Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Peter 1:16

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

16. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you ] More accurately, For it was not as following cunningly devised fables that we made known the connexion being one not of time but of causation. The “fables” or “myths” referred to are probably those of which St Paul speaks in the Pastoral Epistles ( 1Ti 1:4 ; 1Ti 4:7; 2Ti 4:4; Tit 1:14), which were, as the description there given of them indicates, mainly of Jewish origin. With these there might be mingled the germs of the Gnosticism incipient in the Apostolic age, and developed more fully in the next century. Possibly there may be an allusive reference to the claims of the sorcerer of Samaria, with whom the Apostle had himself come into collision (Act 8:10). The boast of Simon that he was the “great power of God,” and that his mistress Helena was the incarnation of the Divine Thought or Wisdom by which the worlds were made, would answer, closely enough, to the “cunningly devised fables” of which St Peter speaks. The word for “cunningly devised,” framed, i.e., with fraudulent and sophistical purpose, is not found elsewhere in the New Testament. The question what the Apostle refers to in “we made known to you:” it may refer either to unrecorded teaching addressed to the Asiatic Churches, or to the wider circle of readers defined in 2Pe 1:1, or, more probably, to the teaching of the First Epistle as to the glory that was to be manifested “at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1Pe 1:7; 1Pe 1:13; 1Pe 4:13). The tone in which the offensive epithet is used suggests the thought that he is defending himself against a charge of having followed “fables.” Is it possible that that charge had been brought against his teaching as to “the spirits in prison,” as something superadded to the received oral traditions of the Church, or to the written records, whether identical with our present Gospels or not, in which that teaching had been embodied?

the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ ] The “coming,” here, as in every other passage of the New Testament in which the word occurs, is the Second Advent, not the first. The mind of the Apostle goes back to what he had witnessed in the glory of the Transfiguration, as the pledge and earnest of that which was afterwards to be revealed. The word does not occur in the First Epistle, but the fact is implied in 1Pe 1:7; 1Pe 1:13 ; 1Pe 4:13; 1Pe 5:4.

but were eyewitnesses of his majesty ] Both words are significant. That for “eye-witnesses” (not found elsewhere in the New Testament, but used of God as the all-seeing in 2Ma 7:35 ; 3Ma 2:21 ) was applied in Classical Greek to the highest order of those who were initiated as spectators of the Eleusinian mysteries. It would, perhaps, be too much to say that that association was definitely present to the Apostle’s mind, but the choice of an unusual and suggestive word at least implies that he looked on himself as having been chosen to a special privilege. It deserves notice also, as bearing on the authorship of the Epistle, that the verb derived from the noun had been used by the writer of 1Pe 2:12; 1Pe 3:2. (See notes there.) The word for “majesty” also has the interest of having been used in the Gospel narrative in close connexion with the healing of the demoniac boy which followed the Transfiguration (Luk 9:43), and, as found there, may fairly be taken as including, as far as the three disciples who had seen the vision of glory were concerned, what had preceded that work of healing, as well as the work itself. The only other passage in the New Testament in which it is found is in Act 19:27, where it is used of the “magnificence” of the Ephesian Artemis.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables – That is, fictions or stories invented by artful men, and resting on no solid foundation. The doctrines which they held about the coming of the Saviour were not, like many of the opinions of the Greeks, defended by weak and sophistical reasoning, but were based on solid evidence – evidence furnished by the personal observation of competent witnesses. It is true of the gospel, in general, that it is not founded on cunningly devised fables; but the particular point referred to here is the promised coming of the Saviour. The evidence of that fact Peter proposes now to adduce.

When we made known unto you – Probably Peter here refers particularly to statements respecting the coming of the Saviour in his first epistle, 1Pe 1:5, 1Pe 1:13; 1Pe 4:13; but this was a common topic in the preaching, and in the epistles, of the apostles. It may, therefore, have referred to statements made to them at some time in his preaching, as well as to what he said in his former epistle. The apostles laid great stress on the second coming of the Saviour, and often dwelt upon it. Compare 1Th 4:16; Notes, Act 1:11.

The power and coming – These two words refer to the same thing; and the meaning is, his powerful coming, or his coming in power. The advent of the Saviour is commonly represented as connected with the exhibition of power. Mat 24:30, coming in the clouds of heaven, with power. See the notes at that verse. Compare Luk 22:69; Mar 3:9. The power evinced will be by raising the dead; summoning the world to judgment; determining the destiny of men, etc. When the coming of the Saviour, therefore, was referred to by the apostles in their preaching, it was probably always in connection with the declaration that it would be accompanied by exhibitions of great power and glory – as it undoubtedly will be. The fact that the Lord Jesus would thus return, it is clear, had been denied by some among those to whom this epistle was addressed, and it was important to state the evidence on which it was to be believed. The grounds on which they denied it 2Pe 3:4 were, that there were no appearances of his approach; that the premise had not been fulfilled; that all things continued as they had been; and that the affairs of the world moved on as they always had done. To meet and counteract this error – an error which so prevailed that many were in danger of falling from their own steadfastness 2Pe 3:17 – Peter states the proof on which he believed in the coming of the Saviour.

But were eye-witnesses of his majesty – On the mount of transfiguration, Mat 17:1-5. See the notes at that passage. That transfiguration was witnessed only by Peter, James, and John. But it may be asked, how the facts there witnessed demonstrate the point under consideration – that the Lord Jesus will come with power? To this it may be replied:

(1) That these apostles had there such a view of the Saviour in his glory as to convince them beyond doubt that he was the Messiah.

(2) That there was a direct attestation given to that fact by a voice from heaven, declaring that he was the beloved Son of God.

(3) That that transfiguration was understood to have an important reference to the coming of the Saviour in his kingdom and his glory, and was designed to be a representation of the manner in which he would then appear. This is referred to distinctly by each one of the three evangelists who have mentioned the transfiguration. Mat 16:28, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death until they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom; Mar 9:1-2; Luk 9:27-28. The transfiguration which occurred soon after these words were spoken was designed to show them what he would be in his glory, and to furnish to them a demonstration which they could never forget, that he would yet set up his kingdom in the world.

(4) They had in fact such a view of him as he would be in his kingdom, that they could entertain no doubt on the point; and the fact, as it impressed their own minds, they made known to others. The evidence as it lay in Peters mind was, that that transfiguration was designed to furnish proof to them that the Messiah would certainly appear in glory, and to give them a view of him as coming to reign which would never fade from their memory. As that had not yet been accomplished, he maintained that the evidence was clear that it must occur at some future time. As the transfiguration was with reference to his coming in his kingdom, it was proper for Peter to use it with that reference, or as bearing on that point.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

2Pe 1:16-20

We have not followed cunningly devised fables.

From starlight to sunlight

I. The mythical mode. In declaring the power and advent of the Lord Jesus, we were not as those who are familiar only with the popular myths which are deemed sufficient for the multitude; we were, rather, as the favoured few who are admitted to the secret mysteries, who are permitted to know the truths that underlie the fables and stories which fill the popular imagination. What, then, were these myths, and what the mysteries? The myths, in their origin, were simply poetical conceptions of the processes and phenomena of Nature. Thus, for instance, the sun sinks, or seems to sink, every night into the sea; in the fervid East, moreover, it dries up the streams. But sun, and sea, and streams had, in the infancy of the world, masculine and feminine names, as, indeed, they still have in most of the languages spoken by men. These masculine and feminine names were soon turned into proper personal names by the vivid imagination of men to whom the world was fresh and wonderful; and hence, instead of saying The sun sinks into the sea, they said, The Sun-God sinks into the lap of the Sea-Goddess, and rests until their child, the Dawn, wakes him from his slumbers. Instead of saying The sun dries up the stream, they told a pretty story of a certain River Nymph whom the Sun-God dearly loved, and who would give him no peace till he came to her in all the glory of his heavenly pomp, beholding which she was forthwith consumed. All the great and many of the lesser processes of Nature were thus mythicized, turned into poems and stories–the succession of day and night, the dependence of men and cattle on the shining of the sun, on the fruits of the earth, on the sweet, fresh water of the mountain streams. Still, under all these freaks of fancy there lay concealed the germs of many religious truths, as, for example, these: that the Powers which ruled in heaven cared for the earth and blessed it; that God, or the gods, might take human form and dwell among men; and that there was a fair spiritual world, larger, brighter, happier than the world of sense, into which even man might pass and rise. As years and centuries elapsed, these truths were forgotten out of mind, as were many of the ethical maxims deduced from them. In order that they might not altogether perish from the memory and life of man, certain mysteries were founded and ordained. To be admitted, that is, to be initiated, into these mysteries, was an honour granted to comparatively few of the millions of antiquity; and it was granted only after they had passed through a probation which either was, or was affirmed to be, terrible to any but men of a brave and constant spirit. Their good faith was thus put to a severe preliminary test; tremendous oaths binding them to secrecy were administered to them; to divulge a mystery or to intrude upon it uncalled were offences punishable with death. Now, says St. Peter, when we made known to you the power and advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, we were telling you no pretty popular myth, no fable of a Divine person who came down and dwelt with men, such as you have often heard from your priests or rhapsodists, such as you may still hear from your heathen neighbours. We had been initiated into the very mysteries of truth; we had mastered their secrets, that we might divulge them to you. We spake of that which we ourselves had seen, and handled, and felt, of the Word of Life.

II. The miraculous mode. From the mythical St. Peter passes to the miraculous method of revelation. Where was that inner temple, that sacred and oracular shrine, in which, after their initiation, the apostles were admitted to the mysteries and stood to be eye-witnesses of the unclouded majesty of the Incarnate God? It was on the holy mount, on which the Lord Jesus was transfigured before their eyes. But why does the apostle select this scene in our Lords life–the Transfiguration–before all others? Simply, I suppose, because at that moment, in that scene, all that was most marvellous in the Lord Jesus Christ was shown forth in its most marvellous forms. The advent of Christ was a miracle; every word and deed that disclosed His Divine power was a miracle: but the miraculous element of His advent and power culminated in His Transfiguration.

III. The prophetic mode. After describing the honour and glory done to Christ, and the voice which came to Him from the glory that shone around Him on the holy mount, the apostle adds: But we have something surer still–the prophetic word, whereunto ye do well that ye give heed, etc. Why does he call it something surer still? First, because it is as a lamp shining in a dark place. Now, as we all know, we can find our way even on the darkest night, if only we have a lamp to our feet; and, moreover, we can see to do any necessary work, if only we have a lamp shining over our head. In plain words, the apostles argument is that miracles are not guides, or not safe guides; but that, on the contrary, we are under a guidance that is both good and safe when we follow the moral rules of the written Word. The Divine Word has another claim on our regard and preference. For this lamp which shines so helpfully on the activities of human life, has been lit and is fed by God Himself. No prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. That is to say, the prophetic Word is not a mere logical deduction from the facts of life and Nature; nor is it a mere guess at things to come, based on a knowledge of what has taken place in the past. There was something higher than human wisdom in the prophetic utterances, something safer than the prognostics of human reason; for prophecy never came only from the will of man, but holy men, borne along by the Holy Ghost, as the ship is borne before the wind, spake the words that were given them from God. There is a Divine wisdom, therefore, an infallible wisdom; there is a Divine power, an almighty power, in the inspired Word, even when it is most human and imperfect in outward form. This was one contrast in the apostles mind: and the other was that the prophecies of Scripture were superior to the oracles uttered by the ministrants of heathen shrines. When these oracles were consulted, they gave private interpretations.

IV. But, finally, the spiritual mode of revelation is even safer and better than the prophetic mode, as much better as sunlight is better than lamplight. When Christ is once with us, and in us, what further proof can we require of His advent or of His power to quicken and redeem? With Christ to teach us what He would have us do, we can dispense with all other teachers, all other aids. Myths! We have been initiated into the very mysteries of the faith, and are joyful eye-witnesses of His majesty. Miracles! He has wrought the great miracle upon us, bringing a clean thing out of an unclean, opening our blind eyes, unstopping our deaf ears, quickening us from our death in trespasses and sins. Laws and hopes! When once we have personally laid hold on Christ, we are a law unto ourselves, and move in the freedom of a glad obedience to His will; we have a hope already fulfilling itself in us, and yet opening up into widening vistas of light the hope of eternal life and service and peace. The morning star has risen in our hearts; the day has dawned; the darkness is over and gone, and, with the darkness, all our need of the lamps and stars which once made night tolerable to us. (S. Cox, D. D.)

Apostolic testimony

I. A disclaiming of all fabulous mixtures with the sacred truth.

II. A proclaiming of the virtue and excellency of Christ.

1. The manifestation itself. We made known unto you. The apostles did not hide the mysteries of salvation revealed to them (Rom 16:25-26).

(1) This doctrine makes to the conviction of them that conceal the way of the Lord (Mat 23:13; Rom 1:18).

(2) This reproves them also that content themselves with their ignorances, and never labour for knowledge.

2. The matter manifested. The power and coining of our Lord. By this the apostle intends the sum of the gospel, and the full salvation that is given us by Christ, in whom are all the treasures of blessedness. Of this he makes two distinct parts.

(1) That Christ came in the flesh, suffered for our sins, and rose again for our justification.

(2) The virtue and efficacy of this in our hearts, when we manifest the fruit of it in our well living and well believing.

III. A testifying of this and that from the surest witnesses. In witnesses there are three things especially required.

1. That they be of good report and repute; for a bad and vicious life enervates their testimony. But these were holy men; He that sent them to give testimony did not deny them sanctimony (Joh 17:17).

2. That they be eye witnesses; so were these.

3. That they agree in their testimony. (Thos. Adams.)

Christianity not a cunningly devised fable

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables. The infidel says we have. This is no new cry. It is as old as Christianity itself. The apostles themselves were said to have been imposed upon. Since that day the ground of attack has been changed. We are now told that the apostles were the impostors.

I. The statements that have been denounced as fables.

II. The persons who are said to have fabricated thess fables. Infidelity asserts that they were deceivers. Of this we might justly demand proof. They appear to be men of strict integrity. They do not hesitate to expose each others faults or to confess their own. They appear to be utterly destitute of the art of deception.

1. Is it pretended that these grand impostors were men of renown for their talents and influence, and that, therefore, they acquired an ascendancy over the public mind? This is at once disproved by the fact that, at the very outset of their career, the Jewish Sanhedrin perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men (Act 4:13), whilst Gentile magistrates and governors regarded them as weak, demented enthusiasts, whose fittest treatment was scourging and imprisonment.

2. Will it be contended that in the construction of their scheme, they adapted their fables to the popular taste? This is at once denied. Their system was absolutely opposed to parties of every class, to men of every clime. How different was the system of Mohammed! and how different have been the schemes of more modern infidels! How careful have these impostors been to pander to the passions of those they have sought to delude, presenting or promising whatever has been adapted to the views and the tastes of the proud, the worldly-minded, the sensual, and the profane!

3. But it is said that they were fools and fanatics. This assertion is more easy than the proof. They were indeed, accused of folly and of madness, but they convinced their accusers that they spake the words of truth and soberness. Their writings certainly afford evidence that they were men of more than ordinary mental vigour. Their style is nervous and plain. Their story is simply and unaffectedly told.

4. But they were actuated by ambition, it is said. On what object was their ambition fixed? Worldly honour or worldly power is usually the great object of the ambitious. Besides, it was not their ambition to exalt themselves, though they had opportunities of doing so (Act 3:14.). The entire history of the apostles is pregnant with proof that they sought not their own, but the things of Jesus Christ. What things might have been gain to them, those they counted loss for Him.

5. Impostors generally expect to get something by the impositions they practise; and the greater the risk of detection, or the danger of punishment, the greater is the gain, the hope of which is their animating motive. Now, what was the gain which prompted the apostles to devise and to execute their grand imposture? You must be aware, that so far as this world was considered, they had everything to lose, and nothing to gain. Bonds and afflictions awaited them in every city. Will it be said that all this was the obstinacy of contumacy? that rather than avow the cheat, they readily underwent privations and sufferings? The life of reproach and trial the apostles lived, and the death of torture that they died, incontestably prove their sincerity.

III. But who were the parties on whom these so-called fables were so successfully imposed?

1. If the evangelic history had been a fraud, of course the apostle- would have been most likely to succeed in the work of deception among the inhabitants of some barbarous clime; or, at any rate, among those who lived far away from the scenes where the plot was laid. Did they then travel into some remote or obscure region, where the inhabitants would have little inclination to suspect them, and less opportunity to detect their deceit? No; they began at Jerusalem.

2. Shortly afterwards, the apostles were induced to go unto the Gentiles; the one who was most active in this great missionary enterprise among the heathen, being a convert to the faith of Christ–not an original disciple of the Nazarene–and a convert, whose accession was one of the noblest triumphs of truth, of which the Church of Christ can boast. Do you not think that the disputer of that day would demand evidence before he gave credence to the statements of the apostles? Do you not think that the wise men of Greece, and the noble of Rome, would easily have detected the deceit of Christ crucified, had it been a cunningly devised fable, and would indignantly have denounced its abettors as worthless impostors had they not been the ambassadors of God?

IV. The consistency of revealed truth with reason and with common sense. Let it, however, be remarked that those truths of Divine revelation, which it is necessary for us to understand in order to be saved, are so simple and plain that the wayfaring man, though a fool, needs not to mistake respecting them. And therefore we argue that they are not cunningly devised fables.

1. To begin at the beginning–we mention first the existence of one great, supreme Being, whom the Bible denominates God. This great doctrine is everywhere assumed throughout the sacred volume, and forms the foundation of all religion, and of all morality too.

2. This Bible professes to be a revelation from God, designed to teach us His will, and to point out to us the path that leads to immortal blessedness. Is there anything unreasonable in this?

