For when they speak great swelling [words] of
vanity
Marvellous things against the God of gods, great things and
blasphemies against God, his name, his tabernacle, and his
saints; see ( Daniel 11:36
) ( Revelation 13:5
Revelation 13:6 ) ; or
against men, dominions, and dignities, ( 2 Peter 2:10
) ; or it may design their self-applauses and vain glorying in
themselves, and their empty boast of knowledge and learning; and
also express the windiness of their doctrines, and the bombast
style, and high flown strains of rhetoric in which they were
delivered; as likewise the flattering titles they bestowed on men
for the sake of their own worldly interest and advantage; see (
Jude 1:16 ) and
hereby
they allure, through the lusts of the flesh, [through
much]
wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who
live in error:
that is, from those who lived in the error of Heathenism or
Judaism, from whom, and which, they were clean escaped; or truly,
really, and entirely delivered, being fully convinced of the
falsity thereof, and of the truth of the Christian religion;
though some copies, as the Alexandrian, and two of Beza's, and
two of Stephens's, read, not (ontwv) , "truly", but (oligwv) , "a little"; and the Vulgate Latin version
renders it, "a very little"; to which agrees the Complutensian
edition; and the Syriac version renders it "in a few words", or
"almost"; and according to the Ethiopic version, "a few persons"
are designed; but be they more or less, and truly, or but a
little, and for a little while, or almost, escaped from their
former errors, in which they were brought up, and lived; yet by
the carnal lusts and liberties, lasciviousness and wantonness,
which these false teachers indulged, they were allured, ensnared,
and drawn by them into their wicked principles and practices.