Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Peter 3:3

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

3. knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers ] The better MSS. give the emphatic Hebrew idiom of reduplication (comp. Gen 22:17), scoffers shall come in their scoffing. The first noun is found only here and in the parallel passage of Jdg 1:18; the latter, here only.

walking after their own lusts, and saying ] This is given as the ground of their mocking temper. The habit of self-indulgence is at all times the natural parent of the cynical and scoffing sneer.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Knowing this first – As among the first and most important things to be attended to – as one of the predictions which demand your special regard. Jude Jud 1:18 says that the fact that there would be mockers in the last time, had been particularly foretold by thom. It is probable that Peter refers to the same thing, and we may suppose that this was so well understood by all the apostles that they made it a common subject of preaching.

That there shall come in the last days – In the last dispensation; in the period during which the affairs of the world shall be wound up. The apostle does not say that that was the last time in the sense that the world was about to come to an end; nor is it implied that the period called the last day might not be a very long period, longer in fact than either of the previous periods of the world. He says that during that period it had been predicted there would arise those whom he here calls scoffers. On the meaning of the phrase in the last days, as used in the Scriptures, see the Act 2:17 note; Heb 1:2 note; Isa 2:2 note.

Scoffers – In Jude Jud 1:18 the same Greek word is rendered mockers. The word means those who deride, reproach, ridicule. There is usually in the word the idea of contempt or malignity toward an object. Here the sense seems to be that they would treat with derision or contempt the predictions respecting the advent of the Saviour, and the end of the world. It would appear probable that there was a particular or definite class of men referred to; a class who would hold special opinions, and who would urge plausible objections against the fulfillment of the predictions respecting the end of the world, and the second coming of the Saviour – for those are the points to which Peter particularly refers. It scarcely required inspiration to foresee that there would be scoffers in the general sense of the term – for they have so abounded in every age, that no one would hazard much in saying that they would be found at any particular time; but the eye of the apostle is evidently on a particular class of people, the special form of whose reproaches would be the ridicule of the doctrines that the Lord Jesus would return; that there would be a day of judgment; that the world would be consumed by fire, etc. Tillotson explains this of the Carpocratians, a large sect of the Gnostics, who denied the resurrection of the dead, and the future judgment.

Walking after their own lusts – Living in the free indulgence of their sensual appetites. See the notes at 2Pe 2:10, 2Pe 2:12, 2Pe 2:14, 2Pe 2:18-19.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

2Pe 3:3-4

There shall come in the last days scoffers.

The character of the last days

I. The personal qualifications of the disputers here described. To be a scoffer is sure no very laudable character, being the joint result of pride and malice, the doing mischief, and the doing it in sport. But as this temper is most injurious, it is also ignorant and indocile. The sure effect of knowledge is an humble sense of the want of it; the deeper we immerse ourselves in any art or science, the greater difficulties are started by us. But over and above the ingredients, of pride, ill-nature, and incorrigible folly, the mockers of the text are branded with immorality and vice–to walk after their own lusts. And sure there cannot be a more prodigious impudence than that guilty persons liable to the severest punishments should dare to awaken observation by being sharp on others.

II. The force of their discoursings. Where is the promise of His coming? The delaying of performance is no prejudice against it. With Almighty God everything, however distant it may seem, is actually present. First, the apostle denies the proposition that all things continue as they were since the Creation; and secondly, he denies the consequence drawn from thence, Though all things did continue, it no way follows they shall for ever do so.

III. As they are a recital of a prophecy. The appearance of these scoffers in the world is itself a very signal mark of its approach (Jud 1:17-18; 1Th 5:1; Mat 24:37). Will they find arguments of mockery and laughter in the place of weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth? If they can do this, in Gods name let them mock on, deny a future judgment, or what is more brave, let them dare it. (John Fell, D. D.)

The nature, folly, and danger of scoring at religion

I. To consider the nature, folly, and danger of scoffing at religion, than which nothing can be more offensive to a considerate mind.

1. Is there anything ridiculous in the belief of a Deity, a supreme, infinite, and intelligent mind, the creator and governor of the universe? Is it absurd to assert that He who made the world exercises an universal providence and directs all the affairs of it? What is there ludicrous in any of the duties of piety, in a supreme reverence and love of God? What is there that has a ridiculous aspect, or can excite any but the laughter of fools, in justice, temperance, etc.? Again, is it at all unsuitable to our most worthy notions of God to believe, that when the world was universally corrupted, He would graciously interpose for the good of His creatures, and teach them their duty by an extraordinary revelation? Is it in the least irrational to suppose that this revelation has fixed, with the utmost distinctness, the terms of our acceptance with God, and thereby removed distracting suspicions and superstitious terrors?

2. Further, the grand principles and duties of religion are so far from having anything ridiculous in them, that they are some of the plainest and most obvious dictates of reason, which renders the guilt of the scoffer much more aggravated and his impertinence and folly more insupportable.

3. Let me only add that religion is of the utmost consequence to the comfort of mens minds, the peace of society, and the general good of the world. So that whoever sets himself to vilify these important truths not only fixes certain reproach upon himself by misplacing his ridicule on what has really nothing absurd in it, but is, in fact, whatever his intention may be, whether to gratify a trifling humour, display the forwardness of his genius, or corrupt the morals of the age, an enemy to society and the general happiness of mankind.

4. And as the guilt of these scoffers is very great, their danger is in proportion. For if the principles of religion should happen to be true, he that has so abused his reason, that noblest gift of God, as to employ it against his Maker, and all that is amiable and useful in human life, must expect to be treated with the utmost rigour and severity.

II. To inquire into the causes of it.

1. It sometimes springs from a levity of mind which disposes men to treat all subjects ludicrously.

2. Again, bantering religion frequently proceeds from ignorance and superficial inquiry.

3. Sometimes again it happens that the fashion of the age they live in, or the general humour of the company they frequent, makes persons set up for scoffers.

4. Scoffing at religion may, in some persons, proceed from a direct hatred of it, occasioned by a prejudice in favour of their vices. This was the case of the scoffers mentioned in the text, who are expressly described as walking after their own lusts. I may safely assert that immorality in the practice is the source of the most invincible prejudices against religion. How natural is it for those, who live as without God in the world, to wish that there was no such Being, that by destroying the first principle of all religion they may justify the want of it in their practice. I shall only add, that when men are averse to the principles of religion, they will naturally decline all further inquiries into the reasonableness of them, and be fond of everything that looks plausible on the side of infidelity.

Learn:

1. Into what extreme corruption the mind of man, which is indued with such noble faculties and formed for Godlike perfection, is capable of being sunk, even to mistake confusion for order and deformity for beauty?

2. Again, that we may not be imposed on by the scoffers of our own times, let us always take care to distinguish between reasoning and ridicule. We should examine what it is that is really ridiculous: whether it be religion itself, or something of a different nature substituted in the place of it.

3. Finally, that we may keep at the utmost distance from this crime, let us employ our reason in defending religion and representing it in a just and amiable light. Let our natural abilities be devoted to this service, and all our studies and improvements made subservient to it. (James Foster.)

The folly of scoffing at religion

I. We will consider the nature of the sin here mentioned, which is scoffing at religion. There shall come scoffers. In those times there was a common persuasion among Christians, that the day of the Lord was at hand. Now this, it is probable, these scoffers twitted the Christians withal. They looked upon all things as going on in a constant course.

II. the character which is here given of these scoffers. They are said to walk after their own lusts. St. Jude, in his epistle, gives much the same character of them that St. Peter here does (verses 18, 19). To deride God and religion is the highest kind of impiety. And men do not usually arrive to this degree of wickedness at first, but they come to it by several steps. I remember it is the saying of one, who hath done more by his writings to debauch the age with atheistical principles than any man that lives in it, that when reason is against a man, then a man will be against reason. I am sure this is the true account of such mens enmity to religion–religion is against them, and therefore they set themselves against religion. Besides that, men think it some kind of apology for their vices that they do not act contrary to any principle they profess.