3. Let us now proceed to ascertain whether those truths which we call, by way of eminence, the truths of the gospel, are incredible or absurd. The first we notice is the entire and universal depravity of man. Go where you will, do you not find your fellow-creatures depraved as well as degraded? Is not the hand that God has filled with plenteousness lifted up in daring rebellion against Him?

4. Another great doctrine is the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ. But it is objected that it is most unreasonable to suppose that the Divine Being should lavish so much love, as the doctrine of redemption supposes, on this insignificant world of ours, while there are so many worlds, and so many systems beside, filled with intelligent beings, all demanding the care of the Great Supreme as well as ourselves. We see nothing unreasonable in this supposition. Does the mother who watches and weeps over her sick or dying child, love her other children the less because her heart is so strongly drawn towards the afflicted one? Does it not magnify the Divine Being to know that when man had sinned and thereby excluded himself from the family of God, the Father of the spirits of all flesh spared not His own Son, in order that the banished ones might be restored?

5. And what inconsistency, either with reason or with common sense, can you find in the doctrines of justification or pardon righteously bestowed, because obtained by faith in the blood of Christ, and of the sanctification of the soul by the Spirit of Christ?

V. Among the results of this lengthened inquiry into the evidences of Christianity we trust will he–

1. The confirmation of the believer in the truth as it is in Jesus. You know what you have believed. You know whom you have believed. You will not sell your birthright for a mess of pottage.

2. Another result we hope will be the establishment of such as may be wavering.

3. A third result we anticipate from this inquiry is a clearer perception of the nature of Christianity, and a deepened conviction of its value, How vast are my obligations to the blessed God for having devised such a scheme for saving rebellious worms, and for having made it known to me. How necessary for me to avail myself of its privileges. (P. C. Horton.)

The certainty of the Christian faith

I. There was nothing about the apostles of wild enthusiasm. Before they staked everything, present life and life eternal, on the truth of Christianity, they had amplest proof that Jesus of Nazareth was the very Son of the Most High, the predicted Messiah.

1. The miracles wrought by Jesus were the capital proofs of His Messiahship.

2. The miracles of which Jesus Christ was the subject were among the signs of His glorious majesty by which the twelve recognised Him for the Redeemer. Of some of these prodigies, indeed, they were not spectators; not of the meteor star, which, on reaching His birthplace, hung over it. Nor yet, did they witness the sublime scene of His baptism.

3. The transfiguration, I observe, was that view of the Lords majesty to which holy Peter reverts with singular fondness.

II. Let us pass to a few marks of Christs power and majesty exhibited in His personal character.

1. The imperturbable temper of the Lord Jesus was among the shining proofs of His moral greatness and Divine nature.

2. His patient endurance of injuries has a further peculiarity about it, which denotes a more than human elevation of mind. For be it remembered that we are often debarred from revenging ourselves by want of power, or by fear of retribution. But Jesus was clothed with almightiness.

3. The condescension of this Man, so mighty in word and deed, to the mean and wretched and vicious whenever they craved His assistance, was another indication of a mind cast in a singular and heavenly mould. Nothing of this kind was found among the Pharisees and popular teachers of the day.

4. The wisdom of Jesus, so immensely beyond what His country, His years, His education gave reason to look for, must also have satisfied candid observers that He was from above. Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians tried their skill from morning to night, and were unscrupulous in the artifices they employed to entrap Him; but without effect. But there was a higher kind of wisdom in which Jesus stood alone. Who can peruse His discourses on moral and religious subjects; the Sermon on the Mount, the parables of the Ten Virgins, of the Prodigal Son, and not confess that no mere human mind of any age, least of all that of a Jew in an age so ignorant, corrupt, and superstitious, could possibly give birth to such pure and holy lessons?

5. The authority of our Lords diction and manner was another ray of His native grandeur, which penetrated the souls of His adherents and ranks high among the proofs of His divinity. He swept away the treasured notions that had come down from father to son, by the right which belonged to Him as the infallible interpreter of heaven. He debated nothing. He rarely deigned to offer reasons or proofs. He never suggested any doctrine doubtingly. You recognise the style of One quite aware that He is as much above other teachers as the heaven is higher than the earth; and that to put Himself upon a level with them were to belie His own character and mission.

6. Once more His devotedness to God, so pure, so noble, so fervent, so invariable, was it not of a kind to distinguish Him from ordinary saints, as the sun from twinkling stars? His zeal for Gods glory in a manner consumed Him. Whatever are the arrangements of Providence He rejoices in them precisely because they are the movements of Gods will. (J. N. Pearson, M. A.)

The credibility of Christianity

The Bible is no cunningly devised fable.

I. If it be a fable, it was not devised half cunningly enough. I allude to many apparent inconsistencies in the Bible. What wise man, in devising a fabulous history, would have loaded it with such difficulties as these?

II. If it be a fable, it is impossible to guess by what class of persons it was devised. Kings, perhaps, invented the Bible in order to keep their subjects in awe of their authority. Priests, exclaims another, were no doubt the authors. Yet there is a great deal written here against wicked priests also, which would scarcely have been inserted by them. Was it, then, the rich who devised this fable? Yet what is more common in the Bible than lessons on the worthlessness and vanity of riches? I need not ask whether the inventors of this fable are to be looked for among the poor. They are otherwise engaged than in writing books. Some learned men, doubtless, compiled this book! Still the same difficulty meets us. Learned men are often supposed to be proud of their wisdom; but here worldly wisdom is undervalued, and men are told that they must become fools if they would be really wise (1Co 3:18). Here, then, is a book, for which no probable author can be found, if it be a fable.

III. If it be a fable, it is unaccountable that it should have been so long and so extensively followed.

IV. If it be a fable, the following of it has at least been beneficial to mankind.

V. If it be a fable, i must nevertheless follow it till you can show me some more excellent way. I want a guide in my ignorance; I want a comforter in my troubles. Is human reason that guide? Alas! I find cause to distrust that at every step which I take. Is self-gratification the better comforter? What! to follow the devices and desires of my own heart in spite of this forbidding fable? If the gospel be not a fable, it is truth, and truth of such a nature that you will be saved or lost, according as you believe or neglect it. It must be followed; it must affect your heart and influence your life. (J. Jowett, M. A.)

All true

I. Peters personal persuasion of the truth of his religion. We have not, etc. There are seasons when we all feel anxious to know on what ground we stand, just because we cannot go into eternity thinking and guessing about some peradventure. We must have certitude then.

II. Observe Peters repetition of the old truth once again before he dies. The testimony of an old man like Peter, who, in his review of the past, felt happy and satisfied in the conviction of the truth he had professed, is worth many a volume of evidences to the Christian religion.

III. The happiness Peter had in the recollections of the past. All aged people revert to the past with peculiar feelings of interest, if not enthusiasm. There is happiness in having good recollections–in having bright yesterdays to look back upon–in needing no desperate endeavours to forget.

IV. The way in which Peter falls back on the word of God as the true ground of faith and peace. We have a more sure word of prophecy, etc. He had James and John, his companions, to think of. He had the glory of the mount and the transfiguration to dwell upon. But now he needed more. The friend may deceive you: the recollections of the past may be confused, but the word of the Lord abideth for ever. It is a sure word of prophecy. (W. O. Barrett.)

The value of world evidence

Moral reasons are sufficient to guide men in the affairs of the present life. A man will embark on board a vessel which he only knows by the report of others to be seaworthy. He trusts to the skill of a captain and the effectiveness of a crew of whom he knows only by report. He embarks to go to a place which he only believes on the testimony of others to exist. All this he does to obtain a probable good. He acts similarly to escape an apprehended evil. When sick, he will send for a physician of whose skill he has only heard. He takes medicine which he does not certainly know will cure him. In these cases he acts reasonably. It is clear that when, in relation to the life to come, he refuses moral evidence, he acts unreasonably. (C. Graham.)

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The Christian revelation to be presumed divine

The existence of God admitted, another question at once suggests itself. Has this Divine Being directly revealed Himself and made known His will to man? We were taught in childhood that He has. We say, first of all, that the very existence of this alleged revelation, in the form in which we find it, affords a presumption of its truth.

1. The first thing that strikes one on glancing at the books of the Old and New Testament, in which what is called the Christian revelation is contained, is the exceedingly heterogeneous character of their contents. A little of all ages, of all sorts of men, and of all varieties of human thought! But on even a cursory reading of these writings, heterogeneous as they seem, you cannot fail to be equally impressed with a second fact about them, that they have, after all, a strange and most striking unity. One spirit breathes throughout the whole. The same conception of God, as the eternal, self-existent, and infinite Creator, of His natural government of the world, and of His moral government of rational creatures; the same general notions of right and wrong; the same views of the design of human existence, of the individual responsibility of men, of the blessedness of well-doing and of the miseries of sin, of the guilt and want of mankind, of the justice, the goodness, and the grace of God, and of the way of reconciliation with Him. Nor does this unity of sentiment, of spirit, and of general scope and purpose seem less, but rather greater, the more carefully and thoroughly these various compositions are examined. That these men have not been mere copyists from each other, the specific diversities, and the accessions and progressive development of thought afford decisive proof. Two questions meet us therefore, namely, How came they, any of them, by views at once so unique in themselves and so immeasurably superior in intellectual and moral elevation to those attained by the historians, the poets, and the sages of all the world besides? And then, how came they, writing separately and each for his own particular end, living also some of them centuries and even thousands of years apart, so to harmonise with and to supplement each other that, taken together, their writings form one grand and well-adjusted whole? We will not now assert that with these questions before us the conviction must arise that there is something supernatural in all this.

2. The presumption thus created by the existence of the Christian revelation in the form in which we find it, is greatly strengthened, we further observe, by the obvious and admitted fact that it has entered most profoundly into the life and thought of the world. Nor can it be said that other pretended systems of religion have done the same. There are no facts of history by which such an assertion can be justified.

3. Still further, a third fact lies before us in regard to the asserted Christian revelation, which, fairly considered, must predispose us to receive it. The effects which it has wrought, both on individual man and on society, have uniformly been salutary in a very eminent degree. These, too, are allowed to be the proper products of Christianity, and not things incidentally connected with it.

4. Not less significant is a fourth fact which presents itself at the outset to the inquirer about the Christian revelation. It has thus far stood secure against all assaults of those who have sought to overthrow it, although these assaults have been many, persistent, and often conducted with great ability and learning. The ancient prophets, each in his turn, encountered the resistance of unbelief. Then followed the long and mighty struggle between Christianity and the prevailing systems of philosophy and religion throughout the Roman empire. It was a contest of life and death. Yet, after all the Christian faith held on its way and triumphed. So it has been in the modern world. The wits, philosophers, and savants of France, in the last century assailed it with pungent satire, with the coarsest ribaldry. English Deism, in a higher style of thought, with greater strength of reasoning, with no little real learning, enlisting champions who, to great metaphysical acumen, added untiring patience and fixed determination, attacked the historical credit, the supernatural credentials, and the asserted revelations of the Christian Scriptures. There was no lack of will, or talent, or diligent endeavour.

5. It is a fact which no one tolerably informed as to the condition and movements of the religious world will question, that at no period of its history was Christianity more vital, more powerful, more expectant and progressive than at the present time. Can falsehood be imagined to have such vitality?

6. Consider, too, that if the Christian revelation, as it has been received for ages, is Divine, it must be the greatest of misfortunes to reject it as a fable. If it be indeed a sun kindled of God to illuminate the moral darkness of our world, it will shine on to cheer, and warm, and bless the happy multitudes who welcome it, though you shall avert your eyes and hide from its beams in the thick shades of unbelief. You have nothing–nothing–to gain if it be false. You have everything to hope for life, for death, for an immortality beyond, if, as you have been taught from childhood to believe, it is indeed a real utterance, a precious gift of the ever-living God to man. (R. Palmer, D. D.)

The power and coming of our Lord.

Christs power and coming manifested by the apostles doctrine and preaching

I. The office and ministry of the apostle. And that principally consisted in this: In making known the power and miracles, the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But this doctrine that the apostle preached consists of two heads:

1. The coming of Christ. By which is meant His incarnation and appearance in the flesh. This was that mystery that was hid from ages, but was made manifest in these last days.

2. The power of Christ, the apostle is said to make known, which indeed at first seemed much disguised. For who would have expected any miraculous discoveries of power from One whom they had seen poor and helpless Himself? And yet in this state of weakness He was made strong, grew bold and confident, despising the pride, trampling upon the bravery of this world, resisting temptations, triumphing over the powers and charms of riches. Now to make this power known to the world is to show how much all men may be benefited by the power of Christ, if they shall love Him and believe in Him. For to as many as receive Him gives He power to become the sons of God, even to them who believe in His name.

II. The rules he observed in making known the power and coming of Jesus Christ. They used all honest and justifiable arts in preaching the gospel, but declined all ways of sophistry and deceit. As if they had said, Our cause is too plain and evident to need such poor artifices as lies and fables to support it.

1. The consideration of what hath been said should encourage us to embrace this article of our faith, Christ Jesus came in the flesh, and all others, with that zeal and love, as those who will live and die by them.

2. As we are to receive the doctrines of Christianity as most true and unquestionable, so we ought to take care that we build not upon this foundation, hay and stubble (2Co 3:12).

3. Let us bethink ourselves how much we are obliged to God for this signal mercy and blessing, the making known to us the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh. Methinks our hearts should be all on fire, and burn within us while we are discoursing and talking of it. (R. Warner, D. D.)

The power and coming of our Lord

I. The coming of Christ was in power. If all the devils in hell could have hindered it, He had been stayed. The kings of the earth conspire and take counsel together; but neither their power nor their policy could withstand His coming. Neither was the glory of Christ wanting, though it conveyed itself in a less public form. He had a famous harbinger to go before Him and prepare His way. There was majesty in His humility.

II. The gospel is no weak thing, but comes in power. Christ came once unto men; He comes still unto men in the Spirit. The law came with more terror, but the gospel comes with more power. For that could not turn his heart that bare it in his hand; but the gospel is able to change the man (Rom 1:16).

III. The word of God hath more power than all mens edicts.

IV. The invincible power of the gospel is manifested in throwing down those bulwarks raised against it. (Thos. Adams.)

Eye-witnesses of His majesty.—

The majesty of Christ

In the midst of the darkest scenes of humiliation, a peculiar majesty was seen to accompany our Lord. These signs of heavenly greatness confirmed the faith of His disciples when sinking under the pressure of disappointment and affliction.

I. The apostles were witnesses of His majesty when they witnessed His matchless character.

1. He was made in the likeness of man, and He took on Him the infirmities of our nature; but He was unstained by our sins and imperfections.

2. But in Christ we not only see a character without sin, but perfect in its nature; manifesting the highest virtues in transcendent excellence.

3. With these celestial excellencies of character is joined an habitual and singular elevation above the world. His affections and labours are directed to spiritual and eternal objects. They elevate Him in the midst of ignominy; and give glory and majesty to His shameful death.

4. In Christ the various and seemingly opposite graces of character combine; and everywhere appear in their due place and on their proper occasion.

II. That in correspondence with the perfection of the character of Christ, is His manner while fulfilling the work which His Father had given Him to do. There was a calm and simple, yet deep solemnity, in His demeanour and words, suited to the truths which He declared, and the office which He sustained–which manifested also His sense of their infinite importance, and tended powerfully to affect the minds of those whom He addressed. Without the slightest tendency to haughtiness or pride, a Divine authority. He manifested the native greatness of His character.

III. There were extraordinary events and wonders in heaven and on earth, which in the midst of the deepest humiliation, gave indications of the majesty of Christ. (S. MacGill, D. D.)

He received from God the Father honour and glory.

The vision of Christs majesty

I. The person to whom this honor is given. He received.

II. From whom he received it. The Father gives, the Son receives. The Father speaks from heaven, the Son hears it.

III. What he received.

1. Christ would receive honour of His Father.

2. All honour and glory is Christs, as being delivered to Him by the Father (Luk 10:22).

3. All true and blessed honour comes from God, and is to be sought there.

IV. The time when the apostles beheld, and their master received, this glory and majesty.

1. When there came. Why did the apostles single out the transfiguration, more than any other event, to exemplify Christs majesty, and the honour conferred on Him by the Father?

(1) Because Moses and Elias appeared to Him there: in all the rest of His miracles He had no company but men on earth, now He had a testimony from two glorious saints in Paradise.

(2) Because He was adorned with celestial glory. Nothing of earth was seen, but a Divine and heavenly majesty appeared.

2. Such a voice. This is the voice that shall one day be heard from one end of the world to the other.

3. From the excellent glory. There be glories in the world, but they are not excellent (Gen 49:3-4). This glory is admirable.

(1) For dignity. It is a glory: and this hath been the scope of most mens endeavours and reaches.

(2) For clarity. It is not a hidden, but a revealed glory (Col 3:4). Clear, both for condition, it shall be excellent; for cognition and apprehension, it shall be seen in the full excellency of it. It is an everlasting solstice; the length is interminable, the brightness unchangeable, the fulness unvariable.

(3) For verity. It shall be indeed, not in show only, but upon us.

(4) For the eternity. If it had an end, it were not excellent,

V. The matter and substance of the testimony.

1. This; the word shows Him to be that Messias, long before prophesied, and now manifested. This, singularly; not another, but this is He.

2. My Son, consubstantially, because begotten of Mine own substance. Originally Mine, by union of nature; though in Him others be made Mine also, by adoption of grace.

3. Beloved, eternally; not in time accepted, but before all beginning begotten.

4. In whom I am well pleased, and never was offended: all other men were the children of wrath; I could not be pleased with them; but in this Son I rest. (Thos. Adams.)

The Father well pleased in the Son

I. It is very important that you have right thoughts of the Sonship of Christ, or of the sense in which Christ is affirmed to be Gods Son. It is clear from Scripture that Christ is the Son of God, in such sense as to prove Him Divine; for St. Paul argues from His Sonship, His superiority to angels, Unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee?

