2 Peter 1:16

2Pe_1:16-20

We have not followed cunningly devised fables.

From starlight to sunlight

I. The mythical mode. In declaring the power and advent of the Lord Jesus, we were not as those who are familiar only with the popular myths which are deemed sufficient for the multitude; we were, rather, as the favoured few who are admitted to the secret mysteries, who are permitted to know the truths that underlie the fables and stories which fill the popular imagination. What, then, were these myths, and what the mysteries? The myths, in their origin, were simply poetical conceptions of the processes and phenomena of Nature. Thus, for instance, the sun sinks, or seems to sink, every night into the sea; in the fervid East, moreover, it dries up the streams. But sun, and sea, and streams had, in the infancy of the world, masculine and feminine names, as, indeed, they still have in most of the languages spoken by men. These masculine and feminine names were soon turned into proper personal names by the vivid imagination of men to whom the world was fresh and wonderful; and hence, instead of saying The sun sinks into the sea, they said, The Sun-God sinks into the lap of the Sea-Goddess, and rests until their child, the Dawn, wakes him from his slumbers. Instead of saying The sun dries up the stream, they told a pretty story of a certain River Nymph whom the Sun-God dearly loved, and who would give him no peace till he came to her in all the glory of his heavenly pomp, beholding which she was forthwith consumed. All the great and many of the lesser processes of Nature were thus mythicized, turned into poems and stories--the succession of day and night, the dependence of men and cattle on the shining of the sun, on the fruits of the earth, on the sweet, fresh water of the mountain streams. Still, under all these freaks of fancy there lay concealed the germs of many religious truths, as, for example, these: that the Powers which ruled in heaven cared for the earth and blessed it; that God, or the gods, might take human form and dwell among men; and that there was a fair spiritual world, larger, brighter, happier than the world of sense, into which even man might pass and rise. As years and centuries elapsed, these truths were forgotten out of mind, as were many of the ethical maxims deduced from them. In order that they might not altogether perish from the memory and life of man, certain mysteries were founded and ordained. To be admitted, that is, to be initiated, into these mysteries, was an honour granted to comparatively few of the millions of antiquity; and it was granted only after they had passed through a probation which either was, or was affirmed to be, terrible to any but men of a brave and constant spirit. Their good faith was thus put to a severe preliminary test; tremendous oaths binding them to secrecy were administered to them; to divulge a mystery or to intrude upon it uncalled were offences punishable with death. Now, says St. Peter, when we made known to you the power and advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, we were telling you no pretty popular myth, no fable of a Divine person who came down and dwelt with men, such as you have often heard from your priests or rhapsodists, such as you may still hear from your heathen neighbours. We had been initiated into the very mysteries of truth; we had mastered their secrets, that we might divulge them to you. We spake of that which we ourselves had seen, and handled, and felt, of the Word of Life.

II. The miraculous mode. From the mythical St. Peter passes to the miraculous method of revelation. Where was that inner temple, that sacred and oracular shrine, in which, after their initiation, the apostles were admitted to the mysteries and stood to be eye-witnesses of the unclouded majesty of the Incarnate God? It was on the holy mount, on which the Lord Jesus was transfigured before their eyes. But why does the apostle select this scene in our Lords life--the Transfiguration--before all others? Simply, I suppose, because at that moment, in that scene, all that was most marvellous in the Lord Jesus Christ was shown forth in its most marvellous forms. The advent of Christ was a miracle; every word and deed that disclosed His Divine power was a miracle: but the miraculous element of His advent and power culminated in His Transfiguration.

III. The prophetic mode. After describing the honour and glory done to Christ, and the voice which came to Him from the glory that shone around Him on the holy mount, the apostle adds: But we have something surer still--the prophetic word, whereunto ye do well that ye give heed, etc. Why does he call it something surer still? First, because it is as a lamp shining in a dark place. Now, as we all know, we can find our way even on the darkest night, if only we have a lamp to our feet; and, moreover, we can see to do any necessary work, if only we have a lamp shining over our head. In plain words, the apostles argument is that miracles are not guides, or not safe guides; but that, on the contrary, we are under a guidance that is both good and safe when we follow the moral rules of the written Word. The Divine Word has another claim on our regard and preference. For this lamp which shines so helpfully on the activities of human life, has been lit and is fed by God Himself. No prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. That is to say, the prophetic Word is not a mere logical deduction from the facts of life and Nature; nor is it a mere guess at things to come, based on a knowledge of what has taken place in the past. There was something higher than human wisdom in the prophetic utterances, something safer than the prognostics of human reason; for prophecy never came only from the will of man, but holy men, borne along by the Holy Ghost, as the ship is borne before the wind, spake the words that were given them from God. There is a Divine wisdom, therefore, an infallible wisdom; there is a Divine power, an almighty power, in the inspired Word, even when it is most human and imperfect in outward form. This was one contrast in the apostles mind: and the other was that the prophecies of Scripture were superior to the oracles uttered by the ministrants of heathen shrines. When these oracles were consulted, they gave private interpretations.

IV. But, finally, the spiritual mode of revelation is even safer and better than the prophetic mode, as much better as sunlight is better than lamplight. When Christ is once with us, and in us, what further proof can we require of His advent or of His power to quicken and redeem? With Christ to teach us what He would have us do, we can dispense with all other teachers, all other aids. Myths! We have been initiated into the very mysteries of the faith, and are joyful eye-witnesses of His majesty. Miracles! He has wrought the great miracle upon us, bringing a clean thing out of an unclean, opening our blind eyes, unstopping our deaf ears, quickening us from our death in trespasses and sins. Laws and hopes! When once we have personally laid hold on Christ, we are a law unto ourselves, and move in the freedom of a glad obedience to His will; we have a hope already fulfilling itself in us, and yet opening up into widening vistas of light the hope of eternal life and service and peace. The morning star has risen in our hearts; the day has dawned; the darkness is over and gone, and, with the darkness, all our need of the lamps and stars which once made night tolerable to us. (S. Cox, D. D.)

Apostolic testimony

I. A disclaiming of all fabulous mixtures with the sacred truth.

II. A proclaiming of the virtue and excellency of Christ.

1. The manifestation itself. We made known unto you. The apostles did not hide the mysteries of salvation revealed to them (Rom_16:25-26).

(1) This doctrine makes to the conviction of them that conceal the way of the Lord (Mat_23:13; Rom_1:18).

(2) This reproves them also that content themselves with their ignorances, and never labour for knowledge.

2. The matter manifested. The power and coining of our Lord. By this the apostle intends the sum of the gospel, and the full salvation that is given us by Christ, in whom are all the treasures of blessedness. Of this he makes two distinct parts.

(1) That Christ came in the flesh, suffered for our sins, and rose again for our justification.

(2) The virtue and efficacy of this in our hearts, when we manifest the fruit of it in our well living and well believing.

III. A testifying of this and that from the surest witnesses. In witnesses there are three things especially required.

1. That they be of good report and repute; for a bad and vicious life enervates their testimony. But these were holy men; He that sent them to give testimony did not deny them sanctimony (Joh_17:17).

2. That they be eye witnesses; so were these.

3. That they agree in their testimony. (Thos. Adams.)

Christianity not a cunningly devised fable

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables. The infidel says we have. This is no new cry. It is as old as Christianity itself. The apostles themselves were said to have been imposed upon. Since that day the ground of attack has been changed. We are now told that the apostles were the impostors.

I. The statements that have been denounced as fables.

II. The persons who are said to have fabricated thess fables. Infidelity asserts that they were deceivers. Of this we might justly demand proof. They appear to be men of strict integrity. They do not hesitate to expose each others faults or to confess their own. They appear to be utterly destitute of the art of deception.

1. Is it pretended that these grand impostors were men of renown for their talents and influence, and that, therefore, they acquired an ascendancy over the public mind? This is at once disproved by the fact that, at the very outset of their career, the Jewish Sanhedrin perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men (Act_4:13), whilst Gentile magistrates and governors regarded them as weak, demented enthusiasts, whose fittest treatment was scourging and imprisonment.

2. Will it be contended that in the construction of their scheme, they adapted their fables to the popular taste? This is at once denied. Their system was absolutely opposed to parties of every class, to men of every clime. How different was the system of Mohammed! and how different have been the schemes of more modern infidels! How careful have these impostors been to pander to the passions of those they have sought to delude, presenting or promising whatever has been adapted to the views and the tastes of the proud, the worldly-minded, the sensual, and the profane!

3. But it is said that they were fools and fanatics. This assertion is more easy than the proof. They were indeed, accused of folly and of madness, but they convinced their accusers that they spake the words of truth and soberness. Their writings certainly afford evidence that they were men of more than ordinary mental vigour. Their style is nervous and plain. Their story is simply and unaffectedly told.

4. But they were actuated by ambition, it is said. On what object was their ambition fixed? Worldly honour or worldly power is usually the great object of the ambitious. Besides, it was not their ambition to exalt themselves, though they had opportunities of doing so (Act_3:14.). The entire history of the apostles is pregnant with proof that they sought not their own, but the things of Jesus Christ. What things might have been gain to them, those they counted loss for Him.

5. Impostors generally expect to get something by the impositions they practise; and the greater the risk of detection, or the danger of punishment, the greater is the gain, the hope of which is their animating motive. Now, what was the gain which prompted the apostles to devise and to execute their grand imposture? You must be aware, that so far as this world was considered, they had everything to lose, and nothing to gain. Bonds and afflictions awaited them in every city. Will it be said that all this was the obstinacy of contumacy? that rather than avow the cheat, they readily underwent privations and sufferings? The life of reproach and trial the apostles lived, and the death of torture that they died, incontestably prove their sincerity.

III. But who were the parties on whom these so-called fables were so successfully imposed?

1. If the evangelic history had been a fraud, of course the apostle- would have been most likely to succeed in the work of deception among the inhabitants of some barbarous clime; or, at any rate, among those who lived far away from the scenes where the plot was laid. Did they then travel into some remote or obscure region, where the inhabitants would have little inclination to suspect them, and less opportunity to detect their deceit? No; they began at Jerusalem.

2. Shortly afterwards, the apostles were induced to go unto the Gentiles; the one who was most active in this great missionary enterprise among the heathen, being a convert to the faith of Christ--not an original disciple of the Nazarene--and a convert, whose accession was one of the noblest triumphs of truth, of which the Church of Christ can boast. Do you not think that the disputer of that day would demand evidence before he gave credence to the statements of the apostles? Do you not think that the wise men of Greece, and the noble of Rome, would easily have detected the deceit of Christ crucified, had it been a cunningly devised fable, and would indignantly have denounced its abettors as worthless impostors had they not been the ambassadors of God?

IV. The consistency of revealed truth with reason and with common sense. Let it, however, be remarked that those truths of Divine revelation, which it is necessary for us to understand in order to be saved, are so simple and plain that the wayfaring man, though a fool, needs not to mistake respecting them. And therefore we argue that they are not cunningly devised fables.

1. To begin at the beginning--we mention first the existence of one great, supreme Being, whom the Bible denominates God. This great doctrine is everywhere assumed throughout the sacred volume, and forms the foundation of all religion, and of all morality too.

2. This Bible professes to be a revelation from God, designed to teach us His will, and to point out to us the path that leads to immortal blessedness. Is there anything unreasonable in this?

3. Let us now proceed to ascertain whether those truths which we call, by way of eminence, the truths of the gospel, are incredible or absurd. The first we notice is the entire and universal depravity of man. Go where you will, do you not find your fellow-creatures depraved as well as degraded? Is not the hand that God has filled with plenteousness lifted up in daring rebellion against Him?

4. Another great doctrine is the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ. But it is objected that it is most unreasonable to suppose that the Divine Being should lavish so much love, as the doctrine of redemption supposes, on this insignificant world of ours, while there are so many worlds, and so many systems beside, filled with intelligent beings, all demanding the care of the Great Supreme as well as ourselves. We see nothing unreasonable in this supposition. Does the mother who watches and weeps over her sick or dying child, love her other children the less because her heart is so strongly drawn towards the afflicted one? Does it not magnify the Divine Being to know that when man had sinned and thereby excluded himself from the family of God, the Father of the spirits of all flesh spared not His own Son, in order that the banished ones might be restored?

5. And what inconsistency, either with reason or with common sense, can you find in the doctrines of justification or pardon righteously bestowed, because obtained by faith in the blood of Christ, and of the sanctification of the soul by the Spirit of Christ?

V. Among the results of this lengthened inquiry into the evidences of Christianity we trust will he--

1. The confirmation of the believer in the truth as it is in Jesus. You know what you have believed. You know whom you have believed. You will not sell your birthright for a mess of pottage.

2. Another result we hope will be the establishment of such as may be wavering.

3. A third result we anticipate from this inquiry is a clearer perception of the nature of Christianity, and a deepened conviction of its value, How vast are my obligations to the blessed God for having devised such a scheme for saving rebellious worms, and for having made it known to me. How necessary for me to avail myself of its privileges. (P. C. Horton.)

The certainty of the Christian faith

I. There was nothing about the apostles of wild enthusiasm. Before they staked everything, present life and life eternal, on the truth of Christianity, they had amplest proof that Jesus of Nazareth was the very Son of the Most High, the predicted Messiah.

1. The miracles wrought by Jesus were the capital proofs of His Messiahship.

2. The miracles of which Jesus Christ was the subject were among the signs of His glorious majesty by which the twelve recognised Him for the Redeemer. Of some of these prodigies, indeed, they were not spectators; not of the meteor star, which, on reaching His birthplace, hung over it. Nor yet, did they witness the sublime scene of His baptism.

