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2 Peter 2

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1 Ἐγένοντο δὲ καὶ ψευδοπροφῆται ἐν τῷ λαῷ, ὡς καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν ἔσονται ψευδοδιδάσκαλοι, οἵτινες παρεισάξουσιν αἱρέσεις ἀπωλείας, καὶ τὸν ἀγοράσαντα αὐτοὺς δεσπότην ἀρνούμενοι, ἐπάγοντες ἑαυτοῖς ταχινὴν ἀπώλειαν. 2 καὶ πολλοὶ ἐξακολουθήσουσιν αὐτῶν ταῖς ἀσελγείαις, δι' οὓς ἡ ὁδὸς τῆς ἀληθείας βλασφημηθήσεται: 3 καὶ ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ πλαστοῖς λόγοις ὑμᾶς ἐμπορεύσονται: οἷς τὸ κρίμα ἔκπαλαι οὐκ ἀργεῖ, καὶ ἡ ἀπώλεια αὐτῶν οὐ νυστάζει. 4 εἰ γὰρ ὁ θεὸς ἀγγέλων ἁμαρτησάντων οὐκ ἐφείσατο, ἀλλὰ σειραῖς ζόφου ταρταρώσας παρέδωκεν εἰς κρίσιν τηρουμένους, 5 καὶ ἀρχαίου κόσμου οὐκ ἐφείσατο, ἀλλὰ ὄγδοον Νῶε δικαιοσύνης κήρυκα ἐφύλαξεν, κατακλυσμὸν κόσμῳ ἀσεβῶν ἐπάξας, 6 καὶ πόλεις Σοδόμων καὶ Γομόρρας τεφρώσας καταστροφῇ κατέκρινεν, ὑπόδειγμα μελλόντων ἀσεβέσιν τεθεικώς, 7 καὶ δίκαιον Λὼτ καταπονούμενον ὑπὸ τῆς τῶν ἀθέσμων ἐν ἀσελγείᾳ ἀναστροφῆς ἐρρύσατο: 8 βλέμματι γὰρ καὶ ἀκοῇ ὁ δίκαιος ἐγκατοικῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἡμέραν ἐξ ἡμέρας ψυχὴν δικαίαν ἀνόμοις ἔργοις ἐβασάνιζεν: 9 οἶδεν κύριος εὐσεβεῖς ἐκ πειρασμοῦ ῥύεσθαι, ἀδίκους δὲ εἰς ἡμέραν κρίσεως κολαζομένους τηρεῖν, 10 μάλιστα δὲ τοὺς ὀπίσω σαρκὸς ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ μιασμοῦ πορευομένους καὶ κυριότητος καταφρονοῦντας. τολμηταί, αὐθάδεις, δόξας οὐ τρέμουσιν βλασφημοῦντες, 11 ὅπου ἄγγελοι ἰσχύϊ καὶ δυνάμει μείζονες ὄντες οὐ φέρουσιν κατ' αὐτῶν παρὰ κυρίου βλάσφημον κρίσιν.

1 There were false prophets, too, among God’s people. So, among you, there will be false teachers, covertly introducing pernicious ways of thought, and denying the Master who redeemed them, to their own speedy undoing. 2 Many will embrace their wanton creeds, and bring the way of truth into disrepute, 3 trading on your credulity with lying stories for their own ends. Long since, the warrant for their doom is in full vigour; destruction is on the watch for them. 4 God did not spare the angels who fell into sin; he thrust them down to hell, chained them there in the abyss, to await their sentence in torment.[1] 5 Nor did he spare the world he had first made; he brought a flood on that world of wickedness, preserving Noe, who had borne witness to holiness, and only seven others with him. 6 The cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, too, he punished with utter ruin, turning them to ashes, for an example to the godless of a later time. 7 Yet he saved Lot, an innocent man who was overborne by the violence and the wantonness of his wicked neighbours; 8 eye and ear could testify to his innocence, although he lived among men whose lawless doings, day after day, wrung that blameless heart.[2] 9 The Lord does not find it difficult to save his true worshippers from their trials, while the wrong-doers must await the day of judgement, marked down for torment; 10 those especially, who follow the defiling appetites of their corrupt nature, and make light of authority. So bold are they, so obstinate, that they are not afraid to bring in new and blasphemous ways of thought,[3] 11 whereas angels, with a strength and a capacity far above theirs, do not bring on themselves any charge so abominable.[4]