II. We are now to consider the statement, that in this beloved Son God is well pleased. We shall now regard the Son solely in His character of Mediator–that character which He was born to assume. The Father may be considered as well pleased in His Son, first, because Christs mediation magnified all the attributes of God, and secondly, because it met all the necessities of man. And now, having investigated the causes of the Fathers being well pleased in the Son, it becomes us to ask you whether, when Christ is displaying His character of a Saviour, you, too, are well pleased in Him. Judge your own restoration to Gods forfeited image, by deciding whether any of the like reasons operate to make you well pleased in Christ. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Graduated certification of gospel truth

I. The Divine revelation which he had on the holy mount was certifying.

II. The Divine revelation which he had in the inspired record was more certifying.

1. The written Word furnishes a greater variety of Divine manifestations.

2. The written Word offers opportunities to a larger number of witnesses.

3. The written Word supplies better conditions for the formation of a sound judgment.

III. The Divine revelation that he had in his own consciousness was the most certifying. Peter draws a comparison between the light of the Bible and the light of Christian consciousness, and implies that the latter is far more valuable than the former.

1. The one is a lamp, the other is a day, or morning star.

2. The one is without, the other is within.

3. The one is temporary, the other is permanent.

4. The one is the harbinger of everlasting day, the other is not necessarily so. (Homilist.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 16. Cunningly devised fables] . I think, with Macknight and others, from the apostle’s using , eye witnesses, or rather beholders, in the end of the verse, it is probable that he means those cunningly devised fables among the heathens, concerning the appearance of their gods on earth in human form. And to gain the greater credit to these fables, the priests and statesmen instituted what they called the mysteries of the gods, in which the fabulous appearance of the gods was represented in mystic shows. But one particular show none but the fully initiated were permitted to behold; hence they were entitled , beholders. This show was probably some resplendent image of the god, imitating life, which, by its glory, dazzled the eyes of the beholders, while their ears were ravished by hymns sung in its praise; to this it was natural enough for St. Peter to allude, when speaking about the transfiguration of Christ. Here the indescribably resplendent majesty of the great God was manifested, as far as it could be, in conjunction with that human body in which the fulness of the Divinity dwelt. And we, says the apostle, were , beholders, , of his own majesty. Here was no trick, no feigned show; we saw him in his glory whom thousands saw before and afterwards; and we have made known to you the power and coming, , the appearance and presence, of our Lord Jesus; and we call you to feel the exceeding greatness of this power in your conversion, and the glory of this appearance in his revelation by the power of his Spirit to your souls. These things we have witnessed, and these things ye have experienced: and therefore we can confidently say that neither you nor we have followed cunningly devised fables, but that blessed Gospel which is the power of God to the salvation of every one that believes.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Cunningly devised fables; human figments artificially contrived, either to please and gratify mens fancies, or to deceive and pervert their judgment: q.d. The things we have preached unto you (the sum of which is the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ) are the true sayings of God, not the fictions of men: and so he may have respect both to heathenish and Jewish fables. See 1Ti 1:4; 4:7; 2Ti 4:4; Tit 1:14.

The power; this relates to the Divine nature of Christ with its glorious effects, the efficacy of his doctrine, the miracles whereby he confirmed it, and especially his resurrection from the dead, Rom 1:4.

And coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; this respects his human nature, his coming in the flesh, in which he manifested the power before mentioned; both together contain the sum of the whole gospel, viz. that Christ, the promised Messiah, is come in the flesh, and that he was furnished with power sufficient and ability to save sinners to the utmost. Or, Christs coming here may be his second coming, to which the word here used is for the most part applied in the New Testament, and whereof his transfiguration, in the following verse, was a representation and a forerunner; and in the belief of which the apostle would confirm these saints against those that scoffed at it, 2Pe 3:3,4.

But were eye-witnesses of his majesty: by Christs majesty may be understood all that glory which did shine out in him during the whole time of his abode upon earth, Joh 1:14, but especially that more eminent manifestation of it in his transfiguration, in the next verse.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

16. Forreason why he is soearnest that the remembrance of these things should be continuedafter his death.

followedout in detail.

cunningly devisedGreek,“devised by (man’s) wisdom“; as distinguishedfrom what the Holy Ghost teaches (compare 1Co3:13). But compare also 2Pe 2:3,”feigned words.”

fablesas the heathenmythologies, and the subsequent Gnostic “fables andgenealogies,” of which the germs already existed in the junctionof Judaism with Oriental philosophy in Asia Minor. A precautionaryprotest of the Spirit against the rationalistic theory of the Gospelhistory being myth.

when we made known untoyounot that Peter himself had personally taught thechurches in Pontus, Galatia, c., but he was one of the apostles whosetestimony was borne to them, and to the Church in general, towhom this Epistle is addressed (2Pe1:1, including, but not restricted, as First Peter,to the churches in Pontus, &c.).

powerthe opposite of”fables” compare the contrast of “word” and”power,” 1Co 4:20. Aspecimen of His power was given at the Transfiguration also ofHis “coming” again, and its attendant glory. TheGreek for “coming” is always used of His secondadvent. A refutation of the scoffers (2Pe3:4): I, James and John, saw with our own eyes a mysterioussample of His coming glory.

wereGreek,“were made.”

eye-witnessesAsinitiated spectators of mysteries (so the Greek), we wereadmitted into His innermost secrets, namely, at the Transfiguration.

hisemphatical (compareGreek): “THATgreat ONE’S majesty.“

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables,…. Such as Jewish fables, cautioned against Tit 1:14 which their traditionary and oral law, their Talmud, and other writings, mention; as concerning the temporal kingdom of the Messiah, the sumptuous feast, and carnal pleasures and entertainments, of that state, with many other things; some of which indeed are not very cunningly put together, but weak enough: or Gentile fables concerning the theogony and exploits of their deities; and which may be meant by fables and endless genealogies in 1Ti 1:4, and especially reference may be had to the metamorphoses of their gods, and their fables relating to them, devised by Ovid, and others, since the apostle is about to speak of the metamorphosis, or transfiguration of Christ; and also other fables with which their poets and histories abound; and likewise the prophecies of the Sibyls, and the oracles at Delphos, and elsewhere: or the fabulous accounts of the followers of Simon Magus concerning God, angels, the creation of the world, and the several Aeones; or the more artful composures of the false teachers, set off with all the cunning, sophistry, wit, and eloquence they were masters of. Now in order to set forth the nature, excellency, and certainty of the doctrine the apostle taught, especially that part of it which respected the coming of Christ; and to show that it was worth his while to put them in mind of it, and theirs to remember it; he observes, that he and his fellow apostles did not proceed in their account of it on such a foundation, but upon an evidence which they had received, both with their eyes and ears, and also on a word of prophecy surer than that:

when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; not his first coming, though that, and the benefits arising from it, were the subject of their ministry; and that was attended with divine power, which appeared in the incarnation of Christ itself, which was owing to the power of the Highest; and was seen in his doctrine and ministry, which were with great authority; and in the miracles which he wrought, which proved him to have power equal with God, his Father; and in the work of redemption, which he came about and finished; in doing which he made an end of sin, and saved his people from it, redeemed them from the curse of the law, overcame the world, destroyed Satan, and abolished death; and especially in his resurrection from the dead, when he was declared to be the Son of God with power: but notwithstanding his first coming was in great humility, in much meanness and imbecility, he grew up as a tender plant, and was encompassed with infirmities, and at last was crucified through weakness. This therefore was to be understood of an after coming of his, which the apostle had wrote of, and made known in his former epistle, 1Pe 1:7 and which he puts them in mind of in this, 2Pe 3:1, nor is the word , used of any other coming of Christ, and this will be with power; and it designs his more near coming to take vengeance on the Jewish nation, and deliver his people from the afflictions and persecution they laboured under, and which was with great power; see Mt 14:3, or more remote, namely, at the last day, when there will be a great display of power in raising the dead, gathering all nations before him, separating them one from another, passing the final sentence on each, and executing the same in the utter destruction of the wicked, and the complete glorification of the saints.

But were eyewitnesses of his majesty; meaning, not of the glory of his divine nature by faith, and with the eyes of their understanding, while others only considered him as a mere man; nor of the miracles he wrought, in which there was a display of his glory and majesty, of all which the apostles were eyewitnesses; but of that glory and greatness which were upon him, when he was transfigured on the mount before them; then his face was as the sun, and such a glory on his whole body, that it darted through his clothes, and made them glitter like light, and as white as snow, and so as no fuller on earth could whiten them; at which time also Moses and Elijah appeared in glorious forms: and now this was a prelude and pledge of his power and coming, of his kingdom coming with power, and of his coming in his own, and his Father’s glory, and in the glory of the holy angels. This was a proof that notwithstanding his meanness in his incarnate state, yet he was glorified, and would be glorified again; and this was a confirmation of it to the apostles, and might be to others: see Mt 16:27.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Evidence of the Gospel.

A. D. 67.

      16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.   17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.   18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

      Here we have the reason of giving the foregoing exhortation, and that with so much diligence and seriousness. These things are not idle tales, or a vain thing, but of undoubted truth and vast concern. The gospel is not a cunningly devised fable. These are not the words of one who hath a devil, nor the contrivance of any number of men who by cunning craftiness endeavour to deceive. The way of salvation by Jesus Christ is eminently the counsel of God, the most excellent contrivance of the infinitely wise Jehovah; it was he that invented this way of saving sinners by Jesus Christ, whose power and coming are set forth in the gospel, and the apostle’s preaching was a making of these things known. 1. The preaching of the gospel is a making known the power of Christ, that he is able to save to the uttermost all who come to God by him. He is the mighty God, and therefore can save from both the guilt and the filth of sin. 2. The coming of Christ also is make known by the preaching of the gospel. He who was promised immediately after the fall of man, as in the fulness of time to be born of a woman, has now come in the flesh; and whosoever denies this is an antichrist (1 John iv. 3), he is actuated and influenced by the spirit of anti-christ; but those who are the true apostles and ministers of Christ, and are directed and guided by the Spirit of Christ, evidence that Christ has come according to the promise which all the Old-Testament believers died in the faith of, Heb. xi. 39. Christ has come in the flesh. Inasmuch as those whom he undertakes to save are partakers of flesh and blood, he himself also took part of the same, that he might suffer in their nature and stead, and thereby make an atonement. This coming of Christ the gospel is very plain and circumstantial in setting forth; but there is a second coming, which it likewise mentions, which the ministers of the gospel ought also to make known, when he shall come in the glory of his Father with all his holy angels, for he is appointed to be Judge both of quick and dead. He will come to judge the world in righteousness by the everlasting gospel, and call us all to give account of all things done in the body, whether good or evil. 3. And though this gospel of Christ has been blasphemously called a fable by one of those wretches who call themselves the successors of St. Peter, yet our apostle proves that it is of the greatest certainty and reality, inasmuch as during our blessed Saviour’s abode here on earth, when he took on him the form of a servant and was found in fashion as a man, he sometimes manifested himself to be God, and particularly to our apostle and the two sons of Zebedee, who were eye-witnesses of his divine majesty, when he was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light, exceedingly white, as snow, so as no fuller on earth can whiten them. This Peter, James, and John, were eye-witnesses of, and therefore might and ought to attest; and surely their testimony is true, when they witness what they have seen with their eyes, yea, and heard with their ears: for, besides the visible glory that Christ was invested with here on earth, there was an audible voice from heaven. Here observe, (1.) What a gracious declaration was made: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased–the best voice that ever came from heaven to earth; God is well pleased with Christ, and with us in him. This is the Messiah who was promised, through whom all who believe in him shall be accepted and saved. (2.) This declaration is made by God the Father, who thus publicly owns his Son (even in his state of humiliation, when he was in the form of a servant), yea, proclaims him to be his beloved Son, when he is in that low condition; yea, so far are Christ’s mean and low circumstances from abating the love of the Father to him that his laying down his life is said to be one special reason of the Father’s love, John x. 17. (3.) The design of this voice was to do our Saviour a singular humour while he was here below: He received honour and glory from God the Father. This is the person whom God delights to honour. As he requires us to give honour and glory to his Son by confessing him to be our Saviour, so does he give glory and honour to our Saviour by declaring him to be his Son. (4.) This voice is from heaven, called here the excellent glory, which still reflects a greater glory upon our blessed Saviour. This declaration is from God the fountain of honour, and from heaven the seat of glory, where God is most gloriously present. (5.) This voice was heard, and that so as to be understood, by Peter, James, and John. They not only heard a sound (as the people did, Joh 12:28; Joh 12:29), but they understood the sense. God opens the ears and understandings of his people to receive what they are concerned to know, when others are like Paul’s companions, who only heard a sound of words (Acts ix. 7), but understood not the meaning thereof, and therefore are said not to hear the voice of him that spoke, Acts xxii. 9. Blessed are those who not only hear, but understand, who believe the truth, and feel the power of the voice from heaven, as he did who testifieth these things: and we have all the reason in the world to receive his testimony; for who would refuse to give credit to what is so circumstantially laid down as this account of the voice from heaven, of which the apostle tells us, (6.) It was heard by them in the holy mount, when they were with Jesus? The place wherein God affords any peculiarly gracious manifestation of himself is thereby made holy, not with an inherent holiness, but as the ground was holy where God appeared to Moses (Exod. iii. 5), and the mountain holy on which the temple was built, Ps. lxxxvii. 1. Such places are relatively holy, and to be regarded as such during the time that men in themselves experience, or may, by warrant from the word, believingly expect, the special presence and gracious influence of the holy and glorious God.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

We did not follow ( ). First aorist active participle of , late compound verb, to follow out (Polybius, Plutarch, LXX, papyri, inscriptions as of death following for any Gentile in the temple violating the barrier), with emphatic negative , “not having followed.” See also 2:2 for this verb.

Cunningly devised fables ( ). Associative instrumental case of (old term for word, narrative, story, fiction, fable, falsehood). In N.T. only here and the Pastoral Epistles (1Ti 1:4, etc.). Perfect passive participle of , old word (from ), only twice in N.T., in causative sense to make wise (2Ti 3:15), to play the sophist, to invent cleverly (here) and so also in the old writers and in the papyri. Some of the false teachers apparently taught that the Gospel miracles were only allegories and not facts (Bigg). Cf. 2:3 for “feigned words.”

When we made known unto you ( ). First aorist active indicative of , to make known unto you. Possibly by Peter himself.

The power and coming ( ). These words can refer (Chase) to the Incarnation, just as is true of in 2Ti 1:10 (second coming in 1Ti 6:14), and is true of (2Co 7:6 of Titus). But elsewhere in the N.T. (technical term in the papyri for the coming of a king or other high dignitary), when used of Christ, refers to his second coming (2Pet 3:4; 2Pet 3:12).

But we were eye-witnesses (‘ ). First aorist passive participle of , “but having become eye-witnesses.” , old word (from like in 1Pet 2:12; 1Pet 3:2), used of those who attained the third or highest degree of initiates in the Eleusinian mysteries (common in the inscriptions). Cf. in Lu 1:2.

Of his majesty ( ). Late and rare word (LXX and papyri) from (Ac 2:11), in N.T. only here, Lu 9:43 (of God); Ac 19:27 (of Artemis). Peter clearly felt that he and James and John were lifted to the highest stage of initiation at the Transfiguration of Christ. Emphatic as in 2Ti 2:26.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

We have not followed [ ] . A strong compound, used only here and ch. 2 2, 15. The ejx gives the force of following out; in pursuance of; closely.

Cunningly devised [] . Only here and 2Ti 3:15, in which latter passage it has a good sense, to make thee wise. Here, in a bad sense, artfully framed by human cleverness [] . Compare feigned words, ch. 2 3.

Fables [] . This word, which occurs only here and in the Pastoral Epistles, is transcribed in the word myth. The reference here may be to the Jewish myths, rabbinical embellishments of Old – Testament history; or to the heathen myths about the descent of the gods to earth, which might be suggested by his remembrance of the transfiguration; or to the Gnostic speculations about aeons or emanations, which rose from the eternal abyss, the source of all spiritual existence, and were named Mind, Wisdom, Power, Truth, etc.

Coming [] . Or presence. Compare ch. 3 4. Another word, ajpokaluyiv, revelation, is used in 1Pe 1:7, 13; 1Pe 4:13, to describe the appearing of Christ.

Eye – witnesses [] . See on behold, 1Pe 2:12. Only here in New Testament. Compare the different word in Luk 1:2, aujtoptai, eye – witnesses.

Majesty [] . Used in only two passages besides this : Luk 9:43, of the mighty power (Rev., majesty) of God, as manifested in the healing of the epileptic child; and Act 19:27, of the magnificence of Diana.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables.” Peter affirms that he, other apostles, and those “of like precious faith,” to whom he wrote, had not been following, as they witnessed, cleverly devised fables.

2) “When we make known to you.” When they had spoken and written to these “like precious faith” brethren, fellowship, perhaps an unnamed church -only the blind rejected it, 2Co 4:2-4.

3) “The power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The apostles had declared the power of Jesus to save, keep, and come again to require an accounting of His children, Rom 1:16; Jud 1:14; Jud 1:24; Php_3:20-21.

4) “But were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” Peter, James, and John, three of the apostles, were eyewitnesses of our Lord’s (Greek megaleiotetos) majesty or great transfiguration, a pre-view of the resurrection glory of those truly of His own “like precious faith” people. Mat 17:1-5; Rom 8:17-18; These eyewitnesses all offered testamentary evidence, by word and in their writings, of the resurrection of our Lord as surely as He had been transfigured before them. They thus met the requirements of the law that in the mouth of “two or three witnesses” every claim should be established, Deu 19:15; Joh 8:17.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

16. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables. It gives us much courage, when we know that we labor in a matter that is certain. Lest, then, the faithful should think that in these labors they were beating the air, he now comes to set forth the certainty of the gospel; and he denies that anything had been delivered by him but what was altogether true and indubitable: and they were encouraged to persevere, when they were sure of the prosperous issue of their calling.