3. The transfiguration, I observe, was that view of the Lords majesty to which holy Peter reverts with singular fondness.

II. Let us pass to a few marks of Christs power and majesty exhibited in His personal character.

1. The imperturbable temper of the Lord Jesus was among the shining proofs of His moral greatness and Divine nature.

2. His patient endurance of injuries has a further peculiarity about it, which denotes a more than human elevation of mind. For be it remembered that we are often debarred from revenging ourselves by want of power, or by fear of retribution. But Jesus was clothed with almightiness.

3. The condescension of this Man, so mighty in word and deed, to the mean and wretched and vicious whenever they craved His assistance, was another indication of a mind cast in a singular and heavenly mould. Nothing of this kind was found among the Pharisees and popular teachers of the day.

4. The wisdom of Jesus, so immensely beyond what His country, His years, His education gave reason to look for, must also have satisfied candid observers that He was from above. Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians tried their skill from morning to night, and were unscrupulous in the artifices they employed to entrap Him; but without effect. But there was a higher kind of wisdom in which Jesus stood alone. Who can peruse His discourses on moral and religious subjects; the Sermon on the Mount, the parables of the Ten Virgins, of the Prodigal Son, and not confess that no mere human mind of any age, least of all that of a Jew in an age so ignorant, corrupt, and superstitious, could possibly give birth to such pure and holy lessons?

5. The authority of our Lords diction and manner was another ray of His native grandeur, which penetrated the souls of His adherents and ranks high among the proofs of His divinity. He swept away the treasured notions that had come down from father to son, by the right which belonged to Him as the infallible interpreter of heaven. He debated nothing. He rarely deigned to offer reasons or proofs. He never suggested any doctrine doubtingly. You recognise the style of One quite aware that He is as much above other teachers as the heaven is higher than the earth; and that to put Himself upon a level with them were to belie His own character and mission.

6. Once more His devotedness to God, so pure, so noble, so fervent, so invariable, was it not of a kind to distinguish Him from ordinary saints, as the sun from twinkling stars? His zeal for Gods glory in a manner consumed Him. Whatever are the arrangements of Providence He rejoices in them precisely because they are the movements of Gods will. (J. N. Pearson, M. A.)

The credibility of Christianity

The Bible is no cunningly devised fable.

I. If it be a fable, it was not devised half cunningly enough. I allude to many apparent inconsistencies in the Bible. What wise man, in devising a fabulous history, would have loaded it with such difficulties as these?

II. If it be a fable, it is impossible to guess by what class of persons it was devised. Kings, perhaps, invented the Bible in order to keep their subjects in awe of their authority. Priests, exclaims another, were no doubt the authors. Yet there is a great deal written here against wicked priests also, which would scarcely have been inserted by them. Was it, then, the rich who devised this fable? Yet what is more common in the Bible than lessons on the worthlessness and vanity of riches? I need not ask whether the inventors of this fable are to be looked for among the poor. They are otherwise engaged than in writing books. Some learned men, doubtless, compiled this book! Still the same difficulty meets us. Learned men are often supposed to be proud of their wisdom; but here worldly wisdom is undervalued, and men are told that they must become fools if they would be really wise (1Co_3:18). Here, then, is a book, for which no probable author can be found, if it be a fable.

III. If it be a fable, it is unaccountable that it should have been so long and so extensively followed.

IV. If it be a fable, the following of it has at least been beneficial to mankind.

V. If it be a fable, i must nevertheless follow it till you can show me some more excellent way. I want a guide in my ignorance; I want a comforter in my troubles. Is human reason that guide? Alas! I find cause to distrust that at every step which I take. Is self-gratification the better comforter? What! to follow the devices and desires of my own heart in spite of this forbidding fable? If the gospel be not a fable, it is truth, and truth of such a nature that you will be saved or lost, according as you believe or neglect it. It must be followed; it must affect your heart and influence your life. (J. Jowett, M. A.)

All true

I. Peters personal persuasion of the truth of his religion. We have not, etc. There are seasons when we all feel anxious to know on what ground we stand, just because we cannot go into eternity thinking and guessing about some peradventure. We must have certitude then.

II. Observe Peters repetition of the old truth once again before he dies. The testimony of an old man like Peter, who, in his review of the past, felt happy and satisfied in the conviction of the truth he had professed, is worth many a volume of evidences to the Christian religion.

III. The happiness Peter had in the recollections of the past. All aged people revert to the past with peculiar feelings of interest, if not enthusiasm. There is happiness in having good recollections--in having bright yesterdays to look back upon--in needing no desperate endeavours to forget.

IV. The way in which Peter falls back on the word of God as the true ground of faith and peace. We have a more sure word of prophecy, etc. He had James and John, his companions, to think of. He had the glory of the mount and the transfiguration to dwell upon. But now he needed more. The friend may deceive you: the recollections of the past may be confused, but the word of the Lord abideth for ever. It is a sure word of prophecy. (W. O. Barrett.)

The value of world evidence

Moral reasons are sufficient to guide men in the affairs of the present life. A man will embark on board a vessel which he only knows by the report of others to be seaworthy. He trusts to the skill of a captain and the effectiveness of a crew of whom he knows only by report. He embarks to go to a place which he only believes on the testimony of others to exist. All this he does to obtain a probable good. He acts similarly to escape an apprehended evil. When sick, he will send for a physician of whose skill he has only heard. He takes medicine which he does not certainly know will cure him. In these cases he acts reasonably. It is clear that when, in relation to the life to come, he refuses moral evidence, he acts unreasonably. (C. Graham.)

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The Christian revelation to be presumed divine

The existence of God admitted, another question at once suggests itself. Has this Divine Being directly revealed Himself and made known His will to man? We were taught in childhood that He has. We say, first of all, that the very existence of this alleged revelation, in the form in which we find it, affords a presumption of its truth.

1. The first thing that strikes one on glancing at the books of the Old and New Testament, in which what is called the Christian revelation is contained, is the exceedingly heterogeneous character of their contents. A little of all ages, of all sorts of men, and of all varieties of human thought! But on even a cursory reading of these writings, heterogeneous as they seem, you cannot fail to be equally impressed with a second fact about them, that they have, after all, a strange and most striking unity. One spirit breathes throughout the whole. The same conception of God, as the eternal, self-existent, and infinite Creator, of His natural government of the world, and of His moral government of rational creatures; the same general notions of right and wrong; the same views of the design of human existence, of the individual responsibility of men, of the blessedness of well-doing and of the miseries of sin, of the guilt and want of mankind, of the justice, the goodness, and the grace of God, and of the way of reconciliation with Him. Nor does this unity of sentiment, of spirit, and of general scope and purpose seem less, but rather greater, the more carefully and thoroughly these various compositions are examined. That these men have not been mere copyists from each other, the specific diversities, and the accessions and progressive development of thought afford decisive proof. Two questions meet us therefore, namely, How came they, any of them, by views at once so unique in themselves and so immeasurably superior in intellectual and moral elevation to those attained by the historians, the poets, and the sages of all the world besides? And then, how came they, writing separately and each for his own particular end, living also some of them centuries and even thousands of years apart, so to harmonise with and to supplement each other that, taken together, their writings form one grand and well-adjusted whole? We will not now assert that with these questions before us the conviction must arise that there is something supernatural in all this.

2. The presumption thus created by the existence of the Christian revelation in the form in which we find it, is greatly strengthened, we further observe, by the obvious and admitted fact that it has entered most profoundly into the life and thought of the world. Nor can it be said that other pretended systems of religion have done the same. There are no facts of history by which such an assertion can be justified.

3. Still further, a third fact lies before us in regard to the asserted Christian revelation, which, fairly considered, must predispose us to receive it. The effects which it has wrought, both on individual man and on society, have uniformly been salutary in a very eminent degree. These, too, are allowed to be the proper products of Christianity, and not things incidentally connected with it.

4. Not less significant is a fourth fact which presents itself at the outset to the inquirer about the Christian revelation. It has thus far stood secure against all assaults of those who have sought to overthrow it, although these assaults have been many, persistent, and often conducted with great ability and learning. The ancient prophets, each in his turn, encountered the resistance of unbelief. Then followed the long and mighty struggle between Christianity and the prevailing systems of philosophy and religion throughout the Roman empire. It was a contest of life and death. Yet, after all the Christian faith held on its way and triumphed. So it has been in the modern world. The wits, philosophers, and savants of France, in the last century assailed it with pungent satire, with the coarsest ribaldry. English Deism, in a higher style of thought, with greater strength of reasoning, with no little real learning, enlisting champions who, to great metaphysical acumen, added untiring patience and fixed determination, attacked the historical credit, the supernatural credentials, and the asserted revelations of the Christian Scriptures. There was no lack of will, or talent, or diligent endeavour.

5. It is a fact which no one tolerably informed as to the condition and movements of the religious world will question, that at no period of its history was Christianity more vital, more powerful, more expectant and progressive than at the present time. Can falsehood be imagined to have such vitality?

6. Consider, too, that if the Christian revelation, as it has been received for ages, is Divine, it must be the greatest of misfortunes to reject it as a fable. If it be indeed a sun kindled of God to illuminate the moral darkness of our world, it will shine on to cheer, and warm, and bless the happy multitudes who welcome it, though you shall avert your eyes and hide from its beams in the thick shades of unbelief. You have nothing--nothing--to gain if it be false. You have everything to hope for life, for death, for an immortality beyond, if, as you have been taught from childhood to believe, it is indeed a real utterance, a precious gift of the ever-living God to man. (R. Palmer, D. D.)

The power and coming of our Lord.

Christs power and coming manifested by the apostles doctrine and preaching

I. The office and ministry of the apostle. And that principally consisted in this: In making known the power and miracles, the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But this doctrine that the apostle preached consists of two heads:

1. The coming of Christ. By which is meant His incarnation and appearance in the flesh. This was that mystery that was hid from ages, but was made manifest in these last days.

2. The power of Christ, the apostle is said to make known, which indeed at first seemed much disguised. For who would have expected any miraculous discoveries of power from One whom they had seen poor and helpless Himself? And yet in this state of weakness He was made strong, grew bold and confident, despising the pride, trampling upon the bravery of this world, resisting temptations, triumphing over the powers and charms of riches. Now to make this power known to the world is to show how much all men may be benefited by the power of Christ, if they shall love Him and believe in Him. For to as many as receive Him gives He power to become the sons of God, even to them who believe in His name.

II. The rules he observed in making known the power and coming of Jesus Christ. They used all honest and justifiable arts in preaching the gospel, but declined all ways of sophistry and deceit. As if they had said, Our cause is too plain and evident to need such poor artifices as lies and fables to support it.

1. The consideration of what hath been said should encourage us to embrace this article of our faith, Christ Jesus came in the flesh, and all others, with that zeal and love, as those who will live and die by them.

2. As we are to receive the doctrines of Christianity as most true and unquestionable, so we ought to take care that we build not upon this foundation, hay and stubble (2Co_3:12).

3. Let us bethink ourselves how much we are obliged to God for this signal mercy and blessing, the making known to us the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh. Methinks our hearts should be all on fire, and burn within us while we are discoursing and talking of it. (R. Warner, D. D.)

The power and coming of our Lord

I. The coming of Christ was in power. If all the devils in hell could have hindered it, He had been stayed. The kings of the earth conspire and take counsel together; but neither their power nor their policy could withstand His coming. Neither was the glory of Christ wanting, though it conveyed itself in a less public form. He had a famous harbinger to go before Him and prepare His way. There was majesty in His humility.

II. The gospel is no weak thing, but comes in power. Christ came once unto men; He comes still unto men in the Spirit. The law came with more terror, but the gospel comes with more power. For that could not turn his heart that bare it in his hand; but the gospel is able to change the man (Rom_1:16).

III. The word of God hath more power than all mens edicts.

IV. The invincible power of the gospel is manifested in throwing down those bulwarks raised against it. (Thos. Adams.)

Eye-witnesses of His majesty.--

The majesty of Christ

In the midst of the darkest scenes of humiliation, a peculiar majesty was seen to accompany our Lord. These signs of heavenly greatness confirmed the faith of His disciples when sinking under the pressure of disappointment and affliction.

I. The apostles were witnesses of His majesty when they witnessed His matchless character.

1. He was made in the likeness of man, and He took on Him the infirmities of our nature; but He was unstained by our sins and imperfections.

2. But in Christ we not only see a character without sin, but perfect in its nature; manifesting the highest virtues in transcendent excellence.

3. With these celestial excellencies of character is joined an habitual and singular elevation above the world. His affections and labours are directed to spiritual and eternal objects. They elevate Him in the midst of ignominy; and give glory and majesty to His shameful death.

4. In Christ the various and seemingly opposite graces of character combine; and everywhere appear in their due place and on their proper occasion.

II. That in correspondence with the perfection of the character of Christ, is His manner while fulfilling the work which His Father had given Him to do. There was a calm and simple, yet deep solemnity, in His demeanour and words, suited to the truths which He declared, and the office which He sustained--which manifested also His sense of their infinite importance, and tended powerfully to affect the minds of those whom He addressed. Without the slightest tendency to haughtiness or pride, a Divine authority. He manifested the native greatness of His character.

III. There were extraordinary events and wonders in heaven and on earth, which in the midst of the deepest humiliation, gave indications of the majesty of Christ. (S. MacGill, D. D.)

He received from God the Father honour and glory.

