Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 2 Peter 2:5 - 2:5
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Saved (ἐφύλαξεν)
Rev., preserved. See on 1Pe 1:4, and compare “the Lord shut him in” (Gen 7:16).
Noah the eighth person
So the A. V., literally. Rev. is more perspicuous however: Noah with seven others. Compare 1Pe 3:20.
A preacher (κήρυκα)
Lit., a herald. Compare the kindred verb κηρύσσω, to preach, everywhere in New Testament. The word herald is beautifully suggestive, at many points, of the office of a gospel minister. In the Homeric age the herald partook of the character of an ambassador. He summoned the assembly and kept order in it, and had charge of arrangements at sacrifices and festivals. The office of the heralds was sacred, and their persons inviolable; hence they were employed to bear messages between enemies. The symbol of their office was the herald's staff, or caduceus, borne by Mercury, the herald-god. This was originally an olive-branch with fillets, which were afterward formed into snakes, according to the legend that Mercury found two snakes fighting and separated them with his wand, from which circumstance they were used as an emblem of peace. Plato (“Laws,” xii., 941) thus speaks of the fidelity entailed by the office: “If any herald or ambassador carry a false message to any other city, or bring back a false message from the city to which he is sent, or be proved to have brought back, whether from friends or enemies, in his capacity of herald or ambassador, what they have never said - let him be indicted for having offended, contrary to the law, in the sacred office and appointment of Hermes and Zeus, and let there be a penalty fixed which he shall suffer or pay if he be convicted.” In later times, their position as messengers between nations at war was emphasized. In Herodotus (i., 21), the word herald is used as synonymous with apostle. “Alyattes sent a herald (κήρυκα) to Miletus in hopes of concluding a truce, etc. The herald (ἀπόστολος) went on his way to Miletus.” A priestly house at Athens bore the name of κήρυκες, heralds.
Bringing in (ἐπάξας)
The verb may be said to be used by Peter only. Besides this passage and 2Pe 2:1, it occurs only at Act 5:28, where Luke probably received the account from Peter as the principal actor: “ye intend to bring upon us (ἐπαγαγεῖν) this man's blood.”