OVERVIEW: Peter saw his primary responsibility as his duty to warn the churches of the dangers that they would face after his departure from this life. He knew that the time left to him on earth was short, and therefore he felt that it was right to use it in this way, even at the risk of appearing to be repetitive. Peter grounds his faith and his calling in his experience of the transfiguration, which he portrays as the meeting point of heaven and earth, when the meaning of prophecy was fully revealed. He wrote to people who knew the truth already and exhorted them to live up to it (BEDE). The truth is the gospel (HILARY OF ARLES), of which the faithful need a constant reminder (OECUMENIUS). On three occasions the same Peter who wrote both the first and the second letter (GREGORY THE GREAT) would have known that the voice from heaven had confirmed Jesus’ sonship—at his baptism, transfiguration and on the cross (THEOPHYLACT, ANDREAS). In this confirmation the Son in the flesh revealed his glory in the Father (HILARY OF ARLES).
Peter concludes by reminding his hearers that the Bible cannot be interpreted by individuals relying on their own fantasies, because it is not the word of humans. Scripture was given to holy people who were moved by the Spirit of God and therefore is approached as a divine revelation that brings the light of Christ’s transfiguration to us. The lamp of the prophetic word is necessary until the daylight comes (BEDE), until the light of truth shines upon all (AUGUSTINE, CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). Even Balaam was empowered to attest this word (ANDREAS). No prophecy comes from humans but by the Holy Spirit (SYMEON). The urge to interpret is constrained (BEDE), and no attempt is made by the prophet to slant the meaning of the divine word (OECUMENIUS). Faith will recognize its meaning (ANDREAS). Prophecy is focused on the delivery of God’s message, whether it is fully understood or not (BEDE, OECUMENIUS).
THOUGH YOU KNOW THEM. HILARY OF ARLES: The people to whom Peter is writing already know what he has to say because they have read his first letter. The truth which he has to share with them is the New Testament, for as Paul said: “The old has passed away, and all things are made new in Christ.”1 INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.2
WHAT TO FEAR, WHAT TO SEEK. ANDREAS: Peter repeats what he has already said about virtue and the commandments consequent on it, through which we shall enter the kingdom of heaven with great assurance. Notice how, when speaking of the kingdom of heaven, Peter first goes over the things we should be afraid of and then over the good things, ending up with the judgment seat. CATENA.3
I INTEND ALWAYS TO REMIND YOU. BEDE: Why did Peter want to go on reminding people of these things, when he says that they know them and are already established in the presence of the truth? Perhaps the reason was that he wanted them to turn their head knowledge into practical action and maintain the truth which they knew they had, in order to escape being led away from the purity and simplicity of their faith by teachers of heresy, of whom he has a good deal to say in the course of his letter. Compare what Peter says to John’s statement in his first epistle: “I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it.”4 The apostles wrote to people who knew the truth already and exhorted them to live up to what they knew. As John added a little further on: “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you.”5 ON 2 PETER.6
BEING CONSTANTLY REMINDED. OECUMENIUS: Peter tells his hearers that they already know what he is talking about, so that they will not think that it is because they are lazy that they have to be constantly reminded of these things and get upset as a result. COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.7
CALLING GENTILES TO FAITH. HILARY OF ARLES: Peter thought that it was right to call Gentiles to faith, but the Jews did not. This is why he expresses himself like this here. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.8
THIS BODILY TENT. BEDE: Peter calls his body a tent because we normally use tents when we are on a journey or in combat. Those who believe are rightly said to be dwelling in tents as long as they are in the body and distant from the Lord, because it is in this bodily tent that they are journeying through life and fighting the enemies of the truth. ON 2 PETER.9
IN THIS BODY. OECUMENIUS: Some think that Peter was saying this in order to ensure that even after his death his hearers would still remember what he was saying to them and go on practicing it. Others say that Peter’s intention was simply to leave a record behind him, so that it could be referred to after his death, for he was not condemning their inadequacy in matters of faith but merely confirming them in the way which they were already pursuing. COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.10
AS THE LORD SHOWED HIM. HILARY OF ARLES: The Lord Jesus showed Peter that his end was near either by a revelation through the Holy Spirit or by his response to Peter when he said: “Get behind me, Satan”11 or perhaps by dreams and visions in the night. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.12