III. The heinousness and the aggravations of this vice. If it prove true that there is no God, the religious man may be as happy in this world as the atheist. Besides that, the practice of religion and virtue doth naturally promote our temporal felicity. It is more for a mans health, and more for his reputation, and more for his advantage in all other worldly respects, to lead a virtuous than a vicious course of life. And for the other world, if there be no God, the case of the religious realm and the atheist will be alike, because they will both be extinguished by death and insensible of any further happiness or misery. But then if the contrary opinion should prove true, then it is plain to every man, at first sight, that the case of the religious man and the atheist must be vastly different; then where shall the wicked and the ungodly appear? I will but add one thing more, to show the folly of this profane temper. And that is this: that as it is the greatest of all other sins, so there is in truth the least temptation to it. Profane persons serve the devil for nought. Lessons:

1. To take men off from this impious and dangerous folly of profaneness, which by some is miscalled wit.

2. To caution men not to think the worse of religion, because some are so bold as to deride it.

3. To persuade men to employ that reason and wit which God hath given them, to better and nobler purposes, in the service and to the glory of that God who hath bestowed these gifts on men. (Abp. Tillotson.)

The sin of scoffing at religion

I. The nature of the vice.

1. It is not the serious inquirer that I complain of, let his objections be raised against whatever doctrines they may, but the individual who treats the subject with a spirit of levity, derision, and contempt.

(1) In some instances this unhappy and unholy disposition goes so far as to despise every kind of religion, natural as well as revealed.

(2) In other cases, the scorner appears in the character of a deist, who, while he professes to believe the truth, and to submit to the obligations of natural religion, attacks the system of Divine revelation. He reviles the Scriptures as forgeries.

(a) Much unhallowed ridicule is thrown by some on what are considered by us as the most sublime and important doctrines of revelation–I mean the trinity of persons in the Godhead, and the atonement of our Lord.

(b) The scorner will not unfrequently be found avowing his belief in the important articles which I have just mentioned, while, at the same time, he ridicules the only legitimate influence and valuable results of these doctrines. Has not the term saint, that highest appellation which can be given to man or glorified spirit, been bandied about society as a term of reproach?

(c) Another way of scoffing at religion is to pitch upon the imperfections of good men and to expose them to public ridicule. But how hateful is the malignity which delights to throw all the praiseworthy parts of the character into the shade of one ludicrous trait.

(d) It is a miserable device, which many have had recourse to, to select the absurdities of fanaticism and the hollow pretences of hypocrisy, as they have been exhibited in some false professors, and thus to raise a prejudice against all genuine religion.

2. To inquire where and when the practice of scoffing is indulged in.

(1) In the theatre.

(2) How often the social circle is the scene of this unhallowed sport and the entertainment of the convivial party is heightened by profane ridicule.

(3) How saturated with the sin of scoffing at religion are many of the publications, and much of the periodical literature of the present day.

II. The causes of scoffing.

1. There are many subordinate and proximate ones.

(1) Of these, pride and an unmortified opinion of self takes the lead.

(2) Scoffing is sometimes the result of a prevailing and indecent levity of mind, an habitual and indulged frivolity, which alike indisposes and unfits a man for any serious pursuit.

(3) A silly affectation of novelty combined with a wish to be thought superior to the terrors of superstition, leads in many cases to the sin of ridiculing piety.

(4) Many are led on to assume the character of the scorner by the power of fashion and the contagion of evil company.

(5) Inability to attack religion in any other way induces some to assail it with their scorn.

2. But the chief source of scoffing is that which the apostle has mentioned in the text, Scoffers walking after their own lusts.

III. The character of this vice.

1. It is irrational. Ridicule is neither the test of truth in others nor the way to obtain it for ourselves.

2. It is rude and uncivil. A decent respect is due to every mans convictions on the subject of religion, though they may be erroneous.

3. It is a most cruel and inhuman sin. Did he but consider how many there are who, amidst the vicissitudes and the trials of life, have no ray of consolation from any other source to fall upon their dreary path, would he follow them to their last refuge and attempt to drive them by unhallowed scorn even from thence?

4. It is a most hardening vice. The sacred writers speak of a scorner as almost irreclaimable.

5. But its impiety in the sight of God surpasses all description. Religion is at once the production and the image of Deity; and to scoff at religion, therefore, is to scoff at God.

6. It is a contagious and injurious vice. Scorners are the chief instruments of Satan, the promoters of his cause, his most zealous apostles, his most able advocates, and his most successful emissaries.

IV. The punishment of the scorner.

1. Are there, tell me scoffers, no midnight scenes of terror and self-reproach? How will this be increased on the bed of death?

2. I cannot conceive of any character with whom Jehovah will be so awfully severe as the scoffer; his is the loftiest height of vice, and his will be the lowest depth of punishment. Gods patience in bearing with such impious creatures is wonderful; and His justice in punishing them will be in proportion.

3. And then, who shall tell the secrets of his prison, or conceive of what the scorner shall endure in the dark world of hell? There will be no saint near him there on whom to utter the effusions of his ridicule. Not one flash of wit will for a moment relieve the darkness of eternal night; not one sally of humour resist the oppression of eternal despair. (J. A. James.)

Where is the promise of His coming?—

The delay of the advent of Christ

I. The scientific difficulty.

1. So far as the objection relates to the delay of the second advent, it would seem that, in a scientific age like the present, it would least of all have weight. For the history of the earth, as related by geology, and the history of the cosmical system, as related by astronomy, present periods so vast, that the eighteen hundred years, during which Christianity has been evolving its work among men, shrink into utter insignificance in the comparison. Certainly, the man of science, of all men, should recognise the utter inadequacy of human standards of time as measures of the development of the plans of the Creator.

2. Again, so far as the objection relates to other aspects of the subject, such as the regularity and immutability of natural law which, it is alleged, forbid any such catastrophe as the end of the world, I suggest–

(1) That creation is the fundamental fact on which all our knowledge rests. Science is compelled to admit the beginning of the Kosmos. The very principle of evolution which, in some form or other, is now generally adopted as a twin generalisation with gravitation, carries with it the idea of a beginning. Even if the Kosmos had been self-evolved, the seed out of which it evolved itself must be assumed. But does not this suggest that it is working towards an end? an ultimate solution?

(2) That the three leading ideas involved in the second advent, and that which is associated with it, at least in perspective, the end of the world, find clear analogies in the latest theories of science.

(a) The second advent involves the idea of the imagination of a higher stage of life and being for man–emancipation from old fetters, the ascent to a higher plane, the taking on a new body with new powers, and under new and higher conditions. But this is just in the line of the story which science is telling us–whether in astronomy, geology, natural history, or sociology–the several spheres in which the law of evolution is traced.

(b) The second advent involves the sudden manifestation of the Son of God, and a new birth of the world resulting from it. But again, the scientific man at our side teaches us that the ascent of matter and force to higher planes, though indeed in orderly succession, has not been by infinite gradation as upon a sliding scale, but always by paroxysms. The story of a chemist is a story of successive births of force into higher and higher forms, the transformation of dead into living matter, of physical into chemical force, and again of chemical into vital force. These are all instances of sudden births into higher conditions with new properties and powers which could not have been imagined before.

(c) The second advent–or that great event which, in the perspective, is contiguous with it, though in reality it may lie far beyond it (like two distant peaks, which seem to spring from the same base though a wide valley really intervenes)–involves also stupendous natural phenomena–the regeneration by fire, the new heavens and the new earth. But here again the analogy of science is in harmony with the scriptural revelation; for the geologist, in telling of an internal treasure-house of fire, as well as the astronomer in his theory of planetary old age, clearly establish that harmony. And, moreover, if there is a law of conservation of force, there is also, as its antithesis, a law of dissipation of energy. Says Le Comte, All scientific speculations on the subject of the final destiny of the Kosmos bankrupt nature. The final result is, the running down of all forms of force into heat, and so the final death of the Kosmos.

