stumbling and to set us before His glory without blemish im ex- ceeding joy’.
Ρ, continues (i. 12-15), “1 know that you are established in this truth, but it will be always my care to remind you of it, as 1 am indeed bound to do, whilst I continue in this earthly habitation. Even after I leave it, as our Lord Jesus Christ has warned me that I must soon do, I hope to bequeath to you a legacy which will enable you to make mention of these things after my departure.” We have here an echo of J. ver. 5, ‘‘I desire to put you in remembrance, though ye know all things,” z.e., as it is explained afterwards, though you are familiar with the examples of judgment contained in the O.T., including the punishment of the angels who sinned. P. ad- dressing Gentiles, who could hardly be expected to be familiar with a narrative resting mainly on Jewish tradition, gives the phrase a more fitting application in reference to the general moral and religious teaching which precedes.
The connexion between the two Epistles is most conspicuous in the second chapter of P. In both, this section begins with a short Introduction (J. ver. 4, P. ii. 1-3), describing in general terms the innovators against whom the readers are warned. They steal into the Church, they deny the only Master (δεσπότην), their lives are im- pure, the verdict of heaven has long been pronounced against them. To this P. prefixes a clause to connect the new subject with that of the preceding chapter. The gift of prophecy was liable to misuse under the old dispensation (of which he presently quotes Balaam as an example, cf. P. ii. 15, 16, and J. ver. 11). Corresponding to this in the new dispensation’ will be the abuse of teaching (cf. James iti. 1- 12) ; and these false teachers will introduce destructive heresies and bring on themselves swift destruction. [The word ἀπώλεια does not occur in J., but in the next verse he says that the Lord τοὺς μὴ πιστεύσαντας ἀπώλεσεν.] P. adds the Pauline epithet ἀγοράσαντα be- fore δεσπότην. He foretells that many will follow the loose living of these teachers and that thus the way of truth (Ps. cxix. 30) will be evil spoken of (Isa. lii. 5). He speaks of their covetousness (cf. J.’ ver. 11 on Balaam) and of their glozing words. While J. denounces οἱ πάλαι προγεγραμμµένοι εἰς τοῦτο τὸ κρίµα (where the reference in τοῦτο is obscure), P. has the fine phrase ots τὸ κρίµα οὐκ ἀργεῖ καὶ ἡ ἀπώλεια αὐτῶν οὐ νυστάζει. On the other hand we lose J.’s τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ χάριτα µετατιθέντες eis ἀσέλγειαν, for which perhaps ἐλευθερίαν αὐτοῖς ἐπαγγελ- λόμενοι, αὐτοὶ δοῦλοι ὑπάρχοντες τῆς φθορᾶς (P. ii. 19) was intended as an equivalent, cf. Gal. v. 19, ἐπ ἐλευθερία ἐκλήθητε' µόνον μὴ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν eis ἀφορμὴν τῇ σαρκίἰ.