PUTTING OFF THIS EARTHLY TENT. BEDE: Peter has a wonderful way of describing his death, not as the end but as a putting off of this earthly tent, because going to be with the Lord is like coming home from a journey and exchanging the tent for the comforts of home. The only home a believer has is in heaven. ON 2 PETER.13
HIS END COMING QUICKLY. THEOPHYLACT: Peter explains that he keeps repeating the same things to his hearers because he knows that his end is coming quickly and that he will soon be delivered from his body. COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.14
ABLE TO RECALL THESE THINGS. HILARY OF ARLES: By writing to them often Peter hoped to leave something behind him after his death. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.15
THE HOPE OF CHRIST’S RETURN. ANDREAS: The reason why we have to remember these things is that we hope that Christ will soon come back and transform our present life. CATENA.16
SEEING THE TRUTH. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The constructions of the heretics are myths and human fantasies, which Paul wants us to avoid, as he writes: “Warn a heretic once or twice, and after that have nothing to do with him.”17 Peter is here already starting to do battle against the heretics. To the extent that they do not possess the truth, heretics are obliged to concoct a lie by using flowery words. But we are not like that, he says, because we saw the truth with our eyes when we were with him on the mountain. Therefore we have the prophets who have proclaimed the same truth to us, and even better, as we came to behold ourselves, the Word came to us. What the prophets foretold, Christ fulfilled when he appeared. We were witnesses of this, and we heard the Father’s testimony also. CATENA.18
THE POWER AND COMING OF OUR LORD. BEDE: In this verse Peter strikes out at pagans and at heretics as well. Pagans were not afraid to divinize anything they happened to like, whereas heretics, although they received the mysteries of the true God, paid no attention to the teaching of Scripture but by wrongly interpreting it did their best to twist it to suit their own falsehoods. ON 2 PETER.19
NO CLEVERLY DEVISED MYTHS. OECUMENIUS: Peter says that he has not invented stories like those of the Valentinians20 but merely handed on the teaching of Christ in simple and humble words, as Paul also told the Corinthians he was doing.21 COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.22
THE SON RECEIVED GLORY. HILARY OF ARLES: The one who received glory and honor was not inferior to the one who bestowed these things, because it was in his human flesh that the Son received them, not in his eternal divinity. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.23
THE SECOND EPISTLE WRITTEN BY PETER. GREGORY THE GREAT: There used to be many people who thought that this letter was not written by Peter. But it is enough to read this verse, and you will soon see that it was Peter who stood with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. It is therefore the same Peter who heard the voice testifying to the Lord who wrote this letter. SERMONS ON EZEKIEL 2.6.11.24
THREE TIMES CONFIRMED. THEOPHYLACT: Peter knew that Jesus received the Father’s confirmation from heaven on three different occasions, in his baptism, at his passion and on the mountain. However, this was the one which he himself witnessed. COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.25
ON THE HOLY MOUNTAIN. HILARY OF ARLES: Tradition says that the transfiguration took place on Mt. Tabor. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.26
THE TRANSFIGURATION. ANDREAS: This was the third time this happened. The first was at Jesus’ baptism, and the second was when the Son cried to the Father: “Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the foundation of the world.”27 The transfiguration was therefore the third time. CATENA.28
WE HEARD THIS VOICE. BEDE: Those who doubt that Peter wrote this letter need to pay careful attention to this verse and to the one which follows, because the eyewitness testimony makes it clear that no one else could have written it. ON 2 PETER.29
MY BELOVED SON. AUGUSTINE: The blessed apostle Peter, with two other disciples of Christ the Lord, James and John, was up the mountain with the Lord himself and heard a voice coming down from heaven saying “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him”30 To remind us of this and draw it to our attention, the same apostle referred to it in his letter and went on to add that all this confirmed the message of the prophets. The voice echoed from heaven, and the prophetic word was thus made more certain. SERMONS 43.5.31
THE LIGHT OF TRUTH. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: For those who have died in the faith, the light-bearing lamp has risen and the day dawns, according to the Scriptures, and to them the light of truth is sent, which is the face of the Holy Spirit. LETTERS 55.6.32
THE LIGHT OF SCRIPTURE. HILARY OF ARLES: The light which shone on them was the light of Scripture. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.33