The vision of Christs majesty

I. The person to whom this honor is given. He received.

II. From whom he received it. The Father gives, the Son receives. The Father speaks from heaven, the Son hears it.

III. What he received.

1. Christ would receive honour of His Father.

2. All honour and glory is Christs, as being delivered to Him by the Father (Luk_10:22).

3. All true and blessed honour comes from God, and is to be sought there.

IV. The time when the apostles beheld, and their master received, this glory and majesty.

1. When there came. Why did the apostles single out the transfiguration, more than any other event, to exemplify Christs majesty, and the honour conferred on Him by the Father?

(1) Because Moses and Elias appeared to Him there: in all the rest of His miracles He had no company but men on earth, now He had a testimony from two glorious saints in Paradise.

(2) Because He was adorned with celestial glory. Nothing of earth was seen, but a Divine and heavenly majesty appeared.

2. Such a voice. This is the voice that shall one day be heard from one end of the world to the other.

3. From the excellent glory. There be glories in the world, but they are not excellent (Gen_49:3-4). This glory is admirable.

(1) For dignity. It is a glory: and this hath been the scope of most mens endeavours and reaches.

(2) For clarity. It is not a hidden, but a revealed glory (Col_3:4). Clear, both for condition, it shall be excellent; for cognition and apprehension, it shall be seen in the full excellency of it. It is an everlasting solstice; the length is interminable, the brightness unchangeable, the fulness unvariable.

(3) For verity. It shall be indeed, not in show only, but upon us.

(4) For the eternity. If it had an end, it were not excellent,

V. The matter and substance of the testimony.

1. This; the word shows Him to be that Messias, long before prophesied, and now manifested. This, singularly; not another, but this is He.

2. My Son, consubstantially, because begotten of Mine own substance. Originally Mine, by union of nature; though in Him others be made Mine also, by adoption of grace.

3. Beloved, eternally; not in time accepted, but before all beginning begotten.

4. In whom I am well pleased, and never was offended: all other men were the children of wrath; I could not be pleased with them; but in this Son I rest. (Thos. Adams.)

The Father well pleased in the Son

I. It is very important that you have right thoughts of the Sonship of Christ, or of the sense in which Christ is affirmed to be Gods Son. It is clear from Scripture that Christ is the Son of God, in such sense as to prove Him Divine; for St. Paul argues from His Sonship, His superiority to angels, Unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee?

II. We are now to consider the statement, that in this beloved Son God is well pleased. We shall now regard the Son solely in His character of Mediator--that character which He was born to assume. The Father may be considered as well pleased in His Son, first, because Christs mediation magnified all the attributes of God, and secondly, because it met all the necessities of man. And now, having investigated the causes of the Fathers being well pleased in the Son, it becomes us to ask you whether, when Christ is displaying His character of a Saviour, you, too, are well pleased in Him. Judge your own restoration to Gods forfeited image, by deciding whether any of the like reasons operate to make you well pleased in Christ. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Graduated certification of gospel truth

I. The Divine revelation which he had on the holy mount was certifying.

II. The Divine revelation which he had in the inspired record was more certifying.

1. The written Word furnishes a greater variety of Divine manifestations.

2. The written Word offers opportunities to a larger number of witnesses.

3. The written Word supplies better conditions for the formation of a sound judgment.

III. The Divine revelation that he had in his own consciousness was the most certifying. Peter draws a comparison between the light of the Bible and the light of Christian consciousness, and implies that the latter is far more valuable than the former.

1. The one is a lamp, the other is a day, or morning star.

2. The one is without, the other is within.

3. The one is temporary, the other is permanent.

4. The one is the harbinger of everlasting day, the other is not necessarily so. (Homilist.)

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2Pe 1:16-18. For — These things are worthy of being always remembered and regarded; for we have not followed cunningly-devised fables — Like those common among the heathen, but things infallibly true and infinitely momentous; when we made known unto you the power — The evidences and demonstrations which we gave of his divine power; (in the miracles which he wrought, whereby he demonstrated himself to be the Son of God;) and coming of our Lord Jesus — Namely, that the promised Messiah was already come, and that Jesus of Nazareth was he. Or his second coming to raise the dead, to judge mankind, and to introduce his people into his eternal kingdom, might be chiefly intended. But it may be observed, if what the apostles have advanced concerning Christ had not been true, if it had been only of their own invention, then, to have imposed such a lie on the world, as it was in the very nature of things above all human power to defend, and to have done this at the expense of life and all things, only to engage the whole world, Jews and Gentiles, against them, would not have been cunning, but the greatest folly that men could have been guilty of. But were eye-witnesses of his majesty — At his transfiguration, which was a specimen of his glory at the last day. For he received from God the Father divine honour and inexpressible glory — Shining from heaven above the brightness of the sun; when there came such a voice from the excellent glory — From the Shechinah, as the Jews termed that glorious appearance which was a symbol of the presence of Jehovah; This is my beloved Son, &c. — See notes on Mat 17:2-5. This voice we heard — Namely, Peter, James, and John. St. John was still alive when Peter wrote this; when we were with him in the holy mount — The mount made holy by that glorious manifestation, as mount Horeb was of old by the peculiar presence of God, Exo 3:4-5.

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5. For no fable is our gospel; being confirmed by the transfiguration voice, 2Pe_1:16-18.

16. Made known… power and coming—It seems evident that the false teachers, in full view of whom the apostle is writing, had pronounced his teachings respecting the present lordship and future appearing of Christ without foundation. If made known refers to his oral teaching, we may learn its character from Act_2:32-36; Act_3:16; Act_3:20. Our Lord’s resurrection, reign, and coming to judgment, were staple topics of apostolic preaching. A fine Pauline specimen is in Act_17:31. More probably, however, the reference is to St. Peter’s first epistle. The power of Christ is clearly declared. The “lively hope” is by his “resurrection.” 1Pe_1:3. He is the Redeemer. 1Pe_1:18. He is “on the right hand of God,” and supreme over “angels, and authorities, and powers.” 1Pe_3:22. He is the final Judge. 1Pe_4:5. As to his coming, we read of his “appearing,” 1Pe_1:7; his “revelation,” 1Pe_1:13; the revealing of “his glory,” 1Pe_4:13; and the appearing of the “chief Shepherd,” 1Pe_5:4. That these things are myths, those false teachers asserted, and modern infidelity insists.

Cunningly devised fables—Pagan mythology was full of them, as were the cabalistic stories of the Jews. Such, too, were the fanciful systems of the Gnostics and others. St. Peter may have had especially in mind his old acquaintance at Samaria, Simon Magus, who, besides giving himself out as “the great power of God,” (Act_8:9-10,) claimed that of him and his paramour, Helena, were born the angels, who made the world. Now, St. Peter says, it was not following such skilfully-devised fictions he made known the Lord’s power and coming. On the other hand, he had had a personal view of his glory.

Were—Better, Had been made.

Eye-witnesses—A technical term given to those initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries, and allowed to have the nearest view of them. So Peter, James, and John, had been admitted to a full view of Christ’s glorious majesty at his transfiguration. Mat_17:1-5.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

2Pe_1:16. Fables.—Legends, myths. With special reference to the narrative of the marvels of the Transfiguration. Coming.—Whether this looks backward or onward is not quite clear. It is best limited to the Transfiguration. Eyewitnesses.—And so have a personal sense-testimony to render.

2Pe_1:19. Word of prophecy.—Not probably to be confined to things foretold. Remember how, in his addresses, and in his first epistle, St. Peter freely made appeal to Old-Testament Scriptures as proving or supporting his teachings. It is important to realise how devout Jews regarded the Old Testament.

2Pe_1:20. Private interpretation.—Special. Those who interpreted must no more be self-willed than those who wrote. No man wrote save in the power of the Holy Ghost, and no man must venture to interpret save in the same power of the Holy Ghost.

2Pe_1:21. Render, “But being borne on by the Holy Ghost, men spake from God.” The idea is that men did not speak out of their own hearts, but as they were commissioned by God. St. Peter’s anxiety concerns the mischievous, self-willed influence of the false teachers, with whom he is about to deal in the next chapter.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—2Pe_1:16-21

The Apostolic Testimony.—In the salutation of this epistle Simon Peter distinctly calls himself an “apostle” of Jesus Christ; and here he puts himself with the other apostles, and testifies of the veritablenesss of the witness which they made on the basis of their own knowledge and experience.

I. It was clear and emphatic—This is implied in the assertion that it was not vague, uncertain, and untrustworthy, like the “cunningly devised fables” with which the popular ear was tickled. “By this term probably some elements in the doctrine of the false teachers are alluded to; something analogous to the ‘feigned words’ of 2Pe_2:3. There is reason for believing that the particular elements in their teaching thus incidentally condemned were of Jewish origin. If this conjecture be correct, then St. Peter is here dealing with errors similar to those condemned by St. Paul (1Ti_1:4; 2Ti_4:4; Tit_1:14—the only other passage in which the word ‘fables’ occurs). And in this case much light is thrown on some of the marked peculiarities of this epistle and that of St. Jude—viz., the fondness of both writers for the oldest, and sometimes the most obscure, passages of Old Testament history, as well as for some strange portions of uncanonical apocryphal tradition. They were fighting these seducers with their own weapons; difficult passages of Scripture and tradition, which these men had worked up into a system of pernicious mysticism, St. Peter and St. Jude proved to be altogether of a different meaning, and to tell against the very doctrines that they were employed to support” (A. Plummer, M.A.). The most effective way in which to show the clearness of the apostolic testimony is to contrast the gospels with the foolish and demoralising stories of the so-called apocryphal gospels.

II. It was based on strong conviction.—They themselves absolutely believed what they recorded or declared, and showed their conviction by giving up all, and enduring all, for the sake of their testimony. They were consequently more than officials who do a duty, and more even than prophets, who were mediums for conveying a message. They were convinced men, who put their own hearts into their testimony. And it is absolutely essential to all effective Christian ministry, that the speaker should have the “accent of conviction.”

III. The conviction was based on personal experience.—St. Peter suggests much that was common to himself and the other apostles who were in the daily fellowship of Jesus Christ; but he refers precisely to the one experience which he was privileged to share exclusively with James and John. The Transfiguration may be treated as St. Peter’s special personal experience and testimony, since he was the sole spokesman of the occasion. The precise interest of the Transfiguration lies in its being the most sublime revelation of the innermost mystery of Christ’s person and mission,—one great point of suggestion there being the necessity and spiritual mystery of the Redeemer’s sacrificial death. St. Peter did not repeat something heard; nor even something conveyed to his mind in dream, or trance; nor even something studied from a book. He claims accurate knowledge through personal experience, and in gaining that experience the full activity of all his human powers and faculties. Compare the declaration of St. John: “That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life” (1Jn_1:1).

IV. The experience absolutely assured the righteousness of Christ’s personal claim.—They were “eye-witnesses of His majesty.” This may be illustrated by the results of the wine-making at the marriage in Cana of Galilee. “This beginning of His signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory: and His disciples believed on Him.” We need to see more clearly that all the experiences of Christ’s fellowship which the apostles had brought impressions of Him; not just of His power, or His wisdom, or His goodness, but of Him, in whom so evidently dwelt “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”

The Witness of Prophecy to Christ.—The explanation of this reference to prophecy needs first to be given, and Plummet’s note is suggestive of every important point. “We have, as something more sure, the prophetic word, as a second proof of the truth of my teaching respecting Christ’s coming. The expression ‘the prophetic word’ occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. ‘The Scripture’ given as quoted by Clement of Rome, is quoted again in the so called Second Epistle of Clement (ch. 11) as ‘the prophetic word.’ The quotation in both cases is probably from some uncanonical book of prophecies. Here the expression means the whole body of prophecy respecting the subject in hand; but the meaning of the whole sentence is not quite clear. It may mean—

1. That the Transfiguration has made prophecies more sure, for we who were there have thus witnessed their fulfilment. In this case, however, we should have expected something more than ‘and’ to introduce the statement, such as ‘and hence,’ ‘and thus,’ ‘whereby,’ etc. Or it may mean—

2. That in the prophetic word we have something more sure than the voice from heaven. Here a simple ‘and’ is natural enough; and the word of prophecy is suitably compared with the voice from heaven. But how can the word of prophets be more sure than the voice of God? In itself it cannot be so; but it may be so regarded

(1) in reference to those who did not hear, but only heard of, the voice from heaven.

(2) In reference to the subject in hand. (a) For the readers of this epistle, the many utterances of a long line of prophets, expounded by a school of teachers only second to the prophets themselves, might easily be ‘more sure’ evidence than the narrative of a single writer; and ‘if they heard not Moses and the prophets, neither would they be persuaded’ by the report of a voice from heaven. (b) The Transfiguration, though an earnest of Christ’s future glory, was not so clear a promise of it as the express words of prophecy. If this latter interpretation be right, we have another form of authenticity. A forger would be likely to magnify his own advantage in hearing the voice from heaven over the ordinary proofs offered to every one, In any case, the coincidence with 1Pe_1:10-12 must not be overlooked.” Dealing generally with the assertion made concerning the trustworthiness of the characteristic Old-Testament writings, consider—

I. Prophetic Scripture.—St. Peter clearly has in mind writings of an anticipative character, which foretold events that would occur in the future. The term is sometimes made to include the historic and didactic features of Scripture, but here reference must be to writings which have relation to the coming Messiah. And it must always be borne in mind that Jews found references to Messiah in very many mere side-allusions, which our logical Western minds compel us to free from any such relation. Indeed, the severer criticism of our day tends to put serious limitation upon the long-recognised number of Messianic passages.