1 Fuerunt vero et pseudoprophetæ in populo, sicut et in vobis erunt magistri mendaces, qui introducent sectas perditionis: et eum qui emit eos, Dominum negant, superducentes sibi celerem perditionem. 2 Et multi sequentur eorum luxurias, per quos via veritatis blasphemabitur: 3 et in avaritia fictis verbis de vobis negotiabuntur: quibus judicium jam olim non cessat: et perditio eorum non dormitat. 4 Si enim Deus angelis peccantibus non pepercit, sed rudentibus inferni detractos in tartarum tradidit cruciandos, in judicium reservari. 5 Et originali mundo non pepercit, sed octavum Noë justitiæ præconem custodivit, diluvium mundo impiorum inducens. 6 Et civitates Sodomorum et Gomorrhæorum in cinerem redigens, eversione damnavit: exemplum eorum, qui impie acturi sunt, ponens: 7 et justum Lot oppressum a nefandorum injuria, ac luxuriosa conversatione eripuit: 8 aspectu enim, et auditu justus erat: habitans apud eos, qui de die in diem animam justam iniquis operibus cruciabant. 9 Novit Dominus pios de tentatione eripere: iniquos vero in diem judicii reservare cruciandos. 10 Magis autem eos, qui post carnem in concupiscentia immunditiæ ambulant, dominationemque contemnunt, audaces, sibi placentes, sectas non metuunt introducere blasphemantes: 11 ubi angeli fortitudine, et virtute cum sint majores, non portant adversum se execrabile judicium.

12 οὗτοι δέ, ὡς ἄλογα ζῷα γεγεννημένα φυσικὰ εἰς ἅλωσιν καὶ φθοράν, ἐν οἷς ἀγνοοῦσιν βλασφημοῦντες, ἐν τῇ φθορᾷ αὐτῶν καὶ φθαρήσονται, 13 ἀδικούμενοι μισθὸν ἀδικίας: ἡδονὴν ἡγούμενοι τὴν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ τρυφήν, σπίλοι καὶ μῶμοι ἐντρυφῶντες ἐν ταῖς ἀπάταις αὐτῶν συνευωχούμενοι ὑμῖν, 14 ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχοντες μεστοὺς μοιχαλίδος καὶ ἀκαταπαύστους ἁμαρτίας, δελεάζοντες ψυχὰς ἀστηρίκτους, καρδίαν γεγυμνασμένην πλεονεξίας ἔχοντες, κατάρας τέκνα, 15 καταλείποντες εὐθεῖαν ὁδὸν ἐπλανήθησαν, ἐξακολουθήσαντες τῇ ὁδῷ τοῦ Βαλαὰμ τοῦ Βοσόρ, ὃς μισθὸν ἀδικίας ἠγάπησεν 16 ἔλεγξιν δὲ ἔσχεν ἰδίας παρανομίας: ὑποζύγιον ἄφωνον ἐν ἀνθρώπου φωνῇ φθεγξάμενον ἐκώλυσεν τὴν τοῦ προφήτου παραφρονίαν. 17 οὗτοί εἰσιν πηγαὶ ἄνυδροι καὶ ὁμίχλαι ὑπὸ λαίλαπος ἐλαυνόμεναι, οἷς ὁ ζόφος τοῦ σκότους τετήρηται. 18 ὑπέρογκα γὰρ ματαιότητος φθεγγόμενοι δελεάζουσιν ἐν ἐπιθυμίαις σαρκὸς ἀσελγείαις τοὺς ὀλίγως ἀποφεύγοντας τοὺς ἐν πλάνῃ ἀναστρεφομένους, 19 ἐλευθερίαν αὐτοῖς ἐπαγγελλόμενοι, αὐτοὶ δοῦλοι ὑπάρχοντες τῆς φθορᾶς: ᾧ γάρ τις ἥττηται, τούτῳ δεδούλωται. 20 εἰ γὰρ ἀποφυγόντες τὰ μιάσματα τοῦ κόσμου ἐν ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τούτοις δὲ πάλιν ἐμπλακέντες ἡττῶνται, γέγονεν αὐτοῖς τὰ ἔσχατα χείρονα τῶν πρώτων. 21 κρεῖττον γὰρ ἦν αὐτοῖς μὴ ἐπεγνωκέναι τὴν ὁδὸν τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἢ ἐπιγνοῦσιν ὑποστρέψαι ἐκ τῆς παραδοθείσης αὐτοῖς ἁγίας ἐντολῆς. 22 συμβέβηκεν αὐτοῖς τὸ τῆς ἀληθοῦς παροιμίας, κύων ἐπιστρέψας ἐπὶ τὸ ἴδιον ἐξέραμα, καί, ὗς λουσαμένη εἰς κυλισμὸν βορβόρου.