II. The historical difficulty. Christ promised to come again in person to judge the world. He said, Behold, I come quickly. But He has not come. Long cycles of history have rolled round, yet still He comes not. Now how do we meet this objection? Exactly as St. Peter did–by reminding the objector that with the Lord a thousand years are as one day. He is the strong and patient worker. Whether we study the record of races or of civilisations, the conclusion is the same–that the God who orders the course of history does indeed reckon a thousand years as one day, maturing His purposes through long tracts of time, and refusing to hasten His work in obedience to the impatience of men. Great nations are not born in a day; strong civilisations are not the product of a generation; both are rather the resultant of a combination of forces and influences whose origin must be sought in remote antiquity. Judging, then, from the analogy of history, what should be the case of Christianity? Here was a new spiritual kingdom set up on earth, designed to be as wide as the world, and as universal as man. How would its results be reached? Surely we should expect that such a design could only be wrought out through long cycles of time; or, at least, this is certain, leaving out of view what could be done (for who shall limit the power of the Almighty?) if experience shall prove that the kingdom of God is to establish itself slowly and through long ages of development, this is only what the analogy of history would teach us to expect. But does not this slow ripening of the great periods of history and civilisation, while it removes the difficulty occasioned by the long delay of the second advent, create at the same time a presumption against the manner of its imagination? The Scripture picture represents a sudden event, a great crisis and catastrophe in the history of the world, in the second coming of Christ. But this, too, finds its frequent analogies in history. The records of mankind afford instances not a few of great crises in the history of cities and nations and races, when sudden destruction has overtaken them, when the long pent-up clouds of wrath have burst upon them and swept them away from among the families of the earth. Such was the case with Nineveh and Babylon. Such was the case with Accad, a city older than either of these, which was indeed the cradle of civilisation, but which so utterly disappeared, that its existence was not even known forty years ago, and was only brought to light by the discovery of the key to the arrow-headed characters, in which the story of the Accadians, with their laws and literature and religion, had remained securely locked up for more than three thousand years. Such was the case with Jerusalem, which when it filled up the measure of its guilt, perished in that sudden storm of indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish. Such was the case with the Roman Empire, when it sank to rise no more before the devastating flood of the Northern barbarians. Similar examples are not wanting in modern history, illustrating the principle in question, and giving ground for the assertion that the analogy of history is in harmony with the prophecy that the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night–a day of judgment and indignation and wrath to those who are disobedient and rebellious against the Son of God, but a day of Redemption to all them that wait for His appearing. (R. H. McKim, D. D.)

All things continue as they were.

Mans external universe as read by the scoffing sceptic

I. They get from it a one-sided idea. The idea they obtained from the observation of nature was, that it was unchanging. Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue, etc. This is only partially true. We thank God for this constancy. Without it the farmer would have no motive to cultivate his field, the mariner no chart to guide him over the deep, the philosopher no data on which to prosecute his inquiries or to build up his science. All would be confusion. Man, without plan, and without hope, would move under the wild impulses which the casualties of the moment awakened. Still, nature has her changes. Nay, amidst all this constancy are there not incessant revolutions? Does not the inorganic change in its appearance? Old mountains, rivers, islands disappear, and new ones emerge. The vegetable and animal worlds succeed each other. Nay, perhaps there is nothing the same–all things change. A one-sided view of u many-sided thing is evermore erroneous.

II. They apply this one-sided idea against the written word. Where is the promise of His coming? Now, has not the sceptic always read nature in this way? Whether he has looked at its astronomical, geological, or physiological phases, has he not always so read it as to get some false idea of it, in order to turn it against the Bible?

III. They do this from a sad perversity of heart. They are scoffers walking after their own lusts and willingly ignorant. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Miracles are now neither necessary to the conviction of unbelievers, nor the conversion of sinners

I shall consider the words as a standing objection of scoffers or free-thinkers against the truth and authority Of the Christian religion.

I. That miracles are not now necessary to the conviction of unbelievers. It is sufficient that we are assured there was a time when the Christian religion was confirmed by numerous and undoubted miracles. Those who contend for the continuance of miracles in order to evince more effectually the truth of revealed religion, proceed upon one of these suppositions. Either that it is necessary every particular person should for his own satisfaction be an eye-witness of some miraculous fact, or else, that once at least in every age and nation, God should exert His omnipotence, and the miracle be committed to some public and standing record for the information of those who were not eye-witnesses of it. As to what is here required in the last place, it is obviated by staying that we have all the evidence of the miracles recorded in the gospel, that any man, who is not an eye-witness of it, can have of a miracle done in his own age or nation. Upon the former supposition, miracles would be so frequent that they would become of little force or consideration. This is certain, that the effects which miracles have upon men depend upon a good, docile, and obedient temper of mind. He that is in this good disposition needs no further evidence of miracles for his conviction; but he that is not, would not be convinced by them, though we should suppose them more frequent.

II. But if miracles are not necessary to the conviction of unbelievers, may they not re necessary to the conversion of sinners? or to reclaim those who already believe from walking after their own lusts, prod bring them to repentance? I answer again in the negative.

1. The same motives which now induce men to put off their repentance would, in all probability, be as prevalent, though we should suppose miracles more frequent. Would a miracle tend to convince a sinner of the Divine authority of the laws of the gospel? That we here suppose him convinced of already. Would it tend to enforce his obedience to those laws by conveying any sanctifying graces into his nature? What would it then do in order to his conversion? You will say it might be aa occasion of bringing him to a better temper of consideration, and to make him take up some speedy resolutions of amendment. It is granted; but then such a resolution is no more than what we see sinners taking up daily, and yet, notwithstanding this, how ordinary is it for them to shift off their repentance from time to time, till it be past time!

2. It is not reasonably to be expected such an impression should be of any long or lasting continuance.

3. Though what is here asserted could not be made appear from probable reasons and arguments; yet it is confirmed by experience and undeniable shatters of fact. We have numerous examples in Scripture, and it may not be improper to instance some few of them to this purpose.

(1) Who would have thought that Pharaoh, after all the miracles which were done before his eyes, and which he did not only see, but feel the dreadful effects of, should still have persisted in his disobedience to the commands of God?

(2) So, again, notwithstanding the many miracles Moses afterwards wrought in the deliverance of the Jews, what little effect had they towards reclaiming them either from the error or evil of their ways!

1. And when I say that miracles are not now necessary to the conviction of unbelievers, I would be understood as speaking only of such unbelievers as live among Christians, and may at any time have the proofs of Christianity laid clearly before them.

2. If, then, God Almighty has afforded us all sufficient means to convince us of the truth of our holy religion, let us faithfully endeavour to employ those means to the ends they are designed; let us frequently reflect on the reasonableness of Christianity, and the evidence of its truth, that our faith may be built upon a solid foundation. (R. Fiddes, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 3. Knowing this first] Considering this in an especial manner, that those prophets predicted the coming of false teachers: and their being now in the Church proved how clearly they were known to God, and showed the Christians at Pontus the necessity of having no intercourse or connection with them.

There shall come-scoffers] Persons who shall endeavour to turn all religion into ridicule, as this is the most likely way to depreciate truth in the sight of the giddy multitude. The scoffers, having no solid argument to produce against revelation, endeavour to make a scaramouch of some parts; and then affect to laugh at it, and get superficial thinkers to laugh with them.

Walking after their own lusts] Here is the true source of all infidelity. The Gospel of Jesus is pure and holy, and requires a holy heart and holy life. They wish to follow their own lusts, and consequently cannot brook the restraints of the Gospel: therefore they labour to prove that it is not true, that they may get rid of its injunctions, and at last succeed in persuading themselves that it is a forgery; and then throw the reins on the neck of their evil propensities. Thus their opposition to revealed truth began and ended in their own lusts.

There is a remarkable addition here in almost every MS. and version of note: There shall come in the last days, IN MOCKERY, , scoffers walking after their own lusts. This is the reading of ABC, eleven others, both the Syriac, all the Arabic, Coptic, AEthiopic, Vulgate, and several of the fathers. They come in mockery; this is their spirit and temper; they have no desire to find out truth; they take up the Bible merely with the design of turning it into ridicule. This reading Griesbach has received into the text.

The last days] Probably refer to the conclusion of the Jewish polity, which was then at hand.

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

Knowing this first; especially, as being very necessary to be known. The apostle having in the former chapter cautioned these saints against the more close enemies of the gospel, seducers and false teachers, here he foretells them of more open enemies, profane scoffers.

In the last days: see 1Co 10:11; 2Ti 3:1.

Scoffers; profane contemners of God, and deriders of his truth, Psa 1:1; 119:51; Isa 28:14,22.

Walking after their own lusts; such as are natural to them; lusts of ungodliness, Jud 1:18.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

3. Knowing this firstfrom theword of the apostles.

shall comeTheir veryscoffing shall confirm the truth of the prediction.

scoffersThe oldestmanuscripts and Vulgate add, “(scoffers) in (thatis, ‘with’) scoffing.” As Re14:2, “harping with harps.”

walking after their ownlusts (2Pe 2:10; Jdg 1:16;Jdg 1:18). Their own pleasure istheir sole law, unrestrained by reverence for God.

