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2Pe_2:11. Compare Jud_1:9. What Jude says specially of the archangel Michael is here more generally affirmed of angels. In this its generality the thought is hardly intelligible; the necessary light is obtained only by comparing it with Jude (de Wette). If the priority of this epistle be assumed, the thought here expressed must have reference to Zec_3:2 (thus Schott, Steinfass, Hofmann).
ὅπου ] cannot stand here as assigning the reason, as it sometimes does in the classics, since it refers back not to τολμηταί , but to δόξας οὐ κ . τ . λ .; but neither is it equal to “whilst even, since even;” this use can nowhere be established. It is meant rather to indicate the similarity of the relationship (with respect to the δόξαι ).[71] The adversative relationship lies not in the particle, but in the thought.
ἄγγελοι ] according to the parallel passage, not evil, but good angels.
ἰσχύϊ καὶ δυνάμει μείζονες ὄντες ] The comparative expresses the relation in which they stand either to the τολμηταί or to the δόξαι . The latter reference deserves the preference, since—and to this Hofmann has called attention, Schriftbew. I. p. 460—it is understood of itself that angels are more powerful than men (Wiesinger, Schott, Steinfass).
οὐ φέρουσι … κρίσιν ] φέρειν κρίσιν (Jude: ἐπιφέρεις κρίσιν ) does not mean “to endure a judgment” (Luth.), but “to pronounce a judgment.”
βλασφημόν , with an eye to βλασφημοῦντες .
κατʼ αὐτῶν ] not adversum se (Vulg.), but αὐτῶν goes back to δόξας (Calvin, Beza, Hornejus, Wolf, de Wette, and all the more modern interpreters, with the exception of Fronmüller), by which are to be understood here—as in Jude—the diabolical powers. The opposite interpretation, according to which the meaning should be that the wicked angels are not able to bear the judgment of God on their blasphemy (Luther, Fronmüller, etc.), is opposed not only to the language ( βλάσφημος κρίσις equal to κρίσις βλασφημίας ) but to the context.
παρὰ κυρίῳ ] These words, the genuineness of which is doubtful, may not be explained with Bengel: apud Dominum … reveriti, abstinent judicio; for, as Hofmann justly remarks, παρὰ κυρ . “belongs to that which is denied, and does not explain why that does not happen which is denied.” “The conception is, that angels appear before God, and, before His throne, tell what evil spirits are doing in the world.” Cf. Winer, p. 369 [E. T. 493].
[71] It corresponds to “where” in passages such as: some laugh, where others weep; thus here, these rail where the angels οὐ φέρουσιν κ . τ . λ . It must not be interpreted, with Hofmann, as equal to καθʼ ὦν .