2 Peter 1

11. an entrance--rather as Greek, "the entrance" which ye look for.
ministered--the same verb as in 2 Peter 1:5 . Minister in your faith virtue and the other graces, so shall there be ministered to you the entrance into that heaven where these graces shine most brightly. The reward of grace hereafter shall correspond to the work of grace here.
abundantly--Greek, "richly." It answers to "abound," 2 Peter 1:8 . If these graces abound in you, you shall have your entrance into heaven not merely "scarcely" (as he had said, 1 Peter 4:18 ), nor "so as by fire," like one escaping with life after having lost all his goods, but in triumph without "stumbling and falling."

12. Wherefore--as these graces are so necessary to your abundant entrance into Christ's kingdom ( 2 Peter 1:10 2 Peter 1:11 ).
I will not be negligent--The oldest manuscripts read, "I will be about always to put you in remembrance" (an accumulated future: I will regard you as always needing to be reminded): compare "I will endeavor," 2 Peter 1:15 . "I will be sure always to remind you" [ALFORD]. "Always"; implying the reason why he writes the second Epistle so soon after the first. He feels there is likely to be more and more need of admonition on account of the increasing corruption ( 2 Peter 2:1 2 Peter 2:2 ).
in the present truth--the Gospel truth now present with you: formerly promised to Old Testament believers as about to be, now in the New Testament actually present with, and in, believers, so that they are "established" in it as a "present" reality. Its importance renders frequent monitions never superfluous: compare Paul's similar apology, Romans 15:14 Romans 15:15 .

13. Yea--Greek, "But"; though "you know" the truth ( 2 Peter 1:12 ).
this tabernacle--soon to be taken down ( 2 Corinthians 5:1 ): I therefore need to make the most of my short time for the good of Christ's Church. The zeal of Satan against it, the more intense as his time is short, ought to stimulate Christians on the same ground.
by--Greek, "in" (compare 2 Peter 3:1 ).

14. shortly I must put off--Greek, "the putting off (as a garment) of my tabernacle is speedy": implying a soon approaching, and also a sudden death (as a violent death is). Christ's words, John 21:18 John 21:19 , "When thou art old," &c. were the ground of his "knowing," now that he was old, that his foretold martyrdom was near. Compare as to Paul, 2 Timothy 4:6 . Though a violent death, he calls it a "departure" (Greek for "decease," 2 Peter 1:15 ), compare Acts 7:60 .

15. endeavour--"use my diligence": the same Greek word as in 2 Peter 1:10 :this is the field in which my diligence has scope. Peter thus fulfils Christ's charge, "Feed My sheep" ( John 21:16 John 21:17 ).
decease--"departure." The very word ("exodus") used in the Transfiguration, Moses and Elias conversing about Christ's decease (found nowhere else in the New Testament, but Hebrews 11:22 , "the departing of Israel" out of Egypt, to which the saints' deliverance from the present bondage of corruption answers). "Tabernacle" is another term found here as well as there ( Luke 9:31 Luke 9:33 ): an undesigned coincidence confirming Peter's authorship of this Epistle.
that ye may be able--by the help of this written Epistle; and perhaps also of Mark's Gospel, which Peter superintended.
always--Greek, "on each occasion": as often as occasion may require.
to have . . . in remembrance--Greek, "to exercise remembrance of." Not merely "to remember," as sometimes we do, things we care not about; but "have them in (earnest) remembrance," as momentous and precious truths.