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

Knowing this first,…. In the first place, principally, and chiefly, and which might easily be known and observed from the writings of the apostles and prophets; see 1Ti 4:1;

that there shall come in the last days scoffers, or “mockers”; such as would make a mock at sin, make light of it, plead for it, openly commit it, and glory in it; and scoff at all religion, as the prejudice of education, as an engine of state, a piece of civil policy to keep subjects in awe, as cant, enthusiasm, and madness, as a gloomy melancholy thing, depriving men of true pleasure; and throw out their flouts and jeers at those that are the most religious, for the just, upright man, is commonly by such laughed to scorn, and those that depart from evil make themselves a prey; and particularly at the ministers of the word, for a man that has scarcely so much common sense as to preserve him from the character of an idiot, thinks himself a wit of the age, if he can at any rate break a jest upon a Gospel minister: nor do the Scriptures of truth escape the banter and burlesque of these scoffers; the doctrines of it being foolishness to them, and the commands and ordinances in it being grievous and intolerable to them; yea, to such lengths do those proceed, as to scoff at God himself; at his persons, purposes, providences, and promises; at Jehovah the Father, as the God of nature and providence, and especially as the God and Father of Christ, and of all grace in him; at Jehovah the Son, at his person, as being the Son of God, and truly God, at his office, as Mediator, and at his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, which they trample under foot; and at Jehovah the Spirit, whom they do despite unto, as the spirit of grace, deriding his operations in regeneration and sanctification, as dream and delusion; and, most of all, things to come are the object of their scorn and derision; as the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, a future judgment, the torments of hell, and the joys of heaven; all which they represent as the trifles and juggles of designing men: such as these, according to the prophets and apostles, were to come in “the last days”; either in the days of the Messiah, in the Gospel dispensation, the times between the first and second coming of Christ; for it is a rule with the Jews s, that wherever the last days are mentioned, the days of the Messiah are intended; see Heb 1:1; when the prophets foretold such scoffers should come; or in the last days of the Jewish state, both civil and religious, called “the ends of the world”, 1Co 10:11; a little before the destruction of Jerusalem, when iniquity greatly abounded, Mt 24:11; or “in the last of the days”; as the words may be rendered; and so answer to

, in Isa 2:2, and may regard the latter part of the last times; the times of the apostles were the last days, 1Jo 2:18; they began then, and will continue to Christ’s second coming; when some time before that, it will be a remarkable age for scoffers and scorners; and we have lived to see an innumerable company of them, and these predictions fulfilled; from whence it may be concluded, that the coming of Christ is at hand: these scoffers are further described as

walking after their own lusts; either after the carnal reasonings of their minds, admitting of nothing but what they can comprehend by reason, making that the rule, test, and standard of all their principles, and so cast away the law of the Lord, and despise the word of the Holy One of Israel; or rather, after their sinful and fleshly lusts, making them their guides and governors, and giving up themselves entirely to them, to obey and fulfil them; the phrase denotes a continued series of sinning, a progress in it, a desire after it, and pleasure in it, and an obstinate persisting in it; scoffers at religion and revelation are generally libertines; and such as sit in the seat of the scornful, are in the counsel of the ungodly, and way of sinners, Ps 1:1.

s Kimchi in Isa. ii. 2.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Cavils of Infidels; Destruction of the World.

A. D. 67.

      3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,   4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.   5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:   6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:   7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

      To quicken and excite us to a serious minding and firm adhering to what God has revealed to us by the prophets and apostles, we are told that there will be scoffers, men who will make a mock of sin, and of salvation from it. God’s way of saving sinners by Jesus Christ is what men will scoff at, and that in the last days, under the gospel. This indeed may seem very strange, that the New-Testament dispensation of the covenant of grace, which is spiritual and therefore more agreeable to the nature of God than the Old, should be ridiculed and reproached; but the spirituality and simplicity of New-Testament worship are directly contrary to the carnal mind of man, and this accounts for what the apostle seems here to hint at, namely, that scoffers shall be more numerous and more bold in the last days than ever before. Though in all ages those who were born and walked after the flesh persecuted, reviled, and reproached those who were born and did walk after the Spirit, yet in the last days there will be a great improvement in the art and impudence of bantering serious godliness, and those who firmly adhere to the circumspection and self-denial which the gospel prescribes. This is what is mentioned as a thing well known to all Christians, and therefore they ought to reckon upon it, that they may not be surprised and shaken, as if some strange thing happened unto them. Now to prevent the true Christian’s being overcome, when attacked by these scoffers, we are told,

      I. What sort of persons they are: they walk after their own lusts, they follow the devices and desires of their own hearts, and carnal affections, not the dictates and directions of right reason and an enlightened well-informed judgment. This they do in the course of their conversation, they live as they list, and they speak as they list; it is not only their inward minds that are evil and opposite to God, as the mind of every unrenewed sinner is (Rom. viii. 7), alienated from God, ignorant of him, and averse to him; but they have grown to such a height of wickedness that they proclaim openly what is in the hearts of others who are yet carnal; they say, “Our tongues are our own, and our strength, and time, and who is lord over us? Who shall contradict or control us, or ever call us to an account for what we say or do?” And, as they scorn to be confined by any laws of God in their conversation, so neither will they bear that the revelation of God should dictate and prescribe to them what they are to believe; as they will walk in their own way, and talk their own language, so will they also think their own thoughts, and form principles which are altogether their own: here also their own lusts alone shall be consulted by them. None but such accomplished libertines as are here described can take a seat, at least they cannot sit in the seat of the scornful. “By this you shall know them, that you may the better be upon your guard against them.”

      II. We also are forewarned how far they will proceed: they will attempt to shake and unsettle us, even as to our belief of Christ’s second coming; they will scoffingly say, Where is the promise of his coming? v. 4. Without this, all the other articles of the Christian faith will signify very little; this is that which fills up and gives the finishing stroke to all the rest. The promised Messiah has come, he was made flesh, and dwelt among us; he is altogether such a one as in stated before, and has done all that for us which has been before taken notice of. These principles the enemies of Christianity have all along endeavoured to overturn; but as these all rest upon facts which are already past, and of which this and the other apostles have given us the most sure and satisfying evidence, it is probable that they will at last grow weary of their opposition to them; and yet, while one very principal article of our faith refers to what is still behind, and only has a promise to rest upon, here they will still attack us, even to the end of time. Till our Lord shall have come, they will not themselves believe that he will come; nay, they will laugh at the very mention of his second coming, and do what in them lies to put all out of countenance who seriously believe and wait for it. Now therefore let us see how this point stands, both on the believer’s part and on the part of these seducers: the believer not only desires that he may come, but, having a promise that he will come, a promise that he himself has made and often repeated, a promise received and reported by faithful witnesses, and left upon sure record, he is also firmly and fully persuaded that he will come: on the other hand, these seducers, because they wish he never may, therefore do all that in them lies to cheat themselves and others into a persuasion that he will never come. If they cannot deny that there is a promise, yet they will laugh at that very promise, which argues much higher degrees of infidelity and contempt: Where is the promise, say they, of his coming?

      III. We are also forewarned of the method of their reasoning, for while they laugh they will pretend to argue too. To this purpose they add that since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation, v. 4. This is a subtle, though not a solid way of reasoning; it is apt to make impressions upon weak minds, and especially upon wicked hearts. Because sentence against them is not speedily executed, therefore they flatter themselves that it never will, whereupon their hearts are fully set in them to do evil (Eccl. viii. 11); thus they act themselves, and thus they would persuade others to act; so here, say they, “The fathers have fallen asleep, those are all dead to whom the promise was made, and it was never made good in their time, and there is no likelihood that it ever will be in any time; why should we trouble ourselves about it? If there had been any truth or certainty in the promise you speak of, we should surely have seen somewhat of it before this time, some signs of his coming, some preparatory steps in order to it; whereas we find to this very day all things continue as they were, without any change, even from the beginning of the creation. Since the world has undergone no changes in the course of so many thousand years, why should we affright ourselves as if it were to have an end?” Thus do these scoffers argue. Because they see no changes, therefore they fear not God, Ps. lv. 19. They neither fear him nor his judgments; what he never has done they would conclude he never can do or never will.

