2 Peter 2:1-16

The second chapter of the Epistle stands entirely by itself. It is of so peculiar a character, that some have doubted whether it belonged originally to this Epistle, or could have been written by the same hand. It abounds in uncommon or entirely exceptional phrases, and is marked by a singularly broken style. It introduces a subject, and is pervaded by a tone, which are very different from what the previous chapter presents. The subject, however, is not absolutely unconnected with what precedes. The writer's anxiety that his readers should remain established in the truth, after his own decease, prepares the way for what he has to say about the dangers of the future. And the change in the tone is not inconsistent with the change in the theme. The colours, however, in which he gives the outline of the future are of the darkest, and the terms which he uses are of the strongest. He speaks of the rise of false teachers in the Church as a certain thing, if not indeed a thing already realized. He describes their efforts, their pretensions, their successes, their lives, their fates, in a long train of passionate utterances, which have been compared to ‘blasting volleyed thunder.' The terrible picture of the working of this ‘mystery of iniquity' within the Church is unrelieved, too, by any reference to the ultimate victory of the kingdom of Christ, or to the larger issues of the conflict between good and evil. The gloom of the description is mitigated only by the assurance that the Lord knows as well how to deliver the godly themselves as to bring swift and awful destruction upon their enemies and seducers. The relation in which this chapter stands to the Epistle of Jude is also a matter of some interest. The points at which the two writings meet are too numerous and too marked not to demand explanation. Some argue, accordingly, in favour of the priority of Peter; others with equal decision assert the priority of Jude. The question whether the peculiarities of the case are to be explained on the theory of Peter's dependence on Jude, on that of Jude's dependence on Peter, or on that of the dependence of both upon a common source, is far from being settled, if indeed it admits at all of anything like conclusive settlement. We shall find, too, that along with very striking and continuous resemblances to Jude, this chapter exhibits some remarkable variations.