In the first place, Peter indeed asserts that he had been an eyewitness; for he had himself seen with his own eyes the glory of Christ, of which he speaks. This knowledge he sets in opposition to crafty fables, such as cunning men are wont to fabricate to ensnare simple minds. The old interpreter renders the word “feigned,” ( fictas 😉 Erasmus, “formed by art.” It seems to me that what is subtle to deceive is meant: for the Greek word here used, σοφίζεσθαι, sometimes means this. And we know how much labor men bestow on frivolous refinements, and only that they may have some amusement. Therefore no less seriously ought our minds to be applied to know the truth which is not fallacious, and the doctrine which is not nugatory, and which discovers to us the glory of the Son of God and our own salvation. (156)

The power and the coming. No doubt he meant in these words to include the substance of the gospel, as it certainly contains nothing except Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom. But he distinctly mentions two things, — that Christ had been manifested in the flesh, — and also that power was exhibited by him. (157) Thus, then, we have the whole gospel; for we know that he, the long-promised Redeemer, came from heaven, put on our flesh, lived in the world, died and rose again; and, in the second place, we perceive the end and fruit of all these things, that is, that he might be God with us, that he might exhibit in himself a sure pledge of our adoption, that he might cleanse us from the defilement’s of the flesh by the grace of his Spirit, and consecrate us temples to God, that he might deliver us from hell, and raise us up to heaven, that he might by the sacrifice of his death make an atonement for the sins of the world, that he might reconcile us to the Father, that he might become to us the author of righteousness and of life. He who knows and understands these things, is fully acquainted with the gospel.

Were eyewitnesses, or beholders (158) We hence conclude, that they by no means serve Christ, nor are like the apostles, who presumptuously mount the pulpit to prattle of speculations unknown to themselves; for he alone is the lawful minister of Christ, who knows the truth of the doctrine which he delivers: not that all obtain certainty in the same way; for what Peter says is that he himself was present, when Christ was declared by a voice from heaven to be the Son of God. Three only were then present, but they were sufficient as witnesses; for they had through many miracles seen the glory of Christ, and had a remarkable evidence of his divinity in his resurrection. But we now obtain certainty in another way; for though Christ has not risen before our eyes, yet we know by whom his resurrection has been handed down to us. And added to this is the inward testimony of conscience, the sealing of the Spirit, which far exceeds all the evidence of the senses. But let us remember that the gospel was not at the beginning made up of vague rumors, but that the apostles were the authentic preachers of what they had seen.

(156) The verb σοφίσω, once used by Paul in 2Ti 3:15, means “to make wise,” and in this sense it is used in the Sept.; and it may properly have a similar meaning here, “myths (or, fables) made wise,” or made to appear wise a trade still carried on in the world. The idea of craft and subtlety is what is given to it in the classics. — Ed.

(157) We have the same order as in several previous instances; “power” first, then “coming.” It is the peculiar style of Scripture. — Ed.

(158) Spectators, ἐπόπται, lookers on, inspectors, surveyors — it betokens those who not only see or behold a thing, but who attentively look on. It is more emphatical than αὐτόπται, “eye-witnesses.” — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

2Pe. 1:16. Fables.Legends, myths. With special reference to the narrative of the marvels of the Transfiguration. Coming.Whether this looks backward or onward is not quite clear. It is best limited to the Transfiguration. Eyewitnesses.And so have a personal sense-testimony to render.

2Pe. 1:19. Word of prophecy.Not probably to be confined to things foretold. Remember how, in his addresses, and in his first epistle, St. Peter freely made appeal to Old-Testament Scriptures as proving or supporting his teachings. It is important to realise how devout Jews regarded the Old Testament.

2Pe. 1:20. Private interpretation.Special. Those who interpreted must no more be self-willed than those who wrote. No man wrote save in the power of the Holy Ghost, and no man must venture to interpret save in the same power of the Holy Ghost.

2Pe. 1:21. Render, But being borne on by the Holy Ghost, men spake from God. The idea is that men did not speak out of their own hearts, but as they were commissioned by God. St. Peters anxiety concerns the mischievous, self-willed influence of the false teachers, with whom he is about to deal in the next chapter.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.2Pe. 1:16-21

The Apostolic Testimony.In the salutation of this epistle Simon Peter distinctly calls himself an apostle of Jesus Christ; and here he puts himself with the other apostles, and testifies of the veritablenesss of the witness which they made on the basis of their own knowledge and experience.

I. It was clear and emphaticThis is implied in the assertion that it was not vague, uncertain, and untrustworthy, like the cunningly devised fables with which the popular ear was tickled. By this term probably some elements in the doctrine of the false teachers are alluded to; something analogous to the feigned words of 2Pe. 2:3. There is reason for believing that the particular elements in their teaching thus incidentally condemned were of Jewish origin. If this conjecture be correct, then St. Peter is here dealing with errors similar to those condemned by St. Paul (1Ti. 1:4; 2Ti. 4:4; Tit. 1:14the only other passage in which the word fables occurs). And in this case much light is thrown on some of the marked peculiarities of this epistle and that of St. Judeviz., the fondness of both writers for the oldest, and sometimes the most obscure, passages of Old Testament history, as well as for some strange portions of uncanonical apocryphal tradition. They were fighting these seducers with their own weapons; difficult passages of Scripture and tradition, which these men had worked up into a system of pernicious mysticism, St. Peter and St. Jude proved to be altogether of a different meaning, and to tell against the very doctrines that they were employed to support (A. Plummer, M.A.). The most effective way in which to show the clearness of the apostolic testimony is to contrast the gospels with the foolish and demoralising stories of the so-called apocryphal gospels.

II. It was based on strong conviction.They themselves absolutely believed what they recorded or declared, and showed their conviction by giving up all, and enduring all, for the sake of their testimony. They were consequently more than officials who do a duty, and more even than prophets, who were mediums for conveying a message. They were convinced men, who put their own hearts into their testimony. And it is absolutely essential to all effective Christian ministry, that the speaker should have the accent of conviction.

III. The conviction was based on personal experience.St. Peter suggests much that was common to himself and the other apostles who were in the daily fellowship of Jesus Christ; but he refers precisely to the one experience which he was privileged to share exclusively with James and John. The Transfiguration may be treated as St. Peters special personal experience and testimony, since he was the sole spokesman of the occasion. The precise interest of the Transfiguration lies in its being the most sublime revelation of the innermost mystery of Christs person and mission,one great point of suggestion there being the necessity and spiritual mystery of the Redeemers sacrificial death. St. Peter did not repeat something heard; nor even something conveyed to his mind in dream, or trance; nor even something studied from a book. He claims accurate knowledge through personal experience, and in gaining that experience the full activity of all his human powers and faculties. Compare the declaration of St. John: That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life (1Jn. 1:1).

IV. The experience absolutely assured the righteousness of Christs personal claim.They were eye-witnesses of His majesty. This may be illustrated by the results of the wine-making at the marriage in Cana of Galilee. This beginning of His signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory: and His disciples believed on Him. We need to see more clearly that all the experiences of Christs fellowship which the apostles had brought impressions of Him; not just of His power, or His wisdom, or His goodness, but of Him, in whom so evidently dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

The Witness of Prophecy to Christ.The explanation of this reference to prophecy needs first to be given, and Plummets note is suggestive of every important point. We have, as something more sure, the prophetic word, as a second proof of the truth of my teaching respecting Christs coming. The expression the prophetic word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. The Scripture given as quoted by Clement of Rome, is quoted again in the so called Second Epistle of Clement (ch. 11) as the prophetic word. The quotation in both cases is probably from some uncanonical book of prophecies. Here the expression means the whole body of prophecy respecting the subject in hand; but the meaning of the whole sentence is not quite clear. It may mean

1. That the Transfiguration has made prophecies more sure, for we who were there have thus witnessed their fulfilment. In this case, however, we should have expected something more than and to introduce the statement, such as and hence, and thus, whereby, etc. Or it may mean
2. That in the prophetic word we have something more sure than the voice from heaven. Here a simple and is natural enough; and the word of prophecy is suitably compared with the voice from heaven. But how can the word of prophets be more sure than the voice of God? In itself it cannot be so; but it may be so regarded

(1) in reference to those who did not hear, but only heard of, the voice from heaven.
(2) In reference to the subject in hand. (a) For the readers of this epistle, the many utterances of a long line of prophets, expounded by a school of teachers only second to the prophets themselves, might easily be more sure evidence than the narrative of a single writer; and if they heard not Moses and the prophets, neither would they be persuaded by the report of a voice from heaven. (b) The Transfiguration, though an earnest of Christs future glory, was not so clear a promise of it as the express words of prophecy. If this latter interpretation be right, we have another form of authenticity. A forger would be likely to magnify his own advantage in hearing the voice from heaven over the ordinary proofs offered to every one, In any case, the coincidence with 1Pe. 1:10-12 must not be overlooked. Dealing generally with the assertion made concerning the trustworthiness of the characteristic Old-Testament writings, consider

I. Prophetic Scripture.St. Peter clearly has in mind writings of an anticipative character, which foretold events that would occur in the future. The term is sometimes made to include the historic and didactic features of Scripture, but here reference must be to writings which have relation to the coming Messiah. And it must always be borne in mind that Jews found references to Messiah in very many mere side-allusions, which our logical Western minds compel us to free from any such relation. Indeed, the severer criticism of our day tends to put serious limitation upon the long-recognised number of Messianic passages.

II. Its source.Distinctly, the impulse and guidance of the spirit of God. The spirit, as the inspiration of prophecy concerning Messiah, should be carefully distinguished from the Holy Ghost as the witness and seal, dwelling in Christian believers. There are dreams of poets, visions of a golden age; but these may not be compared with the prophetic portions of Scripture, which are distinctly revelational, and designed to confirm faith in the Divine ordering of human affairs, with a view to redemptive issues.

III. Its limitations.It is buried in current human history, or in figures understood only in particular ages, and must therefore always be dealt with in a large, general, and suggestive, rather than precise way.

IV. Its precise mission.It had an immediate mission. It was to cheer hearts and keep up hope. It was a lamp in the night which must stay and brighten the house until the daylight streamed in at the windows. Its interest to us lies in what it was, and what it did, rather than in what it is. What kept the worlds faith alive is always important.

V. Its interpretation.It must not be conducted on any private lines, but according to principles of interpretation laid down. The idiosyncracics of individuals have wrought sad havoc in the treatment of Gods Word.

SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES

2Pe. 1:19-21. Lock and Key.St. Peter had been speaking of the proofs which he and his brother apostles had received of our Saviours power and greatness. After a reference to the Transfiguration, he comes to the proof from prophecy. He says, a prophecy is like a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn. As men burn a candle during the night to give light, so was God pleased to set up the lamp of prophecy in the world, to save mankind from being left in total darkness during the ages before the coming of Christ. The prophecies were designed to preserve a sense of Gods goodness, and a recollection of His promises, to keep hope alive in the world, and to awaken men to the expectation of some great mercy, which God was preparing for His people and would bring to light in due time. When Christ came, the prophecies acquired a new use; they became, perhaps, the strongest of the outward proofs, the most striking of the external testimonies to the truth of our Saviours mission. Their testimony is so sure, because not of private interpretation; that is, the prophecies did not refer merely to the events of the time and place when they were spoken; but pointed far onward into futurity, and had a grander reference and application to the Son of God. The prophet himself did not always fully understand his prophecies. He spake as he was moved by the spirit of God; he gave utterance to the threats and promises which God put into his mouth. But how those threats and promises were to be fulfilled, neither he nor his hearers knew. So that the prophecies were like a door with a curious lock or secret spring to it. Till the secret of the spring is found out, till the right key is given, we may puzzle ourselves as long as we please, but we shall never open the door. If you saw half a dozen doors with as many locks to them, so new and strange that not a smith in the country could make a key to fit any one of them, and if a man then came with a key which fitted all these different locks, and opened all the six doors, could you doubt that his was the right key? This is just the kind of proof which the prophecies afford of the truth and Divinity of Jesus. The weight of this proof rests on two simple facts: one is, that the prophecies were written many hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. The other is, that Jesus died the death related in the New Testament. Compare, then, such writings as Psalms 22 and Isaiah 53, with the account of our Saviours trial and crucifixion in the gospels, and any unprejudiced man must admit that the early writers were taught of God. Illustrations may be fully taken from the chapter in Isaiah. Four assertions are made in it:

1. Messiah was to be made answerable for a sum that was required.
2. He was to be taken off by an oppressive or unjust sentence.

3. He was to be dumb and patient before his Judges 4. He was to be brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and to be cut off for the sins of Gods people. These are extraordinary assertions, yet they are all fulfilled in Jesus; so accurately, and in so many points, that the agreement cannot be accidental. Therefore, in Jesus we have the true key for the prophetic lock; and Isaiah, who foretold all these things so many hundred years before, must assuredly have spoken, as St. Peter says, not of his own will, but as he was moved by the Holy Ghost.A. W. Hare, A.M.

2Pe. 1:19. Prophecies Fulfilled in Christ.

I. The prophets themselves in reference to Christ.

1. Every one of them had in his day a good name and character at stake.
2. Still they were not afraid, nor slow, to venture their names upon mysterious oracles.
3. This is the more remarkable since they did not themselves fully understand what they prophesied.
4. The reason for this is, that they were rendered confident by God.

II. Christ Himself in reference to the prophets and their prophecies.

1. His birth.
2. His betrayal.
3. His condemnation and crucifixion.
4. His miracles.
5. His various sufferings.
6. His ministryits nature and success.R. Philip.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1

2Pe. 1:19. Promises of The Word.Like the aurora borealis shining on the frosty and sombre sky, tinging it with beautiful colours, and relieving it with brilliant rays, the promises of the gospel shine in tints of light and smiles of love over the cold and gloomy night of trouble.T. J. Wright.

CHAPTER 2

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

2.

The certain and trustworthy sources of saving knowledge, 2Pe. 1:16-21

2Pe. 1:16 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

Expanded Translation

For we did not follow (use as our guide) cleverly or cunningly invented fiction stories (lying fables, myths), when we disclosed to you the power (might) and arrival (literally, presence) of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye-witnesses and lookers-on of his magnificence, splendor, and excellence.

_______________________

Beginning from 2Pe. 1:12, Peter discussed the message and attitude of a true preacher of the Gospel. Now he begins a discussion of the false teachersand the validity of his own teachings in contrast to theirs. His warnings concerning these deceivers continue throughout chapter three (2Pe. 3:3-5; 2Pe. 3:16-17). We will note their doctrines as we proceed.

For we did not follow cunningly devised fables

That is, we apostles (see below). The word follow (exakolutheo) is a rather emphatic word, and Peter is the only New Testament writer to use it. It means literally to follow out; hence, imitate, observe another (person or thing) and follow it as a guide. See also 2Pe. 2:2; 2Pe. 2:15.

The fable (muthos, hence our word myth), has an interesting history. It primarily signified speech or conversation. The first syllable mu-, meant to close, keep secret, be dumb, (thus our word mute). So Trench says our word must have originally signified the word (speech) shut up in the mind, or muttered within the lips. At first there is nothing of the fabulous, still less of the false, involved in it. At the second stage of its history muthos is the mentally conceived, as set over against the actually true. These were stories that were intended for good, involving a higher teaching or a moral. Some of these ancient fables are still widely read, as Aesops.

. . . at its third stage muthos is the fable, but not any more the fable undertaking to be, and often being, the vehicle of some lofty truth; it is now the lying fable with all its falsehoods and all its pretences to be what it is not . . . It is a word which belongs to the kingdom of darkness and lies.

The apostle calls them cunningly devised (sophizo) fables, i.e., skillfully invented, devised cleverly and artfully.[52]

[52] This word also had a good sense at first, meaning to make wise, enlighten (2Ti. 3:15, make . . . wise).

when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ

Which coming? The word parousia (presence) when referring to the Saviour, has consistent reference to the second advent in the epistles of Paul, and is certainly so used in 2Pe. 3:4; 2Pe. 3:12 in this epistle. Unless this passage be the sole instance, there is no New Testament passage in which it is used of his first coming or his life, ministry, and death while on earth.

The word here rendered and, (kai) is sometimes better translated even. If such is the case here, we have power, even the coming, both words referring to the return of our Lord to earth. Surely at that time his might will be displayed as never before!

The second coming of Christ was the very doctrine the mockers were denying (2Pe. 3:3-4). But neither this, nor any of his other teachings, could be disputed by Peter and the apostles (particularly here, James and John), for they were

eyewitnesses of his majesty

And, therefore, had every reason to believe him. To be an eyewitness (epoptes)[53] affords the highest kind of evidenceevidence that is not easily set aside. The author was frequently an actual on-looker of the great events in the life of Christ. (See the Biographical Sketch of Peters life.) The transfiguration affords an excellent example, and is therefore cited in 2Pe. 1:17-18.

[53] Notice our discussion of the verb form (epopteuo) under 1Pe. 2:12; 1Pe. 3:2.

The true preacher and teacher of the Gospel message is not a trickster, deceiver, or magician, nor does he attempt to follow such! His business is to acquire and reach, insofar as it is possible to do so, the true teachings of Christ and the apostles. These teachings, and no others, make up his doctrinal menu. Peter did not follow the myths of menlet us learn from his example!

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(16) For we have not followed.More literally, For we did not follow, or, It was not by following out, &c., that. For introduces the reason for I will endeavour above. The word for follow, or follow out, occurs again in 2Pe. 2:2; 2Pe. 2:15, and nowhere else in the New Testament.