II. Its source.—Distinctly, the impulse and guidance of the spirit of God. The spirit, as the inspiration of prophecy concerning Messiah, should be carefully distinguished from the Holy Ghost as the witness and seal, dwelling in Christian believers. There are dreams of poets, visions of a golden age; but these may not be compared with the prophetic portions of Scripture, which are distinctly revelational, and designed to confirm faith in the Divine ordering of human affairs, with a view to redemptive issues.

III. Its limitations.—It is buried in current human history, or in figures understood only in particular ages, and must therefore always be dealt with in a large, general, and suggestive, rather than precise way.

IV. Its precise mission.—It had an immediate mission. It was to cheer hearts and keep up hope. It was a lamp in the night which must stay and brighten the house until the daylight streamed in at the windows. Its interest to us lies in what it was, and what it did, rather than in what it is. What kept the world’s faith alive is always important.

V. Its interpretation.—It must not be conducted on any private lines, but according to principles of interpretation laid down. The idiosyncracics of individuals have wrought sad havoc in the treatment of God’s Word.

SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES

2Pe_1:19-21. Lock and Key.—St. Peter had been speaking of the proofs which he and his brother apostles had received of our Saviour’s power and greatness. After a reference to the Transfiguration, he comes to the proof from prophecy. He says, a prophecy is like a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn. As men burn a candle during the night to give light, so was God pleased to set up the lamp of prophecy in the world, to save mankind from being left in total darkness during the ages before the coming of Christ. The prophecies were designed to preserve a sense of God’s goodness, and a recollection of His promises, to keep hope alive in the world, and to awaken men to the expectation of some great mercy, which God was preparing for His people and would bring to light in due time. When Christ came, the prophecies acquired a new use; they became, perhaps, the strongest of the outward proofs, the most striking of the external testimonies to the truth of our Saviour’s mission. Their testimony is so sure, because not of private interpretation; that is, the prophecies did not refer merely to the events of the time and place when they were spoken; but pointed far onward into futurity, and had a grander reference and application to the Son of God. The prophet himself did not always fully understand his prophecies. He spake as he was moved by the spirit of God; he gave utterance to the threats and promises which God put into his mouth. But how those threats and promises were to be fulfilled, neither he nor his hearers knew. So that the prophecies were like a door with a curious lock or secret spring to it. Till the secret of the spring is found out, till the right key is given, we may puzzle ourselves as long as we please, but we shall never open the door. If you saw half a dozen doors with as many locks to them, so new and strange that not a smith in the country could make a key to fit any one of them, and if a man then came with a key which fitted all these different locks, and opened all the six doors, could you doubt that his was the right key? This is just the kind of proof which the prophecies afford of the truth and Divinity of Jesus. The weight of this proof rests on two simple facts: one is, that the prophecies were written many hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. The other is, that Jesus died the death related in the New Testament. Compare, then, such writings as Psalms 22 and Isaiah 53, with the account of our Saviour’s trial and crucifixion in the gospels, and any unprejudiced man must admit that the early writers were taught of God. Illustrations may be fully taken from the chapter in Isaiah. Four assertions are made in it:

1. Messiah was to be made answerable for a sum that was required.

2. He was to be taken off by an oppressive or unjust sentence.

3. He was to be dumb and patient before his Judges 4. He was to be brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and to be cut off for the sins of God’s people. These are extraordinary assertions, yet they are all fulfilled in Jesus; so accurately, and in so many points, that the agreement cannot be accidental. Therefore, in Jesus we have the true key for the prophetic lock; and Isaiah, who foretold all these things so many hundred years before, must assuredly have spoken, as St. Peter says, not of his own will, but as he was moved by the Holy Ghost.—A. W. Hare, A.M.

2Pe_1:19. Prophecies Fulfilled in Christ.

I. The prophets themselves in reference to Christ.—

1. Every one of them had in his day a good name and character at stake.

2. Still they were not afraid, nor slow, to venture their names upon mysterious oracles.

3. This is the more remarkable since they did not themselves fully understand what they prophesied.

4. The reason for this is, that they were rendered confident by God.

II. Christ Himself in reference to the prophets and their prophecies.—

1. His birth.

2. His betrayal.

3. His condemnation and crucifixion.

4. His miracles.

5. His various sufferings.

6. His ministry—its nature and success.—R. Philip.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1

2Pe_1:19. Promises of The Word.—Like the aurora borealis shining on the frosty and sombre sky, tinging it with beautiful colours, and relieving it with brilliant rays, the promises of the gospel shine in tints of light and smiles of love over the cold and gloomy night of trouble.—T. J. Wright.

CHAPTER 2

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:16-21 Peter’s denunciation of the false teachers (ch 2) is framed by this teaching about the certainty of Jesus’ return (see also 3:1-13). The false teachers were probably denying the reality of Christ’s return and judgment. Peter’s eyewitness experience (1:16-18) and the intrinsic reliability of scriptural prophecy (1:19-21) make Christ’s return a certainty.

1:16-18 clever stories (literally cleverly invented myths): The false teachers were probably charging that the message of Christ’s return was just an edifying fable with no factual truth. • We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes: At Jesus’ transfiguration (Matt 17:1-9; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36), which prefigured Christ’s return by revealing Jesus as the glorious King. Peter’s confidence was not based on human speculation but on eyewitness experience.

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2Pe 1:16. Γὰρ, for) He shows that the subject was one, respecting which it was befitting that he should write, though even on the point of death; alleging the testimony of apostles, and the discourse of prophets.—σεσοφισμένοις) πλαστοῖς, ch. 2Pe 2:3, cunningly devised.—μύθοις) fables, such as the heathen had respecting their gods.—ἐξακολουθησαντες) The ἐξ denotes error; ch. 2Pe 2:2; 2Pe 2:15. There is no such error in this matter.—δύναμιν καὶ παρουσίαν, the power and presence) Hendiadys: that is, most present majesty. Δύναμις, power, is opposed to fables. Comp. 1Co 4:20, where word and power are opposed to each other. The Transfiguration on the Mount is a pattern of the revelation of glory at the last day; and the whole testimony of the apostles looks to this revelation: Act 10:42.—ἐπόπται, eye-witnesses) Admitted to His innermost secrets; for instance, on the Mount.—ἐκείνου, of Him) Ἐκεῖνος, He, denotes something distant, and wonderful, and great.—μεγαλειότητος, majesty) As the name of the Father and the Son are correlative terms, so are magnificent glory and majesty. Magnificent glory in the text is ascribed to the Father; majesty (magnitudo) or μεγαλειότης (for the Greek word differs somewhat from the Latin), to the Son.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Pe_1:16. οὐ γὰρ σεσοφισμένοις μύθοις ἐξακολουθήσαντες] γάρ shows that this verse, in which allusion is made to the erroneous teachers, gives the reason for the σπουδάσω. The connection of thought is perfectly plain, so soon as it is observed that all that has gone before has been said in close relation to the promises (2Pe_1:4).

σεσοφισμένοις μύθοις, Luther inexactly: clever fables; σοφίζειν means in 2Ti_3:15 : to make wise; this meaning is inappropriate here; in the classics it occurs in the sense: to contrive cleverly; thus Aristophanes, Nub. 543: ἀεὶ καινὰς ἰδέας σοφίζομαι; accordingly σεσοφ. μῦθοι are: cleverly contrived fables; Pott: fabulae ad decipiendos hominum animos artificiosae excogitate atque exornatae;[48] cf. chap. 2Pe_2:3, ΠΛΑΣΤΟῚ ΛΌΓΟΙ. The interpretation of Aretius is, on the other hand, incorrect: fabulae falsam habentes sapientiae et veritatis speciem. The expression ΜῦΘΟΙ is to be found in the N. T. only here and in the Pastoral Epistles. As the author makes no special allusion of the kind, it is at least doubtful if he refers to any definite myths; either those of the heathen with reference to the appearances of the gods upon earth (Oecumenius, Estius, Bengel, etc.), or to those of the Gnostics as to the emanation of the aeons (Dietlein), or to the Gnostic myth of the Sophia (Baur), or to the apocryphal legends of the birth and childhood of Christ, especially in the Ev. Infantiae Jesu (Jachmann), or to false myths as to Christ embellished in the spirit of the Jewish Messianic beliefs (Semler), or apocryphal, didactic, and historical traditions, as these were appended by a later Judaism to the histories of the O. T., especially to the most ancient (Schott, similarly Steinfass), or to the practice of heathen lawgivers, who, according to Josephus, appropriated to themselves the fables of popular belief, borrowing from them their accounts of the gods (Hofmann). The words express, indeed, an antithesis, but this is of an entirely general kind; either in order to bring out that the apostolic preachers are not like those others who seek the support of myths,perhaps with special reference to the false teachers alluded to in chap. 2 and 3,or, what is less probable, in order to meet the reproaches of these teachers (Wiesinger), and the contrast serves to give the more prominence to the positive statement.

ἐξακολουθήσαντες] The verb, besides here, only in chap. 2Pe_2:2; 2Pe_2:15. The preposition ἘΞ does not precisely indicate the error (Bengel), but only the going forth from a particular point; in common usage, however, this secondary meaning often entirely recedes; cf. the passage below, quoted from Josephus, Ant. prooem. § 4. By this negative statement the author denies not only that his message was based on myths, but that in it he followed a communication received from others (Schott).

ἐγνωρίσαμεν ὑμῖν τὴν τοῦ κυρ. ἡμ. Ἰ. Χρ. δύναμιν κ. παρουσίαν] Several interpreters understand this of the First Epistle of Peter; in which case the plural is surprising, for the author had already spoken of himself in the singular. Hofmanns objection to this view is, that although in his former epistle Peter refers to the power and coming of Christ, he did not first make it known to the readers. But the passages 1Co_15:1 and Gal_1:11, show that ΓΝΩΡΊΖΕΙΝ may also be used of a proclamation, the substance of which had already been communicated to those to whom it was made. Many commentators take the words as referring to the whole preaching of the apostles, understanding ὙΜῖΝ, not of the readers specially, but of the Gentile-Christians generally; thus Wiesinger, and more decidedly Hofmann. It must be observed, however, in opposition to this, that ΓΕΝΗΘΈΝΤΕς and the subsequent ἩΜΕῖς ἨΚΟΎΣΑΜΕΝ must refer to the same subject as ἘΓΝΩΡΊΣΑΜΕΝ. The most probable explanation is, that the author, remembering that he was not the only witness of the transfiguration, passed from the singular to the plural, and in so doing made use of ὙΜῖΝ in its extended sense.

ΠΑΡΟΥΣΊΑ is not here the nativitas Christi, His human birth (Vatablus, Erasmus, Hornejus, Pott, Jachmann, etc.), nor His presence during the time He appeared on earth (Schmid); but, in harmony both with the N. T. usage (chap. 2Pe_3:4; Mat_24:3; Mat_24:27; 1Co_15:23; 1Th_2:19, etc.) and the connection of thought (2Pe_1:4; 2Pe_1:17; 2Pe_3:4): the return of Christ to judgment (Estius, Semler, Knapp, Dietlein, de Wette-Brückner, Hofmann, and the more modern interpreters generally[49]). ΔΎΝΑΜΙς, however, denotes the fulness of might of the glorified Lord, as it will be more especially revealed in His ΠΑΡΟΥΣΊΑ. It is not correct to combine both ideas into one, and with Hornejus to explain: potens adventus; or with Bengel: majestas praesentissima.

ἈΛΛʼ ἘΠΌΠΤΑΙ … ΜΕΓΑΛΕΙΌΤΗΤΟς] An antithesis, affirmatively stated, to what goes before. ἘΠΌΠΤΗς, ἍΠ. ΛΕΓ. (1Pe_2:12; 1Pe_3:2 : ἘΠΟΠΤΕΎΩ), is the term, techn. for him who had reached the highest degree of initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries. Keeping to this, Bengel here interprets: ad intima arcana admissi; de Wette, too, thinks that the expression has here the secondary meaning of being initiated, of intimacy. It is no doubt chosen purposely with reference to the fact that the ΜΕΓΑΛΕΙΌΤΗς of Christ, which Peter and the other two disciples beheld, was a mystery hidden from the others. Grotius, Pott, and others take it as synonymous with ΑὐΤΌΠΤΗς, Luk_1:2. The connection demands that ἘΠΌΠΤΑΙ ΓΕΝΗΘΈΝΤΕς should be referred to the fact of the transfiguration (2Pe_1:17). Hofmann is wrong in supposing that Peter here thought of the appearance of the Risen One and His ascension. The assertion is refuted not only by the close connection in which 2Pe_1:17 stands to this verse, but by the word ΜΕΓΑΛΕΙΌΤΗς, which in no sense is expressive only of greatness. As the form in which Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after His resurrection was the same as that in which they had seen Him before it, they were not then in any way ἐπόπται of his ΜΕΓΑΛΕΙΌΤΗς; nor is there the slightest hint that there is here allusion to any fact other than that mentioned in the following verse.

Τῆς ἘΚΕΊΝΟΥ ΜΕΓΑΛΕΙΌΤΗΤΟς] that is, the glory in which at His transfiguration Christ showed Himself to the three disciples. Incorrectly Calvin: exemplum unum prae aliis eligit memorabile, in quo Christus coelesti gloria ornatus conspicuam divinae magnificentiae speciem tribus discipulis praebuit. The apostle rather regards the transfiguration glory of Christ as the typeand therefore the proofof the glory of Christ at His ΠΑΡΟΥΣΊΑ.

