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2Pe_2:4. From here to 2Pe_2:6 three examples of divine judgment; cf. Jud_1:5 ff.
First example: the fallen angels, Jud_1:6.
εἰ γάρ ] The apodosis is wanting; Gerhard supplies: οὐδʼ ἐκείνοις φείσεται . In thought, if not in form, the latter half of 2Pe_2:9 constitutes the apodosis (Winer, 529 f. [E. T. 712 f.], de Wette-Brückner, Wiesinger, and the more modern writers generally). The irregularity of the construction is explained by the fact that the third example is dwelt on at much length.
ὁ Θεὸς ἀγγέλων ἁμαρτησάντων οὐκ ἐφείσατο ] The nature of the sin is not stated; otherwise in Jude.[65] What sin the apostle refers to is only faintly hinted at by the circumstance that the example of the flood immediately follows. It is less likely (against Wiesinger) that 2Pe_2:20 contains any reference to it, for in that verse other sins are conjoined with the ὈΠΊΣΩ ΣΑΡΚῸς … ΠΟΡΕΎΕΣΘΑΙ .
ἈΛΛᾺ ΣΕΙΡΑῖς ΖΌΦΟΥ … ΤΗΡΟΥΜΈΝΟΥς ] “but (when he) having cast (them) down into Tartarus, hath delivered them over to the chains of darkness, as being reserved unto the judgment.” σειραῖς ζόφου is mostly taken in connection with ΤΑΡΤΑΡΏΡΑς (sc. δεδεμένους ) (de Wette: “but cast them down into hell with chains of darkness”); but, since the added ΖΌΦΟΥ shows that the ΣΕΙΡΑΊ are designated as fetters, which belong to the darkness of Tartarus (not: “fetters which consist in darkness” (Schott), nor: “fetters by which they were banished into darkness,” as Hofmann explains), the enchaining could only have take place there, and therefore (with Calov, Pott, Steinfass, Hofmann, Wahl, s.v. παραδίδωμι ) it is preferable to connect the words with ΠΑΡΈΔΩΚΕΝ (as opposed to de Wette, Brückner, Dietlein, Wiesinger, etc.).[66]
Instead of σειραῖς ζόφου , Jude has: ΔΕΣΜΟῖς ἈΪΔΊΟΙς ; ΖΌΦΟς is not Tartarus itself, but the darkness of Tartarus; the word is to be found only here and in Jude.
ΤΑΡΤΑΡΟῦΝ does not mean: tartaro adjudicare (Crusius, Hypomn. I. p. 154), but: “to remove into Tartarus” (cf. Homer, Il. viii. 13: ἤ μιν ἑλὼν ῥίψω εἰς τάρταρον ἠερόεντα ). The expression ΤΆΡΤΑΡΟς occurs nowhere else either in the N. T. or LXX. It is not equal to ᾍΔΗς , which is the general term for the dwelling-place of the dead. Nor does the author use it as synonymous with ΓΕΈΝΝΑ , for that is “the place of final punishment, the hell fire” (Fronmüller), but it is used to designate “the place of preliminary custody.”
ΠΑΡΈΔΩΚΕΝ here, as often, used with the implied idea of punishment.
ΕἸς ΚΡΊΣΙΝ ΤΗΡΟΥΜΈΝΟΥς ] ΚΡΊΣΙς is the final judgment ( ΚΡΊΣΙς ΜΕΓΆΛΗς ἩΜΈΡΑς ); “as those who are reserved for the judgment;” Luther inexactly: “in order to reserve them.”
On the reading: παρέδωκεν εἰς κρίσιν κολαζομένους τηρεῖν , the infin. ΤΗΡΕῖΝ is dependent on ΠΑΡΕΔ ., and ΚΟΛΑΖ . states, not: the purpose for which, but the condition in which, they are reserved for judgment; the Vulg. therefore translates inexactly: tradidit cruciandos, in judicium reservari. Dietlein, in opposition to all reliable authorities, insists on reading: ΤΕΤΗΡΗΜΈΝΟΥς , which, moreover, he incorrectly paraphrases: “as those who once should have been kept;” it must rather be: “as those who (until now) have been kept.”
[65] Fronmüller is wrong in asserting that the apostasy of Satan is meant here; it cannot be doubted that the sin meant here is the same as that of which Jude speaks, and it is not that apostasy; see my Comment. on Jude.
[66] When Brückner says: “the expression becomes more drastic if the act of casting into Tartarus be completed only by the binding with chains,” this supports the construction to which he objects. Schott translates altogether unwarrantably: “but has fastened them down into the depths with chains of darkness.”