suffer when they live in a pagan society.

2:9b

to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment: The literal meaning of this part of the verse is “to keep the wicked, being punished, for the day of judgment.” This part of the verse probably means one of two things:

(1) God is guarding wicked people carefully to prevent them from escaping so that he will be able to judge them on the Day of Judgement, when he will judge everyone. At the same time, he is already punishing them. The participle “being punished” is present tense which normally shows that the action is happening at the same time as the main verb (in this verse the main verb is “kept,” which the Berean Standard Bible translates as hold). For example:

how to keep the wicked under punishment for the Day of Judgement (Good News Translation)
-or-
and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgement (Revised Standard Version)

(New International Version (2011 Revision), Good News Translation, Revised Standard Version)

(2) God will finally condemn and punish wicked people on the Day of Judgement. Until then, he will guard them to prevent them from escaping. The present participle can have a future sense, and the words “judge” and “punish” usually refer to the final judgement, so some scholars believe that it is future punishment which Peter has referred to here.

and how to reserve his punishment for the wicked until their day comes (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
-or-
and hold the wicked for their punishment until the day of Judgement (The Jerusalem Bible)

(Berean Standard Bible, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, The Jerusalem Bible)

It is recommended that you follow the first interpretation (1), which is in the Meaning Line of the Display.

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SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 1:8

1:8

In this verse Peter told what good results would come if Christians did the things he wrote about in 1:5–7. In the next verse he told about the bad results that would come if they did not do those things.

1:8b

ineffective: This means “useless, unable to do anything good.”

unproductive: This is similar in meaning to “ineffective” and means “barren, not producing anything good.”

Berean Standard Bible translates these two words in a way that emphasizes their negative meaning. “Ineffective” means “not effective” and unproductive means “not productive.” It is also possible to translate the words in a way that expresses a positive meaning. For example:

you will be useful and productive
-or-
they will make you active and effective (Good News Translation)

in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ: This may mean one of two things:

(1) “concerning your knowing the Lord Jesus Christ.” If this is what Peter was saying, he meant that knowing Jesus Christ would result in people living in a good way. For example:

knowing our Lord Jesus Christ has not made your lives either complacent or unproductive. (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

(2) “towards knowing the Lord Jesus Christ.” If this is what Peter was saying, he meant that if people lived in a good way, it would result in them knowing Jesus Christ even better. For exmaple:

they will bring you to a real knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (The Jerusalem Bible)

It is recommended that you follow the first interpretation.

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SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:20

2:20–22

It is not clear about whom Peter was speaking in these verses.

(1) He may have been referring to the false teachers. This is the most natural way to understand the Greek. Some English versions use the pronoun “they” here. As the false teachers have been the main subject of the verses which precede this verse, it seems that these versions follow this interpretation.

(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version (2011 Revision), Revised Standard Version, Contemporary English Version)

(2) Some scholars say that Peter was referring to the people who had recently become Christians. Peter used the same verb (Berean Standard Bible “escaped”) in this verse as he had used in verse 18 when speaking of those who had recently become Christians.

(3) Or perhaps he was stating generally that if any person who had become a Christian returned to pagan ways, the result for him would be worse than if he had remained a pagan and had never become a Christian in the first place. Some versions translate the subject as referring to people in general. For example:

anyone (The Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
men (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

(The Jerusalem Bible, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, Good News Translation)

This whole chapter has described the false teachers, and they are the subject of verses 18 and 19, so it seems most likely that verse 20 also refers to these teachers, though Peter’s words are also true about anyone who has turned away from following Christ. The Notes follow this interpretation. According to this interpretation, “If” at the beginning of the verse is stating a fact (as in 2:4). It is not referring to something that may or may not have happened. (See the last paragraph of the note in the introduction to 2:4–10a).

2:20

In the Greek, and in Berean Standard Bible, New International Version (2011 Revision), and Good News Translation, this verse is one sentence, but you will probably need to break it into two or more sentences.

In the Greek text the word gar, which some versions translate as “for,” shows how Peter linked this verse to the verses which preceded it. Other versions like Berean Standard Bible, New International Version (2011 Revision), Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version leave the relationship implicit.

2:20a

corruption: Literally “defilement, pollution.” The Greek word that Peter used here is not the same as the one he used in 1:4b, but the underlying meaning is almost the same.

the world: This does not refer to the physical world which God created, but to the non-Christians among whom the people to whom Peter was writing lived. These people practiced many immoral customs which ruined people spiritually. When Peter wrote about the “corruption of the world” in this verse he was referring to such immoral customs. See also note on 1:4b.

2:20b

through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: Peter has already used the expression the knowledge of several times in this letter (see 1:2, 1:8 and the notes on those verses). It is by means of coming to know Christ that a person is able to escape from living in the wicked way the non-Christians live.

2:20c

entangled: When used literally the Greek word which Berean Standard Bible translates entangled means “entwined.” It is the word used when a woman plaits her hair. Here Peter used it figuratively and it means “to be involved in, mixed up with.” This part of the verse says that the false teachers have once more got involved in the wicked way of living from which they had escaped when they came to know Christ.

overcome by it again: This is the same Greek verb as Peter used in 19c, where Berean Standard Bible translates it “mastered.” Here again Peter was saying that the false teachers, despite having once become free from the wicked things which non-Christians do, once more were allowing those things to control them.

2:20d

their final condition: This phrase refers to the time when Peter was writing, the time after the false teachers had turned away from the true Christian teaching which they once followed.

it was at first: This phrase refers to the time before they became Christians.

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Source: SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2000

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:8

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 1:7

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:19

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 1:18

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 3:9

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:9

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 1:8

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:20

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