[48] Dietlein thinks that the expression σεσοφισμένοις contains a double reproach, i.e. not only by the termination ιζειν, but also in as far as the word σοφία means what is bad; however, the termination ιζειν is by no means always used in a bad sense, nor does σοφία in itself mean what is bad, except only in connection with τοῦ κόσμου τούτου (1Co_1:20), ἀνθρωπίνη (1Co_2:13), etc. Besides, σοφίζειν is mostly employed so as to contain the secondary meaning of cleverness (see Pape, e.v.); consequently Hofmann is wrong in rendering σεσοφισμένος simply by conceived, asserting that the word means nothing else. Cf. with our passage Joseph. Ant. prooem. 4: οἱ μὲν ἄλλοι νομοθέται τοῖς μύθοις ἐξακολουθήσαντες τῶς ἀνθρωπίνων ἁμαρτημάτων εἰς τοὺς θεοὺς τῷ λόγῳ τὴν αἰσχύνην μετέθησαν κ.τ.λ.

[49] Fronmüller only interprets: His appearing with miraculous powers in the flesh, along with His expected appearance in glory.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Pe 1:16-18 . The fact of the Transfiguration a guarantee of the writer’s truthfulness . “For we are not without facts to rest upon. Our preaching of the power and coming of Jesus Christ was not based on sophistical myths. We were eye-witnesses of His Majesty. For He received from God the Father honour and glory, a voice coming to Him through the splendour of the glory, ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased’. This voice we heard, as it was borne from heaven, when we were with Him in the Holy Mount.” (For a comparison of this passage, with the Synoptic account, see Introduction, pp. 94 ff.).

2Pe 1:16 . σεσοφισμ . μύθ . Cf. σεσοφισμένη μήτηρ .: “suppositious mother”. Greg. Nyss. i. 171 D. This is evidently the character attributed to the facts of the Christian Gospel by the False Teachers. They specially sought to discredit the outlook for the Second Advent. μῦθοι is often used in the Pastoral Epistles or the fanciful Gnostic genealogies (1Ti 1:4 ; 1Ti 4:7 ; Tit 1:14 ). ἐγνωρίσαμεν . Used in N.T. of preaching the Gospel ( e.g. 1Co 15:1 ). δύναμιν καὶ παρουσίαν . For collocation of words, cf. Mat 24:30 , Mar 9:1 . For δύναμις , see note on 2Pe 1:3 . παρουσίαν . Chase ( op. cit. 797 a ) regards the word here as denoting the first coming of Christ, because (1) the context speaks of history and not of prophecy; (2) the word itself naturally bears this meaning. He admits, however, that elsewhere in the N.T and in this Epistle it is used of the Second Coming ( cf. Ignat. Philad. 9). Justin ( Dialogue 32) distinguishes “two advents, one in which He was pierced by you; a second, when you shall know Him, Whom you have pierced”. There is, however, no real difficulty here in taking παρ . in the usual sense, which, indeed, is more in harmony with the context. The Transfiguration itself, as used by this writer, is regarded as a basis for belief in the Second Advent, against the False Teachers.

Dr. Milligan, in his recent edition of Thessalonians, gives a valuable note on παρουσία (p. 145). He mentions that it occurs frequently in the Papyri as a kind of terminus technicus with reference to the visit of the king, or some other official. (P. Petr. 2:39 ( e ), 18 (iii. B.C.). P. Tebt. 48, 13 f. (2. B.C.), 116 (ii. B.C.). P. Gren., 2Pe 2:14 ( b ), 2 (iii. B.C.). Dittenberger, Sylloge , 226, 84 ff. (iii. B.C.). τῶν δὲ ἀρχόντων συναγαγόντων ἐκλησίαν καὶ τήντε παρουσίαν ἐμφανισάντωντοῦ βασιλέως . “We fall back upon” these examples of the word “the more gladly because for this particular sense of the word the Jewish sacred writings give us little help” ( ibid. ). The word must, therefore, have come into use, in this application to the Second Advent, in apostolic times, as faithfully representing the meaning of Jesus Himself ( cf. Mat 24:3 ; Mat 24:27 ; Mat 24:37 ; Mat 24:39 ). The usual classical sense of the word as “presence” must not be disregarded. Taken together with the other meaning illustrated by the Κοινή , παρουσία would thus seem to combine in itself the meaning of “actual presence,” and a near “coming”. This combination of meaning in the consciousness of the early Church, with its perplexity as to the interpretation of our Lord’s promise, would seem to be reflected in Joh 16:16-18 . ἐπόπται : used of those who had attained the highest degree of initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries. Judging from the use of ἐποπτεύω in 1 Peter, the word may have passed into ordinary speech, but no doubt is used here to enhance the splendour of the vision, and the honour done the disciples, at the Transfiguration “admitted to the spectacle of His grandeur’ (Moffat, H. N. T. p. 600). ἐπόπτης is applied to God in Est 5:1 , 2Ma 7:35 , cf. O.G.I.S., 666 τὸν Ἥλιον Ἅφμαχιν ἐπόπτην καὶ σωτῆρα (reference to an Egyptian Sun-god). Hofmann holds that the reference is rather to the Resurrection and Ascension. μεγαλείοτητος . Cf. Luk 9:43 , Act 19:27 .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Another amplification taken both of the great certainty and also excellency of this doctrine, as whereof our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God is author, whose glory the Apostle himself both saw and heard.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Here we have the reason of giving the foregoing exhortation, and that with so much diligence and seriousness. These things are not idle tales, or a vain thing, but of undoubted truth and vast concern. The gospel is not a cunningly devised fable. These are not the words of one who hath a devil, nor the contrivance of any number of men who by cunning craftiness endeavour to deceive. The way of salvation by Jesus Christ is eminently the counsel of God, the most excellent contrivance of the infinitely wise Jehovah; it was he that invented this way of saving sinners by Jesus Christ, whose power and coming are set forth in the gospel, and the apostle's preaching was a making of these things known. 1. The preaching of the gospel is a making known the power of Christ, that he is able to save to the uttermost all who come to God by him. He is the mighty God, and therefore can save from both the guilt and the filth of sin. 2. The coming of Christ also is make known by the preaching of the gospel. He who was promised immediately after the fall of man, as in the fulness of time to be born of a woman, has now come in the flesh; and whosoever denies this is an antichrist (Jo1 4:3), he is actuated and influenced by the spirit of anti-christ; but those who are the true apostles and ministers of Christ, and are directed and guided by the Spirit of Christ, evidence that Christ has come according to the promise which all the Old Testament believers died in the faith of, Heb 11:39. Christ has come in the flesh. Inasmuch as those whom he undertakes to save are partakers of flesh and blood, he himself also took part of the same, that he might suffer in their nature and stead, and thereby make an atonement. This coming of Christ the gospel is very plain and circumstantial in setting forth; but there is a second coming, which it likewise mentions, which the ministers of the gospel ought also to make known, when he shall come in the glory of his Father with all his holy angels, for he is appointed to be Judge both of quick and dead. He will come to judge the world in righteousness by the everlasting gospel, and call us all to give account of all things done in the body, whether good or evil. 3. And though this gospel of Christ has been blasphemously called a fable by one of those wretches who call themselves the successors of St. Peter, yet our apostle proves that it is of the greatest certainty and reality, inasmuch as during our blessed Saviour's abode here on earth, when he took on him the form of a servant and was found in fashion as a man, he sometimes manifested himself to be God, and particularly to our apostle and the two sons of Zebedee, who were eye-witnesses of his divine majesty, when he was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light, exceedingly white, as snow, so as no fuller on earth can whiten them. This Peter, James, and John, were eye-witnesses of, and therefore might and ought to attest; and surely their testimony is true, when they witness what they have seen with their eyes, yea, and heard with their ears: for, besides the visible glory that Christ was invested with here on earth, there was an audible voice from heaven. Here observe, (1.) What a gracious declaration was made: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased - the best voice that ever came from heaven to earth; God is well pleased with Christ, and with us in him. This is the Messiah who was promised, through whom all who believe in him shall be accepted and saved. (2.) This declaration is made by God the Father, who thus publicly owns his Son (even in his state of humiliation, when he was in the form of a servant), yea, proclaims him to be his beloved Son, when he is in that low condition; yea, so far are Christ's mean and low circumstances from abating the love of the Father to him that his laying down his life is said to be one special reason of the Father's love, Joh 10:17. (3.) The design of this voice was to do our Saviour a singular humour while he was here below: He received honour and glory from God the Father. This is the person whom God delights to honour. As he requires us to give honour and glory to his Son by confessing him to be our Saviour, so does he give glory and honour to our Saviour by declaring him to be his Son. (4.) This voice is from heaven, called here the excellent glory, which still reflects a greater glory upon our blessed Saviour. This declaration is from God the fountain of honour, and from heaven the seat of glory, where God is most gloriously present. (5.) This voice was heard, and that so as to be understood, by Peter, James, and John. They not only heard a sound (as the people did, Joh 12:28, Joh 12:29), but they understood the sense. God opens the ears and understandings of his people to receive what they are concerned to know, when others are like Paul's companions, who only heard a sound of words (Act 9:7), but understood not the meaning thereof, and therefore are said not to hear the voice of him that spoke, Act 22:9. Blessed are those who not only hear, but understand, who believe the truth, and feel the power of the voice from heaven, as he did who testifieth these things: and we have all the reason in the world to receive his testimony; for who would refuse to give credit to what is so circumstantially laid down as this account of the voice from heaven, of which the apostle tells us, (6.) It was heard by them in the holy mount, when they were with Jesus? The place wherein God affords any peculiarly gracious manifestation of himself is thereby made holy, not with an inherent holiness, but as the ground was holy where God appeared to Moses (Exo 3:5), and the mountain holy on which the temple was built, Psa 87:1. Such places are relatively holy, and to be regarded as such during the time that men in themselves experience, or may, by warrant from the word, believingly expect, the special presence and gracious influence of the holy and glorious God.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

For--reason why he is so earnest that the remembrance of these things should be continued after his death.

followed--out in detail.

cunningly devised--Greek, "devised by (man's) wisdom"; as distinguished from what the Holy Ghost teaches (compare Co1 3:13). But compare also Pe2 2:3, "feigned words."

fables--as the heathen mythologies, and the subsequent Gnostic "fables and genealogies," of which the germs already existed in the junction of Judaism with Oriental philosophy in Asia Minor. A precautionary protest of the Spirit against the rationalistic theory of the Gospel history being myth.

when we made known unto you--not that Peter himself had personally taught the churches in Pontus, Galatia, &c., but he was one of the apostles whose testimony was borne to them, and to the Church in general, to whom this Epistle is addressed (Pe2 1:1, including, but not restricted, as First Peter, to the churches in Pontus, &c.).

power--the opposite of "fables"; compare the contrast of "word" and "power," Co1 4:20. A specimen of His power was given at the Transfiguration also of His "coming" again, and its attendant glory. The Greek for "coming" is always used of His second advent. A refutation of the scoffers (Pe2 3:4): I, James and John, saw with our own eyes a mysterious sample of His coming glory.

were--Greek, "were made."

eye-witnesses--As initiated spectators of mysteries (so the Greek), we were admitted into His innermost secrets, namely, at the Transfiguration.

his--emphatical (compare Greek): "THAT great ONE'S majesty."

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 16. Cunningly devised fables] σεσοφισμενοιςμυθοις. I think, with Macknight and others, from the apostle's using εποπται, eye witnesses, or rather beholders, in the end of the verse, it is probable that he means those cunningly devised fables among the heathens, concerning the appearance of their gods on earth in human form. And to gain the greater credit to these fables, the priests and statesmen instituted what they called the mysteries of the gods, in which the fabulous appearance of the gods was represented in mystic shows. But one particular show none but the fully initiated were permitted to behold; hence they were entitled εποπται, beholders. This show was probably some resplendent image of the god, imitating life, which, by its glory, dazzled the eyes of the beholders, while their ears were ravished by hymns sung in its praise; to this it was natural enough for St. Peter to allude, when speaking about the transfiguration of Christ. Here the indescribably resplendent majesty of the great God was manifested, as far as it could be, in conjunction with that human body in which the fulness of the Divinity dwelt. And we, says the apostle, were εποπται, beholders, τηςεκεινου μεγαλειοτητος, of his own majesty. Here was no trick, no feigned show; we saw him in his glory whom thousands saw before and afterwards; and we have made known to you the power and coming, παρουσιαν, the appearance and presence, of our Lord Jesus; and we call you to feel the exceeding greatness of this power in your conversion, and the glory of this appearance in his revelation by the power of his Spirit to your souls. These things we have witnessed, and these things ye have experienced: and therefore we can confidently say that neither you nor we have followed cunningly devised fables, but that blessed Gospel which is the power of God to the salvation of every one that believes.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

16. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables. It gives us much courage, when we know that we labor in a matter that is certain. Lest, then, the faithful should think that in these labors they were beating the air, he now comes to set forth the certainty of the gospel; and he denies that anything had been delivered by him but what was altogether true and indubitable: and they were encouraged to persevere, when they were sure of the prosperous issue of their calling.

In the first place, Peter indeed asserts that he had been an eyewitness; for he had himself seen with his own eyes the glory of Christ, of which he speaks. This knowledge he sets in opposition to crafty fables, such as cunning men are wont to fabricate to ensnare simple minds. The old interpreter renders the word “feigned,” (fictas;) Erasmus, “formed by art.” It seems to me that what is subtle to deceive is meant: for the Greek word here used, σοφίζεσθαι, sometimes means this. And we know how much labor men bestow on frivolous refinements, and only that they may have some amusement. Therefore no less seriously ought our minds to be applied to know the truth which is not fallacious, and the doctrine which is not nugatory, and which discovers to us the glory of the Son of God and our own salvation.