      IV. Here is the falsehood of their argument detected. Whereas they confidently had said there had not been any change from the beginning of the creation, the apostle puts us in remembrance of a change already past, which, in a manner, equals that which we are called to expect and look for, which was the drowning of the world in the days of Noah. This these scoffers had overlooked; they took no notice of it. Though they might have known it, and ought to have known it, yet this they willingly are ignorant of (v. 5), they choose to pass it over in silence, as if they had never heard or known any thing of it; if they knew it, they did not like to retain it in their knowledge; they did not receive this truth in the love of it, neither did they care to own it. Note, It is hard to persuade men to believe what they are not willing to find true; they are ignorant, in many cases, because they are willing to be ignorant, and they do not know because they do not care to know. But let not sinners think that such ignorance as this will be admitted as an excuse for whatever sin it may betray them into. Those who crucified Christ did not know who he was; for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. ii. 8); but, though ignorant, they were not therefore innocent; their ignorance itself was a sin, willing and wilful ignorance, and one sin can be no excuse for another. So it is here; had these known of the dreadful vengeance with which God swept away a whole world of ungodly wretches at once, they would not surely have scoffed at his threatenings of any after equally terrible judgment; but here they were willingly ignorant, they did not know what God had done because they had no mind to know it. Now therefore we shall proceed to consider the representation which the apostle here lays down both of the destruction of the old world by water and that which awaits this present world at the final conflagration. He mentions the one as what God has done, to convince and persuade us the rather to believe that the other both may be and will be.

      1. We begin with the apostle’s account of the destruction which has once already come upon the world (2Pe 3:5; 2Pe 3:6): By the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. Originally the world was otherwise situated, the waters were most wisely divided at the creation and most beneficially for us; some of the waters had proper repositories above the firmament, here called the heavens (as it is also Gen. i. 8), and others, under the firmament, gathered together unto one place; there were then both sea and dry land, commodious habitation for the children of men. But now, at the time of the universal deluge, the case is strangely altered; the waters which God had divided before, assigning to each part its convenient receptacle, now does he, in anger, throw together again in a heap. He breaks up the fountain of the great deep, and throws open the windows (that is, the clouds) of heaven (Gen. vii. 11), till the whole earth is overflowed with water, and not a spot can be found upon the highest mountains but what is fifteen cubits under water, Gen. vii. 20. Thus he made known at once his terrible power and his fierce anger, and made an end of a whole world at once: The world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished, v. 6. Is not here a change and a most awful change! And then it is to be observed that all this was done by the word of God; it was by his powerful word that the world was made at first, and made in so commodious and beautiful a frame and order, Heb. xi. 3, Katertisthai. He said, Let there be a firmament, c., Gen 1:6Gen 1:7. And let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, c., 2Pe 3:92Pe 3:10. Thus he spoke, and it was done, Ps. xxxiii. 9. Thus, says our apostle, by the word of the Lord the heavens were, as they were of old (that is, at first creation) and the earth (as it was at first a terraqueous globe) standing out of the water and in the water. Not is it only the first frame and order of the world that is here said to be by the word of God, but the after-confusion and ruin of the world, as well as the utter destruction of its inhabitants, were also by the same word; none but that God who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundation of the earth could destroy and overthrow such a vast fabric at once. This was done by the word of his power, and it was also done according to the word of his promise; God had said that he would destroy man, even all flesh, and that he would do it by bringing a flood of waters upon the earth, Gen 6:7; Gen 6:13; Gen 6:17. This was the change which God had before brought upon the world, and which these scoffers had overlooked; and now we are to consider,

      2. What the apostle says of the destructive change which is yet to come upon it: The heavens and the earth, which now are, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men, v. 7. Here we have an awful account of the final dissolution of the world, and which we are yet more nearly concerned in. The ruin that came upon the world and its inhabitants by the flood, we read, and hear, and think of, with concern, though those who were swept away by it were such as we never knew; but the judgment here spoken of is yet to come, and will surely come, though we know not when, nor upon what particular age or generation of men; and therefore we are not, we cannot be, sure that it may not happen in our own times: and this makes a very great difference, though it should be admitted that they were equal in every other respect, which yet must not be allowed, for there were some, though very few, who escaped that deluge, but not one can escape in this conflagration. Besides, we were not in reach of the one, but are not sure that we shall not be included in the other calamity. Now therefore to see the world to which we belong destroyed at once–not a single person only, not a particular family only, nor yet a nation (even that which we are most nearly interested in and concerned for), but the whole world, I say, sinking at once, and no ark provided, no possible way left of escaping for any one from the common ruin, this makes a difference between the desolation that has been and what we yet are to expect. The one is already past, and never to return upon us any more (for God has said expressly that there shall never any more be a flood to destroy the earth, Gen. ix. 11-17); the other is still behind, and is as certain to come as the truth and the power of God can make it: the one came gradually upon the world, and was growing upon its inhabitants forty days, before it made an utter end of them (Gen 7:12; Gen 7:17); this other will come upon them swiftly and all at once (2 Pet. ii. 1): besides, there were in that overthrow (as we have said) a few who escaped, but the ruin which yet awaits this world, whenever it comes, will be absolutely a universal one; there will not be any part but what the devouring flames will seize upon, not a sanctuary left any where for the inhabitants to flee to, not a single spot in all this world where any one of them can be safe. Thus, whatever differences may be assigned between that destruction of the world and this here spoken of, they do indeed represent the approaching as the most terrible judgment; yet that the world has once been destroyed by a universal deluge renders it the more credible that it may be again ruined by a universal conflagration. Let therefore the scoffers, who laugh at the coming of our Lord to judgment, at least consider that it may be. There is nothing said of it in the word of God but what is within reach of the power of God, and, though they still should laugh, they shall not put us out of countenance; we are well assured that it will be, because he has said it, and we can depend upon his promise. They err, not knowing (at least not believing) the scriptures, nor the power of God; but we know, and we do or ought to depend upon, both. Now that which he has said, and which he will certainly make good, is that the heavens and the earth which now are (which we are now related to, which still subsist in all the beauty and order in which we see them, and which are so agreeable and useful to us, as we find they are) are kept in store, not to be, what earthly minds would wish to have them, treasures for us, but to be what God will have them, in his treasury, securely lodged and kept safely for his purposes. It follows, they are reserved unto fire. Observe, God’s following judgments are more terrible than those which went before; the old world was destroyed by water, but this is reserved unto fire, which shall burn up the wicked at the last day; and, though this seems to be delayed, yet, as this wicked world is upheld by the word of God, so it is only reserved for the vengeance of him to whom vengeance belongs, who will at the day of judgment deal with an ungodly world according to their deserts, for the day of judgment is the day of the perdition of ungodly men. Those who now scoff at a future judgment shall find it a day of vengeance and utter destruction. “Beware therefore of being among these scoffers; never question but the day of the Lord will come; give diligence therefore to be found in Christ, that that may be a time of refreshment and day of redemption to you which will be a day of indignation and wrath to the ungodly world.”

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Knowing this first ( ). Present active participle of . See 1:20 for this identical phrase. Nominative absolute here where accusative would be regular. Peter now takes up the (1:16) after having discussed the of Christ.

In the last days (‘ ). “Upon the last of the days.” Jude 1:18 has it ‘ (upon the last time). In 1Pe 1:5 it is (in the last time), while 1Pe 1:20 has ‘ (upon the last of the times). John has usually (on the last day, 6:39f.). Here is a predicate adjective like (the top of the mountain).

Mockers with mockery ( ). Note Peter’s play on words again, both from (Mt 2:16), to trifle with, and neither found elsewhere save in Judg 1:18; Isa 3:4 (playing like children).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Scoffers walking [ ] . This is the reading followed by A. V. But the later texts have added ejmpaigmonh, in mockery, occurring only here, though a kindred word for mockings [] is found Heb 11:36. This addition gives a play upon the words; and so Rev., “Mockers shall come with mockery, walking,” etc.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Knowing this first.” (Greek ginoskontes) “knowing or recognizing” (touto proton) “this first in order to rank.”

2) “That there shall come.” (hoti elusontai) “that will come”.

3) “In the last days scoffers.” (Greek epi eskaton ton hemeron) “during (the) last of the days” (gentile dispensation) (Greek empaikai) “mockers, deriders” (Greek empoigmone) “scoffing and deriding” 1Ti 4:13; 2Ti 3:1; Jud 1:18.