Cunningly devised fables.We cannot be sure that any in particular are meant, whether heathen, Jewish, or Christian; the negative makes the statement quite general. Various things, however, have been suggested as possibly indicatedheathen mythology, Jewish theosophy, Gnostic systems (as yet quite in their infancy in Simon Magus, St. Peters adversary), and Apocryphal Gospels. Probably some elements in the doctrine of the false teachers are alluded to; something analogous to the feigned words of 2Pe. 2:3. There is reason for believing that the particular elements in their teaching thus incidentally condemned were of Jewish origin. If this conjecture be correct, then St. Peter is here dealing with errors similar to those condemned by St. Paul (1Ti. 1:4; 2Ti. 4:4; Tit. 1:14the only other passages in which the word fables occurs). And in this case much light is thrown on some of the marked peculiarities of this Epistle and that of St. Jude, viz., the fondness of both writers for the oldest, and sometimes the most obscure, passages of Old Testament history, as well as for some strange portions of uncanonical and apocryphal tradition. They were fighting these seducers with their own weapons; difficult passages of Scripture and tradition, which these men had worked up into a system of pernicious mysticism, St. Peter and St. Jude proved to be altogether of a different meaning, and to tell against the very doctrines that they were employed to support.

When we made known unto you.It is difficult to determine to what this refers. It is erroneous to suppose that the phrase necessarily implies personal communication by word of mouth. In the First Epistle the Apostle wrote to congregations not personally acquainted with him; and we have no reason for assuming that he had visited them since. When we made known may possibly refer to the First Epistle, against which supposition the plural we is not conclusive. Or a written Gospeland, if so, the one with which St. Peter is commonly connected, viz., that of St. Markmay be in the Apostles mind. But the simplest explanation is that he refers to the Apostolic teaching generally.

The power and coming.The power conferred upon Christ after being glorified in His passion and resurrection, and his coming again to judgment. (Comp. 2Pe. 3:4; Mat. 24:3; Mat. 24:27; 1Co. 15:23; &c., &c., where the same Greek word is used.) In this power He will come again. His first coming at the Incarnation would neither be the usual meaning of the word nor would suit the context.

But were eyewitnesses.More literally, but by having been made eye-witnesses. It was not by following fables that we made known to you His power and coming, but by having been admitted eye-witnesses. The word for eye-witness is sometimes a technical term for one who was admitted to the highest grade of initiation in the Eleusinian mysteries. This meaning would be very applicable here; but it may be doubted whether St. Peter would be familiar with this use of the word. It occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. The kindred verb, to be an eye-witness, occurs in 1Pe. 2:12; 1Pe. 3:2, and nowhere elsea coincidence worth noting. The words of another witness of the Transfiguration, And we beheld His glory, &c. (Joh. 1:14), should be compared with the passage before us.

Of his majesty.At the Transfiguration, which was a foretaste and an earnest of the glory of His second coming. This is St. Peters view of it; and that it is the correct one is perhaps shown by the Gospels themselves. All three accounts of the Transfiguration are preceded by the declaration, Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom, or similar words (Mat. 16:28; Mar. 9:1; Luk. 9:27). Apparently the Transfiguration was regarded by Christ Himself as in some sense the coming of the Son of man.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

(16-21) The certainty of Christs coming again is the basis of these exhortations; and that certainty is proved (1) by the Transfiguration, which was an anticipation of His coming again in glory; (2) by the utterances of the prophets who predicted it.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

5. For no fable is our gospel; being confirmed by the transfiguration voice, 2Pe 1:16-18.

16. Made known power and coming It seems evident that the false teachers, in full view of whom the apostle is writing, had pronounced his teachings respecting the present lordship and future appearing of Christ without foundation. If made known refers to his oral teaching, we may learn its character from Act 2:32-36; Act 3:16; Act 3:20. Our Lord’s resurrection, reign, and coming to judgment, were staple topics of apostolic preaching. A fine Pauline specimen is in Act 17:31. More probably, however, the reference is to St. Peter’s first epistle. The power of Christ is clearly declared. The “lively hope” is by his “resurrection.” 1Pe 1:3. He is the Redeemer. 1Pe 1:18. He is “on the right hand of God,” and supreme over “angels, and authorities, and powers.” 1Pe 3:22. He is the final Judge. 1Pe 4:5. As to his coming, we read of his “appearing,” 1Pe 1:7; his “revelation,” 1Pe 1:13; the revealing of “his glory,” 1Pe 4:13; and the appearing of the “chief Shepherd,” 1Pe 5:4. That these things are myths, those false teachers asserted, and modern infidelity insists.

Cunningly devised fables Pagan mythology was full of them, as were the cabalistic stories of the Jews. Such, too, were the fanciful systems of the Gnostics and others. St. Peter may have had especially in mind his old acquaintance at Samaria, Simon Magus, who, besides giving himself out as “the great power of God,” (Act 8:9-10,) claimed that of him and his paramour, Helena, were born the angels, who made the world. Now, St. Peter says, it was not following such skilfully-devised fictions he made known the Lord’s power and coming. On the other hand, he had had a personal view of his glory.

Were Better, Had been made.

Eye-witnesses A technical term given to those initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries, and allowed to have the nearest view of them. So Peter, James, and John, had been admitted to a full view of Christ’s glorious majesty at his transfiguration. Mat 17:1-5.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘For we did not follow cunningly devised fables (myths), when we made known to you the power and coming (parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.’

He wants them to know that unlike his opponents he had not been inventing cunningly devised myths (stories conveying religious truth in acted out worship) when he had told them about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, because he had actually already had a foretaste of it, and had actually seen His glory. He and his fellow-disciples had indeed been eyewitnesses of His majesty. This had demonstrated His real power and glory, as it had been revealed in the cross and resurrection, and was now being revealed in the spreading and effectiveness of the Gospel, and it was proof that His future coming in glory and excellence would be a genuine coming with a real presence. For they had had a foretaste of it here on earth. This was no heavenly myth. There had been nothing fictitious about it. It had been a genuine experience. The Lord (sovereign over all things) Jesus (God made man and Saviour) Christ (the One Anointed to fulfil God’s saving purposes) was here.

Thus the false teachers by their false ideas were ‘denying the Lord Who bought then’, that is, they were denying that He as ‘the Lord’ had really lived among men and had died for them and had risen again. They were denying His presence and power. But their denial was contradicted by the fact that the disciples had visibly seen His power and glory and Parousia while He was on earth, and they had seen it even as His death was being discussed, a sight which had emphasised His power and coming as God made man. The manifested One was also the crucified One.

Compare how Mar 9:1 emphasises that the Transfiguration was linked with ‘the Kingly Rule of God coming in power’. The false teachers were denying both His power and His Parousia (presence, coming). For this denial see 2Pe 3:3-4. But the Transfiguration had been a foretaste and manifestation of both. For there His glory had been physically manifested and revealed as real, and because of that they could be sure that it would be real too at His final Parousia, which would simply make manifest what was already true, that Christ reigns over the earth. He then goes on to emphasise this by giving an independent account of the Transfiguration.

In other words as a result of His coming and presence Christ has never ceased to be present on earth. His Parousia (according to Peter) includes the totality of His work as the One Who has come from the Father, which is continually manifested in power and will in the end be manifested in glory. His presence and coming was revealed, partially invisibly, while He was here living on earth, and openly in glory at the Transfiguration; it is invisibly true as He goes forward with His people in their present responsibility to disciple all nations (Mat 28:20; Mar 9:1); and it will be openly manifested in the end in His final glorious appearing. Both aspects of His Parousia manifest openly in glory what has been genuinely so from the time when the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world (1Jn 4:14), for in a essence they are one Parousia.

The danger is that we see ‘the body of Christ’ on earth as something other than Christ, as though Christ is in Heaven and His body is on the earth. But that is not so (1Co 12:12). The ‘body of Christ’ is the risen, powerful, invisible Christ Himself present on earth as one with His people. We are His body as united with Him (Rom 6:5; Rom 6:11). We are His body because we have been made one with Him. The idea is never used in any other way. See 1Co 10:16-17; 1Co 12:12-13; Eph 1:19 to Eph 2:6; Eph 2:13 with 16, 20; 2Pe 3:17; Col 2:9-10; Col 2:19. Thus Christ is here present on earth in us.

This is the glorious paradox of the Gospel, that while Christ in His manifested manhood is absent from us, in His Godhood He is present within us, and living out His life through us. And what will happen at His final Parousia will be that He will be manifested in His glorified manhood in the glory which He had with the Father before the world was (Joh 17:5).

And Peter wants his readers to know that this is not a myth. It is not simply something which is part of an acted out ceremony. For this idea of ‘myths’ compare 2Pe 2:1; 2Pe 2:3 where the false teachers bring in destructive heresies denying the reality of the cross (‘denying the Lord Who bought them’), and use feigned words. They claimed to be Christian teachers, but their reality was simply a Hellenistic ritual (and possibly a drug induced state) built up around the name of Christ, and probably connected with other saviours.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Peter Confirms That What He Has Said About The Glory of Jesus Our Lord Is Based On His Own Factual Experience ( 2Pe 1:16-18 ).

They have been called by His own glory and excellence (2Pe 1:3), and have been promised abundant entry into His eternal kingdom (2Pe 1:11). Here is the essence of their faith in Christ. In their being called they have come to know Christ as He is and to rely on His promise for the future. But the question may well be asked how can they be sure that His glory and presence (Parousia) are genuine? How can they know that this is any different than the gnosis (knowledge) received by Hellenistic religionists. Why should they listen to Peter rather than to the false teachers? Well, says Peter, there are two reasons:

Firstly because he and his fellow-disciples HAVE ALREADY ACTUALLY AND HISTORICALLY EXPERIENCED HIS POWER AND GLORY AND COMING (Parousia) on the holy mount. There can therefore be no doubt about it. They know that He has come in His glory as the Saviour. As a result they know that His power and glory and Parousia are not just some unverified spiritual experience, but are something which is historical and real. They have actually experienced His power. They have actually seen His glory. They have actually been made aware of His Parousia.

We should notice that to Peter His Parousia is not just His second coming. It is His total coming combined. He has come and was here and will one day be even more glorously revealed.

And secondly because the prophets of old have borne witness to it (2Pe 1:19-21).

An important point should be noticed here about His Parousia (presence, coming). This has already been experienced on the holy mount. Thus we must see that in Peter the word parousia refers to the coming and presence of Jesus as a whole, and not just to His second coming, although it does, of course, very much include that. Like the writer to the Hebrews in Heb 9:26-28 he sees Christ’s Parousia as happening in two stages, firstly in His revealed presence on earth, which continues on in His presence within His people (Joh 14:23; Joh 17:22-23; Eph 3:17; Col 1:27; Act 9:4), and secondly in His manifested return in glory, of which the Transfiguration was a foretaste. It is this combined event that has changed history for ever, and confounds the false teachers. And His people can know that the whole is real and historical because Christ’s appointed eyewitnesses saw the reality of it revealed in the Transfiguration.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Our Justification: Jesus’ Role in our Perseverance Against False Doctrines 2Pe 1:16-19 reveals the role of God the Father in providing His Word to us through Jesus Christ His Son in order to secure our salvation. In this passage of Scripture, Peter gives us a brief description of the events that took place on the Mount of Transfiguration in Mat 17:1-8, where he was an eye-witness of Jesus’ majesty. God the Father testified of Jesus’s role in our salvation when He said, “This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” (2Pe 1:16-18). We place our faith in this word of testimony by believing in Jesus Christ as God’s Son. Therefore we should take heed (verse 19).

The Witness of Jesus’ Glory on the Mount of Transfiguration Perhaps no other event that has taken place on earth compares to the event of Jesus manifesting His glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. Many prophets and men of old have had divine visitations and seen angels or had visions. Even the miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ are not to be compared to God descending upon earth to reveal the Glory of His Only Begotten Son. If we compare this event to God’s descent upon Mount Sinai, when the earth shook and the dark clouds came down, we see that it was terrible and fearful; but the manifestation of Christ was glorious.

2Pe 1:16  For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

2Pe 1:16 “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables” Comments – In the statement, “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables,” Peter alludes to the Greco-Roman myths that dominated the mindset of the culture of Asia Minor. This region was the center of pagan worship with many temples dedicated to their gods of mythology. Peter assures them in 2Pe 1:16 that his testimony is not on the level of such mythological stories.

2Pe 1:16 “when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty” Word Study on “majesty” – The Greek word for “majesty” is “megaleiotes” ( ) (G3168) Strong says that this word means, “superbness, i.e. glory or splendor.” BDAG defines it as “grandeur, sublimity, or majesty.” The Enhanced Strong says it is used 3 times in the New Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “mighty power 1, magnificence 1, majesty 1.” The other two uses are found in Luk 9:43 and Act 19:27.

Comments – It is interesting to note that Luke uses this same Greek word in a section of narrative material that includes His Transfiguration.

Luk 9:43, “And they were all amazed at the mighty power of God. But while they wondered every one at all things which Jesus did, he said unto his disciples,”

Act 19:27, “So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.”

Peter is referring to his experience on the Mount of Transfiguration with the Lord Jesus Christ as recorded in Mat 17:1-8.

2Pe 1:17  For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

2Pe 1:18  And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

2Pe 1:19  We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

2Pe 1:19 “We have also a more sure word of prophecy” Comments – 2Pe 1:19 teaches us that God’s Word is more certain and takes priority over our lives than divine encounters. Perhaps a good example of this is told by Andrew Wommack. When he was an older teenager he had a series of divine visitations over a period of forty days. After this had ended he was left struggling with the question of what did he do to cause these events and what did he do to cause them to stop. Soon afterwards, he was drafted into the military and sent to Vietnam. There he spent thirteen months in the bunkers with other soldiers. In this environment, with dirty pictures pasted on the walls around him, he began to backslide and get tempted. He then made the decision to take his Bible and read it on a regular basis. He spent around fifteen hours per day reading his Bible during this thirteen-month say in Vietnam. He realized through this experience that it is not divine encounters that keep us close to the Lord, though these do affect our lives, but it is our time each day in God’s Word that keeps us. [93] This is essentially the message of 2Pe 1:19, that God’s Word is more sure help us persevere than even the divine encounter that Peter experiences on the Mount of Transfiguration.

[93] Andrew Wommack, Gospel Truth (Colorado Springs, Colorado: Andrew Wommack Ministries), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.

Perhaps no other person on earth experienced a greater testimony of God’s redemption plan through the Lord Jesus Christ than Peter experiencing the vision on the Mount of Transfiguration. This must have been the greatest vision that a person has ever experienced on earth. Yet, this experience is of lest surety and authority than the Word of God. God’s Word is absolutely sure, or certain, and of absolute authority. The Scriptures are even firmer than the Transfiguration event. All of our experiences come short of this weight of authority. Paul referred to the fact that if he or an angel from heaven spoke anything contrary to what he had spoken to them, they this angelic visit would be of less authority than the Word of God, which Paul had already spoken to them.

Gal 1:8, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”

The phrase “word of prophecy” refers to prophetic Scriptures in the Old Testament as well as the inspired Scriptures written up to the time of Peter’s epistle.

Rom 16:26, “But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:”

Why did Peter call the Scriptures a “word of prophecy”? Perhaps he did so because he is contrasting the divine, supernatural inspiration of the Scriptures with his divine experience on the Mount of Transfiguration. In other words, the Scriptures were delivered supernaturally by a divine encounter called prophecy. In addition, we know that the Old Testament canon was delivered through the office and ministry of the prophet.

2Pe 1:19 “whereunto” Comments – Or, “to which.” That is, we should be careful to take heed unto the word of prophecy.

2Pe 1:19 “ye do well that ye take heed” Comments – Note a similar statement in Heb 2:1 to give earnest heed to what has been preached unto us.

Heb 2:1, “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.”

2Pe 1:19 “as unto a light that shineth in a dark place” – Comments – Heed the Word of God like you would follow a light in a dark place or along a dark pathway.

2Pe 1:19 “until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” Comments – The phrase “day star” literally means, “the one bearing or giving light.” Note that the only star that can be seen during the daytime is the Sun. Thus, it is the “day star.”

This phrase “until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” in 2Pe 1:19 refers to spiritual understanding or enlightenment. The progression of dawn turning into the full brightness of day is figurative of God’s prophetic word being developed into its fullness in our lives. Peter opened this second Epistle with a description of how our growing knowledge of God’s Word plays a role in developing our character into His divine nature. This progression is explained as faith ” virtue ” knowledge ” self-control ” perseverance ” godliness ” brotherly kindness ” love.

Scripture References – Note similar passages of Scripture in Pro 4:18 and 2Co 4:4-5.

Pro 4:18, “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”

2Co 4:4-5, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts , to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

2Pe 1:19 Comments – Why are we being urged in 2Pe 1:19 to take such careful heed to these words of prophecy? 2Pe 1:20-21 explains that the prophecy is from God, and thus, carried supreme authority over every other thing in our lives. If we will submit our hearts and lives to the Word of God and allow it to have supreme authority in our lives, then we will begin to grow in our revelation of its meaning. God’s Word will become brighter and brighter in our hearts day by day just as the sun brightens the day hour by hour.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

2Pe 1:16. Cunningly-devised fables, Sophistical fables. Benson. For there was nothing fabulous, or artfully invented, in the information that we gave you, of the powerful advent of our Lord Jesus Christ; but we ourselves were eye-witnesses of his majesty. Heylin. This epistle of St. Peter was written to support and maintain the hopes and expectations which he had raised by the first; wherein much weight is laid on the expectation of Christ’s coming in all his power and glory.

It is very probable, that the distressed Christians conceived at first great hopes from these assurances given them by the apostle; and expected, as it is natural for men in affliction, that every day would bring them deliverance: but when one year after another passed, and no deliverance came; when the scorners began to ridicule their hopes, and asked in mockery, Where is the promise of his coming? (ch. 2Pe 3:3-4.) the hearts of many grew sick; and their hopes, deferred, instead of being any comfort or support to them, became an additional grief, lest they had believed in vain. Many of them, worn out with distress and persecution, began to give way, and willingly listened to the corrupt teachers, who instructed them to keep fair with the world, and to keep their faith to themselves; by means of which wicked doctrine, they were led away, fell from their steadfastness, and denied the Lord who bought them.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

2Pe 1:16 . ] shows that this verse, in which allusion is made to the erroneous teachers, gives the reason for the . The connection of thought is perfectly plain, so soon as it is observed that all that has gone before has been said in close relation to the “promises” (2Pe 1:4 ).

