‘their former faith.
16—22.
αὐτοὶ δοῦλοι ὑπάρχοντες τῆς φθορᾶς: ᾧ γάρ τις ἥττηται, τούτῳ r Acts xi. 17
δεδούλωται.
> , A , \ a 3 a A , τον , ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ κυρίου καὶ σωτῆρος ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ, τούτοις * δὲ πάλιν ἐμπλακέντες ἠττῶνται, Ὑέγονεν αὐτοῖς τὰ ἔσχατα Χείρονα τῶν
πρώτων. αὐτοῖς ἁγίας ἐντολῆς"
abuse, and might easily be dangerous to recent converts from heathenism. Φθορᾶς. See Mayor’s note, ed. p. 175. φθορά is that gradual decay of spiritual and moral sense that follows on wilful self-indulgence. ᾧ γάρ . . . διδούλωται. Cf. Rom. vi. 16, viii. 21, John viii. 34.
Vv. 20-23. The consequences of fall- ing away. ‘The case of their victims is a serious one. They have escaped from the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and are once more entangled and worsted by these. Their last state becomes worse than the first. It were better for them not to have known the way of righteous- ness, than in spite of such knowledge, to depart from the holy commandment com- mitted to them. They illustrate the truth of the proverb: ‘the dog that turned back to his own vomit, and the sow that went to bathe to wallowing in the mud’.”
Ver. 2ο. Here, again, yap loosely introduces the subject of the victims allured by the false teachers away from τὰ pidopata τοῦ κόσμου. (Lev. vii. 8, Jer. xxxix. 34), occurs only here in N.T. In LXX the word seems to have a technical religious sense, the profanation of flesh by ordinary use which is set apart for sacrifice. This sense lingers here. The body is sacred to God, and to give licentious rein to the passions is placpea. Cf. pracpéds, v. 1ο, and µιαίνω, Jude 8. τοῦ κόσμου is the world in the sense of the heathen society and its practises. ἐπιγνώσει. See note oni. 2. τούτοις is governed by ἐμπλακ- έντες = “‘entangled by these”. Cf. 2 Tim. ii. 4, Ὑέγονεν αὐτοῖς, κ.τ.λ. Cf. Matt. xii. 45, Luke xi. 26, and Heb. vi. 4-8, x. 26.
Ver. 21. 680v τῆς δικαιοσύνης. Also called ‘the way of truth,” ii. 2, ‘ the straight way,” ii. 15. ἐντολῆς. Else- where in N.T. the singular is used to mean a particular precept. Cf. Rom. να το 0 Dim. vi. τα. (It ‘ie’ ‘charac-
‘teristic of this writer to emphasise the
21. κρεῖττον γὰρ "ἠν αὐτοῖς "μὴ ἐπεγνωκέναι τὴν ὁδὸν
(Rec.).
20. εἰ γὰρ ἀποφυγόντες τὰ µιάσµατα τοῦ κόσμου ἐν 5 Rom. ix.
3, 2 Cor. xii. 11, Matt.xxv. 27, ΧχνΙ. 9, 24, Arist. Nub. 1215,
τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἢ ἐπιγνοῦσιν ὑποστρέψαι ἐκ THs παραδοθείσης Xen.
Anab. 7,
22. συµβέβηκεν αὐτοῖς τὸ τῆς ἀληθοῦς 7.40,
ia t Luke XVil. I (om. (2) rové).
aspect of Christianity, not only as faith, but as the moral law aylas ἐντολῆς. Cf. i. 5. ἐν τῇ πίστει ὑμῶν τὴν ἀρετήν. A strong ethical note pervades the teach- of 2 Peter.
Ver. 22. τὸ τῆς ἀληθοῦς παροιµίας: έχε content of the true proverb” has been ‘verified,’ or ‘‘realised’’ in their case. The first proverb is found in Prov. xxvi. 11. The second is ap- parently not derived from a Hebrew source. Both are quoted familiarly in an abbreviated form (cf. WM. p. 443). The interpretation of the second is an exegetical crux. Bigg takes λουσαµένη = “having bathed itselfin mud”. The sense is, “not that the creature has washed itself clean in water (so appar- ently the R.V.), still less that it has been washed clean (as A.V.), and then returns to the mud; but that having once bathed in filth it never ceases to delight in it’’. This, however, is to force the meaning ΟΓλουσαμένη, which is consistently used of washing with water. Again, the point of the proverb is to illustrate τὰ ἔσχατα χείρονα τῶν πρώτων. The dupes of the false teachers were cleansed and returned to pollution.
The question is important whether λουσαμένη is Middle or Passive? Dr. Rendel Harris (Story of Ahikar, p. |xvii.) may have discovered the original proverb in the following, appearing in some texts of Ahikar. ‘ My son, thou hast behaved like the swine which went to the bath with people of quality, and when he came out, saw a stinking drain, and went and rolled himself in it”. If this be the source of the παροιμία, A. is Middle (Moulton, Proleg. pp. 238-39). ;