The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Peter — Section 50

worns of these men were not the expression chains of darkness. The Revised Version of their real thoughts nnd feelings ; they " pits" represents the reading of the four were invented, craftily contrived to deceive oldest manuscripts ; but the variations in men, and tl111t for the sake of money. The two of them (the Siue.itio and Alexnndrine last words of the cl.rnse will admit another have tr«pois (arpo,s), o.nd the faot the.t tr<1pos sense : " shall gain you," i.e. "shall gain seems properly to mean a pit for the storage you over to their party;" and this ,iew of corn, throw some doubt upon this ree.ding. derives some support from the use of the The other reading tr<tpa.is, oords, may possibly verb iµrro1m'mr8a., in the Septuagint V crsion have arisen from the parallel passage in of Prov. iii. 14. But the verb is often used J ode 6, though the Greek word for "chains" in classical writers in the sense of making a is different there, 'l'he oho.ins oonsist in profit out of people or things, and this mean- darkness; the pits are in do.rkness. Da.p,8"'"'• ing seems most suitable here. The false delivered, is often used, as Buther remarks, teachers will work hard, as the Pharisees with the implied idea of punishment. It is did, to me.ke proselytes; but their real simpler to connect the chains or pits of motive is, not the sal ve.tion of souls, but darkness with this verb than (as Fronmiiller their own selfish gain. Whose jucigment and others) with -ra.p-ra.p,I,ua.s, "having oast now of a long time lingereth not ; literally, them iJJ bonds of darkness into Tartarus" for whom the sentence of a long time idleth (comp. Wisd. xvii. 2, 16, 17). To be re- not. 'rhe sentence of judgment is for them, served unto judgment; literally, being for their condemnation; in the foreknow- reserved; but the readings here are very ledge of God it bas been pronounced long confused. St. Jude says (ver. 6) the.t the ago, and ever since it bas been drawing sinful angels are reserved "unto the judg- near; it doth not tarry (comp. Jude 4 and ment of the great day." Bengel says, l Pet. iv. 17). The word rendered " of a "Possunt autem in terra quoque verse.ri long time" (f=aJ\.tu) occurs only here and mancipia Te.rtari (Luke viii. 31 ; Eph. ii. 2; eh. iii. 5. And their damnation slnmbereth etc.) sic ut hello captus etiam extra locum not; destrut!lfon: it is the word which hea captivita.tis potest ambulare." But in the been used already twice in ver. l. The case of a mystery of which so little has been verb means literally "to nod," then " to revealed, we are scarcely justified in ea- ~lumber;" it is found elsewhere in the New suming the identity of the angels ce.st into Testament only in the parable of the virgins Tarte.rue with the evil spirits who tempt (l\Intt. :nv. 5). and harass us on earth. Ver. 4.-For if God spared not the angels Ver. 5.-And spared not the old world, that sinned; rather, angels when they sinned; but saved Noah the eighth person; rather, there is no article. St. Peter is giving e.s in the Revised Version, the ancient world, proofs of his assertion that the punishment but preserved Noah with seven others. " The of the ungodly lingereth not. The first is eighth" is a common classical idiom the plliliahment of angels that sinned. He (generally with the pronoun a.v-ros) for does not specify the sin, whether rebellion, '' with seven others." Mark the close as in Rev. xii 7; or uncleanness, e.s parallelism with l Pet. iii. 20, where, as apparently in Jude 6, 7, and Gen. vi 4. here, the apostle impresses upon his readers Formally, there is e.n anacoluthon here, but the fewness of the saved. A preacher of in thought we he.ve the apodosis in ver. 9. righteousness. The Old Testament no.rra- But cast them down to hell. The Greek tive does not directly assert this; but" a just word, which is found nowhere else in the me.n and perfect," who "walked with God" Greek Scriptures, is -,a,p-ra.p,f"ra.s, "having (Gen. vi. 9), must he.ve been a preacher cast into Tartarus." This use of a word (literally, "herald") of righteousness to the belonging to heathen mythology is very ungodly among whom he lived. Josephus, remar:.able, and without parallel in the New in a well-known passage(' Ant.,' i. 3. 1), says Testament. (The word -,&.p-ra.pos occurs in that Noah tried to persuade his neighbours the Septuagint, Job xL 15. Compare also to change their mind and their actions for the Septuagint rendering of the no.me of the better. llringing in the Flood upon the Job's daughter Keren-Happuch, 'Aµa."8a./a.r world of the ungodly, The Revised Version 1<<pas, the horn of Amalthma; and the word renders, when he brought a Flood upon the tr«p'l,v« in lea. xliii. 20.) Apparently, St. world. In the Greek there is no article Peter regards Tartarus not as equivalent to throughout this verse. In var. 1 the un- Gehenua, for the sinful angels are " reserved godly are represented e.s bringing u~on nntojudgment,"hut as a place of preliminary themselves swift destruction; here God detention. Josephus, quoted by Professor brings the punishment upon them. The Lnmby in the 'Speaker's Commentary,' same Greek verb is used in both places. In speak,; of the oldest heathen go:ls as fettered one place St. Peter gives the humo.n, in the in Tarte.ms, lv Ta.p-r&.pr,, o,oeµevovs (' Contra other the Divine, aspect of the same events .A.pion,' ii. 33). And delivered them into (comp. Clement I. vii. e.nd ix.). arr. n. 1-22.] THE SECOND EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER. 45