📖 2 Peter

Πέτρου Β (Petrou B) — 'Of Peter, 2' — the second letter bearing the apostle Peter's name, and by its own account his last testament, written with death in view.

The MOST DISPUTED book in the New Testament canon — cast as Peter's farewell, arming the church against false teachers and scoffers who deny Christ's coming. It stakes everything on the writer having SEEN the Transfiguration, and gives the New Testament's clearest word on how prophecy is inspired: men 'carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.'

Chapters

1 of 3 chapters translated · 33.3%

Gold chapters are published — click one to read it. The rest are still ahead.

123

Chapter by chapter

2 Peter 1The MOST DISPUTED book in the New Testament canon — the early church itself hesitated over it, and it was the last writing to win a secure place. It presents itself, deliberately, as Peter’s LAST TESTAMENT, written knowing “the putting off of my tent is soon.” It opens by calling Jesus God outright — “our God and Saviour Jesus Christ” (the Granville-Sharp grammar named in the notes) — and tells latecomers their faith is of “EQUAL STANDING” (isotimos) with the apostles’ own. ⚠ Then the boldest phrase of its kind in the NT: through the promises believers “become PARTAKERS of the DIVINE NATURE” (theias koinōnoi physeōs) — the seed of the Eastern doctrine of theosis, hedged by the verse as escaping corruption, not absorption into God. There follows a ladder of virtues, a sorites that Christianises the Stoic list: faith → excellence (aretē, the crown-word of Greek ethics) → knowledge → self-control → endurance → godliness → brotherly affection → LOVE. ⚠ Against teachers who call Christ’s coming a fable, the writer stakes all on having SEEN: “we were EYEWITNESSES of his majesty” on the holy mountain, when the Father’s voice named him “my Son, my beloved.” And it ends on the NT’s clearest word on inspiration — the prophetic word as “a lamp shining in a murky place, until… the MORNING STAR rises,” and prophecy borne not “by the will of man, but men, CARRIED ALONG by the Holy Spirit, spoke from God.”

About the book

Where it sits

The TWENTY-SECOND book of the New Testament, the third of the General Epistles — and the LAST book to win a secure place in the canon. Its reception was the rockiest of any New Testament writing: Origen (3rd c.) noted the doubts, Eusebius (4th c.) listed it among the ANTILEGOMENA, the 'disputed' books, and it is absent or questioned in several early witnesses. It was accepted, but slowly and with open reservation — a fact the letter's own history wears on its sleeve.

Genre

A LETTER in the form of a farewell TESTAMENT — the ancient genre of the dying patriarch's last charge (as Jacob's in Genesis 49, Moses' in Deuteronomy, Paul's in 2 Timothy). The writer knows 'the putting off of my tent is soon' (1:14) and writes so that 'after my departure' the readers can recall his words (1:15). Its long central chapter is a blistering polemic against false teachers that runs closely parallel to Jude.

Author

Claims to be PETER — 'Simeon Peter' (1:1), the eyewitness of the Transfiguration (1:16-18), the one to whom Christ foretold his death (1:14), who calls Paul 'our beloved brother' (3:15). ⚠ Yet it is the New Testament book whose authorship is doubted most widely: its Greek differs sharply from 1 Peter's, it absorbs almost the whole of Jude, it treats Paul's collected letters as 'Scripture' (3:16) — implying a settled corpus — and it looks back on 'the fathers' who 'have fallen asleep' (3:4) as a past generation. On these grounds most modern scholars judge it pseudonymous, written in Peter's name around AD 100–130, a genuine testament-genre work rather than a forgery in the modern sense. Defenders answer that a different secretary explains the Greek, and that the testament frame is Peter's own. The library sets out the case and casts no vote.

Date written

c. AD 64–65 on the traditional reading, from Rome just before Peter's death under Nero; c. AD 100–130 on the pseudonymous view — the latest date proposed for any New Testament book. The date follows the authorship question, and the reference to Paul's letters as 'Scripture' and to 'the fathers' who have died pulls hardest toward the later end.

Place

ROME on the traditional reading, the same 'Babylon' as 1 Peter, in the apostle's final days; unknown on the pseudonymous view, wherever the later writer worked. The letter itself gives no place.

