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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 2 Peter 1:1 - 1:1
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Simon Peter (Simōn Petros). Aleph A K L P have Symeōn as in Act 15:14, while B has Simōn. The two forms occur indifferently in 1 Macc. 2:3, 65 for the same man.
Servant and apostle (doulos kai apostolos). Like Rom 1:1; Tit 1:1.
To them that have obtained (tois lachousin). Dative plural articular participle second aorist active of lagchanō, old verb, to obtain by lot (Luk 1:9), here with the accusative (pistin) as in Act 1:17.
Like precious (isotimon). Late compound adjective (isos, equal, timē, honor, price), here only in N.T. But this adjective (Field) is used in two ways, according to the two ideas in timē (value, honor), either like in value or like in honor. This second idea is the usual one with isotimos (inscriptions and papyri, Josephus, Lucian), while polutimos has the notion of price like timē in 2Pe 1:7, 2Pe 1:19; 2Pe 2:4, 2Pe 2:6. The faith which they have obtained is like in honor and privilege with that of Peter or any of the apostles.
With us (hēmin). Associative-instrumental case after isotimon. Equal to tēi hēmōn (the faith of us).
In the righteousness (en dikaiosunēi). Definite because of the preposition en and the following genitive even though anarthrous. The O.T. sense of dikaiosunē applied to God (Rom 1:17) and here to Christ.
Of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ (tou theou hēmōn kai sōtēros Iēsou Christou). So the one article (tou) with theou and sōtēros requires precisely as with tou kuriou hēmōn kai sōtēros Iēsou Christou (of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ), one person, not two, in 2Pe 1:11 as in 2Pe 2:20; 2Pe 3:2, 2Pe 3:18. So in 1Pe 1:3 we have ho theos kai patēr (the God and Father), one person, not two. The grammar is uniform and inevitable (Robertson, Grammar, p. 786), as even Schmiedel (Winer-Schmiedel, Grammatik, p. 158) admits: “Grammar demands that one person be meant.” Moulton (Prol., p. 84) cites papyri examples of like usage of theos for the Roman emperors. See the same idiom in Tit 2:13. The use of theos by Peter as a predicate with Jesus Christ no more disproves the Petrine authorship of this Epistle than a like use in Joh 1:1 disproves the Johannine authorship of the Fourth Gospel and the same use in Tit 2:13 disproves the genuineness of Titus. Peter had heard Thomas call Jesus God (Joh 20:28) and he himself had called him the Son of God (Mat 16:16).