2 Peter 2:1

But there were false prophets also among the people The section of the Epistle which now opens contains so many parallelisms with the Epistle of St Jude that we can scarcely avoid the conclusion that one was derived from the other, or both from a common source. For a discussion of the questions which thus present themselves see Introduction. As regards the meaning of the words it is again an open question whether the Apostle refers to the remoter past of the history of Israel, to the false prophets of the days of Ahab (1 Kings 22:12), or Isaiah (Isaiah 9:15; Isaiah 28:7), or Jeremiah (Jeremiah 14:14; Jeremiah 27:10), or Ezekiel (Ezekiel 13:3), or Zechariah (Zechariah 13:4), or to those who in his own time had deceived the "people" (the distinctive term for "Israel") in Jerusalem. The warnings against false prophets in our Lord's discourses (Matthew 7:22; Matthew 24:24), and the like warnings in 1 John 4:1, make it probable that he had chiefly the latter class in view. In the Greek compound noun (pseudo-didaskaloi) for "false teachers" we have another word peculiar to St Peter. The word was, perhaps, chosen as including in its range not only those who came with a direct claim to prophetic inspiration, but all who without authority should appear as teachers of a doctrine that was not true, and, as such, it would include the Judaizing teachers on the one side, the Gnosticizing teachers on the other. Comp. the distinction between "prophets" and "teachers" in Ephesians 4:11; 1 Corinthians 12:29.

who privily shall bring in The verb is that from which was formed the adjective which St Paul uses for the "false brethren unawares brought in " (Galatians 2:4). Are we justified in thinking that St Peter speaks of the same class of Judaizing teachers, or that he uses the word as indicating that it was applicable to others also, who were, it might be, at the opposite extreme of error?

damnable heresies Literally, heresies of destruction. The word "heresy," literally, "the choiceof a party," was used by later Greek writers for a philosophic sect or school like that of the Stoics or Epicureans, and hence, as in Acts 5:17; Acts 15:5; Acts 24:5; Acts 26:5; Acts 28:22; 1 Corinthians 11:19, for a "sect" or "party" in the Church, and thence, again, for the principles characterizing such a sect, and so it passed to the ecclesiastical sense of "heresy." The English adjective "damnable" hardly expresses the force of the Greek genitive, which indicates that the leading characteristic of the heresies of which the Apostle speaks was that they led men to "destruction" or "perdition." Comp. the use of the same word in 1 Timothy 6:9. It may be noted that it is a word specially characteristic of this Epistle, in which it occurs six times; twice here, and in 2 Peter 2:2-3, and chap. 2 Peter 3:7; 2 Peter 3:16.

even denying the Lord that bought them The word for Lord (despotes), literally, a master as contrasted with a slave (1 Timothy 6:1-2), is used of Christ here, in the hymn, which we may fairly connect with St Peter, in Acts 4:24, in Revelation 6:10, and, in conjunction with the more common word for Lord (Kyrios), in Judges 1:4. Here the choice of the word was probably determined by the connexion with the idea of "buying," as a master buys a slave. The use of that word presents a parallelism with the thought of 1 Peter 1:18, and here, as there, we have to think of the "precious blood of Christ" as the price that had been paid. No words could better assert the truth that the redemption so wrought was universal in its range than these. The sin of the teachers of these "heresies of perdition" was that they would not accept the position of redeemed creatures which of right belonged to them. The "denial" referred to may refer either to a formal rejection of Christ as the Son of God, like that of 1 John 2:22-23, or to the practical denial of base and ungodly lives. The former is, perhaps, more prominently in view, but both are probably included. We cannot read the words without recollecting that the writer had himself, in one memorable instance, denied his Lord (Matthew 26:69-75). In his case, however, the denial came from a passing cowardice and was followed by an immediate repentance. That which he here condemns was more persistent and malignant in its nature, and was as yet unrepented of.

bring upon themselves swift destruction The adjective, which is peculiar to St Peter in the New Testament (here and in chap. 2 Peter 1:14), implies the swift unlooked-for manner of the destruction that was to be the end of the false teachers rather than the nearness of its approach. The Apostle seems to contemplate either some sudden "visitation of God," or possibly some quick exposure of their falsehood and baseness before men, ending in their utter confusion.