EVEN BALAAM SPOKE. ANDREAS: The prophets of the New and of the Old Testament spoke in the same Spirit. If it is true that some things were saved to be revealed in the New Testament, it is also true that the prophets of the Old Testament were commanded to be silent about them. For prophets are not what they are merely because of what they say. Their whole being proclaims their calling. Willingly and knowingly they ministered to the word which came to them, for no such word ever came by the will of man. Rather it was conveyed by God to men, and the men who received it ministered to it. Thus even Balaam was commanded to speak what had been given to him, even though he had the power not to say anything if he did not want to. Jonah is another example of the same phenomenon. CATENA.34
UNTIL THE MORNING STAR RISES IN YOUR HEARTS. BEDE: In the night of this world, so full of dark temptations, where there is hardly anyone who does not sin, what would become of us if we did not have the lamp of the prophetic word? Will this word always be necessary? No. It is only necessary until the daylight comes. Right now we have a night lamp because we are children of God, and in comparison with the ungodly, we are the very daylight itself. But if we compare what we are now with what we shall be in the future, then we are still in darkness and need this lamp. ON 2 PETER.35
NO PROPHECY BY THE IMPULSE OF HUMANS. HILARY OF ARLES: You must take care when interpreting the Scriptures not to be too greatly fixated upon the places, times and people who wrote them down, as if they were merely human compositions. Rather you ought to rely on the clarity and sufficiency of the Spirit. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.36
NO SCRIPTURE IS A MATTER OF ONE’S OWN INTERPRETATION. BEDE: The prophets heard God speaking to them in the secret recesses of their own hearts. They simply conveyed that message by their preaching and writing to God’s people. They were not like pagan oracles, which distorted the divine message in their own interest, for they did not write their own words but the words of God. For this reason the reader cannot interpret them by himself, because he is liable to depart from the true meaning, but rather he must wait to hear how the One who wrote the words wants them to be understood. ON 2 PETER.37
NO ATTEMPT TO TILT ITS MEANING. OECUMENIUS: This means that the prophets received their prophecies from God and transmitted what he wanted to say, not what they wanted. They were fully aware that the message had been given to them, and they made no attempt to put their own interpretation on it. If they could not bring themselves to accept what the Spirit had said to them, then they kept their mouths shut, as Jonah did, for example, when he refused to preach to Nineveh,38 and Balaam also did when he was commanded to say what had been communicated to him.39 COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.40
FAITH WILL RECOGNIZE THE MEANING. ANDREAS: Peter does not say that the prophets interpreted their own sayings. They were not speaking to themselves but serving the Holy Spirit. What is the interpretation of their words if not the works which Christ revealed when he came? So if anyone wants to understand the words of the prophets properly, let him obtain faith in Jesus Christ, through which he will recognize the divine message. John bore witness before we did. Christ came from heaven, enlightening everyone. Likewise he showed that the power to prophesy is of the Holy Spirit, as did the apostle Paul when he said: “To another [the gift of] prophecy, etc.”41 So the one who prophesies is undoubtedly speaking with a tongue inspired by the Holy Spirit. CATENA.42
THE URGE TO INTERPRET CONSTRAINED. BEDE: Theoretically it is always possible to predict the future, but the Holy Spirit filled the hearts of the prophets when he wanted to. It was not in their power to teach whatever they wished; rather they taught by the illumination of the Holy Spirit and said only what he told them to. We say this just in case there might be someone who feels the urge to interpret Scripture for himself. Some interpret Peter’s words to mean that the Spirit inspired the prophets in much the same way as the flutist blows into his flute, so that the latter were no more than mechanical instruments in God’s hands, saying what the Spirit told them to say without necessarily understanding or believing it themselves. This is ridiculous. For how could the prophets have given such good counsel to people if they did not know what they were saying? Are prophets not also called seers? How could a prophet possibly have communicated what he saw in secret heavenly visions to a wider audience if he did not fully grasp what it was that he had seen? ON 2 PETER.43
INSPIRED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. OECUMENIUS: The prophets knew that they were inspired by the Holy Spirit, even if they did not always understand the full significance of what they were told. But they were eager to see the outcome of what they did understand, as the Lord himself pointed out. COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.44
THE SPIRIT SPEAKS IN US. SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN: You see that it is not I who speak great and extraordinary things to your charity, but the Spirit of God who speaks in us. To this Peter, the chief apostle, bears witness when he says that no prophecy ever came by man, but holy men of God spoke, moved by the Holy Spirit. For though we are insignificant and unworthy, far from all holiness and from the holy men of God, yet we cannot deny the power that has been given to us by God. DISCOURSES 34.5.45