, Luther inexactly: “clever fables;” means in 2Ti 3:15 : “to make wise;” this meaning is inappropriate here; in the classics it occurs in the sense: “to contrive cleverly;” thus Aristophanes, Nub . 543: ; accordingly . are: “ cleverly contrived fables ;” Pott: fabulae ad decipiendos hominum animos artificiosae excogitate atque exornatae; [48] cf. chap. 2Pe 2:3 , . The interpretation of Aretius is, on the other hand, incorrect: fabulae falsam habentes sapientiae et veritatis speciem. The expression is to be found in the N. T. only here and in the Pastoral Epistles. As the author makes no special allusion of the kind, it is at least doubtful if he refers to any definite myths; either those of the heathen with reference to the appearances of the gods upon earth (Oecumenius, Estius, Bengel, etc.), or to those of the Gnostics as to the emanation of the aeons (Dietlein), or to the Gnostic myth of the Sophia (Baur), or to the apocryphal legends of the birth and childhood of Christ, especially in the Ev. Infantiae Jesu (Jachmann), or to false myths as to Christ embellished in the spirit of the Jewish Messianic beliefs (Semler), or “apocryphal, didactic, and historical traditions, as these were appended by a later Judaism to the histories of the O. T., especially to the most ancient” (Schott, similarly Steinfass), or to the practice of heathen lawgivers, who, according to Josephus, appropriated to themselves the fables of popular belief, borrowing from them their accounts of the gods (Hofmann). The words express, indeed, an antithesis, but this is of an entirely general kind; either in order to bring out that the apostolic preachers are not like those others who seek the support of myths, perhaps with special reference to the false teachers alluded to in chap. 2 and 3, or, what is less probable, in order to meet the reproaches of these teachers (Wiesinger), and the contrast serves to give the more prominence to the positive statement.

] The verb, besides here, only in chap. 2Pe 2:2 ; 2Pe 2:15 . The preposition does not precisely indicate the error (Bengel), but only the going forth from a particular point; in common usage, however, this secondary meaning often entirely recedes; cf. the passage below, quoted from Josephus, Ant . prooem. 4. By this negative statement the author denies not only that his message was based on myths, but that in it he followed a communication received from others (Schott).

. . . . . ] Several interpreters understand this of the First Epistle of Peter; in which case the plural is surprising, for the author had already spoken of himself in the singular. Hofmann’s objection to this view is, that although in his former epistle Peter refers to the power and coming of Christ, he did not first make it known to the readers. But the passages 1Co 15:1 and Gal 1:11 , show that may also be used of a proclamation, the substance of which had already been communicated to those to whom it was made. Many commentators take the words as referring to the whole preaching of the apostles, understanding , not of the readers specially, but of the Gentile-Christians generally; thus Wiesinger, and more decidedly Hofmann. It must be observed, however, in opposition to this, that and the subsequent must refer to the same subject as . The most probable explanation is, that the author, remembering that he was not the only witness of the transfiguration, passed from the singular to the plural, and in so doing made use of in its extended sense.

is not here the nativitas Christi , His human birth (Vatablus, Erasmus, Hornejus, Pott, Jachmann, etc.), nor “His presence during the time He appeared on earth” (Schmid); but, in harmony both with the N. T. usage (chap. 2Pe 3:4 ; Mat 24:3 ; Mat 24:27 ; 1Co 15:23 ; 1Th 2:19 , etc.) and the connection of thought ( 2Pe 1:4 ; 2Pe 1:17 ; 2Pe 3:4 ): the return of Christ to judgment (Estius, Semler, Knapp, Dietlein, de Wette-Brckner, Hofmann, and the more modern interpreters generally [49] ). , however, denotes the fulness of might of the glorified Lord, as it will be more especially revealed in His . It is not correct to combine both ideas into one, and with Hornejus to explain: potens adventus; or with Bengel: majestas praesentissima.

] An antithesis, affirmatively stated, to what goes before. , . . ( 1Pe 2:12 ; 1Pe 3:2 : ), is the term, techn. for him who had reached the highest degree of initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries. Keeping to this, Bengel here interprets: ad intima arcana admissi; de Wette, too, thinks that the expression has here the secondary meaning of being initiated, of intimacy. It is no doubt chosen purposely with reference to the fact that the of Christ, which Peter and the other two disciples beheld, was a mystery hidden from the others. Grotius, Pott, and others take it as synonymous with , Luk 1:2 . The connection demands that should be referred to the fact of the transfiguration (2Pe 1:17 ). Hofmann is wrong in supposing that Peter here thought of the appearance of the Risen One and His ascension. The assertion is refuted not only by the close connection in which 2Pe 1:17 stands to this verse, but by the word , which in no sense is expressive only of “ greatness .” As the form in which Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after His resurrection was the same as that in which they had seen Him before it, they were not then in any way of his ; nor is there the slightest hint that there is here allusion to any fact other than that mentioned in the following verse.

] that is, the glory in which at His transfiguration Christ showed Himself to the three disciples. Incorrectly Calvin: exemplum unum prae aliis eligit memorabile, in quo Christus coelesti gloria ornatus conspicuam divinae magnificentiae speciem tribus discipulis praebuit. The apostle rather regards the transfiguration glory of Christ as the type and therefore the proof of the glory of Christ at His .

[48] Dietlein thinks that the expression contains a double reproach, i.e. not only by the termination , but also in as far as the word means what is bad; however, the termination is by no means always used in a bad sense, nor does in itself mean what is bad, except only in connection with (1Co 1:20 ), (1Co 2:13 ), etc. Besides, is mostly employed so as to contain the secondary meaning of cleverness (see Pape, e.v .); consequently Hofmann is wrong in rendering simply by “ conceived ,” asserting that the word means nothing else. Cf. with our passage Joseph. Ant . prooem. 4: . . .

[49] Fronmller only interprets: “His appearing with miraculous powers in the flesh, along with His expected appearance in glory.”

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 2422
THE TRUTH AND CERTAINTY OF THE GOSPEL

2Pe 1:16. We have not followed cunningly-devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

AMONGST the various proofs which we have of the truth and certainty of our holy religion, one of great importance is, that amongst all the authors and founders of it no diversity of sentiment obtained upon any essential point of doctrine; whether the teachers of it were learned (like the Evangelist Luke and the Apostle Paul), or unlearned (like the rest of the Apostles), they were all of one mind: nor during the whole apostolic age was there so much as one controversy among them, if we except the doubt that was raised about imposing the yoke of the Mosaic law upon the Gentiles: nor was this question moved by the teachers themselves, but only referred to them by some who were less instructed amongst their converts. This shews, that they were all taught by one and the same Spirit: for it is not to be conceived, that amongst so great a variety of persons, so differently situated, and so differently gifted, there should not have been a considerable diversity of sentiment, sufficient to distract the minds of their hearers, and to cause divisions in the Church. Moreover, we never find one of the inspired Apostles speaking with doubt upon any fundamental point: they knew infallibly, and declared without hesitation, that we are all guilty and helpless in ourselves, all redeemed by the blood of Christ, all renewed by the influences of the Holy Spirit, and all to be summoned to the judgment-seat of Christ, to receive according to what we have done in the body, whether it be good or evil. We cannot but be struck with the confidence with which the Apostle Peter speaks in the words before us, and with the simplicity with which that confidence is expressed.
That I may place his words in a just point of view, I will endeavour to shew,

I.

What he had declared respecting Christ

The generality of commentators confine the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to his future advent to judge the world. But I see no reason for so limiting them: I see nothing in the context that should lead us to such a contracted view of them. I conceive that they include what Christ has done, as well as what he will do; and that the Apostle refers to,

1.

The power with which Christ has come

Both the epistles of Peter are catholic, addressed to the whole Church. In the former especially he speaks very fully, and forcibly, of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the different ends and purposes of his advent. He declares him to have been fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but manifest in these last times for his people [Note: 1Pe 1:20.]. He specifies the end of his manifestation, which was, to redeem his people by his blood, and to bear their sins in his own body on the tree [Note: 1Pe 1:18-19; 1Pe 2:24.]. He declares him to have been raised up from the dead by the Father; that our faith and hope might be in God [Note: 1Pe 1:21.]: and he states, that by his resurrection from the dead he hath begotten us again to a lively hope of an incorruptible, and undefiled, and never-fading inheritance [Note: 1Pe 1:3-4.]. He represents him further as the foundation-stone upon which all his Church and people are built, and which will infallibly support them all for ever and ever [Note: 1Pe 2:5-6.]. And, lastly, he speaks of him as gone into heaven as our forerunner, and as reigning there above all the principalities and powers of heaven, earth, and hell [Note: 1Pe 3:22.].

In the epistle that is before us too, he had spoken fully to the same effect, declaring that grace and peace were to be multiplied unto us through the knowledge of this Saviour [Note: ver. 2.], who is the one source and fountain of all good, and has by his divine power given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness [Note: ver. 3.].

Now these things Peter had declared: and they are no other than what every minister of Christ must declare. His ordination to his office from all eternity, his execution of it in time for the salvation of a ruined world, his exaltation to glory, from whence he communicates all blessings to his people, and overrules every thing for their eternal good, this must be made known by every minister of Christ, and must be received by every child of man.]

2.

The power with which he will come

[At a future period, that same Jesus, who was crucified, shall appear again in power and great glory [Note: 1Pe 1:7.], and will come to judge both the quick and dead [Note: 1Pe 4:5.]. Then shall his glory be fully revealed [Note: 1Pe 4:13.]; and his kingdom be established for ever in the heaven of heavens [Note: ver. 11.].

These things also the Apostle affirmed. And what less could be declared by any one that has undertaken to preach the Gospel?
If they appear to any to be a cunningly-devised fable, I ask, Why do they appear so? The only answer that can be given is this; That these things are too great to be comprehended by us, and too good to be expected or believed. They are great, no doubt; and they are good also, beyond all that any finite intelligence could have conceived. But they are not on that account to be questioned. The creation of the world out of nothing, as far exceeds our conceptions as the redemption of it. Both the one and the other are the offspring of infinite wisdom, and power, and goodness: and, if we were not compelled by the evidence of our senses to acknowledge the wonders of creation, we should be as ready to deny the possibility of them, as we are to question the wonders of redemption. But the Apostle declares, that even these latter had, as far as they could be, been made objects of sense; and every evidence of them that could be submitted to the senses had been given to him.]

In confirmation of this the Apostle proceeds to state,

II.

On what assured grounds he was enabled to bear

his testimony respecting him
The Apostle had all the evidence respecting the Messiahship of Jesus that was possessed by the Church at large. He had beheld all the miracles that Jesus wrought, and heard all his discourses, and seen his bright example, and witnessed his resurrection and ascension, and had received from him the Holy Ghost according to his promise on the day of Pentecost; and had beheld also the triumphs of the Gospel over all the power and policy of earth and hell. (Of the prophecies which he had seen fulfilled in him, we shall have occasion to speak hereafter.) But in addition to all these, he himself possessed an evidence which had made the deepest impression on his own mind, an evidence, which no other human being, except James and John, was ever permitted to behold, and which he could not forbear to adduce on this occasion in confirmation of all that he had stated [Note: ver. 17, 18.].

He had received the evidence of his senses respecting the power and coming of the Lord Jesus
[He with James and John had been taken up to Mount Tabor by his Divine Master, who had there been transfigured before them [Note: Mat 17:1-5.]. On that occasion the bright effulgence of the Deity had been made to shine forth in the person of the Lord Jesus, whose face was as bright as the meridian sun, and whose raiment was as white as the light, whiter far than any fuller on earth could make them [Note: Mar 9:3.]. This bright effulgence Peter had seen with his bodily eyes.

On that occasion too Moses had been raised from the dead, and Elijah brought down from heaven, to bear their testimony to him. These two persons represented the law and the prophets, both of which had their full accomplishment in him: and they now, as it were, surrendered up their respective offices to him, who was henceforth to be the great Prophet, Priest, and King of his Church and people. Of this also Peter had been an eye witness.
But, in addition to this, God the Father had borne witness to his Son by an audible voice from heaven, saying, This is that my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: Hear ye him [Note: This is the force of the article in Mat 17:5.]. In these words there was a direct reference to what God had before said to Moses, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto thee: him shall ye hear: and whosoever will not hear that prophet, I will require it of him [Note: Deu 18:18-19.]. This voice declared, that very Jesus was the prophet so referred to, and the prophet whom all must obey at the peril of their souls. And this voice Peter distinctly heard.]

This evidence fully confirmed all that he had asserted respecting Christ
[He had declared that Jesus Christ was the only-begotten Son of God, the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person [Note: Heb 1:3.], and of this, as far as it was possible, he had been an eye, and ear witness. He had declared the sufficiency of his death for the redemption of the whole world: and how could he doubt this when God had audibly proclaimed his acquiescence in it in that view? He had declared, that the salvation or condemnation of every living man would depend on his acceptance or rejection of this Saviour, who was the one Prophet, whom all must hear; the one Priest, in whom all must trust: and the one King, whom all must obey: and so strongly were these truths assured to him by all that he had seen and heard, that he could not doubt of them one moment, or hesitate to appeal to them, in proof that he had not followed any cunningly-devised fable, as ignorant Gentiles, or superstitious Jews, were wont to do. And to these things do we also make our appeal: for in these things the three Apostles could not be deceived: and their whole life and death shewed clearly enough, that they had no design or wish to deceive.]

Application
1.

Let not any of you then be moved by the impious and blasphemous attempts which are made to undermine the Gospel

[You may see in my text the construction which infidels and blasphemers are wont to put upon the truths of revelation: they pour contempt upon them as cunningly-devised fables, invented and propagated by designing priests for the advancement of their own interests. But who could ever disprove the truth and authority either of the Old or New Testament? It is easy enough to sneer and cavil at any thing: and impious scoffers ever have treated in this way the truths of revelation, even from the days of Jannes and Jambres, who withstood Moses [Note: 2Ti 3:8.], to the present hour [Note: February, 1820, just after the trial and condemnation of Carlile, for re-publishing a blasphemous and seditious libelPaines Age of Reason.]. Men of corrupt minds, and reprobate concerning the truth, ever have, and ever will, sport in this manner with their own deceivings [Note: Compare 2Ti 3:8. with 2Pe 2:10-13; 2Pe 3:3-4.]. But, beloved, search the Scriptures for yourselves: examine the evidences which have been adduced in proof of their divine authority: see the suitableness of the provision which has been made for you by Almighty God in the person and work of his only-begotten Son: and you will soon see, that the great mystery of redemption carries its own evidence along with it, and that what is spoken in Scripture respecting it, is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation ]

2.

Let all of you get an experimental acquaintance with the Gospel in your own souls

[Peter believed the evidences which he had in common with others: but he felt peculiar conviction from those which he derived from his own personal experience. So the people of Samaria, who had believed on Jesus on account of the womans testimony, told her afterwards, Now we believe, not because of thy saying; for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world [Note: Joh 4:42.]. Thus do you seek, if not the evidences of your senses, yet the evidence of your own experience; for it is certain, that he who truly believeth in Christ, hath the witness in himself [Note: 1Jn 5:10.]: he knows the power and grace of Christ in a way that he never could know it from mere argument: and in speaking of Christ he can say, What my eyes have seen, my ears have heard, my hands have handled of the word of life, that declare I unto you [Note: 1Jn 1:1.]. There are spiritual senses which may be exercised; and though their testimony is not satisfactory to others, it is peculiarly convincing to those who possess it. For the good of others then I say, Seek an acquaintance with the established evidences of the Gospel: but for your own good I say, Go up to Jesus upon the holy mount, and there hear and see what God will reveal for the conviction and consolation of your souls. So shall you have an evidence which nothing can shake, and feel yourselves standing on a rock, which defies the assaults both of earth and hell.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

XXIII

IMPORT OF THE TRANSFIGURATION OF JESUS AND FALSE TEACHERS

2Pe 1:16-2:21

This discussion commences with 2Pe 1:16 , and the item of the analysis is the import of the transfiguration of Jesus. The reader will find the historical account of the transfiguration in Mat 17 ; Mar 8 ; and Luk 9 , and he should very carefully study (the better way is as it is presented in Broadus’ Harmony) the account of the transfiguration.

I will refer very briefly to the history. Just after the great confession of Peter recorded in Mat 16:18 , when Christ said, “Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” he began to show plainly to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and be put to death, whereupon Peter protested. He was not yet ready to accept the idea of Christ dying. In order to fix the right view of the death of Christ upon the minds of these disciples that were still clinging to the Jewish notion of the kingdom, Christ took three of the disciples, Peter, James, and John, and went upon a mountain. Before he went he stated that there were some of them standing there who would never taste death until they should see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

It has always been a difficult thing with commentators to explain how it was that he could say that some people that heard him would never taste of death until they saw him coming in his kingdom. The transfiguration, according to Peter, was the fulfilment of that promise. Peter says here in this connection, “We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there was borne such a voice to him by the majestic glory, This is my beloved Son) in whom I am well pleased. And this voice we ourselves heard borne out of heaven, when we were with him in the holy mount.” Mark it well, Peter says that when he preached the final advent of Christ, he was not following cunningly devised fables. He was preaching something of which he had, in a certain sense, been an eyewitness. The question, then, is in what sense was the transfiguration a second coming of Christ? The answer to it is that it was a miniature representation, or foreshadowing, of the majesty and power of the second advent. In other words, there passed over Christ’s person a transfiguration, a manifestation of his glory, such glory as he will have when he comes again. That glory radiates from Christ. It was the kind of glory in which he will come to judge the world.

