The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Peter — Section 17

lasting impression which the Transfiguration Lord himself insisted again and ago.in upon mnde on those who were privileged to tl,e testimony of the prophets ; so did his witness it (comp. John i. 14). apostles after him. Still, it seems difficult Ver. 19.-We have also a more sure word to understand that,even to Jewish Christians, of propheoy ; rnther, as in the Revised Ver• the testimony of the pror httd, howe,er aion, and we have the WO'l'd of prophecy made sacred and weigl,ty, could be surer than tbat more sure; or, we have the word of prophecy of those apostles who mado known ~he more lltlTe (than the testimony of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ heavenly voice). 'fhe rendering of the hav:ing been e;1e-witn~s,_es of his majesty; Authorized Version is ungrammatical; we while to Gentilo Christians tlae tcstimonv must adopt one of the other modes of repre- of those apostles of the Lamb who declared senting the original. The second seems to "what they had heard, what they had be preferred by most commentators. Thus seen with their eyes, what their hands had Archdeacon Farro.r, translating the passage, handled, of the Word of life," must have "And still stronger is the surety we have had greater power to convince than the in the prophetic word," adds in e. note, predictions_ ol'. the Hebrew prophds, though "Why more sure? Because wider in its these pred10t1ons, fulfilled as they were in range, and more varied, and coming from the Lord Jesus, furnish subsidiary evidence mo.ny, and bringing a more intense per- of exceeding value, On the whole, the sonal conviction than the testimony to e. more probable meaning of St. Peter seems single fact." But when St. Peter applied to be that the word of prophecy was made the epithet " surer " (f3<f3cu&r.pov) to the more sure to himsPlf, and, through his word of prophecy, does he mean in his teaching, to others by the overwhelming own estimate of it, or in that of others? If testimony of the voice from heaven and tho he is speaking of himself, it is surely incon- glory of the Transfiguration. lie had become ceivable that any possible testimony to the a disciple long before. His brother Andrew truth of tbe power and coming of the Lord l1ad first told him that Jesus was the Jesus Christ could be comparable with the Messiah ; he himself, a week before the commanding authority of the Divine voice Transfiguration, had confessed him solemnly which he himself had heard home from to be "the ChriHt, the Son of the living heaven, and the transcendent glory which God." But the Transfiguration deepened he himself had seen :flashing from the that faith into the moat intense conviction ; Saviour's human form and bnthing it in an it me.de the word of prophecy which spoke 11,ureole of celestial light. That heavenly of Christ surer and more certain. n is not voice had mcide the deepest possible im- without interest that the writer of the so- pression on the apostles. "They fell on called 'Second Epistle of Clement' quotes their faces," as Moses bad done under the ( oh. xi.) from "the prophetic word" ( ,rpo• like circumstances, recognizing it as the </)71-r1,ccl1 AO')los), passages which resemble voice of God. Peter had said, " Lord, it is Jas. i. 8 and eh. iii. 4. Wherennto ye do well good for us to be here;" and evidently 11,U that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth through his life he felt that it was good in a dark place. There is o. pnrallel to tho for him to dwell in solemn thought on the first clanse of this in Josephus, 'Ant.,' xi. treasured memories of that nugust reveln- 6. 12; to the second in 2 Esdr. xii. 42, tion. No written testimony could be The word rendered "light" is mther o. "surer" to St. Peter than that voice from lamp or torch; our Lord uses it of John heaven. But is be rather thinking of the the Bnptist (John v. 35). Tha word trnns- confirmation of the faith of his readers? He lnted "de.rk" (avxµ11p&,) is foullll only here is still using the first person plural, as in in the New 'l'estament; it means "dry, vers. 16 and 18; in this verse, indeed, he parched, and so squalid, desert;" there seems passes to the second ; but the retaining of to he no sufficient authority for the rcn,ler- the first person in the first clause of the verse ing "dnrk." God's Word is 11, lamp unto shows that, if he is not still spenking of our feet, and 11, light unto our pf\th; the apostles only, he at least includes himself word of prophecy guides us to Christ. Until among those who have the word of pro- the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your phecy; and to him certainly the testimony hearts; literally, until day ,r,uon throuah; of that word, though sucred and precious, i.e. " through the gloom." There is no oould not be "surer" than the testimony article. The word for "day-star" (<1>wcr<1>&- of the heavenlv voice. To Jewish Chris- pos, lucifer, light-bringer) is found in no tians the evidence of the prophets of the other place of the Ne,v 'l'estnment; but Old Testament was of supreme importance. comp. Rev. ii. 28; xxii.16. St. Peter seems Nathanael, the "Israelite indeed," was to wean thnt the prophetic word, remlerecl drawn to the Lord by the assurance that, more sure to the apostles by the voice from "We have found him of whom Moses in the heaven, and to Christicms genemlly by Law, ~ the propbets, did write." The npostolio witness, shines like a guiding  10 'I'HE SECOND EPISTLE GENERAL OF PE'rER, [err. 1, 1-21.