16. For--reason why he is so earnest that the remembrance of these things should be continued after his death.
followed--out in detail.
cunningly devised--Greek, "devised by (man's) wisdom"; as distinguished from what the Holy Ghost teaches (compare 1 Corinthians 3:13 ). But compare also 2 Peter 2:3 , "feigned words."
fables--as the heathen mythologies, and the subsequent Gnostic "fables and genealogies," of which the germs already existed in the junction of Judaism with Oriental philosophy in Asia Minor. A precautionary protest of the Spirit against the rationalistic theory of the Gospel history being myth.
when we made known unto you--not that Peter himself had personally taught the churches in Pontus, Galatia, &c., but he was one of the apostles whose testimony was borne to them, and to the Church in general, to whom this Epistle is addressed ( 2 Peter 1:1 , including, but not restricted, as First Peter, to the churches in Pontus, &c.).
power--the opposite of "fables"; compare the contrast of "word" and "power," 1 Corinthians 4:20 . A specimen of His power was given at the Transfiguration also of His "coming" again, and its attendant glory. The Greek for "coming" is always used of His second advent. A refutation of the scoffers ( 2 Peter 3:4 ): I, James and John, saw with our own eyes a mysterious sample of His coming glory.
were--Greek, "were made."
eye-witnesses--As initiated spectators of mysteries (so the Greek), we were admitted into His innermost secrets, namely, at the Transfiguration.
his--emphatical (compare Greek): "THAT great ONE'S majesty."

17. received . . . honour--in the voice that spake to Him.
glory--in the light which shone around Him. came Greek, "was borne": the same phrase occurs only in 1 Peter 1:13 ; one of several instances showing that the argument against the authenticity of this Second Epistle. from its dissimilarity of style as compared with First Peter, is not well founded.
such a voice--as he proceeds to describe.
from the excellent glory--rather as Greek, "by (that is uttered by) the magnificent glory (that is, by God: as His glorious manifested presence is often called by the Hebrews "the Glory," compare "His Excellency," Deuteronomy 33:26 , Psalms 21:5 )."
in whom--Greek, "in regard to whom" (accusative case); but Matthew 17:5 , "in whom" (dative case) centers and rests My good pleasure. Peter also omits, as not required by his purpose, "hear Him," showing his independence in his inspired testimony.
I am--Greek aorist, past time, "My good pleasure rested from eternity."

18. which came--rather as Greek, "we heard borne from heaven."
holy mount--as the Transfiguration mount came to be regarded, on account of the manifestation of Christ's divine glory there.
we--emphatical: we, James and John, as well as myself.

19. We--all believers.
a more sure--rather as Greek, "we have the word of prophecy more sure (confirmed)." Previously we knew its sureness by faith, but, through that visible specimen of its hereafter entire fulfilment, assurance is made doubly sure. Prophecy assures us that Christ's sufferings, now past, are to be followed by Christ's glory, still future: the Transfiguration gives us a pledge to make our faith still stronger, that "the day" of His glory will "dawn" ere long. He does not mean to say that "the word of prophecy," or Scripture, is surer than the voice of God heard at the Transfiguration, as English Version; for this is plainly not the fact. The fulfilment of prophecy so far in Christ's history makes us the surer of what is yet to be fulfilled, His consummated glory. The word was the "lamp (Greek for 'light') heeded" by Old Testament believers, until a gleam of the "day dawn" was given at Christ's first coming, and especially in His Transfiguration. So the word is a lamp to us still, until "the day" burst forth fully at the second coming of "the Sun of righteousness." The day, when it dawns upon you, makes sure the fact that you saw correctly, though indistinctly, the objects revealed by the lamp.
whereunto--to which word of prophecy, primarily the Old Testament in Peter's day; but now also in our day the New Testament, which, though brighter than the Old Testament (compare 1 John 2:8 , end), is but a lamp even still as compared with the brightness of the eternal day (compare 2 Peter 3:2 ). Oral teachings and traditions of ministers are to be tested by the written word ( Acts 17:11 ).
dark--The Greek implies squalid, having neither water nor light: such spiritually is the world without, and the smaller world (microcosm) within, the heart in its natural state. Compare the "dry places" Luke 11:24 (namely, unwatered by the Spirit), through which the unclean spirit goeth.
dawn--bursting through the darkness.
day star--Greek, the morning star," as Revelation 22:16 . The Lord Jesus.
in your hearts--Christ's arising in the heart by His Spirit giving full assurance, creates spiritually full day in the heart, the means to which is prayerfully giving heed to the word. This is associated with the coming of the day of the Lord, as being the earnest of it. Indeed, even our hearts shall not fully realize Christ in all His unspeakable glory and felt presence, until He shall come ( Malachi 4:2 ). Isaiah 66:14 Isaiah 66:15 , "When you see this, your heart shall rejoice . . . For, behold, the Lord will come." However, TREGELLES' punctuation is best, "whereunto ye do well to take heed (as unto a light shining in a dark place, until the day have dawned and the morning star arisen) in your hearts." For the day has already dawned in the heart of believers; what they wait for is its visible manifestation at Christ's coming.