4) “Walking after their own lusts.” (Poreuomenoi) going forth continually, of their own volition” (Greek kata tas idias) “according to their own” (Epithumias) “lusts” of the worldly nature, (auton) of them, 2Pe 2:10; Jud 1:4; Jud 1:7-8; Jud 1:10; Jud 1:16.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

3. Knowing this first. The participle knowing may be applied to the Apostle, and in this way, “I labor to stir you up for this reason, because I know what and how great is your impending danger from scoffers.” I however prefer this explanation, that the participle is used in place of a verb, as though he had said, “Know ye this especially.” For it was necessary that this should have been foretold, because they might have been shaken, had impious men attacked them suddenly with scoffs of this kind. He therefore wished them to know this, and to feel assured on the subject, that they might be prepared to oppose such men.

But he calls the attention of the faithful again to the doctrine which he touched upon in the second chapter. For by the last days is commonly meant the kingdom of Christ, or the days of his kingdom, according to what Paul says, “Upon whom the ends of the world are come.” (1Co 10:11.) (177) The meaning is, that the more God offers himself by the gospel to the world, and the more he invites men to his kingdom, the more audacious on the other hand will ungodly men vomit forth the poison of their impiety.

He calls those scoffers, according to what is usual in Scripture, who seek to appear witty by shewing contempt to God, and by a blasphemous presumption. It is, moreover, the very extremity of evil, when men allow themselves to treat the awful name of God with scoffs. Thus, Psa 1:1 speaks of the seat of scoffers. So David, in Psa 119:51, complains that he was derided by the proud, because he attended to God’s law. So Isaiah, in Isa 28:14, having referred to them, describes their supine security and insensibility. Let us therefore bear in mind, that there is nothing to be feared more than a contest with scoffers. On this subject we said something while explaining the third chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians. As, however, the Holy Scripture has foretold that they would come, and has also given us a shield by which we may defend ourselves, there is no excuse why we should not boldly resist them whatever devices they may employ.

(177) It is literally, “the last of the days,” according to the Hebrew form אחרית הימים, “the extremity of the days,” (Isa 2:2😉 but the meaning is the same as “the last days,” as used in Heb 1:2, and in other places, that is, the days of the gospel dispensation. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

2Pe. 3:3-4 knowing this first, that in the last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

Expanded Translation

Realizing this first (and keeping it uppermost in your minds), that at the time of the last days mockers (deriders, scoffers) shall come with (or, in) mockery (scoffing, derision), walking according to (dominated by) their own personal cravings and strong desires (not what God desires), while they are saying, Where is the (fulfillment of the) promise of his (Christs second) coming? For from the time that the fathers fell asleep (i.e., died), all things are remaining as they are (fixed and permanent in their pattern, course, or place) as they were at (and from) the beginning of creation.

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knowing this first, that in the last days mockers shall come with mockery

Jesus prophesied of mockery concerning Himself (Mat. 20:1-34; Mat. 19:1-30, fulfilled in Mat. 27:29-31; Mat. 27:41). If we live the Christ-like life, we may expect similar treatment. See Joh. 15:18-20.

The last days is a term used sometimes in the New Testament with reference to the last days of Judah (and Jerusalem) as a nation (Act. 2:17, Jas. 5:3). This could be true here, but it seems likely that the term is more general in its meaning and indicates the last days of the world, the final dispensation of history. The Christian Age, then, is evidently meant here, as in 2Ti. 3:1, Heb. 1:2, 1Pe. 1:5; 1Pe. 1:20. The word eschatos (last) used here, occurs in all these verses.

walking after their own lusts

Both the words their and own are emphatic in the Greek. These men are quick to scoff, mimic, and ridicule the Christian, but their own personal lives are rotten to the core! Why? They live for themselves, utterly indifferent to the laws of God.

and saying, where is the promise of his coming

That is, Christs return to earth. It is significant that the very same doctrine is frequently the subject of mockery today among worldlings. Youre as slow as the second coming of Christ, or Youll never get that done until Christ returns and similar statements are to be heard from their foul mouths. Others, while not deriding the doctrine verbally, do so inwardly, for they make no preparation to meet the Saviour. This shows their unbelief, for the Master said, Watch therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour (Mat. 25:13).

for, from the days that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation

Their statement simply was not true, for they willfully forgot the facts of history (2Pe. 3:5). Many today placate their consciences by the same meanspurposely forgetting (and many times disbelieving) what took place in the days of Noah.

It seems best to take the term fathers here as meaning their fathers, or the previous generation, Between that time and the creation, they asserted, summer and winter, springtime and harvest, had come and gone in regular sequence. Why should we worry now? Will it not be the same in the future?

The second coming of Christ was an oft-discussed subject in the early church, and many of the Thessalonians, particularly, were of the belief that the Lords coming was just at hand (2Th. 2:2). It may be that some of these mockers were acquainted with those who continued to believe this erroneous doctrine. If so, it doubtless added fuel to the fire of their already insulting remarks. Today, date setting has cheapened the true doctrine of the return of Christ in the minds of the world.[72] But we may still expect our belief in this glorious event to be ridiculed and mocked, even when the worldlings about us are not acquainted with the false teachings of men on the subject.

[72] William Miller, the actual founder of the Seventh-Day Adventists, said Christ would come in 1843. The prophecy failed, so he fixed a day in October of 1844. That failed also. Other Adventists have set 1847, 1850, 1852, 1854, 1855, 1863, 1866, 1867, 1877, etc., etc., etc. Because of such foolish predicting, the true doctrine of Christs return has suffered ridicule, and is evil spoken of,

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

SECOND PREDICTION: Scoffers shall throw doubt on Christs return.
(3) In the last days.Comp. 1Pe. 1:20; Heb. 1:2; and the parallel passage to this, Jud. 1:18. Know this first, children, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts is quoted in a homily attributed on doubtful authority to Hippolytus. (See above on 2Pe. 2:1.)

Scoffers.The best authorities add in scoffing, intensifying the meaning by repetition (as in Eph. 1:3; Rev. 14:2; comp. Luk. 22:15). There are other repetitions of this kind in the New Testament, which have been rendered by strengthening the verb in some other way (Joh. 3:29; Act. 4:17; Act. 5:28; Jas. 5:17).

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

3. Knowing this first The great precaution is here now premised in regard to the judgment-day prophecies. The readers must not suppose that the terms of immediacy of time in the prophetic announcements of the second advent really mean that they are now, humanly, at hand. The same caution given in St. Paul’s first epistle, (2Th 2:1,) is repeated in this, Peter’s last.

The last days The very caution defines the phrase. They are the last days before the second advent, however far or near that day may be. That they may be a very distant last days it is the very purpose of the present passage to show, and to explain that the distance of time is not contradictory to the immediacy of the terms. See supplemental note to Matthew 25. Also notes on 2Th 2:1-8; Rev 1:1; Rev 1:3; Rev 22:20.

Scoffers These words, and the entire passage 3-5, we identify with Rev 20:7-9, when Satan, released from his millennial imprisonment, “the nations” are once more “deceived,” and an apostasy takes place. Compare notes on Mar 13:24-27; Luk 18:8.

After their own lusts A sceptical spirit and a licentious life.

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

The Promise of His Coming ( 2Pe 3:3-7 ).

‘Knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come with mockery, walking after their own lusts,’

Compare here Jud 1:17-18, ‘remember the words which have been spoken before by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they said to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly desires”.’ Both agree that it was an emphasis of the Apostles that ‘mockers’ would arise (see 1Ti 4:1-3; 2Ti 3:1-9; 1Jn 2:18-20; 1Jn 2:22-23; 1Jn 4:1-6). And the reason that they mock is because they are following their own evil desires. They are caught up in sin. Thus they mock what they see as not offering them what they want. They do not want their adherents to be disturbed by the thought of the actual coming in history of the Christ. They want to live their lives in the flesh as though He had not come, while enjoying what they see as heavenly experiences in their spirits. It is a salutary warning that those who followed the desires of the world did not like to think of either His coming or His second coming.

Note how Peter clearly considers that he is already in ‘the last days’, for he sees the mockers as already present. Compare Act 2:17; 1Pe 1:20 ; 1Pe 4:10; 1Co 10:11; Heb 1:1-2; Heb 9:26-28 where the same idea is found. To all the Apostles the last days had begun with the coming of Jesus and the days following Pentecost were continuing ‘the last days’ prior to His return.

