2 Peter 2:22

τὸ τῆς ἀληθοῦς παροιμίας : “the content of the true proverb” has been “verified,” or “realised” in their case. The first proverb is found in Proverbs 26:11. The second is apparently not derived from a Hebrew source. Both are quoted familiarly in an abbreviated form (cf. WM. p. 443). The interpretation of the second is an exegetical crux. Bigg takes λουσαμένη = “having bathed itself in mud”. The sense is, “not that the creature has washed itself clean in water (so apparently the R.V.), still less that it has been washed clean (as A.V.), and then returns to the mud; but that having once bathed in filth it never ceases to delight in it”. This, however, is to force the meaning of λουσαμένη, which is consistently used of washing with water. Again, the point of the proverb is to illustrate to τὰ ἔσχατα χείρονα τῶν πρώτων. The dupes of the false teachers were cleansed and returned to pollution.

The question is important whether λουσαμένη is Middle or Passive? Dr. Rendel Harris (Story of Aḥiḳar, p. lxvii.) may have discovered the original proverb in the following, appearing in some texts of Aḥiḳar. “My son, thou hast behaved like the swine which went to the bath with people of quality, and when he came out, saw a stinking drain, and went and rolled himself in it”. If this be the source of the παροιμία. λ. is Middle (Moulton, Proleg. pp. 238 39).

A friend of my own, with a knowledge of animals, tells me that the pig is often washed in certain forms of dishealth, to open the pores of the skin. The animal, being unprotected by hair, finds the sun's heat disagreeable, and wallows again in the mud for coolness. The dried mud protects the skin from the rays. βόρβορος found only here and in Jeremiah 38:6. Cf. Acta Thomae, 53. εἶδον βόρβορον … καὶ ψυχὰς ἐκεῖ κυλιομένας. In the Legends of Pelagia, which, though late, are written in good vernacular Greek, both noun and corresponding verb are found. ἐλθοῦσα περιστερὰ μελάνη καὶ βεβορβορωμένη περιεπέτατό μοι, καὶ τὴν δυσωδίαν τοῦ βορβόρου αὐτῆς οὐκ ἠδυνάμην φέρειν. (Die Pelag. Legend., ed. Usener, p. 21). Bishop Wordsworth suggested that the double proverb is an inexact quotation of two iambic lines

εἰς ἴδιον ἐξέραμʼ ἐπιστρέψας κύων

λελουμένη θʼ ὗς εἰς κύλισμα βορβόρου.

If he is right, 2 Pet. cannot be charged with the use of the two rare words, βορβόρου and ἐξέραμα. Bigg suggests (ed., p. 228) that the Proverbs of Solomon had been unified by some Jewish paraphrast, and this one of the pig added to the canonical collection.