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knowledged to be lesser, and is strengthened : by the lesser light, the excellence of the greater one is shown. [Grateful remembrance of it is inculcated ; comp. ch. iii. 2. — Y. g.] — a lamp) which is used in the night. [But the lamp of prophecy even still benefits those now walking in the day. — Y. g.] — <pa/vovri) which was shining , [but Engl. Yers., present , “ that shineth.”] It is imperfect (as omc, when we were, ver. 18) ; for there follows, until the day should dawn , etc., with the same force of time, not in the present, diavyd fy, avareWy, (may) dawn , rise. — jjpw, dark) where there is neither water nor light. — roVw, place) Such a place is our heart. — sug ov, until) The use of Scripture is not altogether taken away in the case of the enlightened, especially in convincing others, as we learn from the example of Peter himself. Comp, until,1 Matt. i. 25. And yet the enlightened now possess that very thing of which the prophets testify. Wherefore John, for instance, in his first Epistle, while he writes to such persons, and so often reminds us that he writes, never appeals to the prophetic, It is written ; he only adduces the testimony of the apostles : for the darkness was past, and the true light was now shining ; 1 John ii. 8. And so you may find that the phrase, It is written , is of much more frequent occurrence in the older books of the New Testament, than in those which were written afterwards. — rjfispa, the day) The full light of the New Testament. See how the light of a lamp differs from that of the day ! just so does the light of the Old Testament differ from that of the New. See the first Epistle of John ii. 8. — diavydap, should dawn) Having burst through the darkness. — <pcuG<popog, the morning star ) Jesus Christ : Apocal. xxii. 16.
20. T ouro, this) The reason of the phrase, ye do well , inasmuch as ye know this . — npurov) before I speak : German, vorhin , before. Thus ch. iii. 3. In these Epistles, Peter does not teach, but reminds. — <7rpo<prireia ypaprig) prophecy , which is contained in the body of Scripture. — ibictg s^iXvGsug ov y/vsrai, does not become of private in- terpretation) k TiXvdig from Jcr/Xuw, to explain ; Mark iv. 34 ; Acts xix. 39. "ina some Greek versions render hr'sXvGs, Gen. xli. 12. As the sight of the apostles is opposed to cunningly devised fables , so (popa , the motion or inspiration of the prophets, is opposed to private interpretation. Therefore that is called s^iXvaig, or interpretation , by which the prophets themselves opened to mortals things which were
1 Including the time fixed on as the limit. So here until does not exclude the time being, when the day was shining. — E.
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