Note on ‘In the last days.’

If Peter has taken his ideas from Jude, which is a good possibility, then he has deliberately changed ep eschatou chronou (upon the last time) into ep eschatown town hemerown (upon the last of the last days). And we then have to ask why he has changed ‘time’ to ‘days’, especially as in 1Pe 1:5 we have en kairow eschatow (in the last time), and in 1Pe 1:20 we have ep eschatou town chronown (upon the last of the times).

It may partly have been because he had in mind Joe 2:28 as cited in Act 2:17, although there we have en tais eschatais hemerais (in the last days). However, that rendering may have come from the Greek source of his citation. The alteration here may therefore be Peter’s representation of the same idea (many years had passed since Acts 2).

On the other hand Heb 1:2 has ep eschatou town hemerown toutown, which is the closest to here, and he may have taken it from there. For we have seen how 1 and 2 Peter sometimes reflect a similar pattern of thought to Hebrews, and indeed Peter may well have read Hebrews. The slight difference from Hebrews may partly reflect the preference of his amanuensis.

However, probably the best reason for the change to ‘days’ is that he was about to speak in 2Pe 3:8 about ‘a day’ being to the Lord ‘as a thousand years’, and a thousand years as a day. That would indicate that he wanted it recognised that the mocking might well go on for a long time.

End of note.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

2Pe 3:3. Knowing this first That is, either what was to happen first in order of time, or as a premise, from whence they might conclude, that they ought to remember the predictions of the prophets, and the commandments of the apostles. The last days particularlyand more immediately refer to the lastdays of Jerusalem, or of the Jewish state. See Jud 1:18-19. Archbishop Tillotson thinks, that by these scoffers are meant the Carpocratians; a large sect of the Gnostics, who denied the resurrection of the dead and future judgment, and who appeared quickly after the writing of this epistle. The root of infidelity, and the grand reason of men’s scoffing at religion, is given in the last words of this verse; they walk after their own lusts. They may pretend to reason, but they are governed by sense and appetite; and they take refuge in infidelity, and scoff at religion, to make themselves easy in their vices: they are against religion, because religion is against them: they account it their interest that the gospel should not be true; for if it be true, their case is desperate: but it is the interest of every good man that it should be true; and the more any one searches with a well disposed mind, the more will its truth and evidence appear.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

2Pe 3:3 . ] cf. chap. 2Pe 1:20 .

] refers in loose construction (instead of an accus.) to the subject contained in .

. . .] Cf. Jud 1:18 . [86]

] gives sharp prominence to the conduct of the . The word is a . . ; Heb 11:36 : ; with the constr. , cf. 1Co 4:21 .

] Jud 1:18 ; Jud 1:16 ; is added so as to strengthen the pronoun .

[86] Hofmann unwarrantably assumes that by that, of which the writer would have his readers to be specially mindful, he does not mean only the contents of the sentence depending directly on , but still more than that.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

Ver. 3. Scoffers ] Those worst kind of sinners, Psa 1:1 ; those abjects of the people, Psa 35:15 ; those pests ( ), as the Septuagint render them, LXXE Psa 1:1 ; those atheists that jeer when they should fear, and put far away the evil day, that make no more matter of God’s direful and dreadful menaces than Leviathan doth of a sword; he laugheth at the shaking of a spear, Job 41:29 . They make children’s play of them, as the word here used importeth, .

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

3 .] knowing this first (cf. ref., where the same phrase occurs. The nom. is joined loosely with . Jude introduces the same prophetic fact with , 2Pe 3:18 ), that there shall come in the last of the days (see note on Heb 1:1 ; and 1Pe 1:20 . It slightly differs from ., at the end of the days, as extending, by the plur., the expression, though perhaps not the meaning, over a wider space: = [ ] , Jud 1:18 ) scoffers in ( their ) scoffing (scoffers making use of scoffing: cf. Rev 14:2 , : 2 Kings 20:22, ( ) : Dan 1:4 Theod., , . , . .

On the sense, cf. Jud 1:18 ), walking according to their own lusts (so Jud 1:18 ; Jud 1:16 , here combined),

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

2Pe 3:3 . . Accusative is required, but all MSS. have nominative, cf. Jud 1:18 . . Mockers are one of the signs of the approach of the end, cf. 1Jn 2:18 . : is an unclassical form. cf. Mar 15:20 . This verse is not part of the prophetic or apostolic message of 2Pe 3:2 , but a particular caution of the writer, based on Jude.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

last days. See Act 2:17. 2Ti 3:1.

scoffers = mockers. Greek. empaiktes. Only here and Jud 1:18.

walking. All the texts add after walking, “in (App-104.) mockery”. Greek. empaigmone. Only here. Compare Heb 11:36.

after. App-104.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

3.] knowing this first (cf. ref., where the same phrase occurs. The nom. is joined loosely with . Jude introduces the same prophetic fact with , 2Pe 3:18), that there shall come in the last of the days (see note on Heb 1:1; and 1Pe 1:20. It slightly differs from ., at the end of the days, as extending, by the plur., the expression, though perhaps not the meaning, over a wider space: = [] , Jud 1:18) scoffers in (their) scoffing (scoffers making use of scoffing: cf. Rev 14:2, : 2 Kings 20:22, ( ) : Dan 1:4 Theod., , . , . .

On the sense, cf. Jud 1:18), walking according to their own lusts (so Jud 1:18; Jud 1:16, here combined),

Fuente: The Greek Testament

2Pe 3:3. , first) So ch. 2Pe 1:20, note.-, knowing) The nominative case coheres with that ye may be mindful: comp. Act 15:23, note. The righteous already knew this from the word of the apostles, Jud 1:17-18.-, shall come) in greater number and shamelessness. By which very thing they themselves confirm the truth of this prediction.-,[15] mockers) Thus the Septuagint renders Isa 3:4, , those who perform the most serious matters in the most trifling manner, even when they do not employ joke and laughter. [They are wholly given up to mocking, having no foundation besides for whatever they please to do.-V. g.]-,[16] lusts) This is the origin of error, the root of licentiousness.

[15] The fuller reading, , is preferred both in the margin of both Editions and in the Germ. Vers., which has lauter Sptter, or rather, as it is read in the margin of the Germ. Vers. Erz-Sptter.-E. B.

[16] -, walking according to their own lusts) This is an exact description of an abandoned man, that he does whatever is his own pleasure, and is not restrained by any reverence towards GOD.-V. g.

ABC (C omitting ) Vulg. add . Rec. Text, with inferior authorities, omits these words.-E.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

that there: 1Ti 4:1, 1Ti 4:2, 2Ti 3:1, 1Jo 2:18, Jud 1:18

scoffers: Pro 1:22, Pro 3:34, Pro 14:6, Isa 5:19, Isa 28:14, Isa 29:20, Hos 7:5

walking: 2Pe 2:10, 2Co 4:2, Jud 1:16, Jud 1:18

Reciprocal: Deu 31:29 – the latter days Psa 94:13 – until the pit Pro 9:12 – General Pro 14:25 – General Pro 19:29 – Judgments Ecc 7:25 – the reason Ecc 8:11 – sentence Isa 2:2 – in the last Isa 30:8 – the time to come Jer 17:15 – General Eze 12:22 – The days Dan 2:28 – in the Mic 4:1 – in the last Mal 2:17 – Where Mat 24:48 – My Luk 20:7 – that Joh 3:19 – because Act 2:17 – in Rom 2:4 – despisest 2Co 11:3 – so 2Ti 3:3 – incontinent 2Ti 3:13 – evil Heb 1:2 – these Jam 3:6 – a world Jam 4:1 – come they Jam 5:3 – the last 2Pe 1:16 – we have 2Pe 1:20 – Knowing

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

2Pe 3:3. Knowing this first. They had first-hand information because it came from inspired prophets and apostles. Last days. Some of the things to which Peter refers were being said at the time he was writing, for in verse 5 he speaks in the present tense when he says “are ignorant.” Therefore the last days is a general reference to the Christian Dispensation. Scoffers means men who mock or make light of things they do not like but cannot refute. Robinson says the word was “spoken of impostors, false prophets, deceivers.” The motive of these objectors is revealed by the words walking after their own lusts. It is a common practice of men who do not wish to be disturbed in their sinful ways, to make light of any authorities that threaten their punishment. They would naturally take that attitude toward the second coming of Christ, because it was predicted that He would judge the world when he comes (Mat 25:31-46; Act 17:31).

