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2Pe_1:21. οὐ γὰρ θελήματι ἀνθρώπου ] These words correspond with the preceding ἰδίας ἐπιλ . οὐ γίνεται ; “not from or by the will of a man;” cf. Jer_23:26, LXX.: ἕως ποτὲ ἔσται … ἐν τῷ προφητεύειν αὐτοὺς τὰ θελήματα τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν .
ἠνέχθη ποτὲ προφητεία ] Vulg.: allata est; the verb as in 2Pe_1:17-18 (cf. also 2Jn_1:10). De Wette’s translation: “is delivered or uttered,” is inexact, inasmuch as the idea of a set discourse is not directly contained in the verb. Steinfass’s interpretation of προφ . is wrong from a linguistic point of view: “gift of prophecy.”
ποτέ belongs closely to the negative οὐ , equal to “never.” The sense of the clause is: “the cause in which προφητεία has its origin is not the free will of man, determining itself thereto.”
ἀλλʼ ὑπὸ πνεύματος ἁγίου φερόμενοι κ . τ . λ .] The form of this, which does not exactly correspond with that of the preceding clause, serves to bring into greater prominence the passivity of the prophets.
φερόμενοι : “borne along” (as by the wind, e.g. the ship was driven, Act_27:15; Act_27:17). The impelling power is the πνεῦμα ἅγιον . Joseph. Ant. iv. 6, 5, says of Balaam: τῷ θείῳ πνεύματι … κεκινημένος ; cf. the expressions in the classics: θεοφορεῖσθαι , θεοφόρητος . Macrob. i. 23: feruntur divino spiritu, non suo arbitratu, sed quo Deus propellit. Calvin correctly remarks: impulsos fuisse dicit, non quod menti alienati fuerint (qualem in suis prophetis ἐνθουσιασμόν fingunt gentiles), sed quia nihil a se ipsis ausi fuerint, tantum obedienter sequuti sunt Spiritum ducem.
ἐλάλησαν ] Hornejus: intellige tam voce, quam scripto. “Men it was who spoke; but their speaking had the active reason of its origin, and its starting-point in God” (Schott).
ἀπὸ Θεοῦ ἄνθρωποι ] In this expression, considered to be genuine, ἀπὸ Θεοῦ denotes the starting-point of the speaking: “men spoke from God.” The prophets are thus significantly called simply ἄνθρωποι , in reference to the ἀνθρώπου going before. They were but men; prophets they became only by the πνεῦμα Θεοῦ .[60] The Rec. ἅγιοι Θεοῦ ἄνθρωποι is only a circumlocution for prophets, who are called ἅγιοι ἄνθρ . because they were in the service of God, inasmuch as they were the instruments of His πνεῦμα ἅγιον , cf. 1Ti_6:11.
[60] Into this verse also Dietlein inserts much that is foreign, by saying in explanation of it: “not only are man and God placed in antithesis to each other, but over against the designs of man and the unreal world of human thoughts and conceptions(!) stands the Spirit of God, which so powerfully takes hold of the prophets only because that which He teaches possesses historical reality, or else will do so in time.”