2 Peter 3:3

2 Peter 3:3. knowing this first; the same formula, with the same force, as in chap. 2 Peter 1:20.

that in the last of the days; so it should be rendered, in accordance with a reading which is preferred by the best critical editors. That followed by the A. V., though it is translated ‘in the last days,' would mean literally ‘at the end of the days,' and is not altogether identical with the other. On these phrases see Note on 1 Peter 1:5. Here the ‘last of the days' mean the times immediately preceding the Second Coming of Christ, and immediately introducing the Messianic Age, otherwise described as the ‘age to come.' That new Messianic Age of the Church had begun, indeed, to enter with Christ's First Coming, but was to enter finally with that Second Coming which the quick faith of the first believers realized as nigh at hand.

mockers shall come in mockery. This longer reading has documentary support which is not to be resisted. The A.V., by omitting the phrase ‘in mockery,' which is quite in consonance with the Hebraic cast of much else in the Petrine Epistles, strips the statement of its most graphic stroke. When these mockers come, they will come in character. Both nouns are unusual in the N. T., the former occurring again only in Jude 1:18, the latter (although another form of the same is found in Hebrews 11:36) only here.

walking after their own lusts. The expression is a very strong one. The Musts' are described as their very own, and as the one rule or aim recognised in their life. The lustful life and the scoffing voice are not associated here without a purpose. Sensuality and faith, coarse self-indulgence and clear spiritual apprehension, cannot coexist. The mocking spirit is the sister or child of the unclean spirit. It is to be noticed that this passage is made use of in a treatise attributed to Hippolytus, ‘unquestionably the most learned member of the Roman Church' in the early part of the third century.