Audience

A general Christian readership — 'those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours' (1:1), with no named region, though 3:1 calls it 'the second letter I am writing to you', tying it to 1 Peter's audience in Asia Minor. The concrete threat is internal: FALSE TEACHERS who deny the Lord who bought them, exploit the church for gain, promise freedom while enslaved to corruption (ch. 2), and SCOFFERS who mock the delay of Christ's coming — 'where is the promise of his coming?' (3:4). The letter writes to inoculate them: hold the apostolic memory and the prophetic word against a corrosion coming from within.

How it's laid out

1:1–11The summons to grow: the divine power that grants all things, the pledge of the divine nature, and the ladder of virtues — faith to love — that confirms one's calling and election.

1:12–21The apostle's testament: the tent soon to be folded, the Transfiguration eyewitness, and the prophetic word 'made more sure', inspired by men 'carried along by the Holy Spirit'.

2:1–22The false teachers: their coming judgment (the angels, the flood, Sodom), their sensuality and greed, 'the dog returns to its own vomit' — the chapter parallel to Jude.

3:1–18The scoffers and the day of the Lord: 'with the Lord one day is as a thousand years', the heavens dissolved, 'new heavens and a new earth', and 'grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord'.

What it's about

TRUE vs COUNTERFEIT KNOWLEDGE — epignōsis, real acknowledging knowledge of Christ, frames the letter (1:2, 3, 8; 3:18) and is set against the false teachers' hollow gnōsis; the antidote to error is a deeper knowing, not merely a right opinion.
PARTAKERS of the DIVINE NATURE — the boldest phrase of its kind in the New Testament (1:4), the seed of the Eastern doctrine of theosis, hedged by the verse itself as participation in God's holy life, not absorption into his being.
THE APOSTOLIC EYEWITNESS — against 'cleverly devised myths' the writer stakes all on having SEEN the majesty on the holy mountain (1:16-18); the faith rests on memory of a real event, not on speculation.
HOW PROPHECY IS INSPIRED — 'no prophecy was ever borne by the will of man, but men, carried along by the Holy Spirit, spoke from God' (1:21) — the New Testament's clearest single picture of inspiration, the companion to 2 Timothy 3:16.
THE CERTAINTY of the LORD'S COMING — against the scoffers, the delay is God's patience, not his absence: 'with the Lord one day is as a thousand years' (3:8-9), and the day will come 'like a thief', dissolving the heavens.
GROWTH and STABILITY — the letter opens and closes on growth (1:5-8; 3:18); against a corrosion from within, the safeguard is to keep advancing in virtue and in the knowledge of Christ.

Key words & people

Words this book turns on — each links to its dictionary entry:

isotimosepignōsisaretēphōsphoroseusebeiaagape

People & places — each links to the encyclopedia:

Peter Jesus

The source text

Translated from the Greek of the SBL GREEK NEW TESTAMENT (SBLGNT), edited by Michael W. Holmes. The Greek of 2 Peter is the most singular in the New Testament — florid, ambitious, heavy with rare and grandiose words (many found nowhere else in the Bible), and markedly UNLIKE the smoother Greek of 1 Peter. ⚠ That difference is central to the authorship debate: one cultured hand can hardly have written both in these two styles, which is why most who accept 1 Peter as Petrine still doubt 2 Peter. Chapter 1 is well preserved; its notable feature is not variants but vocabulary — aretē, isotimos, phōsphoros, epoptai, myōpazōn — the Hellenistic moral lexicon pressed into Christian service.

Looking forward

2 Peter's Christ is named GOD outright in its first verse — 'our God and Saviour Jesus Christ' (1:1), the Granville-Sharp construction that, uniquely here and at Titus 2:13, calls him God in so many words. He is the one whose 'divine power has granted us all things for life and godliness' (1:3), whose majesty was seen transfigured on the holy mountain when the Father's voice named him 'my Son, my beloved' (1:17), and whose COMING (parousia) — mocked by the scoffers — is the letter's great certainty. The morning star that rises in the heart (1:19) is read of him. The whole letter is written to defend the reality of his return against those who, seeing the delay, had begun to deny it.

Where the debates are

AUTHORSHIP and DATE above all — the most disputed in the New Testament: Peter's own last testament, or a later disciple writing in his name c. AD 100–130. The relationship with JUDE — which borrowed from which, or whether both drew on a common source (most judge 2 Peter the borrower). The meaning of 'partakers of the divine nature' (1:4) and how far theosis may be pressed. Whether 1:20's 'no prophecy is of one's own interpretation' concerns the ORIGIN of prophecy or its READING. And the scope of the cosmic dissolution of chapter 3. The library reports the positions; it does not vote.