2 Peterchapter 1
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Speaks with:2 Peter 3×3Philippians 3×2Matthew 17×2Titus 2×1Romans 3×12 Corinthians 4×1
Summary
Chapter summary
The letter opens with a claim about resources: 'his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,' and by his exceeding great promises 'ye may become partakers of the divine nature' (1:3-4). Then the ladder. In your faith supply virtue; in virtue, knowledge; then self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, love. For if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble. The ground of it all is eyewitness: 'we did not follow cunningly devised fables… but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty,' hearing on the holy mount, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' The word of prophecy is 'a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts' (1:19).
Context
Epistle · Peter — 2 Peter overview
- A. 1–11 Add to Your Faith: The Ladder That Keeps You From Stumbling
- B. 12–15 I Will Stir You Up While I Am in This Tent
- C. 16–21 Not Cunning Fables: We Heard the Voice on the Holy Mount
The outline
A.Add to Your Faith: The Ladder That Keeps You From Stumblingvv. 1 to 11
Read vv. 1 to 11 →B.I Will Stir You Up While I Am in This Tentvv. 12 to 15
Read vv. 12 to 15 →C.Not Cunning Fables: We Heard the Voice on the Holy Mountvv. 16 to 21
Read vv. 16 to 21 →
The world behind this chapter
2 Peter 1The history
The body as a tent was a common way of speaking in both Greek and Jewish writing — a temporary shelter to be folded up. Peter says he will put his tent aside soon, which reads as a man settling his affairs.
The list of qualities to add to faith looks like the virtue chains Greek moral teachers used, and that resemblance is probably deliberate. Peter takes a familiar shape and fills it with different content, ending not with self-sufficiency but with love.
The word Peter uses for being an eyewitness of Christ's majesty was a technical term in the Greek mystery religions for someone admitted to the highest level of initiation. He is claiming, against teachers selling secret experience, that he was on the mountain and heard the voice himself.
Prophecy in the wider world came from oracles, dream interpreters, and inspired speakers, and it was famously ambiguous. Peter draws a line: the prophetic word did not come by a man's own impulse but from men carried along by the Holy Spirit — a picture of a ship driven by wind.
What it meant to them
The hearers were being told the real thing lay behind a door only the teachers could open. Peter answers that everything needed for life and godliness has already been given, and then hands them a list of things to do about it.
For a church about to lose its last living apostles, the promise that he would make sure they could recall these things after his departure was a promise about what would remain when the eyewitnesses were gone.
Sources cited
- Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 2 Peter 1. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 19 · Where the theme lands
The word of prophecy 'made more sure' (2 Pet 1:19) ranked above heavenly signs; Ps 19:7-11 is the Psalm's own pivot from sky to Scripture - the honest landing.
Psalms 19:7→The Law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy, making wise the simple.
2 Pet 1:19; Ps 19:7 (ASV)
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.