THE
SECOND LETTER OF THE DELEGATE PETER.
[WRITTEN FROM ROME, A. D. 65.]
I.—SIMON ( from the Hebrew shimown, hearing) PETER (Gk:petros; piece of rock), a slave and Delegate of Yeshua The Anointed, to those who have obtained precious faith with the same value to us, through the righteousness of our God and Savior Yeshua The Anointed: Favor and peace be multiplied to you, through the knowledge of God, and of Yeshua our Lord;
3 seeing that his divine power has gifted to us all things which are necessary for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who has called us to glory and excellence. Through which by these he has granted to us His greatest and most precious promises freely given to us, that by these we might be made partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.
5 And for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith, excellence; and to excellence, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, patient endurance; and to patient endurance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness (Philadelphia); and to brotherly kindness, love (agape): for if these things are in you, and abounding, they make you neither idle, or unfruitful, in the knowledge of our Lord Yeshua The Anointed. But he, who does not have these things, is blind, shutting his eyes, having become forgetful of the purification of his old sins. Therefore, brethren, endeavor to make your calling and selection sure; for doing these things, you shall never fall: and so there shall be richly furnished to you, an entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Yeshua The Anointed.
12 Therefore, I will not neglect to always put you in remembrance of these things, although you know, and are established in the present truth. Yes, I think it fit, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up, by putting you in remembrance; knowing, that the putting off of this my tabernacle is soon to happen, even as our Lord Yeshua The Anointed has showed me. Therefore, I will carefully endeavor, that you may be able, after my exit, to have these things always in remembrance.
16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Yeshua The Anointed, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty; for when he received from God the Father, honor and glory, a voice came to him from the majestic glory, “This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I delight.” And we heard this voice coming from heaven, being with him on the holy mountain: so we have the forthteller’s word more firm; to which you do well to pay attention, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star arises in your hearts. Knowing this first, that no forthtelling of scripture is of a private explanation ; for never, at any time, was forthtelling brought by the will of man; but as the Holy Spirit moved men to speak from God.
Chapter 2
II.–But there were also false forthtellers among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you; who will privately introduce destructive sects (Gk: hairesis, choices), denying even the Lord who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their filthy practices, and because of them the way of truth will be defamed (spoken evil). And through greed, they will exploit you, by fictitious tales; to whom the punishment threatened is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
4 For if God, did not spare the messengers who sinned, but cast them into Tartarus ( the deepest abyss of Hades, (the realm of the dead),and delivered them to pits of darkness to be kept for judgment; and did not spare the old world, but saved Noah a proclaimer of righteousness with seven others, when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly; and if having reduced to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, He punished them with an overthrow, making them an example to those who should afterward live ungodly; and if He rescued righteous Lot, greatly disturbed by the wicked and filthy behavior of the lawless: (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds) 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unrighteous for the day of judgment, to be punished; but especially those who go after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and who despise rulers.
10 Daring, self-willed, they do not fear to speak evil of glories; whereas messengers, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring evil accusations against those before the Lord. But these, as natural irrational animals, made for capture and destruction, speaking evil of matters which they do not understand, shall be utterly destroyed by their own corruptions; receiving the due reward of unrighteousness. These delight to spend the day in luxurious festivity: they are spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceits when they feast with you; having eyes full of the adultery, incessantly sinning, entrapping unstable souls; having a heart exercised with greediness; accursed children!: having forsaken the right path, they have wandered, following in the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved (agape) the wages of injustice, and was rebuked for his transgression; the mute donkey, speaking with man’s voice, reprimanded the madness of the forthteller.
17 These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for whom, the blackness of darkness is reserved forever: for speaking great over swelling words of falsehood, they entrap, by the lusts of the flesh, and by filthiness, those who have actually fled away from those who are living in error. They promise them liberty, while they themselves are slaves of corruption: for everyone is enslaved by that which overcomes him. Now, if having fled away from the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Yeshua The Anointed, and being again entangled, they are overcome by them; their last condition is worse than the first. Therefore, it would have been better for them, not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them. But the true saying of the proverb has happened to them: “The dog has returned to his own vomit; and the washed hog, to its wallowing in the dung.”
Chapter 3
III.–Beloved, this is the second letter I now write to you, in which I stir up your sincere mind to remembrance: to be mindful of the words before spoken by the holy forthtellers, and of the commandment of us, the Delegates of the Lord and Savior.
3 Knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking after their own lusts; and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for from the time the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as at the beginning of the creation. But this willfully escapes them, that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed from the water, and by water: the world that then was deluged with water, was destroyed. But the present heavens and the earth, by the same word are reserved, being kept for fire for a day of judgment, and the destruction of ungodly men.
8 But do not let this one thing escape you beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord does not delay his promise in the manner some account delaying; but he exercises patience (Gk:makrothumeo to be long-spirited) towards us, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. However, as a thief, the day of the Lord will come; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements burning shall be dissolved; and the earth, and the works that are on it, shall be utterly burned.
11 Seeing, then, all these things shall be dissolved;–what sort of persons ought you to be, in holy behavior and godliness, expecting, and diligently desiring, the coming of the day of God; in which the heavens being set on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements burning, shall be melted? But we, according to his promise, expect new heavens, and a new earth, in which dwells righteousness.
14 Therefore, beloved, expecting these things, diligently endeavor to be found by him spotless, and blameless, in peace. And consider the patience of our Lord, to be for salvation; as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, has written to you. As, in all his letters, speaking in them concerning these things: in which there are some things that are hard to be understood, which the untaught and unstable torture, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, beloved, foreknowing these things, be on your guard; so that you will not be led away with the straying lawless and fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in the favor, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Yeshua The Anointed. To him be glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (truth, so be it)