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tory of man’s triumphs in the province of his higher and spiritual life is also the history of the gradual extension of his alliance with a Force which is not his own... .In Christ we are ‘ made par- takers of the divine nature’’’ (Dale, Atonement, pp. 416, 417). θεία φύσις is originally a philosophic term, cf. Plat. Symp. Π. 6, Philo (ed. Mangey), ii. pp. 51, 647; ii. 22, 143, 320, 343. O@etos is found in a papyrus of 232 A.D. = * im- perial’’ (Deissmann, of. cit. p. 218, note 2). Probably 2 Peter is here again making use of a current religious expression (cf. note on eta δύναµις, ver. 3). ἀποφυγόν- tas... φθορᾶς. The aorist participle is used of coincident action. Moral eman- cipation is part of the κοινωνία θείας φύσεως. The idea of participation in the Divine Nature is set between the two pic- tures, one of hope, τὰ τίµια ἡμῖν καὶ µέ- γιστα ἐπαγγέλματα, the other of despair, τῆς ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ φθορᾶς. The way to God is through the Redemp- tion of Christ. The approach to God is an “escape,” and not an act of intellectual effort. φθορά in philosophic writers is the counterpart of γένεσις, cf. Plat. Rep. 546A, Phaed. 95Ε. Aristot. Phys. 5, 5, 6. It expresses not sudden but gradual dis- solution and destruction. ‘The scriptural meaning alternates between destruction in the moral, and in the physical sense. In the N.T. the significance is physical, in ® Cor. xv. 42, 50; σοι. i. 22, Gal. vi. 8, ii. Pet. ii. 12; moral here, as in 2 Pet. ii. το, Rom. viii. 21. Man becomes either regenerate or degenerate. Either his spiritual and moral powers are subject to slow decay and death, the wages of sin (ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ), or he rises to full par- ticipation in the Divine. ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ, a compact phrase. The corruption con- sists in ἐπιθυμία, which may be inter- preted in the widest sense of inordinate affection for earthly things. ἐν τῷ κόσµῳ; cf. Rom. viii. 21. Φθορά becomes personi- fied as a world-wide power to which all creation including man is subject. In Mayor’s edition there is a valuable study of φθορά and cognates (pp. 175 ff.). The idea contained in φθορά, moral decay, is illustrated in Tennyson’s “ Palace of Art,” and “‘ Vision of Sin”; also in Byron, ε.σ., “ Stanzas for Music’’.
Vv. 5-7. Faith is not only illumination
τῇ γνώσει τὴν ἐγκράτειαν, ἐν δὲ τῇ
but character. ‘Nor is this all. On your part bring the utmost earnestness to bear, and in your faith supply moral energy, and in your moral energy under- standing, and in your understanding self- control, and in your self-control patient endurance, and in patient endurance piety, and in piety brotherly love, and in brotherly love love.”
Ver. 5. καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦτο δὲ, a phrase that emphasises the fact of the δώρηµα as having its logical outcome in character. “The soul of religion is the practick part’? (Bunyan). On the other hand, 2 Peter here teaches that so-called practical Christianity without the spiritual motive is incomplete and unintelligent. σπουδην πᾶσαν παρεισενέγκαντες, an impressive phrase. Cf.similar ideas in Rom. xii. 11, Heb. vi. 11. It is a warning against sluggishness and self-indulgence in the spiritual life. ἐπιχορηγήσατε. The A.V. trans., “ add to,” is insufficient. χορηγός in- Attic drama is one who defrays the cost of the chorus, at the bidding of the State, as an act of citizenship (Dem. 496, 26). It was a duty that prompted to lavishness in execution. Hence χορη- γέω came to mean “supplying costs for any purpose,”’ a public duty or λειτουργία, with a tendency, as here, towards the meaning, “ providing more than is barely demanded”. In P. Oxy. 2526 ff. (30-35 A.D.), a man complains that his wife had deserted him, although ἐπεχορήγησα αὐτῇ τὰ ἑξῆς καὶ ὑπὲρ δύναμιν (“I pro- vided for her suitably and beyond my resources”). ἐπι- denotes a particular ap- plication ΟΓχορηγέω (c/. Moulton, Proleg. p- 113). ἐν ‘tis used each time of that which is supposed to be theirs’’ (Alford). ἀρετή: “strenuus animae tonus ac vigor”? (Bengel)—a manifestation of moral power. γνῶσιν, understanding, implying insight, circumspection, discre- tion, discernment (cf. 1 Cor. xvi. 18). Cf. Didache, ix. 3 (in Eucharistic prayer), xi. 2, where yv. is conjoined with δικαιο- σύνη.