The power and the coming. No doubt he meant in these words to include the substance of the gospel, as it certainly contains nothing except Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom. But he distinctly mentions two things, — that Christ had been manifested in the flesh, — and also that power was exhibited by him. Thus, then, we have the whole gospel; for we know that he, the long-promised Redeemer, came from heaven, put on our flesh, lived in the world, died and rose again; and, in the second place, we perceive the end and fruit of all these things, that is, that he might be God with us, that he might exhibit in himself a sure pledge of our adoption, that he might cleanse us from the defilement’s of the flesh by the grace of his Spirit, and consecrate us temples to God, that he might deliver us from hell, and raise us up to heaven, that he might by the sacrifice of his death make an atonement for the sins of the world, that he might reconcile us to the Father, that he might become to us the author of righteousness and of life. He who knows and understands these things, is fully acquainted with the gospel.

Were eyewitnesses, or beholders We hence conclude, that they by no means serve Christ, nor are like the apostles, who presumptuously mount the pulpit to prattle of speculations unknown to themselves; for he alone is the lawful minister of Christ, who knows the truth of the doctrine which he delivers: not that all obtain certainty in the same way; for what Peter says is that he himself was present, when Christ was declared by a voice from heaven to be the Son of God. Three only were then present, but they were sufficient as witnesses; for they had through many miracles seen the glory of Christ, and had a remarkable evidence of his divinity in his resurrection. But we now obtain certainty in another way; for though Christ has not risen before our eyes, yet we know by whom his resurrection has been handed down to us. And added to this is the inward testimony of conscience, the sealing of the Spirit, which far exceeds all the evidence of the senses. But let us remember that the gospel was not at the beginning made up of vague rumors, but that the apostles were the authentic preachers of what they had seen.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(16) For we have not followed.—More literally, For we did not follow, or, It was not by following out, &c., that. “For” introduces the reason for “I will endeavour” above. The word for “follow,” or “follow out,” occurs again in 2Pe_2:2; 2Pe_2:15, and nowhere else in the New Testament.

Cunningly devised fables.—We cannot be sure that any in particular are meant, whether heathen, Jewish, or Christian; the negative makes the statement quite general. Various things, however, have been suggested as possibly indicated—heathen mythology, Jewish theosophy, Gnostic systems (as yet quite in their infancy in Simon Magus, St. Peter’s adversary), and Apocryphal Gospels. Probably some elements in the doctrine of the false teachers are alluded to; something analogous to the “feigned words” of 2Pe_2:3. There is reason for believing that the particular elements in their teaching thus incidentally condemned were of Jewish origin. If this conjecture be correct, then St. Peter is here dealing with errors similar to those condemned by St. Paul (1Ti_1:4; 2Ti_4:4; Tit_1:14—the only other passages in which the word “fables” occurs). And in this case much light is thrown on some of the marked peculiarities of this Epistle and that of St. Jude, viz., the fondness of both writers for the oldest, and sometimes the most obscure, passages of Old Testament history, as well as for some strange portions of uncanonical and apocryphal tradition. They were fighting these seducers with their own weapons; difficult passages of Scripture and tradition, which these men had worked up into a system of pernicious mysticism, St. Peter and St. Jude proved to be altogether of a different meaning, and to tell against the very doctrines that they were employed to support.

When we made known unto you.—It is difficult to determine to what this refers. It is erroneous to suppose that the phrase necessarily implies personal communication by word of mouth. In the First Epistle the Apostle wrote to congregations not personally acquainted with him; and we have no reason for assuming that he had visited them since. “When we made known” may possibly refer to the First Epistle, against which supposition the plural “we” is not conclusive. Or a written Gospel—and, if so, the one with which St. Peter is commonly connected, viz., that of St. Mark—may be in the Apostle’s mind. But the simplest explanation is that he refers to the Apostolic teaching generally.

The power and coming.—The power conferred upon Christ after being glorified in His passion and resurrection, and his coming again to judgment. (Comp. 2Pe_3:4; Mat_24:3; Mat_24:27; 1Co_15:23; &c., &c., where the same Greek word is used.) In this power He will come again. His first coming at the Incarnation would neither be the usual meaning of the word nor would suit the context.

But were eyewitnesses.—More literally, but by having been made eye-witnesses. “It was not by following fables that we made known to you His power and coming, but by having been admitted eye-witnesses.” The word for “eye-witness” is sometimes a technical term for one who was admitted to the highest grade of initiation in the Eleusinian mysteries. This meaning would be very applicable here; but it may be doubted whether St. Peter would be familiar with this use of the word. It occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. The kindred verb, “to be an eye-witness,” occurs in 1Pe_2:12; 1Pe_3:2, and nowhere else—a coincidence worth noting. The words of another witness of the Transfiguration,” And we beheld His glory,” &c. (Joh_1:14), should be compared with the passage before us.

Of his majesty.—At the Transfiguration, which was a foretaste and an earnest of the glory of His second coming. This is St. Peter’s view of it; and that it is the correct one is perhaps shown by the Gospels themselves. All three accounts of the Transfiguration are preceded by the declaration, “Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom,” or similar words (Mat_16:28; Mar_9:1; Luk_9:27). Apparently the Transfiguration was regarded by Christ Himself as in some sense the coming of the Son of man.

(16-21) The certainty of Christ’s coming again is the basis of these exhortations; and that certainty is proved (1) by the Transfiguration, which was an anticipation of His coming again in glory; (2) by the utterances of the prophets who predicted it.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

16. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you …] More accurately, For it was not as following cunningly devised fables that we made known—the connexion being one not of time but of causation. The “fables” or “myths” referred to are probably those of which St Paul speaks in the Pastoral Epistles (1Ti_1:4; 1Ti_4:7; 2Ti_4:4; Tit_1:14), which were, as the description there given of them indicates, mainly of Jewish origin. With these there might be mingled the germs of the Gnosticism incipient in the Apostolic age, and developed more fully in the next century. Possibly there may be an allusive reference to the claims of the sorcerer of Samaria, with whom the Apostle had himself come into collision (Act_8:10). The boast of Simon that he was the “great power of God,” and that his mistress Helena was the incarnation of the Divine Thought or Wisdom by which the worlds were made, would answer, closely enough, to the “cunningly devised fables” of which St Peter speaks. The word for “cunningly devised,” framed, i.e., with fraudulent and sophistical purpose, is not found elsewhere in the New Testament. The question what the Apostle refers to in “we made known to you:” it may refer either to unrecorded teaching addressed to the Asiatic Churches, or to the wider circle of readers defined in 2Pe_1:1, or, more probably, to the teaching of the First Epistle as to the glory that was to be manifested “at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1Pe_1:7; 1Pe_1:13; 1Pe_4:13). The tone in which the offensive epithet is used suggests the thought that he is defending himself against a charge of having followed “fables.” Is it possible that that charge had been brought against his teaching as to “the spirits in prison,” as something superadded to the received oral traditions of the Church, or to the written records, whether identical with our present Gospels or not, in which that teaching had been embodied?

the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ] The “coming,” here, as in every other passage of the New Testament in which the word occurs, is the Second Advent, not the first. The mind of the Apostle goes back to what he had witnessed in the glory of the Transfiguration, as the pledge and earnest of that which was afterwards to be revealed. The word does not occur in the First Epistle, but the fact is implied in 1Pe_1:7; 1Pe_1:13; 1Pe_4:13; 1Pe_5:4.

but were eyewitnesses of his majesty] Both words are significant. That for “eye-witnesses” (not found elsewhere in the New Testament, but used of God as the all-seeing in 2Ma_7:35; 3Ma_2:21) was applied in Classical Greek to the highest order of those who were initiated as spectators of the Eleusinian mysteries. It would, perhaps, be too much to say that that association was definitely present to the Apostle’s mind, but the choice of an unusual and suggestive word at least implies that he looked on himself as having been chosen to a special privilege. It deserves notice also, as bearing on the authorship of the Epistle, that the verb derived from the noun had been used by the writer of 1Pe_2:12; 1Pe_3:2. (See notes there.) The word for “majesty” also has the interest of having been used in the Gospel narrative in close connexion with the healing of the demoniac boy which followed the Transfiguration (Luk_9:43), and, as found there, may fairly be taken as including, as far as the three disciples who had seen the vision of glory were concerned, what had preceded that work of healing, as well as the work itself. The only other passage in the New Testament in which it is found is in Act_19:27, where it is used of the “magnificence” of the Ephesian Artemis.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables,.... Such as Jewish fables, cautioned against Tit 1:14 which their traditionary and oral law, their Talmud, and other writings, mention; as concerning the temporal kingdom of the Messiah, the sumptuous feast, and carnal pleasures and entertainments, of that state, with many other things; some of which indeed are not very cunningly put together, but weak enough: or Gentile fables concerning the theogony and exploits of their deities; and which may be meant by fables and endless genealogies in Ti1 1:4, and especially reference may be had to the metamorphoses of their gods, and their fables relating to them, devised by Ovid, and others, since the apostle is about to speak of the metamorphosis, or transfiguration of Christ; and also other fables with which their poets and histories abound; and likewise the prophecies of the Sibyls, and the oracles at Delphos, and elsewhere: or the fabulous accounts of the followers of Simon Magus concerning God, angels, the creation of the world, and the several Aeones; or the more artful composures of the false teachers, set off with all the cunning, sophistry, wit, and eloquence they were masters of. Now in order to set forth the nature, excellency, and certainty of the doctrine the apostle taught, especially that part of it which respected the coming of Christ; and to show that it was worth his while to put them in mind of it, and theirs to remember it; he observes, that he and his fellow apostles did not proceed in their account of it on such a foundation, but upon an evidence which they had received, both with their eyes and ears, and also on a word of prophecy surer than that:

when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; not his first coming, though that, and the benefits arising from it, were the subject of their ministry; and that was attended with divine power, which appeared in the incarnation of Christ itself, which was owing to the power of the Highest; and was seen in his doctrine and ministry, which were with great authority; and in the miracles which he wrought, which proved him to have power equal with God, his Father; and in the work of redemption, which he came about and finished; in doing which he made an end of sin, and saved his people from it, redeemed them from the curse of the law, overcame the world, destroyed Satan, and abolished death; and especially in his resurrection from the dead, when he was declared to be the Son of God with power: but notwithstanding his first coming was in great humility, in much meanness and imbecility, he grew up as a tender plant, and was encompassed with infirmities, and at last was crucified through weakness. This therefore was to be understood of an after coming of his, which the apostle had wrote of, and made known in his former epistle, Pe1 1:7 and which he puts them in mind of in this, Pe2 3:1, nor is the word used of any other coming of Christ, and this will be with power; and it designs his more near coming to take vengeance on the Jewish nation, and deliver his people from the afflictions and persecution they laboured under, and which was with great power; see Mat 14:3, or more remote, namely, at the last day, when there will be a great display of power in raising the dead, gathering all nations before him, separating them one from another, passing the final sentence on each, and executing the same in the utter destruction of the wicked, and the complete glorification of the saints.

But were eyewitnesses of his majesty; meaning, not of the glory of his divine nature by faith, and with the eyes of their understanding, while others only considered him as a mere man; nor of the miracles he wrought, in which there was a display of his glory and majesty, of all which the apostles were eyewitnesses; but of that glory and greatness which were upon him, when he was transfigured on the mount before them; then his face was as the sun, and such a glory on his whole body, that it darted through his clothes, and made them glitter like light, and as white as snow, and so as no fuller on earth could whiten them; at which time also Moses and Elijah appeared in glorious forms: and now this was a prelude and pledge of his power and coming, of his kingdom coming with power, and of his coming in his own, and his Father's glory, and in the glory of the holy angels. This was a proof that notwithstanding his meanness in his incarnate state, yet he was glorified, and would be glorified again; and this was a confirmation of it to the apostles, and might be to others: see Mat 16:27.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

Ver. 16. Cunningly devised fables] σεσοφισμενοις. Artificially composed and compiled, not without a show of wisdom and truth, to deceive silly people. The Jesuits confess that the legend of miracles of their saints is for the most part false; but it was made, say they, for good intention, that the common people (the females especially) might be drawn with greater zeal to serve God and his saints. And what shaft we think of their Dominic’s holy hypocrisy which he commended to his novices; and for the which he is so highly commended by Vincentius Episcopus Beluacensis in his life?

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables - That is, fictions or stories invented by artful men, and resting on no solid foundation. The doctrines which they held about the coming of the Saviour were not, like many of the opinions of the Greeks, defended by weak and sophistical reasoning, but were based on solid evidence - evidence furnished by the personal observation of competent witnesses. It is true of the gospel, in general, that it is not founded on cunningly devised fables; but the particular point referred to here is the promised coming of the Saviour. The evidence of that fact Peter proposes now to adduce.

When we made known unto you - Probably Peter here refers particularly to statements respecting the coming of the Saviour in his first epistle, 1Pe 1:5, 1Pe 1:13; 1Pe 4:13; but this was a common topic in the preaching, and in the epistles, of the apostles. It may, therefore, have referred to statements made to them at some time in his preaching, as well as to what he said in his former epistle. The apostles laid great stress on the second coming of the Saviour, and often dwelt upon it. Compare 1Th 4:16; Notes, Act 1:11.

The power and coming - These two words refer to the same thing; and the meaning is, his “powerful coming,” or his “coming in power.” The advent of the Saviour is commonly represented as connected with the exhibition of power. Mat 24:30, “coming in the clouds of heaven, with power.” See the notes at that verse. Compare Luk 22:69; Mar 3:9. The “power” evinced will be by raising the dead; summoning the world to judgment; determining the destiny of men, etc. When the coming of the Saviour, therefore, was referred to by the apostles in their preaching, it was probably always in connection with the declaration that it would be accompanied by exhibitions of great power and glory - as it undoubtedly will be. The fact that the Lord Jesus would thus return, it is clear, had been denied by some among those to whom this epistle was addressed, and it was important to state the evidence on which it was to be believed. The grounds on which they denied it 2Pe 3:4 were, that there were no appearances of his approach; that the premise had not been fulfilled; that all things continued as they had been; and that the affairs of the world moved on as they always had done. To meet and counteract this error - an error which so prevailed that many were in danger of “falling from their own steadfastness” 2Pe 3:17 - Peter states the proof on which he believed in the coming of the Saviour.

But were eye-witnesses of his majesty - On the mount of transfiguration, Mat 17:1-5. See the notes at that passage. That transfiguration was witnessed only by Peter, James, and John. But it may be asked, how the facts there witnessed demonstrate the point under consideration - that the Lord Jesus will come with power? To this it may be replied:

(1) That these apostles had there such a view of the Saviour in his glory as to convince them beyond doubt that he was the Messiah.

(2) That there was a direct attestation given to that fact by a voice from heaven, declaring that he was the beloved Son of God.

(3) That that transfiguration was understood to have an important reference to the coming of the Saviour in his kingdom and his glory, and was designed to be a representation of the manner in which he would then appear. This is referred to distinctly by each one of the three evangelists who have mentioned the transfiguration. Mat 16:28, “there be some standing here which shall not taste of death until they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom;” Mar 9:1-2; Luk 9:27-28. The transfiguration which occurred soon after these words were spoken was designed to show them what he would be in his glory, and to furnish to them a demonstration which they could never forget, that he would yet set up his kingdom in the world.

(4) They had in fact such a view of him as he would be in his kingdom, that they could entertain no doubt on the point; and the fact, as it impressed their own minds, they made known to others. The evidence as it lay in Peter’s mind was, that that transfiguration was designed to furnish proof to them that the Messiah would certainly appear in glory, and to give them a view of him as coming to reign which would never fade from their memory. As that had not yet been accomplished, he maintained that the evidence was clear that it must occur at some future time. As the transfiguration was with reference to his coming in his kingdom, it was proper for Peter to use it with that reference, or as bearing on that point.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

We have not by following artificial fables. Literally, learned fables,[6] invented to promote our doctrine. We, I with others, were eye-witnesses of his glory on Mount Thabor. [Matthew xvii. 2.] (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Non doctas fabulas, Greek: ou sesopismenois muthois. Some copies had indoctas, on which account the Rhem. Testament issued before the corrections of Pope Sixtus V. and Pope Clemens VIII. has unlearned.

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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Cunningly devised fables; human figments artificially contrived, either to please and gratify men’s fancies, or to deceive and pervert their judgment: q.d. The things we have preached unto you (the sum of which is the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ) are the true sayings of God, not the fictions of men: and so he may have respect both to heathenish and Jewish fables. See 1Ti 1:4; 4:7; 2Ti 4:4; Tit 1:14.

The power; this relates to the Divine nature of Christ with its glorious effects, the efficacy of his doctrine, the miracles whereby he confirmed it, and especially his resurrection from the dead, Rom 1:4.

And coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; this respects his human nature, his coming in the flesh, in which he manifested the power before mentioned; both together contain the sum of the whole gospel, viz. that Christ, the promised Messiah, is come in the flesh, and that he was furnished with power sufficient and ability to save sinners to the utmost. Or, Christ’s coming here may be his second coming, to which the word here used is for the most part applied in the New Testament, and whereof his transfiguration, in the following verse, was a representation and a forerunner; and in the belief of which the apostle would confirm these saints against those that scoffed at it, 2Pe 3:3,4.

But were eye-witnesses of his majesty: by Christ’s majesty may be understood all that glory which did shine out in him during the whole time of his abode upon earth, Joh 1:14, but especially that more eminent manifestation of it in his transfiguration, in the next verse.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables; rather, did not follow. The participle (ejxakolouqhsantev) is aorist. This compound verb is used only by St. Peter in the New Testament; we find it again in 2Pe_2:2 and 15. Bengel and others have thought that the preposition ejx, from or out of, implies wandering from the truth after false guides; but probably the word merely means "to follow closely," though in this case the guides were going astray. Perhaps the use of the plural number is accounted for by the fact that St. Peter was not the only witness of the glory of the Transfiguration; he associates in thought his two brother-apostles with himself. The word muqoi, fables, with this exception, occurs in the New Testament only in St. Paul"s pastoral Epistles. There is a remarkable parallel in the procemium of the "Antiquities" of Josephus, sect. 4, OiJ men alloi nomoqetai toiv muqoiv ejxakolouqhsantev. St. Peter may be referring to the "Jewish fables" mentioned by St. Paul, (Tit_1:14) or to the stories about the heathen gods such as those in Hesiod and Ovid, or possibly to some early inventions, such as those ascribed to Simon the Sorcerer, which were afterwards to be developed into the strange fictions of Gnosticism. (comp. 1Ti_1:4 1Ti_4:7; 2Ti_4:4) The word rendered "cunningly devised" occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in 2Ti_3:15; but there a different part of the verb is used, and in a different sense. When we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Peter can scarcely be referring to St. Paul or other missionaries, as the following words identify the preachers with the witnesses of the Transfiguration; he must be alluding either to his First Epistle (comp., (1Pe_1:7, 13 4:13) or to personal teaching of his which has not been recorded, or, just possibly, to the Gospel of St. Mark. St. Peter had seen the power of the Lord Jesus manifested in his miracles; he had heard the announcement of the risen Saviour, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth;" he had, like the rest of the apostles, been "endued with power from on high." By the coming (parousia) he must mean the second advent, the invariable meaning of the word in Holy Scripture (see chapter 3:4, (Mat_24:3, Mat_24:27; 1Co_15:23; 1Th_2:19, etc.) But were eye-witnesses of his majesty. The word for "eyewitnesses" is not the common one (aujtoptai, used by St., (Luk_1:2) but a technical word (ejpoptai), which in classical Greek designates the highest class of those who had been initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries. The choice of such a word may possibly imply that St. Peter regarded himself and his brother-apostles as having received the highest initiation into the mysteries of religion. The noun is found only here in the New Testament; but the corresponding verb occurs in 1Pe_2:12 and 3:2, and in no other of the New Testament writers. Here again we have an undesigned coincidence which points to identity of authorship. The word for "majesty" (megaleiothv) occurs in St. Luke"s description of the healing of the demoniac boy immediately after the Transfiguration, (Luk_9:43) and elsewhere only in Act_19:27.

Vers. 16-18.

Witness to Christ.

The Divine Saviour was the theme of apostolic preaching. They, whom he himself commissioned for the purpose, published the tidings of their Lord"s first advent as the object of human faith, and of his second and future advent as the object of human hope. Thus the "power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ" was the great thought that inspired the apostles" minds, and animated them in their labours. And it was most natural and wise that, for their own sake and. for the sake of their hearers and readers, they should ever keep before their hearts, and should often mention in their discourse, those great facts concerning the Master upon which their new life and their new work were based. This accounts for the reference in this passage to the marvelous scene of Christ"s Transfiguration.

I THE WITNESS OF THE FATHER TO THE SON. On three occasions during our Lord"s earthly ministry was the silence of heaven broken, and audible testimony borne by the Eternal to the "Son of his love." Of these occasions the Transfiguration was the most glorious and impressive. It was more than a majestic scene; it was an appeal to human intelligence and devoutness.

1. There was a voice from heaven. God chose an avenue which he himselfhad designed and fashioned, in order to reach the minds and hearts of men.

2. Expressed by this voice was the Father"s personal relationship ofaffection towards Jesus. In his humiliation our Lord was acknowledged as the "beloved Son.

3. Witness was also borne to the complacency with which the Father regarded the Son, as fulfilling his will in the ministry and mediation he had undertaken.

4. The Transfiguration was justly regarded by the apostles as a bestowalupon their Lord of "honour and glory." Not that to them the outward splendor was everything; doubtless it was the symbol of a spiritual glory.

II THE WITNESS OF THE DISCIPLES TO THEIR MASTER. This was a matter of fact, and is to us matter of history. Place and time are duly specified.

1. The disciples, who were serious and credible men, declared themselvesto be eye-witnesses of Christ"s majesty.

2. And ear-witnesses of the Divine attestation borne to him.

3. They expressly asserted that in this matter they were neither deceiversnor deceived. And, indeed, the case of their being either the one or the other is utterly incredible, is scarcely to be constructed by the imagination. They were not following cunningly devised fables; neither did they invent the incidents, nor did they adopt the inventions of others. In accepting the gospel narrative we build upon a sure foundation of fact.

III THE PRACTICAL INFERENCE TO BE DRAWN BY THOSE WHO RECEIVE THIS TWO-FOLD WITNESS. Human nature is such that it is not possible for us to believe such facts as those which St. Peter here records, and not be affected by such belief in our spirit and our conduct.

1. As regards Jesus himself, whosoever receives the gospel is constrainedto confess his power, presence, and coming.

2. As regards himself, he is bound to trust, love, honour, and serve theSaviour and Lord, who is thus made known to his spiritual nature by the revelation of the eternal Father, and by the testimony of his believing and devoted followers and apostles. J.R.T.

Vers. 16-18.

Certainty concerning Christ the secret of spiritual earnestness.

The apostle gives the reason for his earnestness in the passage before us, and certainty is the key-note of his utterance; He declares he knows what he enforces, that error has not been palmed on him for truth, that his eyes have seen and his ears have heard what he tells. Then our subject isCertainty concerning Christ the secret of spiritual earnestness. Doubt and deadness go together, certainty and vigour; and in an age when doubt is so freely suggested, that it is almost in the air we breathe, and is sometimes thought to be a sign of wisdom, it ought to be useful to us to consider the need and possibility of certainty. It does not follow that certainty can be attained at once, nor that all doubt is to be condemned. Much doubt is temperamental, like that of Thomas (and Thomas was a disciple second to none in fidelity to Jesus), and much, again, means spiritual progress, leading to higher faith and deeper repose; but we need not remain in doubt. There is a reasonable basis for belief, some eternal rock at least, on which we can weather the storm, though mystery lies around us on every side. In this present state of limited vision we may expect this mystery.

I CHRIST IS THE SUM" OF APOSTOLIC TRUTH. About what was the apostle certain? About Christ. He is here enforcing the need of spiritual truth; he is determined to live and die urging this truth, and in our text he sums up what this truth is. It is Christ. And that is equally the testimony of the Old Testament as of the New: what have they to say to us, but Christ? How that simplifies this book! how it shows what we are to come here to learn! One of the stumbling-blocks to the understanding of Scripture is that men come to it to learn what it is not intended to teach.

1. As Christ is the embodiment of Divine truth, the Bible is the revelation of Christ. That is what Peter in effect says here, the sum of the truth he urges power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," that is, his Deity and Incarnation, the God-Man. In making Christ known Scripture necessarily touches on other subjects, for he is connected with every part of the Father"s will, and he cannot be separated from them; there must be

2. some reference to them, and this may be indistinct, leaving much to be known hereafter. But we may be sure there will be nothing indistinct in the great central theme of the revelation. It would be regeneration to some if they would be content to leave these minor matters unsolved, and, remembering that the object of this record is to make Christ known, would lend their powers to discover the certainty about him, and rest in that.

3. He is the revelation of the Father. "Who by searching can find out God?" but in Jesus we have God manifested. "The Word was God," and "the Word was made flesh." The revelation of Christ is the manifestation of the Godhead.

1. He is the filling up of every human need. For man"s condemnation there is acquittal in him; for his sin there is the possibility of holiness; for his perplexity there is light; for his difficulties there is help; for his sorrows there is infinite love; for his fear of the future there are life and immortality. So perfectly can Christ raise us to the perfection of which our nature is callable, that it is said, "Ye are complete in him." The revelation of Christ is the satisfaction of men.

2. He is the end we are called to reach. For what were we made? Apart from him we know not. Do we fulfill our end in the toil and tears, the change and weariness, the fleeting pleasures and the lasting pains of three score years and ten? Is there nothing beyond this nothing to which this may be but the development, nothing beneath it, whose blessedness shall justify our existence? God replies by revealing Jesus. His life and death and rising again, the work of his ascended life, they are to raise us to likeness to himself: "We are predestined to be conformed to the image of God"s Son." The revelation of Christ is the guide and hope of our being.

II PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE IS THE GROUND OF CERTAINTY ABOUT CHRIST. Eye-witnesses, ear-witnesses, of what he is, therefore we know; that is the ground of the apostle"s assurance. There is here the suggestion of doubt concerning what was said of Christ. If we have sincere doubt about what is essential, it is better to face it and settle it, not to leave it to work its quiet mischief within us, or cast its shadow on our belief, but to look at it steadily, to turn on it the light of reason and truth, and satisfy ourselves that there is nothing in it. Some things it is not essential to know, and from their nature they are unknowable here; but of the mystery in what is essential, there is a solution somewhere, and to it God will not fail to guide the childlike spirit. There are three simple arguments which show it to be incredible that the doctrine of Jesus is a "cunningly devised fable." How could these unlearned men invent a fable surpassingly beyond what the world had ever heard, and so cunningly that for eighteen centuries it has deceived those who have tested it with the eagerness of settling life and death? Then how came this fable they had invented to change their own characters, and enable them to seal their testimony with their blood? Then how is it this fable has proved the regeneration of mankind, has become the world"s hope, and is cleaved to with unwavering assurance by growing millions of the race? But notice how Peter meets the suggestion. He does not argue he rests on what he himself had seen and heard. There was one season he ever remembered, when he was with his Lord in the "holy mount," and there came "such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Our certainty about Christ may have the same ground. At first we must depend on outside testimony for our knowledge of Christ; but when that has done most for us, there is a better assurance possible, personal fellowship with himself, that is the antidote to doubt about him. Let him work his work upon you, and you will smile at the suggestion that the "power and coming of the Lord Jesus" is a "cunningly devised fable.

III CERTAINTY ABOUT CHRIST THE SECRET OF SPIRITUAL EARNESTLESS. Let us have no rest till we come to certainty about our Lord. We may be as certain that he is, and that he is the Saviour of sinners, and the Satisfaction of human needs, as we are of our existence. Then we shall be animated with earnestness in cleaving to him, in living for him; duty no more cold and hard, but joyous service for the Living One we love; the very sorrows that draw us to him tinged with joy; yea, death itself no longer dreaded because we see him waiting for us on the further shore. C.N.

Vers. 16-21.

Threefold testimony to the truth of Christianity.

In laying out the grounds of his own faith, and the grounds, too, on which he would have his readers build their faith, St. Peter indicates the lines of a threefold evidence.

I THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES.

1. They were "eye-witnesses a rare word, describing spectators who were admitted into the highest grade of initiation into mysteries. How true of Peter and James and John, with regard to the life of our Lord!

2. They were eye-witnesses of a wondrous revelation. "His majesty;" no one event only, though chiefly the Transfiguration.

3. They had heard a Divine voice. "The voice we ourselves heard." No hallucination: we all heard, we all saw.

4. The recollection of such vision and voice was forever sacred. "The holy mount." We know not its name, but it was to them for ever a consecrated height. Any spot becomes "holy" to the soul that has had there a deep sense of God"s presence; has been awed by his greatness, touched by his love.

II The testimony of THE EARLIER PROPHETIC WORD. "The word of prophecy." Does this mean "prediction" only? We think not.

1. That can scarcely be said to be more sure than the testimony of "eyewitnesses.

2. The usual scriptural use of the words "prophet" and "prophecy" is widerthan that. "Take my brethren, the prophets." Are not Paul, John, Peter himself, New Testament prophets?

3. The significance of the words point to a wider meaning: "speak forth,"or "speak for another." It tells of insight as much as of foresight.

1. The last verse covers the whole Scripture, not merely prediction, If thewhole of Holy Scripture be thus meant, why is it called "more sure" than the oral testimony of witnesses?

1. Because it is a more comprehensive record.

2. More manifold authority.

3. More able to be tested.

Word is tried." Concerning this "sure word of prophecy," this passage teaches:

(1) It is of wide application. "Not of private," that is, single "interpretation." Deals with principles, not merely with events.

(2) It is not a discovery, but a revelation: "No prophecy ever came by will of man," etc.

(3) It has a Divine Source: "Men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." "Borne along a strong word, denoting a ship before the wind.

(4) Is of great practical use. "A lamp shining in a dark or, "squalid and gloomy" place;" a camp-fire in the desert.

(5) Must be observed. Christianity, as Dean Mansel says, is regulative rather than speculative. "Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed.

III THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIOUSNESS. This is the strongest of all.

1. In the best region: "In your hearts.

1. The outcome and end of all the rest: "Day-star arise." Better even thanlamp is the Day-star. So much better is the knowledge of Christ as a power and presence on the soul than any other testimony.

1. One is without, the other is within.

2. One is passing, the other is perpetual.

3. One is stationary, the other harbinger of eternal day.

Notice the signs of this dawn.

(1) What are they?

(2) Seek for them.

(3) Rejoice in them.

soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning.

U.R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

These things are worthy to be always had in remembrance For they are not cunningly devised fables - Like those common among the heathens. While we made known to you the power and coming - That is, the powerful coming of Christ in glory. But if what they advanced of Christ was not true, if it was of their own invention, then to impose such a lie on the world as it was, in the very nature of things, above all human power to defend, and to do this at the expense of life and all things only to enrage the whole world, Jews and gentiles, against them, was no cunning, but was the greatest folly that men could have been guilty of. But were eyewitnesses of his majesty - At his transfiguration, which was a specimen of his glory at the last day.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Our apostle comes now to exhort them to constancy in the faith of the gospel, assuring them that himself and his fellow-apostles had not followed artificially devised fables, when they made known to them the coming of Christ in the flesh, and that he was truly, and in very deed, the promised Messias; for that he himself, with James and John, were with Christ upon mount Tabor, as eye-witnesses of his transfiguration, where and when he received in his human nature a communicated splendor, and God the Father from heaven, the seat of the magnificent glory, pronounced him to be his well-beloved Son, in whom he is well-pleased.

Learn hence, that God the Father’s testimony from heaven, concerning his Son Jesus Christ, did effectually bring honour and glory unto Christ, and is a great obligation upon us to faith and obedience to him; He received from God the Father honour and glory, attesting him to be his well-beloved Son.

Learn, 2. That there was as much assurance given of the certainty of Christ’s being the promised Messias, and of the truth of the evangelical doctrine, as the world could reasonably desire. Men can humanly be certain of nothing more than what they perceive by their senses, which are the proper judges of all sensible objects; now no satisfaction of this kind was wanting to the world concerning our blessed Saviour and his miracles: The apostles attesting what they had heard, what they had seen with their eyes, and their hands had handled of the word of life, 1Jn 1:1

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

16–18. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables. There was no mistake or doubt about the gospel, no such fables as the myths of the Gentiles. When we made known unto you. Preached the coming into the world and the divine power of Christ. But were eye witnesses. Since the apostles were personal witnesses of Christ's glory, they knew whereof they spoke.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Peter continues to explain his teachings to the believers and explains why they are trustworthy.

For we did not follow cleverly invented myths

Here the word "we" refers to Peter and the other apostles, but not to his readers. AT: "For we apostles did not follow cleverly made-up stories" (See: Exclusive and Inclusive "We")

the power and the coming

These two phrases may refer to the same thing and be translated as a single phrase. AT: "the powerful coming" (See: Hendiadys)

the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ

Possible meanings are 1) the future second coming of the Lord Jesus or 2) the first coming of the Lord Jesus.

our Lord Jesus Christ

Here the word "our" refers to all believers. (See: Inclusive "We")

when a voice was brought to him by the Majestic Glory

This can be stated in active form. AT: "when he heard a voice come from the Majestic Glory" or "when he heard the voice of the Majestic Glory speak to him" or "when the Majestic Glory spoke to him" (See: Active or Passive)

the Majestic Glory saying

Peter refers to God in terms of his glory. This is a euphemism that avoids using God's name, out of reverence for him. AT: "God, the Supreme Glory, saying" (See: Metonymy and Euphemism)

We ourselves heard this voice brought from heaven

With the word "We," Peter is referring to himself and to the disciples James and John, who heard the voice of God. AT: "We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven" (See: Exclusive and Inclusive "We")

heard this voice brought from heaven

"heard the voice of the one who spoke from heaven"

we were with him

"we were with Jesus"

translationWords

power

lord

Jesus

testimony

majesty

God the Father

honor

glory

Son of God

beloved

heaven

holy

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

16–18. Remember that we Apostles had ocular evidence for the truth of what we preach to you, for instance at the Transfiguration, when we saw the glory and heard the voice.

μύθοις ἐξακολουθήσαντες is one of the phrases common to this Epistle and to Josephus’ Preface to the Antiquities of the Jews, § 3, οἱ ἄλλοι νομοθέται τοῖς μύθοις ἐξακολουθήσαντες τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ἁμαρτημάτων εἰς τοὺς θεοὺς τὴν αἰσχύνην μετέθεσαν.

σεσοφισμένοις. Not common in the passive. I think Christian belief is here contrasted with heathen.

δύναμιν καὶ παρουσίαν. The power and (second) coming of the Lord, cf. Mat 24:30 ἐρχόμενον … μετὰ δυνάμεως καὶ δόξης πολλῆς.

The Transfiguration, immediately afterwards described, was an anticipation of the glory of the second coming.

ἐπόπται has here practically the same sense as αὐτόπται in Luk 1:2. It is an interesting word, being that used for those who were admitted to the final stages of initiation at Eleusis. For the verb see 1Pe 2:12; 1Pe 3:2.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

16-18.] Corroboration of the certainty of the facts announced by apostolic eye-witness.

16.] For (reason for the zeal which he had just predicated of himself) not in pursuance of (ἐξακολ., see reff. The preposition must not perhaps be pressed: certainly not as Bengel, “τὸ ἐξ errorem notat, cap. ii. 2, 15.” If it is to be rendered, its sense may be much as in our expression, “following out,” i. e. “in pursuance of,” as given above) cunningly-devised fables (add to reff., Aristoph. Nub. 543, ἀεὶ καινὰς ἰδέας σοφίζομαι. They are, as Pott (in Huther), “fabulæ ad decipiendos hominum animos artificiose excogitatæ atque exornatæ.” The Commentators quote from the proœmium of Josephus, οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἄλλοι νομοθέται τοῖς μύθοις ἐξακολουθήσαντες κ.τ.λ. Such cunningly-devised fables would be the mythologies of the heathen, the cabalistic stories of the Jews; and these may be alluded to, and perhaps also the fables of the Gnostics, which could, it is true, only be in their infancy, but still might be pointed at by St. Peter, as by St. Paul in reff.: see Prolegomena, Vol. III. ch. vii. § i. 34) did we make known to you (the Writer of this Epistle, says De Wette, wishes to appear to stand in closer relation to his readers, than the writer of 1 Peter: cf. 1Pe 1:12. But why so? May not the same Apostle in one place mean the actual preachers who delivered the Gospel to them, in the other, the Apostles, who were its first witnesses? For observe, that first Epistle is addressed to certain definite churches; this, to all Christians generally. Or again, why should it be regarded as absolutely impossible that the publication of some one or more of the existing Gospels may have taken place, and may be alluded to in these words?) the power (viz., that conferred on Him by the Father at His glorification, of which the following scene testified, and the actuality of which He himself asserted, when He said, Mat 28:18, ἐδόθη μοι πᾶσα ἐξουσία ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς: in the strength of which He will come to judge the world) and coming (i. e., as ever, second and glorious coming: not, as Erasm. and many others, His first coming. Nor must the two words be made by hendiadys into “præsentissima majestas,” as Bengel) of our Lord Jesus Christ, but (in virtue of) having been admitted (the part., as so often, renders the reason,—the enabling cause of the act. The γενηθέντες may here be pressed to its passive sense, ‘having been admitted as:’ seeing that γενόμενοι would have been the more natural word, were no such meaning intended) eye-witnesses (ἐπόπτης is a technical word, used of those who were admitted to the highest degree of initiation in the Eleusinian mysteries: and, considering the occasion to which allusion is made, there seems no reason for letting go altogether this reference here: “admitted as initiated spectators.” Still, in English, we have no other way of expressing this than as above. Any attempt to introduce the allusion would overcharge the Ianguage. The word “admitted” gives a faint hint of it) of His majesty (viz. on the occasion to be mentioned. The words must not be generalized, to reach to all occasions of such witnessing: but it is obvious that neither must the Transfiguration be regarded as standing altogether alone in such an assertion. It is indeed here that incident which marked, to the Apostle’s mind, most certainly the reality of Christ’s future glory: but it was not the only occasion when he had seen the exhibition of divine power by Him as a foretaste of His power at his return to judgment: cf. Joh 5:25-28, with Joh 11:40-44).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

We have not followed [ου εξακολουθησαντες] . A strong compound, used only here and ch. 2 2, 15. The ejx gives the force of following out; in pursuance of; closely.

Cunningly devised [σεσοφισμενοις] . Only here and 2Ti 3:15, in which latter passage it has a good sense, to make thee wise. Here, in a bad sense, artfully framed by human cleverness [σοφια] . Compare feigned words, ch. 2 3.

Fables [μυθοις] . This word, which occurs only here and in the Pastoral Epistles, is transcribed in the word myth. The reference here may be to the Jewish myths, rabbinical embellishments of Old - Testament history; or to the heathen myths about the descent of the gods to earth, which might be suggested by his remembrance of the transfiguration; or to the Gnostic speculations about aeons or emanations, which rose from the eternal abyss, the source of all spiritual existence, and were named Mind, Wisdom, Power, Truth, etc.

Coming [παρουσιαν] . Or presence. Compare ch. 3 4. Another word, ajpokaluyiv, revelation, is used in 1Pe 1:7, 13; 1Pe 4:13, to describe the appearing of Christ.

Eye - witnesses [εποπται] . See on behold, 1Pe 2:12. Only here in New Testament. Compare the different word in Luk 1:2, aujtoptai, eye - witnesses.

Majesty [μεγαλειοτητος] . Used in only two passages besides this : Luk 9:43, of the mighty power (Rev., majesty) of God, as manifested in the healing of the epileptic child; and Act 19:27, of the magnificence of Diana.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.