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2 Peter 2:5

in 2 Peter 2

if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

and spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

KJV

And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

This verse in 2 Peter 2

Commentary

14 notes on this verse
And spared not the old world - The world before the flood. The argument here is, that he cut off that wicked race, and thus showed that he would punish the guilty. By that awful act of sweeping away the inhabitants of a world, he showed that people could not sin with impunity, and that the incorrigibly wicked must perish.

This site's exposition

if He did not spare the ancient world

The flood follows the angels, as in Genesis 6. God did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, kerux, a herald, a title this letter gives no other man. The God who judged that world will judge this one.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers5 voices

A commentator

Oecumenius

Commentary on 2 Peter · Written before 550.

proposed

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them into chains of gloomy Tartarus10, delivering them to be kept for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought …

A commentator

Hilary of Arles

INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER · Written before 449.

proposed

The ungodliness of those who lived in the time from Adam to Noah was what caused the flood.

A commentator

Book of Enoch

1 Enoch, Chapters 9-11 · Written before -300.

proposed

And then Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel looked down from heaven and saw much blood being shed upon the earth, and all lawlessness being wrought upon the earth. And they said one to another: 'The earth made without inhabitant cries the voice of their cryingst …
Let us turn to every age that has passed, and learn that, from generation to generation, the Lord has granted a place of repentance to all such as would be converted unto Him. Noah preached repentance, and as many as listened to him were saved.

A commentator

Tertullian

An Answer to the Jews · Written before 220.

proposed

Noah also, uncircumcised-yes, and inobservant of the Sabbath-God freed from the deluge. For Enoch, too, most righteous man, uncircumcised and in-observant of the Sabbath, He translated from this world; who did not first taste death, in order that, being a candidate for eternal life, he might by this time show us that we also may, without the burden of the law of Moses, please God.
7 more voices on this verse

The Medieval Church3 voices

A commentator

Bede

Commentary on the Catholic Epistles · Written before 735.

proposed

And He did not spare the original world. It is the same world in which the human race now dwells, which was inhabited by those who lived before the flood. Yet, nonetheless, that original world is rightly called another, as it is written in the …

A commentator

Bede

Commentary on the Catholic Epistles · Written before 735.

proposed

But He preserved Noah, the preacher of righteousness, etc. It is known to all that Noah was born in the tenth generation from Adam, but he is called the eighth because eight people survived the flood, of whom he was one. He mentions the number …

A commentator

Theophylact of Ohrid

Commentary on 2 Peter · Written before 1107.

proposed

Not without reason does the apostle begin with believers, who are more honorable, but he wishes to show that they are liable to greater condemnation for their sins. They have the advantage of being the first called to apostleship. Therefore, for going astray from the …

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)

And spared not the old, the antediluvian, world, but he preserved Noah the eighth person - that is, Noah and seven others, a preacher as well as practicer, of righteousness.
And spared not the old world,.... In distinction from the present world, that now is; which was, as it were, formed anew out of that which was destroyed by the deluge.

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Contrasted with the densely peopled "world of the ungodly." preacher--not only "righteous" himself (compare 2Pe 2:8), but also "a preacher of righteousness": adduced by Peter against the licentiousness of the false teachers (2Pe 2:2) who have no prospect before them but destruction, even as it overtook the ungodly world in Noah's days.

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Spared not the old world - The apostle’s argument is this: If God spared not the rebellious angels, nor the sinful antediluvians, nor the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, he will not spare those wicked teachers who corrupt the pure doctrines of Christianity. Saved Noah the eighth - Some think that the words should be translated, Noah the eighth preacher of righteousness; but it seems most evident, from 1Pe 3:20, that eight persons are here meant, which were the whole that were saved in the ark, viz. Shem, Ham, Japhet, and their three wives, six; Noah’s wife seven; and Noah himself the eighth. The form of expression, ογδοον Νωε, Noah the eighth, i.e. Noah and seven more, is most common in the Greek language. So in Appian, Bell. Pun., p. 12, Τριτος δε ποτε εν σπηλαιῳ κρυπτομενος ελαθε, sometimes he the third (i.e. he with two others) lay hid in a cave. Andocides, Orat. iv. p. 295: Αἱρεθεις επι τουτῳ δεκατος αυτος, he himself the tenth (i.e. he and nine others) were chosen to this. See a number of other examples in Kypke. World of the ungodly - A whole race without God - without any pure worship or rational religion.

The words behind it

15 Greek words

Every Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Hebrews 11:7

    By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes…

    it leads to

    • Genesis 6:13

      Then God said to Noah, “The end of all living creatures has come before Me, because through them the earth is full of violence. Now behold, I will destroy both them and the earth.

    • 1 Peter 3:20

      who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In the ark a few people, only eight souls, were saved through water.

    • Ezekiel 14:14

      then even if these three men—Noah, Daniel, and Job—were in it, their righteousness could deliver only themselves, declares the Lord GOD.

    • Romans 4:13

      For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world was not given through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

    • Luke 17:26

      Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man:

  • Through

    2 Peter 3:6

    through which the world of that time perished in the flood.

    it leads to

    • Matthew 24:38–39

      For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark.

    • Genesis 7:10–23

      And after seven days the floodwaters came upon the earth.

    • Luke 17:27

      People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

Where this verse is studied

About 2 Peter

The Transfiguration, Giovanni Bellini, about 1478 to 1479, Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte. Public domain.
The Transfiguration, Giovanni Bellini, about 1478 to 1479, Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte. Public domain.
This page draws on 13 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on the Catholic Epistles; Book of Enoch, 1 Enoch, Chapters 9-11; Clement of Rome, Clement's First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 7; Hilary of Arles, INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oecumenius, Commentary on 2 Peter; Tertullian, An Answer to the Jews and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on 2 Peter.