12 Such men, like dumb creatures that are born to be trapped and destroyed, sneer at what they cannot understand, and will soon perish in their own corruption; 13 they will have the reward their wickedness has deserved. To live in luxury while the day lasts is all their pleasure; what a stain they are, what a disfigurement, when they revel in the luxury of their own banquets, as they fare sumptuously at your side![5] 14 Their eyes feast on adultery, insatiable of sin; and they know how to win wavering souls to their purpose, so skilled is all their accursed brood at gaining its own ends. 15 They have gone far astray, leaving the true path, and following the path of Balaam the son of Bosor, the man who was content to take pay in the cause of wrong, 16 and was rebuked for his perversity, when the dumb beast spoke with a human voice, to bring a prophet to his senses.[6] 17 They are wells with no water in them, clouds driven before the storm; the lot that awaits them is darkness and gloom. 18 Using fine phrases that have no meaning, they bait their hook with the wanton appetites of sense, to catch those who have had but a short respite from false teaching.[7] 19 What do they offer them? Liberty. And all the time they themselves are enslaved to worldly corruption; whatever influence gets the better of a man, becomes his master. 20 That they should have been rescued, by acknowledging our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, from the world’s pollution, and then been entangled and overpowered by it a second time, means that their last state is worse than the first. 21 Better for them, never to have found their way to justification, than to have found it, and then turned their backs on the holy law once handed down to them. 22 What has happened to them proves the truth of the proverb, The dog is back at his own vomit again. Wash the sow, and you find her wallowing in the mire.[8]

12 Hi vero velut irrationabilia pecora, naturaliter in captionem, et in perniciem in his quæ ignorant blasphemantes in corruptione sua peribunt, 13 percipientes mercedem injustitiæ, voluptatem existimantes diei delicias: coinquinationes, et maculæ deliciis affluentes, in conviviis suis luxuriantes vobiscum, 14 oculos habentes plenos adulterii, et incessabilis delicti. Pellicientes animas instabiles, cor exercitatum avaritia habentes, maledictionis filii: 15 derelinquentes rectam viam erraverunt, secuti viam Balaam ex Bosor, qui mercedem iniquitatis amavit: 16 correptionem vero habuit suæ vesaniæ: subjugale mutum animal, hominis voce loquens, prohibuit prophetæ insipientiam. 17 Hi sunt fontes sine aqua, et nebulæ turbinibus exagitatæ, quibus caligo tenebrarum reservatur. 18 Superba enim vanitatis loquentes, pelliciunt in desideriis carnis luxuriæ eos, qui paululum effugiunt, qui in errore conversantur: 19 libertatem illis promittentes, cum ipsi servi sint corruptionem: a quo enim quis superatus est, hujus et servus est. 20 Si enim refugientes coinquinationes mundi in cognitione Domini nostri, et Salvatoris Jesu Christi, his rursus implicati superantur: facta sunt eis posteriora deteriora prioribus. 21 Melius enim erat illis non cognoscere viam justitiæ, quam post agnitionem, retrorsum converti ab eo, quod illis traditum est, sancto mandato. 22 Contigit enim eis illud veri proverbii: Canis reversus ad suum vomitum: et, Sus lota in volutabro luti.

[1] ‘Chained them there in the abyss’; the Greek means, literally, ‘in ropes (or perhaps, in pits) of darkness’. The Latin has simply ‘in ropes of hell’.

[2] This appears to be the meaning of the Latin (cf. Job 29.11); or the sense may be, ‘he was innocent in spite of all that he heard and saw’. The Greek of the whole sentence is different: ‘that innocent man, living in their company, fretted (or perhaps, gave proof of) his innocent soul over the lawless doings of which the sound and sight came to him, day after day’.

[3] The word ‘authority’, according to some, should be understood of the holy Angels (cf. Eph. 1.21; Col. 1.16, where the same word has been translated ‘powers’); according to others, of God himself. But it may equally well refer to earthly authorities. ‘Bring in new and blasphemous ways of thought’; the Greek has ‘insult august names’, as in Jude, verse 8.

[4] ‘Do not bring on themselves any charge so abominable’; this appears to be the sense of the Latin; the Greek has, ‘do not bring against them (it is not clear, against whom) a derogatory sentence before the Lord’; cf. Jude, verse 9.

[5] ‘While the day lasts’; literally, ‘in the day’, either in the sense of daylight, or as referring to the shortness of life (cf. Wis. 2.1-8). The latter part of the sentence probably refers to those common meals at which Christians met for social intercourse (cf. Jude, verse 12); if so, it seems clear that the false teachers here in question were rich men who brought their own victuals and did not share them with their poorer neighbours (cf. I Cor. 11.21).

[6] Num. 22.28.

[7] ‘Those who have had but a short respite from false teaching’; literally, ‘those who have barely (in some Greek manuscripts, have genuinely) escaped from those who walk in error’.

[8] Cf. Prov. 26.11; it does not appear, however, that St Peter is quoting Scripture, and it may be that there was a current saw of this kind. There is no reference, in the Book of Proverbs, to the sow wallowing in the mire.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd