2 Peter 2:21

2Pe 2:21. Ἢ ἐπιγνοῦσιν, than when they have known it) Understand it is, from it had been.—παραδοθείσης, delivered to them) Jud 1:3.

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

2Pe_2:21. κρεῖττον γὰρ ἦν αὐτοῖς] The same use of the imperf. where we should employ the conjunct., Mar_14:21 : καλὸν ἦν αὐτῷ; cf. on the constr. Winer, p. 265 [E. T. 352].

μὴ ἐπεγνωκέναι τὴν ὁδὸν τῆς δικαιοσύνης] ἡ ὁδὸς τῆς δικαιοσ. is not: the way to virtue, or the way of salvation which leads to the moral condition of righteousness (Schott), but a designation of Christianity in so far as a godly righteous life belongs to it; cf. 2Pe_2:2.[82]

ἤ ἐπιγνοῦσιν] The dat. instead of the accus., dependent on αὐτοις; by an attraction not uncommon in Greek.

ἐπιστρέψαι] is to be taken here in the sense of: to turn back to the former things; cf. 2Pe_2:22, as in Mar_13:16; Luk_17:31, where it is connected with εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω; in Luk_8:55, nevertheless, it is used in the same sense without adjunct; see critical remarks.

ἐκ τῆς … ἐντολῆς] With παραδοθείσης αὐτοῖς, cf. Jud_1:3.

ἡ ἁγία ἐντολή is the law of the Christian life, cf. 1Ti_6:14; here mentioned because the passage treats of the moral corruption of the false teachers.

[82] In Steinfass observation: By the δικαιοσύνης of the ὁδὸν δικαιοσύνης righteousness is understood as being not the end, but the wayfarer, the first is right, but the second wrong.

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 2:21 . ὁδὸν τῆς δικαιοσύνης . Also called “the way of truth,” 2Pe 2:2 , “the straight way,” 2Pe 2:15 . ἐντολῆς . Elsewhere in N.T. the singular is used to mean a particular precept. Cf. Rom 7:12 , 1Ti 6:14 . It is characteristic of this writer to emphasise the aspect of Christianity, not only as faith, but as the moral law ἁγίας ἐντολῆς . Cf. 2Pe 1:5 . ἐν τῇ πίστει ὑμῶν τὴν ἀρετήν . A strong ethical note pervades the teach-of 2 Peter.

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

the way of righteousness--"the way of truth" (Pe2 2:2). Christian doctrine, and "the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour."

turn--back again; so the Greek.

from the holy commandment--the Gospel which enjoins holiness; in opposition to their corruption. "Holy," not that it makes holy, but because it ought to be kept inviolate [TITTMANN].

delivered--once for all; admitting no turning back.

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 21. For it had been better for them not to have known] For the reasons assigned above; because they have sinned against more mercy, are capable of more sin, and are liable to greater punishment.

The holy commandment] The whole religion of Christ is contained in this one commandment, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; and thy neighbour as thyself." He who obeys this great commandment, and this by the grace of Christ is possible to every man, is saved from sinning either against his God or against his neighbour. Nothing less than this does the religion of Christ require.

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

21. By saying that having forsaken the commandment delivered unto them, they returned to their own pollutions, he intimates first, how inexcusable they were; and secondly, he reminds us that the doctrine of a holy and virtuous life, though common to all and indiscriminately belonging to all, is yet peculiarly taught to those whom God favors with the light of his gospel. But he declares that they who make themselves slaves again to the pollutions of the world fall away from the gospel. The faithful also do indeed sin; but as they allow not dominion to sin, they do not fall away from the grace of God, nor do they renounce the profession of sound doctrine which they have once embraced. For they are not to be deemed conquered, while they strenuously resist the flesh and its lusts.

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.

(21) It had been better for them not to have known.—There are many things of which the well-known lines.

“’Tis better to have loved and lost,

Than never to have loved at all,”

do not hold good. To have loved a great truth, to have loved a high principle, and after all to lose them, is what often causes the shipwreck of a life. To have loved Jesus Christ and lost Him is to make shipwreck of eternal life.

The way of righteousness.—The life of the Christian. That which from a doctrinal point of view is “the way of truth” (2Pe_2:2), from a moral point of view is “the way of righteousness.” So also “the faith delivered to the saints” of Jud_1:3, is the doctrinal equivalent of “the holy commandment delivered unto them” of this verse.

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

21. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness] The verb for “known” is, like the noun in the preceding verse, that which implies the fullest form of knowledge, as in 1Co_13:12; 2Co_6:9; 1Ti_4:3. The “way of righteousness” is like the “way of truth” in 2Pe_2:2, a comprehensive description of the religion of Christ as a whole, regarded here in its bearing on life, as there in its relation to belief.

to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them] The word “delivered” implies, as in Luk_1:2; 1Co_11:2; 1Co_11:23; 1Co_15:3; Jude, 2Pe_2:3, the oral teaching of the elements of Christian faith and life which was imparted to all converts prior to their baptism. Stress is laid on the “commandment” because the Apostle is contemplating chiefly the sins of impurity of which the heresiarchs had been guilty rather than their dogmatic heresies as such.

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 it had been better for them,.... Not that ignorance is good, or to be excused; but it would have been a lesser evil, and not so much aggravated:

not to have known the way of righteousness; the same with "the way of truth", Pe2 2:2, and "the right way", Pe2 2:15, the Gospel, which points out the way and method of a sinner's justification before God, which is not by the works of the law, but by the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, and received by faith; and which teaches men to live soberly, righteously, and godly; and a large, notional, though not an experimental knowledge, these apostates had of the word and doctrine of righteousness, and indeed of the whole of the Christian religion, which may truly go by this name:

than after they have known it; owned, embraced, and professed it:

to turn: the Vulgate Latin version, and some copies, as the Alexandrian and others, add, to that which is behind; to their former lusts, or errors, or worse, which they had turned their backs upon externally:

from the holy commandment delivered unto them; by the commandment is meant the Gospel also, see Pe2 3:2; called holy, because of its nature and influence, and in opposition to the pollutions of the world; and which is the faith once delivered, Jde 1:3, and which they received, as delivered to them; and, particularly, the ordinances of it, which they once submitted to, kept, and observed, as they were delivered to them, but now relinquished, or corrupted: wherefore, it would have been better for them to have been in their former ignorance, either in Judaism, or in Gentilism, since proportionate to a man's light is his guilt, and so his punishment, see Rom 2:12.

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

21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

Ver. 21. It had been better] Nocuit sane Iudae fuisse apostolum, et Iuliano Christianum. To begin well and not to proceed is but to aspire to a higher pitch, that the fall may be the more desperate. Non quaeruntur in Christianis initia, sed finis, The begining of a Christian is not to be sought but the end, saith Jerome. Bp Bonner seemed at first to be a good man, and a favourer of Luther’s doctrines. Harding was once a powerful preacher against Popery, afterwards a cruel persecutor of the truth. Dr Shaxton, bishop of Salisbury, said to William Wolsey, martyr, and to others brought before him, Good brethren, remember yourselves and become new men. For I myself was in this fond opinion that you are now in, but I am now become a new man. Ah, said Wolsey, are you become a new man? woe be to thee, thou wicked new man! for God shall justly judge thee for an apostate. {a} Islebius Agricola, that first Antinomian, condemned his error, publicly recanted it, and printed his revocation. Yet, when Luther was dead, he relapsed into that error.

{a} Queen Ann Boleyn procured Latimer and Shaxton to be made bishops, for the good opinion she had of them both. Acts and Mon. 1558.

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 it had been better for them ... - Compare the notes at Mat 26:24. It would have been better for them, for:

(1)Then they would not have dishonored the cause of religion as they have now done;

(2)They would not have sunk so deep in profligacy as they now have; and,

(3)They would not have incurred so aggravated a condemnation in the world of woe. If people are resolved on being wicked, they had better never pretend to be good. If they are to be cast off at last, it had better not be as apostates from the cause of virtue and religion.

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

It had been better for them not to have known; their sin had been less if they had not known the truth, but now they sin against knowledge, and therein their apostacy is much worse than their ignorance would have been.

The way of righteousness; the way of obtaining righteousness by Christ, and of living godly in Christ, 2Ti 3:12, prescribed in the gospel; the same which is called the right way, 2Pe 2:15, and the way of truth, 2Pe 2:2.

The holy commandment; the same in other words. It is called holy, not only as proceeding from God, who is holy, but as teaching nothing but what is holy, and being the means God useth in making men holy, and as being opposed to the pollutions of the world before mentioned.

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

21. Way of righteousness—The way of justification from sin through faith in Christ, and of holy living. The laws for walking in this way constitute the holy commandment given them to be kept; but after keeping it for a time, they are now turned back out of it. Surely, then, they were once in it. Besides, the compound word rendered known means to know increasingly, and implies that they had once been living, growing Christians.

It had been better—Because in ceasing to add to their faith, virtue, etc., (2Pe_1:5,) they came to forget how Christ saved them, (2Pe_1:9,) and fell into the guilt of apostasy and a lower depth of sin; because they sin against greater knowledge and have less excuse; and because they will therefore receive a severer punishment. 2Pe_2:20-21 forcibly show the fall of these false teachers from a state of grace. Their certain doom is pronounced in 2Pe_2:1; 2Pe_2:3; 2Pe_2:9; 2Pe_2:12; 2Pe_2:17.

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

For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness; better, as in the Revised Version, for it were better. (For this use of the imperfect indicative, see Winer, 3:41, 2, a.) The verb ejpegnwkekai, "to have known," here, and the participle ejpignousin, "after they have known," in the next clause, correspond with the noun ejpignwsiv of the preceding, and, like that, imply that these unhappy men once had the full knowledge of Christ. (For "the way, of righteousness," compare "the way of truth" in verse 2, and note there.) Than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. The manuscripts exhibit some slight variations here: the Sinaitic and Alexandrine give "to turn back." By "the holy commandment" St. Peter means the whole moral Law, which the Lord enforced and widened in his sermon on the mount; from this the false teachers turned away. For the word "delivered" (paradoqeishv), comp.dosiv, Jud_1:3. Like thecorresponding word para tradition, (2Th_3:6) it implies the oral transmission of Christian teaching in the first ages. (comp. 1Pe_1:18)

The way of righteousness.

By this expression the Apostle Peter denotes the same course of moral life as he designates in previous verses "the way of truth" and "the right way." The epithet "righteous" here employed to define and describe what in the New Testament is sometimes called "the way," is peculiarly suggestive and instructive.

I IT IS THE WAY DESIGNED BY A RIGHTEOUS GOD. There is nothing that more signally distinguishes the true God from the deities of the heathen than his inflexible righteousness. His character is righteous; his works and the administration of his moral government are righteous; the laws which he promulgates for the direction of his subjects are righteous. "Righteous and true are thy ways, O thou King of the ages!

II IT IS A WAY CONSTRUCTED BY A RIGHTEOUS SAVIOUR. The execution of God"s righteous plans for man"s salvation was by him entrusted to his own Son. In Christ God appears before men as "a just God and a Saviour." The mediatorial dispensation in all its provisions is distinguished by righteousness; it is a revelation of righteousness as much as of love.

III IT IS A WAY WHICH AVOIDS THE PATHS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. This, it may be objected, is tautological. But it is well to insist upon the fact that there can be no fellowship between light and darkness; that however professed travelers in the narrow way may disgrace their profession by unrighteous conduct, the religion of Christ can tolerate no such practices. Other religions may require only verbal assent or ceremonial conformity, but Christianity demands righteousness of life and, what is more, righteousness of heart. "Except your righteousness," says the Founder of our faith, "exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.

IV IT IS THE WAY TRODDEN BY RIGHTEOUS MEN. The interest and attractiveness of a road depend in no small measure upon those who are its habitual frequenters. Judged by this test, the way of righteousness has attractions far beyond any other. It is the path which has for centuries been trodden by the great and good. The stimulus and encouragement afforded by the noblest and the best society are there enjoyed.

V IT IS THE WAY WHICH LEADS TO THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH WHEREIN DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS. AS is the road, so is its termination, its destination. If righteousness has a hard battle to fight for existence here on earth, it is comforting and inspiriting to be assured that the state to which we are advancing is one where unrighteousness is altogether and for ever unknown.

APPLICATION.

1. Seek and find this way.

2. Having entered upon it, turn not back, but persevere even unto the end. J.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.

The commandment - The whole law of God, once not only delivered to their ears, but written in their hearts.

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

As if the apostle had said, The sin and misery of these men had been far less, if they had never known the way of righteousness revealed by the gospel of Christ, than after they have known it, to forsake the practice of holiness, which by their baptismal profession they had obliged themselves unto.

Learn hence, That to sin against light and knowledge received in and by the gospel is a very heinous aggravation of sin. The condition of persons simply ignorant is not so sad by far as theirs who have been enlightened, and yet afterwards have apostatized. A relapse is ever more dangerous than the first sickness, more soon incurred, more hardly cured. Wo to those that relapse from God to the world, from truth to error, from grace to vice; their latter end will be worse than their beginning, if they recover not themselves again by timely repentance.

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

21. For it had been better, etc. To other sins there is then added the sin of rejecting the way of righteousness after an experimental knowledge of it.

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.

21. τὴν ὁδὸν τῆς δικαιοσύνης occurs in the Apocalypse of Peter, §§ 7, 13. It is not a common phrase.

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.

21.] Reason of these last words. For it were (that use of the imperfect without ἄν, answering to the Latin “faciebam, ni:” see on Rom 9:3) better for them not to have known the way of righteousness (viz. the Christian life: cf. ἡ ὁδὸς τῆς ἀληθείας, ver. 2) than, having known it (dat. instead of accus. by a very common attraction), to turn back (not perf., but aor.: now implying merely the final character of the act) from (out of, as out of a way) the holy commandment (the moral law of the gospel: here so designated, because it is of moral corruption that the Apostle is treating) delivered to them (cf. ref. Jude, τῇ ἅπαξ παραδοθείσῃ τοῖς ἁγίοις πίστει: where the arrangement of words is the same as here: παραδοθείσῃ being thrown forward and having the emphasis).

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