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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
3. With this verse we return to the borrowing from Jude (Jud 1:17) ὑμεῖς δέ, ἀγαπητοί, μνήσθητε τῶν ῥημάτων τῶν προειρημένων ὑπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων τ. κυρ. ἡμ. Ἰ. Χ.
τοῦτο πρῶτον γινώσκοντες, above, 2Pe 1:20. The grammar is loose.
ὅτι ἐλεύσονται κ.τ.λ., the last considerable borrowing, from Jud 1:18 ἐπʼ ἐσχάτου χρόνου ἔσονται ἐμπαῖκται κατὰ τὰς ἑαυτῶν ἐπιθυμίας πορευόμενοι τῶν ἀσεβειῶν.
The possibility that both writers are independently quoting the same prophecy has been mentioned and dismissed in the Introduction.
A passage from an apocryphal book (unknown, but not improbably the prophecy of Eldad and Medad) which is quoted both in the genuine Epistle of Clement of Rome (cir. 90 A.D.) and in the ancient sermon known as his Second Epistle deserves to be given here. “Miserable are the waverers, that waver in their soul and say, ‘These things we heard long ago even in our fathers’ days, but we, expecting them day after day, have seen nothing of them.’ (Variant: ‘And, lo, we have grown old, and none of these things has befallen us.’) O fools, compare yourselves to a tree. Take the vine. First it sheds its leaves, then comes a shoot, then a leaf, then a flower, then a young grape, and then the cluster is ready. Even so also my people hath suffered disturbance and affliction and thereafter shall be recompensed with good.”
Similarly an ancient Jewish comment on Psa 89:50 “slandered the footsteps of thine anointed” is “they have scoffed at the slowness of Messiah’s coming”; and again “He delays so long, that they say, He will never come.”
It is possible that our writer is referring to the Jewish book quoted by Clement, or to a similar source. At least we see that the murmuring was current outside Christian circles.
ἐμπαιγμονῇ, this form occurs here only. ἐμπαιγμός, -μα are the forms used in Biblical Greek.