20. "Forasmuch as ye know this" ( 1 Peter 1:18 ).
first--the foremost consideration in studying the word of prophecy. Laying it down as a first principle never to be lost sight of.
is--Greek, not the simple verb, to be, but to begin to be, "proves to be," "becometh." No prophecy is found to be the result of "private (the mere individual writer's uninspired) interpretation" (solution), and so origination. The Greek noun epilusis, does not mean in itself origination; but that which the sacred writer could not always fully interpret, though being the speaker or writer (as 1 Peter 1:10-12 implies), was plainly not of his own, but of God's disclosure, origination, and inspiration, as Peter proceeds to add, "But holy men . . . spake (and afterwards wrote) . . . moved by the Holy Ghost": a reason why ye should "give" all "heed" to it. The parallelism to 2 Peter 1:16 shows that "private interpretation," contrasted with "moved by the Holy Ghost," here answers to "fables devised by (human) wisdom," contrasted with "we were eye-witnesses of His majesty," as attested by the "voice from God." The words of the prophetical (and so of all) Scripture writers were not mere words of the individuals, and therefore to be interpreted by them, but of "the Holy Ghost" by whom they were "moved." "Private" is explained, 2 Peter 1:21 , "by the will of man" (namely, the individual writer). In a secondary sense the text teaches also, as the word is the Holy Spirit's, it cannot be interpreted by its readers (any more than by its writers) by their mere private human powers, but by the teaching of the Holy Ghost ( John 16:14 ). "He who is the author of Scripture is its supreme interpreter" [GERHARD]. ALFORD translates, "springs not out of human interpretation," that is, is not a prognostication made by a man knowing what he means when he utters it, but," &c. ( John 11:49-52 ). Rightly: except that the verb is rather, doth become, or prove to be. It not being of private interpretation, you must "give heed" to it, looking for the Spirit's illumination "in your hearts" (compare Note,

21. came not in old time--rather, "was never at any time borne" (to us).
by the will of man--alone. Jeremiah 23:26 , "prophets of the deceit of their own heart." Compare 2 Peter 3:5 , "willingly."
holy--One oldest manuscript has, "men FROM God": the emissaries from God. "Holy," if read, will mean because they had the Holy Spirit.
moved--Greek, "borne" (along) as by a mighty wind: Acts 2:2 , "rushing (the same Greek) wind": rapt out of themselves: still not in fanatical excitement ( 1 Corinthians 14:32 ). The Hebrew "nabi," "prophet," meant an announcer or interpreter of God: he, as God's spokesman, interpreted not his own "private" will or thought, but God's "Man of the Spirit" ( Hosea 9:7 , Margin). "Thou testifiedst by Thy Spirit in Thy prophets." "Seer," on the other hand, refers to the mode of receiving the communications from God, rather than to the utterance of them to others. "Spake" implies that, both in its original oral announcement, and now even when in writing, it has been always, and is, the living voice of God speaking to us through His inspired servants. Greek, "borne (along)" forms a beautiful antithesis to "was borne." They were passive, rather than active instruments. The Old Testament prophets primarily, but including also all the inspired penmen, whether of the New or Old Testament ( 2 Peter 3:2 ).