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At a glance
- Traditional author
- Peter
- Traditional date
- c. AD 64–68, shortly before Peter's martyrdom (2 Peter 1:14)
- Traditional audience
- Believers threatened by scoffers and false teachers
Listed in: Western 66, Roman Catholic 73, KJV 1611 with Apocrypha (80), Ethiopian 81.
Meaning of 2 Peter
As a whole, 2 Peter portrays perseverance in true knowledge against scoffers. Its farewell shape calls readers to holiness while waiting for the day of God.
Traditional understanding
The letter names Simon Peter, an eyewitness of the Transfiguration, as its author (2 Peter 1:1, 16–18). The church received it into the canon, and Orthodox, Catholic, and historic Protestant tradition hold it as Peter's final letter before his martyrdom.
Historical context
Delay of Christ’s coming exploited by immoral teachers.
Setting of the writing
2 Peter warns against scoffers who exploit delayed hope. The writing setting is farewell vigilance against immoral teachers. The occasion calls for holiness and remembrance of apostolic truth until the day of God.
Literary shape
Testamentary polemic recalling apostolic witness and urging holiness. Remembrance is the antidote to scoffing.
Themes
- true knowledge
- false teachers
- Parousia
- holiness
- apostolic witness
2 Peter chapter by chapter
Knowledge and the day (1–3)
2 Peter 1 — Make your calling sure
His divine power has granted them all things that pertain to life and godliness, so that they may become partakers of the divine nature; therefore they are to supplement faith with virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. If these qualities increase they keep them from being unfruitful and confirm their calling and election, for an entrance into the eternal kingdom will be richly provided. They did not follow cleverly devised myths: they were eyewitnesses of his majesty on the holy mountain, and they have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, a lamp until the day dawns, for men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Spirit.
Meaning: Equal-standing faith still needs a ladder of virtues and a remembered cleansing. The Transfiguration is not a myth but a lamp until daybreak, and prophecy is Spirit-borne speech the church must keep after Peter’s tent is folded.
2 Peter 2 — False teachers and a swift destruction
False teachers will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and in their greed they will exploit with false words; if God did not spare sinning angels, the ancient world, or Sodom, but rescued Noah and Lot, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly and keep the unrighteous under punishment. These revel in the daytime, entice unsteady souls, and have followed Balaam’s way of gain; they are waterless springs, promising freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption. If after escaping the world’s defilements they are again entangled, the last state is worse than the first: the dog returns to its vomit.
Meaning: Greedy sensuality wearing freedom’s name is the letter’s crisis. Noah and Lot prove the Lord can rescue and judge at once, and a washed sow returning to mire is worse than never knowing the way.
2 Peter 3 — The day of the Lord and a new creation
Scoffers will come in the last days asking where the promise of his coming is, deliberately overlooking that by God’s word the world that then existed was deluged with water, and that the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire. The Lord is not slow as some count slowness, but is patient, not wishing that any should perish; the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and the heavens will pass away with a roar. Since these things are to be dissolved, what sort of people ought they to be, waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, counting the patience of the Lord as salvation, and growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Meaning: Scoffers treat delay as disproof; the flood already answers that the word can unmake a world. Patience is salvation, fire will expose the works, and the church waits for a righteous new earth.