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

2Pe 3:3. knowing this first; the same formula, with the same force, as in chap. 2Pe 1:20.

that in the last of the days; so it should be rendered, in accordance with a reading which is preferred by the best critical editors. That followed by the A. V., though it is translated in the last days, would mean literally at the end of the days, and is not altogether identical with the other. On these phrases see Note on 1Pe 1:5. Here the last of the days mean the times immediately preceding the Second Coming of Christ, and immediately introducing the Messianic Age, otherwise described as the age to come. That new Messianic Age of the Church had begun, indeed, to enter with Christs First Coming, but was to enter finally with that Second Coming which the quick faith of the first believers realized as nigh at hand.

mockers shall come in mockery. This longer reading has documentary support which is not to be resisted. The A.V., by omitting the phrase in mockery, which is quite in consonance with the Hebraic cast of much else in the Petrine Epistles, strips the statement of its most graphic stroke. When these mockers come, they will come in character. Both nouns are unusual in the N. T., the former occurring again only in Jud 1:18, the latter (although another form of the same is found in Heb 11:36) only here.

walking after their own lusts. The expression is a very strong one. The Musts are described as their very own, and as the one rule or aim recognised in their life. The lustful life and the scoffing voice are not associated here without a purpose. Sensuality and faith, coarse self-indulgence and clear spiritual apprehension, cannot coexist. The mocking spirit is the sister or child of the unclean spirit. It is to be noticed that this passage is made use of in a treatise attributed to Hippolytus, unquestionably the most learned member of the Roman Church in the early part of the third century.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Observe here, 1. The persons foretold, or what sort of men should be found in these last days; namely, scoffers. These are the dregs of mankind, found in the dregs of time; they scoff sometimes at the word of God, sometimes at religion and the ways of good men; sometimes at sin, and the follies of those that are bad. The scoffing spirit, is a vile spirit; it is better to be a fool than a flouter; better to have a dull spirit than a deriding spirit; to deride God and religion is the height of impiety. Such as are in the chair of the scorner are in the highest form in the devil’s school.

Observe, 2. What it was that these men scoffed at; namely, at the prediction of our Saviour’s coming to judge the world; they say, Where is the promise of his coming? because Christ did not come when some looked for him, they concluded he would not come at all, but that all things should go on in a constant course, as they had done from the beginning of the creation.

Observe, 3. The character of the persons who are called scoffers; they are said to walk after their own lusts, men of sensual spirits, and licentious lives. No wonder, that they who give themselves up to all manner of sensuality, to deny a judgment to come; for, as it is expedient for them that there should be none, so they endeavour to persuade themselves that there shall be none, and are glad to find arguments to fortify themselves in that persuasion. But surely God scorneth the scorners, he will laugh at their calamity, and mock when their desolation cometh. Lord! what a black and horrid ingratitude is this, to scoff at the author of our beings, and the Patron of our lives; to live in definace of him in whom we live? Is it not time for God to come and judge the world, when men begin to doubt whether ever he made it?

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mockers Who Would Deny the Lord’s Return

The first thing to be considered is the coming of those who would mock the truth. The “last days” are the days of the gospel age, which is the final age of God dealing with man ( Act 2:16-17 ; Heb 1:1-2 ). This is just one of several New Testament warnings about false teachers who would come during the Christian age ( Act 20:29-31 ; 1Ti 4:1-3 ; 2Ti 4:3-4 ; 1Jn 2:18 ). Peter indicated they would be those who would seek to fulfill their own selfish desires.

They, according to Peter’s prophecy, would center their scoffing on the second coming of Christ, suggesting that since the patriarchs died, or even the beginning of creation, all things continued like normal. Actually, this fits exactly the Lord’s statements concerning his return ( 2Pe 3:3-4 ; Mat 24:36-44 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

2Pe 3:3. Knowing this first That your faith in the prophetic word may not be shaken, but that you may be armed and prepared for the trial; that there shall come in the last days The expression here used, , is different from , future, or latter times, (1Ti 4:1,) and from , the last days, 2Ti 3:1. It is also different from , these last times, 1Pe 1:20. And it probably means the last part of the days of the worlds duration. Scoffers Or mockers, who shall ridicule the expectation of such awful events, and deride the truths, promises, and threatenings of the divine word; walking after their own lusts Influenced by their appetites and passions, and their earthly and sensual inclinations. Here the apostle has laid open the true source of infidelity, and of mens scoffing at religion. They may pretend to religion, as Dr. Benson says, but they are governed by sense and appetite, and they take refuge in infidelity, and scoff at religion, to make themselves easy in their vices. When the apostle wrote this passage, there were Epicureans and others among the Gentiles, and Sadducees among the Jews, who ridiculed the promises of the gospel concerning the resurrection of the dead, the general judgment, the destruction of the earth, and a future state of rewards and punishments. Wherefore, seeing the scoffers, of whom St. Peter here speaks, had not yet appeared, but were to come in the last period of the duration of the world, it is probable that they were to arise in the church itself. Accordingly they are reproved, (2Pe 3:5,) for being wilfully ignorant of the Mosaic history of the creation and of the deluge; and Jude says, (Jud 1:18-19,) the scoffers separated themselves from other Christians, and had not the Spirit, though they pretended to be inspired. The evil of scoffing at the doctrines and promises of the gospel may be learned from Psa 1:1, where scoffing at religion is represented as the highest stage of impiety. Macknight.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

2Pe 3:3-7. A further characteristic of the false teachers was the denial of the Second Advent (their coming is again spoken of as in the future; cf. 2Pe 2:1 and 2Pe 3:17). Their scepticism is based, partly, on the non-fulfilment of the primitive hope of the immediacy of the Parousia, and partly on a belief in the rigid immutability of the world process. The first generation of Christians (the fatherswhich can hardly be taken to mean the OT saints; there is here an indication of the late date of the epistle) has already passed away and all things remain as they had been from the beginning. But their reasoning is false. They wilfully forget that by the word of God the heavens were made and the earth from water and by means of water, and that by the same means they were afterwards destroyed. So by the word of God the heavens that now are and the earth will be destroyed by fire. There is no parallel in Jude to the teaching of 2 P. with reference to the Parousia; this is the authors main addition to Jude, and probably represents his main purpose in writing.

2Pe 3:6. the world that then was: the universe, the first heavens and earth. The tradition that the heavens as well as the earth were destroyed at the Flood is found in Enoch (8:335), and is a development of the earlier tradition of Gen.

2Pe 3:7. stored up for fire: treasured up for destruction by fire. The belief that the universe would be destroyed by fire (cf. 2Pe 3:10 ff.) was widely prevalent in the second century (cf. Origen, Contra Celsum, iv. 11, 79).

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 3

Walking after their own lusts, living in open sin, and deriding the warnings of the gospel.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

3:3 {2} Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days {a} scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

(2) He vouches the second coming of Christ against the Epicureans by name.

(a) Monstrous men, who will seem wise by their contempt of God, and wicked boldness.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

B. Scoffing in the Last Days 3:3-6

Peter warned his readers about the activity of mockers preceding the Lord’s return to enable them to deal with this test of their faith.

"Peter finally brings together two of the most important issues in the letter: the false teachers’ skepticism about the return of Christ in glory (see 2Pe 1:16-21) and their disdain for holiness (chap. 2)." [Note: Moo, p. 165.]

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

"First of all" means of primary importance (cf. 2Pe 1:20). The "last days" Peter referred to here are the days before Jesus Christ’s return. This is the same way other writers of Scripture used the phrase "last days" (cf. 2Ti 3:1-5; 1Jn 2:18-19). What the mockers said follows in 2Pe 3:4. Here the emphasis is on their attitude of intellectual superiority and disdain of scriptural revelation. This attitude led them to immoral conduct.

"The adversaries who denied the Parousia were themselves a proof of its imminence." [Note: T. Fornberg, An Early Church in a Pluralistic Society: A Study of 2 Peter, p. 61.]

"A scoffer is someone who treats lightly that which ought to be taken seriously." [Note: Wiersbe, 2:463.]

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