In the next place, when he comes he will come exercising two great powers: One will be resurrection power, and the other will be the changing of the living saints in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and so that transfiguration scene presented those two thoughts in miniature, in that, Moses appeared to them, who died, and Elijah appeared to them who did not die but was changed in a moment. So that Moses represents the class who died and who, at the second coming of Christ, will be raised from the dead; and Elijah represents the class at the second advent of Christ, who will, in the twinkling of an eye, be changed and fitted for their heavenly estate.

It is remarkable that, while Peter looked upon the death of Christ with abhorrence, Moses and Elijah appeared there to talk with him about his death. It was the most significant event of the world, the death of Christ. Moses was the lawgiver, and Elijah the prophet. Now, in that sense the transfiguration represented the final coming of our Lord, and Peter quotes it for that purpose.

Now we come to 2Pe 1:19 : “And we have the word of prophecy made more sure; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in & dark place, until the day dawn, and the daystar arise in your hearts.” That describes the nature and value of prophecy. Prophecy foreshows a coming event, and its value is compared to a lamp shining in a dark place and to the morning star which heralds the coming dawn. That lamp is a long ways better than nothing. If one were, in the night, in an unknown country, he would like very much to have a lantern. The lantern would not illuminate the whole landscape, but it would illumine a small space right near about. It would not illumine all the course at one time, but would show the one how to take the next step. And as the lantern moves with him would guide him step by step. So the morning star, while not the day itself, foretells its speedy approach and only pales in the brighter light of the dawning. Now, as that lamp ceases to be valuable after the day comes, so when the fulfilment of the prophecy comes, then what was dimly understood is thoroughly understood.

Peter’s precise thought seems to be this: “I was an eyewitness of the majesty and power of the final advent. But prophecy is surer than sight, though its light be but as a lantern in the night, or as the daystar. You do well to take heed to prophecy.” It is on a line with the thought of Abraham, in speaking to the rich man: “Moses and the prophets are better testimony than Lazarus, risen from the dead.”

In other words, Peter’s idea was this: “It is true I saw the second advent unfolded in the transfiguration, but you are not dependent on what I saw. You have for your guidance the unerring word of God. Prophecy now holds the right of way. It is all the light we have. But its fulfilment is coming, which is perfect light. Then you will not need my testimony of what I saw, nor prophecy itself. The dawn is better light than lanterns and morning stars.”

In 2Pe 1:20-21 , the closing paragraph of this chapter, he sets forth the reason of the present value of prophecy and how alone it is to be interpreted.

1. It never came by the will of man.

2. Men wrote or spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

3. It is not of man to interpret it. Only the illumination of the Holy Spirit, its author, can bring out its meaning.

This is one of the best texts in the Bible on inspiration. We have already seen that the prophets, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, foretold things to come, and then would search what time or manner of time these things would be, the date of it, and the circumstances of the date. They were moved to tell it just that way. They did not thoroughly understand it. It was a subject of their own contemplation and investigation, and was so to the angels. They can’t interpret the promises and the prophecies of God. They can only look into them, and as the church, in carrying out the will of God, unfolds his purposes, they can learn them by the unfolding, but they cannot know them beforehand.

2Pe 2 of this letter is devoted to false teachers. The teachers here referred to are the Gnostics, and in the letter to the Ephesians and Colossians I have already explained the Gnostic philosophy; that, as a philosophy, it attempted to account for the creation, and for sin; that it claimed to have a subjective knowledge and was more reliable than the written word of God. That it made Christ a subordinate eon or emanation from God, and that inasmuch as sin resided in matter, one form in which this philosophy shaped itself was that there was no harm in any kind of sensual indulgencies. That the soul could not sin, and that the body was just matter, and so it made no difference if one did get drunk, or if he did go into all forms of lasciviousness and sensuality. Inasmuch as he is a child of God, he will be saved. One might do just whatever he pleased to do, since he is not under law at all, but free. Now, that was the philosophy, and, as explained in the other discussions, the method of this philosophy was not by public teaching, but by private teaching. They would come to families or to individuals and say to them: “Gnosticism is only for a cultured few, and we will initiate you into its mysteries at so much a head. Let the great body of common people come together in assemblies if they want to. You don’t need to go to church. You don’t need anything of that kind.” That philosophy started in Proconsular Asia, and Peter is addressing his two letters to that section of the country. He says there were false prophets in the old times, and that there were false teachers among them, and in this letter and in Jude we have a very vivid description of these teachers and the errors of their teaching, and the most vivid description setting forth their doom. In 2Pe 2 , then, we have these false teachers presented as follows:

1. What they teach is false.

2. In their character they are lascivious or sensual.

3. They are covetous, they are teaching things in order to make money.

4. They despise dignities or dominion. They set at naught the apostolic offices of Paul and Peter; they disregard church government. A pastor doesn’t amount to anything; they are just like beasts that have no reason.

In other words, as a wolf follows his own blood lust, these men follow their instincts. They revel in the daytime. Then he sets them forth in pictures. He says they are wells or springs without any water in them. They are mists driven by the storm. They are like the dog that returneth to his vomit, and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire. These are very powerful descriptions. Nowhere in the Bible is such language used to describe the false teachers as in 2 Peter and in Jude. He then tells us about their methods. They come in privily. These are the abominable heresies they teach: the denial of the Lord, the subordinate place in which they put him, and his word, it makes no difference how one lives. They come offering liberty, when they themselves are the slaves of corruption. The whole chapter is devoted to them.

He replies to their teaching and of the life that follows such teaching by citing certain great facts. The first fact is that God has demonstrated in the history of the past that whosoever goes into heresy and teaches abominable doctrines shall certainly be punished, and fearfully punished, and he takes as his first example: “If God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved unto judgment; if the angels, the bright shining spirits that stand around his throne, cannot escape sharp eternal and condign punishment, how can these men expect to escape?”

The next example that he cites is the case of the antediluvians. These people lived before the flood. They would not hear Enoch, they would not hear Methuselah, they would not hear Noah. They gave themselves up to this world. There were giants among them. The whole earth was filled with violence. There was no purity left upon the earth. Homes were defiled, honor lost. Woman’s name was held as an outcast thing, and they lived like wild beasts, and God swept that world away.

The next fact that he cites is the case of Sodom and Gomorrah. We find the account of it in Genesis, and reference to it in a number of the prophets, particularly Isaiah. Sodom and Gomorrah had a preacher, Lot. His righteous soul was vexed by the fearful crimes that he witnessed every day. They paid no attention to his warning. All of the cities of the plains were given up to the most abominable vileness of life, so shameful that I cannot speak about it. It would make a man blush to read it off by himself. It won’t do to talk about, even when men are talking to men. He says those cities were swallowed up in the wrath of God, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire, and on those three great facts the punishment of the angels, the punishment of the antediluvians, the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah, we do know that God can take care of his people and punish the wicked. He saved Noah, and he saved Lot. The others perished.

There is one other thought in the chapter that needs to be brought out. It is presented in 2Pe 2:10-11 : “Daring, selfwilled, they tremble not to rail at dignities: whereas angels, though greater in might and power, bring not a railing judgment against them before the Lord.” Peter seems to refer to this remarkable passage in Zec 3:1 : “And he showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of Jehovah, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. And Jehovah said unto Satan: Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan; yea, Jehovah that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before him saying: Take the filthy garments off of him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with rich apparel. And I said, let them set a clean mitre upon his head, etc.”

There the high priest, Joshua, and Zerubbabel were endeavoring to rebuild the Temple and the case came up before God. The devil appeared as an accuser, and reviled the high priest, saying that those people were not worthy of restoration. The angel of the Lord says, “The Lord rebuke thee, Satan.” He did not bring a railing accusation against him like the devil had brought against Joshua, but he says, “God rebuke thee.” Now, says Peter, when the angel would not rail at Satan, not assuming to judge Satan, but said, “God rebuke thee, Satan,” these men that he is discussing here, they rail at dignities. Here were these apostles whom God had appointed; here were these pastors of the church whom they disregarded, the discipline of the church that they set aside. They had no reverence for official position of any kind.

QUESTIONS

1. Where the history of the transfiguration?

2. What Peter’s interpretation of its meaning?

3. What thing in the transfiguration represented the majesty of the final advent?

4. What two things represented its power?

5. Elijah appeared in his glorified body. Did the appearance of Moses imply that he, too, was in a glorified body like Elijah’s, i.e., Never having tasted death, or in a risen body, and if neither, why?

6. What does Peter hold as surer and better evidence of the final advent than what he saw at the transfiguration?

7. In our Lord’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the word of God and prophecy is said to be better than what other thing?

8. In Psa 19 why is the same word of God declared to be better than the light of nature?

9. What illustration does Peter employ to show the value of prophecy?

10. Did the prophets themselves always understand their prophecies?

11. Why is prophecy not of private interpretation?

12. How alone can it be interpreted?

13. Who the false teachers of 2Pe 2 ?

14. What their heresies, (1) about our Lord? (2) about creation? (3) about sin? (4) what the effect of this teaching on the life? (5) what their method of teaching and motive? (6) what did they mean by “knowledge,” and how did this supersede the word of God?

15. What great historic examples did Peter cite as proofs that God could punish the wicked and save the righteous?

16. Where alone do you find proof that Noah was a preacher?

17. To what historic occasion does Peter refer in 2Pe 2:11 ?

18. What was “the way of Balaam” which these heretics followed (2Pe 2:15 )?

19. With what natural things does Peter compare these heretics?

20. How is their presence at the Christian feasts illustrated?

21. How will you show that 2Pe 2:21 does not teach the final apostasy of real Christians?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

Ver. 16. Cunningly devised fables ] . Artificially composed and compiled, not without a show of wisdom and truth, to deceive silly people. The Jesuits confess that the legend of miracles of their saints is for the most part false; but it was made, say they, for good intention, that the common people (the females especially) might be drawn with greater zeal to serve God and his saints. And what shaft we think of their Dominic’s holy hypocrisy which he commended to his novices; and for the which he is so highly commended by Vincentius Episcopus Beluacensis in his life?

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

16 18 .] Corroboration of the certainty of the facts announced by apostolic eye-witness .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

16 .] For (reason for the zeal which he had just predicated of himself) not in pursuance of ( ., see reff. The preposition must not perhaps be pressed: certainly not as Bengel, “ errorem notat, cap. ii. 2, 15.” If it is to be rendered, its sense may be much as in our expression, “following out,” i. e. “in pursuance of,” as given above) cunningly-devised fables (add to reff., Aristoph. Nub. 543, . They are, as Pott (in Huther), “fabul ad decipiendos hominum animos artificiose excogitat atque exornat.” The Commentators quote from the promium of Josephus, . . . Such cunningly-devised fables would be the mythologies of the heathen, the cabalistic stories of the Jews; and these may be alluded to, and perhaps also the fables of the Gnostics, which could, it is true, only be in their infancy, but still might be pointed at by St. Peter, as by St. Paul in reff.: see Prolegomena, Vol. III. ch. vii. i. 34) did we make known to you (the Writer of this Epistle, says De Wette, wishes to appear to stand in closer relation to his readers, than the writer of 1 Peter: cf. 1Pe 1:12 . But why so? May not the same Apostle in one place mean the actual preachers who delivered the Gospel to them, in the other, the Apostles, who were its first witnesses? For observe, that first Epistle is addressed to certain definite churches; this, to all Christians generally. Or again, why should it be regarded as absolutely impossible that the publication of some one or more of the existing Gospels may have taken place, and may be alluded to in these words?) the power (viz., that conferred on Him by the Father at His glorification, of which the following scene testified, and the actuality of which He himself asserted, when He said, Mat 28:18 , : in the strength of which He will come to judge the world) and coming (i. e., as ever, second and glorious coming: not, as Erasm. and many others, His first coming. Nor must the two words be made by hendiadys into “prsentissima majestas,” as Bengel) of our Lord Jesus Christ, but ( in virtue of ) having been admitted (the part., as so often, renders the reason, the enabling cause of the act. The may here be pressed to its passive sense, ‘having been admitted as:’ seeing that would have been the more natural word, were no such meaning intended) eye-witnesses ( is a technical word, used of those who were admitted to the highest degree of initiation in the Eleusinian mysteries: and, considering the occasion to which allusion is made, there seems no reason for letting go altogether this reference here: “admitted as initiated spectators.” Still, in English, we have no other way of expressing this than as above. Any attempt to introduce the allusion would overcharge the Ianguage. The word “admitted” gives a faint hint of it) of His majesty (viz. on the occasion to be mentioned. The words must not be generalized, to reach to all occasions of such witnessing: but it is obvious that neither must the Transfiguration be regarded as standing altogether alone in such an assertion. It is indeed here that incident which marked, to the Apostle’s mind, most certainly the reality of Christ’s future glory: but it was not the only occasion when he had seen the exhibition of divine power by Him as a foretaste of His power at his return to judgment: cf. Joh 5:25-28 , with Joh 11:40-44 ).

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

2Pe 1:16-18 . The fact of the Transfiguration a guarantee of the writer’s truthfulness . “For we are not without facts to rest upon. Our preaching of the power and coming of Jesus Christ was not based on sophistical myths. We were eye-witnesses of His Majesty. For He received from God the Father honour and glory, a voice coming to Him through the splendour of the glory, ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased’. This voice we heard, as it was borne from heaven, when we were with Him in the Holy Mount.” (For a comparison of this passage, with the Synoptic account, see Introduction, pp. 94 ff.).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

2Pe 1:16 . . . Cf. .: “suppositious mother”. Greg. Nyss. i. 171 D. This is evidently the character attributed to the facts of the Christian Gospel by the False Teachers. They specially sought to discredit the outlook for the Second Advent. is often used in the Pastoral Epistles or the fanciful Gnostic genealogies (1Ti 1:4 ; 1Ti 4:7 ; Tit 1:14 ). . Used in N.T. of preaching the Gospel ( e.g. 1Co 15:1 ). . For collocation of words, cf. Mat 24:30 , Mar 9:1 . For , see note on 2Pe 1:3 . . Chase ( op. cit. 797 a ) regards the word here as denoting the first coming of Christ, because (1) the context speaks of history and not of prophecy; (2) the word itself naturally bears this meaning. He admits, however, that elsewhere in the N.T and in this Epistle it is used of the Second Coming ( cf. Ignat. Philad. 9). Justin ( Dialogue 32) distinguishes “two advents, one in which He was pierced by you; a second, when you shall know Him, Whom you have pierced”. There is, however, no real difficulty here in taking . in the usual sense, which, indeed, is more in harmony with the context. The Transfiguration itself, as used by this writer, is regarded as a basis for belief in the Second Advent, against the False Teachers.

Dr. Milligan, in his recent edition of Thessalonians, gives a valuable note on (p. 145). He mentions that it occurs frequently in the Papyri as a kind of terminus technicus with reference to the visit of the king, or some other official. (P. Petr. 2:39 ( e ), 18 (iii. B.C.). P. Tebt. 48, 13 f. (2. B.C.), 116 (ii. B.C.). P. Gren., 2Pe 2:14 ( b ), 2 (iii. B.C.). Dittenberger, Sylloge , 226, 84 ff. (iii. B.C.). . “We fall back upon” these examples of the word “the more gladly because for this particular sense of the word the Jewish sacred writings give us little help” ( ibid. ). The word must, therefore, have come into use, in this application to the Second Advent, in apostolic times, as faithfully representing the meaning of Jesus Himself ( cf. Mat 24:3 ; Mat 24:27 ; Mat 24:37 ; Mat 24:39 ). The usual classical sense of the word as “presence” must not be disregarded. Taken together with the other meaning illustrated by the , would thus seem to combine in itself the meaning of “actual presence,” and a near “coming”. This combination of meaning in the consciousness of the early Church, with its perplexity as to the interpretation of our Lord’s promise, would seem to be reflected in Joh 16:16-18 . : used of those who had attained the highest degree of initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries. Judging from the use of in 1 Peter, the word may have passed into ordinary speech, but no doubt is used here to enhance the splendour of the vision, and the honour done the disciples, at the Transfiguration “admitted to the spectacle of His grandeur’ (Moffat, H. N. T. p. 600). is applied to God in Est 5:1 , 2Ma 7:35 , cf. O.G.I.S., 666 (reference to an Egyptian Sun-god). Hofmann holds that the reference is rather to the Resurrection and Ascension. . Cf. Luk 9:43 , Act 19:27 .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 2Pe 1:16-18

16For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased” 18and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

2Pe 1:16

NASB”cleverly devised tales”

NKJV”cunningly devised fables”

NRSV”cleverly devised myths”

TEV”made-up stories”

NJB”cleverly invented myths”

This is a perfect passive participle, which implies a permanent state of delusion (perfect tense) brought on by an unidentified, outside agent (passive voice) which could be the false teachers themselves or the evil one. We get the English word “myth” from this Greek word, which is found only in

1. 1Ti 1:4; 1Ti 4:7

2. 2Ti 4:4

3. Tit 3:9; Tit 3:14

4. 2Pe 1:16

Since these false teachers (from the description of 2 Peter 2) were incipient Gnostics with some Jewish tendencies (i.e., #2), these myths could refer to

1. angelic levels between a holy god and lesser spiritual beings (aeons) and their secret names

2. genealogies related to the Messiah as the heavenly man distinct from a truly human Christ

3. the purposeful theological separation of salvation and ethics/morality

For a good discussion of the different ways “myth” is used, see G. B. Caird, The Language and Imagery of the Bible, chapters 12-13, pp. 201-243.

“coming of our Lord” This is another central theme of the book. The term parousia, defined as “coming” or “presence” (same root in 2Pe 1:12), is used in the koine Greek papyri for a royal visit of a king. The term parousia usually refers to the Second Coming (cf. 2Pe 3:4; 2Pe 3:12), but it can refer to the Incarnation. It may refer to that here because of the contextual allusion to the Transfiguration in the next phrase.

