2 Peter 2:2

ἀρνούμενοι. They deny by their lives that Christ is their Master, and also in some cases by their teaching: for many who had grown up in the strong Monotheism of the Jews and had accepted Christianity to some extent, denied the divinity of Christ. In 1 John 2:22 we read of some who denied that Jesus was Christ.

ἐξακολουθήσουσιν as 2 Peter 1:16.

διʼ οὓς ἡ ὁδὸς τῆς�. This thought, of bringing discredit on the Christian name, is not uncommon in N.T.: Romans 2:23 to Romans 4:25; Romans 3:8; Titus 2:5; James 2:7 : cf. Acts 19:9. We know that, as a matter of fact, the most ghastly stories of the excesses of the Christians were current in Roman society. Though the greater part of these tales were due to the fact that Christians met secretly for worship, it is possible that the proceedings of the teachers described here may have supplied some material that was not fictitious.

There is a coincidence of language here with the Apocalypse of Peter, § 7, οἱ βλασφημοῦντες τὴν ὁδὸν τῆς δικαιοσύνης (see below, 2 Peter 2:21), and also, as noted on p. xviii, with the Apology of Aristides.

The “way of truth” is a phrase due to Psalms 119:30.

2 Peter: These men, like irrational beasts, whose natural end is to be snared and killed, speaking evil of what they do not know (a vague phrase), will certainly perish.
It affords a good example of the elaboration of Jude by our writer and of the consequent loss of clearness. Jude has a clear antithesis, which is set aside in 2 Peter: yet the language of the altered half of the antithesis (ἀλόγα ζῷα, φυσικά) is retained and used to a different end.

Such is the impression I gather: Dr Bigg, on the other hand, says: “Jude has rewritten this rugged sentence and made it much more correct and much less forcible.”

γεγεννημένα … εἰς … φθοράν. Wetstein gives a good illustration from a rabbinic source: “a calf led to the slaughter ran to Rabbi Judah, put its head into his bosom and wept: but the Rabbi said, ‘Go: thou wert created for this end.’  ”

ἐν τῇ φθορᾷ κ.τ.λ. Cf. ἐν ἐμπαιγμονῇ ἐμπαῖκται 2 Peter 3:3. Best taken as an emphatic prediction of destruction.