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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
2Pe 1:1. Σιμών. This is the reading of the Vatican MS. B, of many cursive MSS. and of the Versions: but an important group including the uncials אAKLP reads Συμεών. This latter form occurs in but one other passage in N.T., Act 15:14, where James the brother of the Lord says “Symeon hath declared unto us,” etc. It is the Hebrew form of the name, while Σίμων would pass muster among Greeks and Latins: Simo, derived from σιμός simus (snub-nosed), occurs as a slave-name in the plays of Plautus and Terence.
Simon, then, is the commoner form of the name, and, if it were the original reading here, one cannot see why Symeon should have been substituted for it. Westcott and Hort, in deference to the Vatican MS., give Simon a place in the text: but, with Mayor and Bigg, I venture to prefer Symeon. Its presence here is one of the few features which make for the genuineness of the Epistle. It does not occur in the spurious Petrine writings, and may be a true reminiscence of a habit of the Apostle.
δοῦλος καὶ ἀπόστολος. δοῦλος stands alone in Jude and James. ἀπόστολος alone in 1 Pet.: δοῦλ. and ἀπ. together in Rom. Tit.
τοῖς ἰσότιμον ἡμῖν λαχοῦσιν πίστιν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.
No local Church is named.
λαχοῦσιν implies that faith is the gift of God (cf. Rom 12:3, 1Co 12:9), not due to human merit. The author of the Wisdom of Solomon speaks of Solomon as having been allotted a good soul (Wis 8:19 ψυχῆς ἔλαχον ἀγαθῆς): not an “orthodox” thought.
ἰσότιμον ἡμῖν. “Conveying the same privileges to you as it does to us (the Apostles).” The word has a civic sense: cf. a passage quoted by Field (and others) from Josephus (Antiquities xii. 3. 1) ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ μητροπόλει Ἀντιοχείᾳ πολιτείας αὐτοὺς ἠξίωσε καὶ τοῖς ἐνοικισθεῖσιν ἰσοτίμους ἀπέδειξε Μακεδόσι καὶ Ἕλλησι. Cf. Tit 1:4 κοινὴν πίστιν.
ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ. Best taken with ἰσότιμον. The equality is due to the justice of God, who makes no distinction between the Apostles and the rank and file of the Church.
τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰ. Χ. Are both God the Father and God the Son spoken of here, or is the Son alone intended? Probably the latter: for note that the two substantives θεός and σωτήρ have but the one article: and that in three other places in this Epistle we have the phrase τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰ. Χ., viz. 2Pe 1:11, 2Pe 2:20, 2Pe 3:18 : also in 2Pe 3:2 τοῦ κυρίου κ. σωτῆρος: in all of which the κύριος and σωτήρ must apply to one person. It would thus be in accordance with our author’s habit to join the θεός and σωτήρ here.
On the other hand, in 2Pe 1:2, if we accept the reading of most authorities we have a distinction made between the Father and the Son, in the words τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν. And the direct connexion of θεός with Ἰησοῦς Χριστός has no certain parallel in N.T.
Yet, in the second century, Ignatius, in the preface to his letter to the Ephesians speaks of Jesus Christ as ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν: and his date is near that which we assign to 2 Peter.