SPECIAL TOPIC: THE SECOND COMING

“we were eyewitnesses of His majesty” This asserts Peter’s authorship by being an eyewitness of Jesus’ earthly life. This specifically refers to the Transfiguration (cf. 2Pe 1:18 and Mar 9:2-8). This phrase was also used of initiates into the mystery religions experiencing oneness with a god. Peter, like Paul, often used his opponent’s phrases as a means of refuting them or giving their proper meaning.

Jesus is described by the term “majesty.” In the next verse (2Pe 1:17) God the Father is identified by the same term “Majestic Glory.” The essence of deity within Jesus was unveiled to the inner circle of disciples (i.e., Peter, James, and John) on the mountain.

2Pe 1:17 “honor and glory” This is a possible reference to the “Shekinah Glory” (what the rabbis call the cloud in Exodus and Numbers), the cloud out of which God spoke (cf. Mar 9:2-8). See SPECIAL TOPIC: GLORY (DOXA) at 1Pe 1:21.

“Father” See Special Topic at Mar 13:32.

“an utterance” The rabbis call this a Bath Kol (i.e., a voice out of heaven), which was a confirmation of God’s will during the time from Malachi to John the Baptist in which there was no prophetic voice. The Father affirmed Jesus both at His baptism and His Transfiguration (cf. Mar 1:11; Mat 17:5-6).

“My beloved Son” This is a Messianic title from Psa 2:7.

“with whom I am well-pleased” This is an allusion to Isa 42:1 (cf. Mat 3:17; Mat 17:5). By linking Psalms 2 and Isaiah 42, Peter emphasizes both the royal and suffering servant aspects of the Messiah. These two aspects also define His two comings: Incarnation = Suffering Servant; Second Coming = King and Judge!

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

followed. Greek. exakoloutheo. Only here and 2Pe 2:2, 2Pe 2:15.

cunningly, &c. Greek. sophizo. See 2Ti 3:15.

fables. See 1Ti 1:4.

coming. See Mat 24:3 (first occ).

were = became.

eyewitnesses. Greek. epoptes. Only here. The verb in 1Pe 2:12; 1Pe 3:2. Compare Luk 1:2.

majesty. Greek. megaleiotes. See Act 19:27.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

16-18.] Corroboration of the certainty of the facts announced by apostolic eye-witness.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

2Pe 1:16. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

There is need in these perilous times to come back to such an elementary truth as this. The truths taught us in Gods Word are not fables, myths, or merely parables, but they are matters of actual fact. The apostles were eye-witnesses of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ- eyewitnesses of his majesty. We receive these truths without the slightest question, and base our faith upon them. We should be troubled indeed if we had any doubts whatsoever about these great foundation facts of our holy religion.

2Pe 1:17-18. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

They were not deceived,-neither Peter, nor James, nor John. There was such a voice from God himself, which they literally heard; it was the Father bearing approving witness to the person and work of his only-begotten and well-beloved Son.

2Pe 1:19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy;

Surely, nothing could be more sure than the evidence presented to the apostles in the holy mount. Yet Peter thus writes to express his utmost confidence in the Word of God. Surer than the light he saw, which dazzled him; surer than the voice he heard, which he never failed to remember, and to which he ever bore unfaltering witness; surer even than these things is that divine Book which is still preserved to us: We have also a more sure word of prophecy.

2Pe 1:19. Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

You have already the assurance of the Word itself; you must build upon that, and upon that alone; but you shall have added to that a day dawn and a day star in your own hearts. We have the witness within us now: The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God; and those things which we have received by faith we now have proved to be true by their effect upon our own souls. We know the light now because we walk in it; we know it to be light, for it has enlightened us.

2Pe 1:20-21. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

How we do rejoice in this fact! We shall never give it up. It is a disbelief of inspiration, which lies at the bottom of all the modern theories; but with this disbelief we have not the slightest fellowship. In our inmost souls we believe that holy men of God spake as they were moved (or, borne along) by the Holy Ghost. They spoke not for their own age alone, neither were the prophecies given to a few persons so as to belong privately to them; but the whole inspired Scripture stands fast for all the faithful, and is the truth to us today, even as it was to those to whom it was first spoken.

This exposition consisted of readings from 2Pe 1:16-21; 2Pe 2:1-10.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

2Pe 1:16. , for) He shows that the subject was one, respecting which it was befitting that he should write, though even on the point of death; alleging the testimony of apostles, and the discourse of prophets.-) , ch. 2Pe 2:3, cunningly devised.-) fables, such as the heathen had respecting their gods.-) The denotes error; ch. 2Pe 2:2; 2Pe 2:15. There is no such error in this matter.- , the power and presence) Hendiadys: that is, most present majesty. , power, is opposed to fables. Comp. 1Co 4:20, where word and power are opposed to each other. The Transfiguration on the Mount is a pattern of the revelation of glory at the last day; and the whole testimony of the apostles looks to this revelation: Act 10:42.-, eye-witnesses) Admitted to His innermost secrets; for instance, on the Mount.-, of Him) , He, denotes something distant, and wonderful, and great.-, majesty) As the name of the Father and the Son are correlative terms, so are magnificent glory and majesty. Magnificent glory in the text is ascribed to the Father; majesty (magnitudo) or (for the Greek word differs somewhat from the Latin), to the Son.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

we have: 2Pe 3:3, 2Pe 3:4, 1Co 1:17, 1Co 1:23, 1Co 2:1, 1Co 2:4, 2Co 2:17, 2Co 4:2, 2Co 12:16, 2Co 12:17, Eph 4:14, 2Th 2:9, 1Ti 1:4, 1Ti 4:7, Tit 1:14

the power: Mat 28:18, Mar 9:1, Joh 17:2, Rom 1:4, 1Co 5:4, Phi 3:21

coming: Mal 3:2, Mal 4:5, Mat 16:28, Mat 24:3, Mat 24:27, 1Co 1:7, Jud 1:14, Rev 1:7

were: Mat 17:1-5, Mar 9:2, Luk 9:28-32, Joh 1:14, 1Jo 1:1-3, 1Jo 4:14

Reciprocal: Deu 32:47 – General Est 1:4 – excellent Job 40:10 – majesty Psa 96:6 – Honour Psa 116:10 – therefore Isa 4:2 – beautiful and glorious Mat 17:5 – This Luk 1:1 – those Luk 1:4 – General Luk 9:29 – General Luk 9:32 – they saw Joh 15:27 – ye also 1Co 2:13 – not 1Th 2:3 – General 1Th 2:13 – the word of God 2Ti 4:4 – unto Heb 1:3 – Majesty 2Pe 2:3 – with 1Jo 2:27 – but

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

2Pe 1:16. Cunningly devised fables. Certain speculators among the Jews joined with others in those days in delivering myths (here translated fables) to listeners, and many of them were so tricky in their wording that the uninformed were deceived. The apostles found it necessary to give warnings against heeding such speeches (1Ti 1:4 1Ti 4:7; 2Ti 4:4; Tit 1:14). Peter declares that he was not depending on such stories in his revealing of the things concerning Christ. What a man sees is a matter of positive knowledge and does not require any ingenious wording to make the report acceptable. We is literal and means actually that more than one were witnesses, not just the “editoral I” as is sometimes used for the sake of modesty. If one inspired witness makes a declaration it is as true as if a hundred would say it, yet if more than one witness the same thing it will be strengthened on the basis of corroboration. Power and coming. The last word is elsewhere defined “presence,” and since we know Peter has direct reference to the scenes of the transfiguration, the word is used in that sense and applies especially to the majesty (greatness) of Christ. However, the very visible demonstration of His greatness of which Peter and others were witnesses, would give evidence of the reasonableness of the predictions of the second coming of Christ to earth.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

2Pe 1:16. For we did not follow cunningly devised myths, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The change from the I which the writer has used through 2Pe 1:12-15, to we here is to be noticed. He is to speak now not of his own personal resolutions and expectations, but of what he had preached in conjunction with other apostles and specially of one significant scene which he had witnessed in company with John and James. The follow is expressed by a strong compound verb which occurs in no other book of the New Testament, and indeed only twice again (chap. 2Pe 2:2; 2Pe 2:15). It is supposed by some to convey the idea of following a false lead. But it expresses rather the closeness of the following. The phrase rendered fables by the A. V. and R. V. is the term myths which is so familiar in the Classics. In the New Testament it occurs only here and in the Pastoral Epistles (1Ti 1:4; 1Ti 4:7; 2Ti 4:4; Tit 1:14). The myths are defined (by the participle of a verb which is used here in the bad sense, but which has the good sense of making wise, in the only other New Testament passage where it occurs, viz. 2Ti 3:15) as cunningly devised, or cleverly elaborated, Wycliffe and the Rhemish give unwise, unlearned, which is an inadequate rendering. Cranmer gives deceitful; Tyndale and the Genevan deceivable. There has been much dispute as to the particular myths which are in view. Some have advocated the extraordinary opinion that they were Christian myths,legends like those which the apocryphal Gospels, and other curious products of early Christian literature, show to have become connected, within a comparatively brief period, with the history of Christs birth and opening life. Others take them to have been fancies of the kind which afterwards took shape in the Gnostic speculations about wisdom and the aeons and emanations from Deity. Others identify them with the ordinary heathen myths, specially those about the descent of the gods to earth. Many regard them to be Jewish myths,such monstrous rabbinical embellishments of Old Testament history as appear in the apocryphal books. Probability lies, on the whole, on the side of this last view, particularly if the parallel statements in the Pastoral Epistles are found to suit best as warnings against the common Judaizing tendency, and an unspiritual, Pharisaic study of the Old Testament, disputatious cleaving to the letter, and losing itself in useless hair-splittings and rabbinical fables (Neander, Planting of Christianity, i. p. 342, Bohn). In this case we may the better understand, perhaps, why so much of the teaching of this Epistle and that of Jude turns upon the oldest portions of the Old Testament history. It may be that these, along with others outside the Old Testament itself, but dealing with Old Testament personages and events, were the subjects of the rabbinical, legendary embeilishments; that they were made use of by the false teachers to whom Peter refers; and that, as Canon Mason suggests, Jude and he, therefore, were fighting these seducers with their own weapons. Another question to which different answers are given is thisWhat communication is alluded to in the statement, we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ? The term coming, which means literally presence, does not denote, as is supposed by some good interpreters, either Christs earthly lift or His Nativity, Here, as in chap. 2Pe 3:4, Mat 24:3; Mat 24:27, 1Co 15:23, 1 Thess. 3:19, etc., it expresses His Second Advent, His return in judgment. This teaching, therefore, on the power (or fulness of the might of the glorified Lord) (Huther) and advent of Christ, is identified by some with that which is given by Peter himself in his former Epistle; and it is suggested then that the novel and mysterious declaration about the spirits in prison may have exposed Peter to misunderstandings which he wished to remove (so Plumptre). But as the writer uses the plural we, and obviously associates himself with others in what he proceeds here to say, it seems best to understand him to refer generally to what he and his comrades in the apostleship had proclaimed on the subject, whether by oral communication or by written. This teaching, however it may have reached the parties immediately addressed here, would be known to them to carry the weight of apostolic authority with it.

but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. This term for eye-witness is peculiar to the present passage. The cognate verb, too, is used in the New Testament only by Peter (1Pe 2:12, 1Pe 3:2; which see). They are the technical words in Classical Greek for the final stage of initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries. The noun may carry with it here the idea of privileged spectators, or eye-witnesses of something which was hidden from others. The other term, majesty, applied here to the glorious appearance of Christ in the Transfiguration, is found only twice again in the New Testament, viz. in Lukes account (Luk 9:43) of the amazement felt by the people at the mighty power (as it is there rendered) of God seen in the miracle which followed the Transfiguration; and in the same writers description of the magnificence (as the same term is here translated) of Diana (Act 19:27). In the original the whole sentence has a turn which may be represented thusFor it was not as having followed cleverly-contrived myths that we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but as having become eye-witnesses of His majesty.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Our apostle comes now to exhort them to constancy in the faith of the gospel, assuring them that himself and his fellow-apostles had not followed artificially devised fables, when they made known to them the coming of Christ in the flesh, and that he was truly, and in very deed, the promised Messias; for that he himself, with James and John, were with Christ upon mount Tabor, as eye-witnesses of his transfiguration, where and when he received in his human nature a communicated splendor, and God the Father from heaven, the seat of the magnificent glory, pronounced him to be his well-beloved Son, in whom he is well-pleased.

Learn hence, that God the Father’s testimony from heaven, concerning his Son Jesus Christ, did effectually bring honour and glory unto Christ, and is a great obligation upon us to faith and obedience to him; He received from God the Father honour and glory, attesting him to be his well-beloved Son.

Learn, 2. That there was as much assurance given of the certainty of Christ’s being the promised Messias, and of the truth of the evangelical doctrine, as the world could reasonably desire. Men can humanly be certain of nothing more than what they perceive by their senses, which are the proper judges of all sensible objects; now no satisfaction of this kind was wanting to the world concerning our blessed Saviour and his miracles: The apostles attesting what they had heard, what they had seen with their eyes, and their hands had handled of the word of life, 1Jn 1:1

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Reliable Truths

Peter has been talking about writing this epistle to them so they would remember the important doctrines he, and others, had previously taught them. Now, he tells the reason for wanting to do that as he begins with the word “For”. Peter and the other apostles were not following after the artfully designed myths of Greek and Roman mythology when they spoke of Christ’s second coming, which would be with power ( 2Th 1:7-10 ; 1Co 15:23-26 ). Instead, they had personally seen Jesus and the greatness he so often displayed ( 2Pe 1:16 ).

Peter isolated on one display of Christ’s greatness, the transfiguration ( Mat 17:1-13 ; Mar 9:2-13 ; Luk 9:28-36 ). McGarvey notes that Luke’s account says Jesus took Peter, James and John apart with him “to pray.” He further notes that Jesus customarily went aside to pray at night ( Mat 14:23 ; Luk 6:12 ; Luk 21:37 ; Luk 22:39-41 ) and concludes this event was at night also. During the transfiguration, Jesus’ body radiated light like the sun.

Peter identifies the voice from heaven as that of the Father and says His statement gave honor and glory to Christ. Particularly, it showed Christ’s greatness as God’s messenger over and above Moses, the lawgiver, and Elijah, the prophet ( Heb 1:1-2 ). Interestingly, the Jews understood the claim of Sonship to be one which made Jesus equal with God ( Joh 5:17-18 ). God’s statements clearly show his love for the Son and recognition of that equality ( 2Pe 1:17 ).

The event was not one dreamed up as a myth would be, but Peter, James and John were on the mount and heard the voice. The mount was holy because God was manifested there ( Exo 3:1-6 ; Exo 19:10-13 ; Jos 5:13-15 ).

The transfiguration gave the apostles more confidence in the Old Testament prophets. Peter’s readers were advised to pay close attention to those prophets. Their prophecies were like a lamp shining in a sin-darkened world. That light would aid them until the dawn of understanding began to really illuminate their hearts. Jesus is pictured as the “day star”, which is Venus, because full acceptance of him truly heralds the morning of the Christians’ day of understanding ( 2Pe 1:18-19 ).

To truly understand prophecy, one must first realize that such was not the product of the prophet’s own mind, or invention. Instead, they were carried along in their speaking, much as a ship is carried along by the wind, by the Holy Spirit ( 2Pe 1:20-21 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

2Pe 1:16-18. For These things are worthy of being always remembered and regarded; for we have not followed cunningly-devised fables Like those common among the heathen, but things infallibly true and infinitely momentous; when we made known unto you the power The evidences and demonstrations which we gave of his divine power; (in the miracles which he wrought, whereby he demonstrated himself to be the Son of God;) and coming of our Lord Jesus Namely, that the promised Messiah was already come, and that Jesus of Nazareth was he. Or his second coming to raise the dead, to judge mankind, and to introduce his people into his eternal kingdom, might be chiefly intended. But it may be observed, if what the apostles have advanced concerning Christ had not been true, if it had been only of their own invention, then, to have imposed such a lie on the world, as it was in the very nature of things above all human power to defend, and to have done this at the expense of life and all things, only to engage the whole world, Jews and Gentiles, against them, would not have been cunning, but the greatest folly that men could have been guilty of. But were eye-witnesses of his majesty At his transfiguration, which was a specimen of his glory at the last day. For he received from God the Father divine honour and inexpressible glory Shining from heaven above the brightness of the sun; when there came such a voice from the excellent glory From the Shechinah, as the Jews termed that glorious appearance which was a symbol of the presence of Jehovah; This is my beloved Son, &c. See notes on Mat 17:2-5. This voice we heard Namely, Peter, James, and John. St. John was still alive when Peter wrote this; when we were with him in the holy mount The mount made holy by that glorious manifestation, as mount Horeb was of old by the peculiar presence of God, Exo 3:4-5.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1:16 {10} For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

(10) Another amplification taken from both the great certainty and also the excellency of his doctrine, of which our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God is author, whose glory the apostle both saw and heard.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

B. The Trustworthiness of the Apostles’ Witness 1:16-18

Peter explained that his reminder came from one who was an eyewitness of Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry. He did so to heighten respect for his words in his readers’ minds. This section begins Peter’s defense of the faith that the false teachers were attacking, which continues through much of the rest of the letter.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The apostles had not preached myths to their hearers, as the false teachers to whom Peter referred later in this epistle were doing. The apostles’ testimony rested on historical events that they had observed personally. They had seen Jesus’ power in action during His first coming as God’s anointed Messiah. Jesus Christ’s majesty appeared especially clearly on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mat 17:1-8). "Power" and "coming" are a hendiadys that means "powerful coming" with emphasis on the fact that Jesus’ coming was with power. This is the only explicit mention of the Transfiguration outside the Synoptic Gospels.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)