2 Peter 1
1. Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who were justified by faith with us, became our equals through the righteousness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
2. May Grace and Peace proliferate among you, by the declaration of Jesus Christ.
3. So as of all these [gifts] that are from Godly Power, He gave us with respect to eternal life and the submission to God, for the purpose of that declaration that He called us, through His glory and generosity,
4. That by these means,* He would bless* you with congratulations, greatness and honor, so as through them you may be partakers of the Divine essence as you alight from the throes of worldly desires.
5. And, then, as you bear all these gifts,* add virtue to your faith and knowledge to your virtue,
6. And, then, add endurance to your knowledge and hope to your endurance, and, finally, add submission of God to your hope.
7. However, as you add submission to God, you will be merciful to your brothers and sisters, and then such mercy entails love.
8. For while these [gifts] have been found among you and they increased, it was neither in vain, nor without giving fruit with respect to the declaration of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9. For whoever is not found with these [gifts] is the blind who cannot see and is still searching for the cleansing of their original sins.
10. And over this do your level best through good deeds, as your calling and election are affirmed through your actions, for as you do these things, you will not offend anyone.*
11. For thus you will be increasingly given the entrance to the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
12. And over this I do not have to swear, except for reminding you of the absolute certainty of it, as you know very well and you hold steadfastly to this truth.
13. It was, then, righteousness that was preached to me, that as long as I am in this body, I will make you cognizant of this memorial,
14. Whereas I know that the season of my body is transitory, just as our Lord Jesus Christ made me aware.
15. Do your utmost, then, that even after my departure you should steadfastly maintain this memorial.
16. For it is not that we followed artfully constructed parables that we declared to you the Power and Resurrection* of our Lord Jesus Christ, except it was that we were witnesses of His magnificence.
17. For when He received from God the Father honor and glory, as the voice came down to him as such, after the glorification, passing through to Supremacy, [through the utterance,] "This is my beloved Son by Whom I am fulfilled."
18. We also listened to Him, to this very voice that came to us from heaven when we came with Him to the holy mountain.
19. And we have also the manifestation of prophesy as confirmation, that which you did well to gaze upon as the lamp that lights a dark region until the day dawns and the sun shines in your hearts.
20. While you know this beforehand, that no prophesy is ever fulfilled as soon as it is written.
21. For it was not by the will of the human being that prophesy ever came, except the holy saints of God spoke when they were redeemed by the holy Spirit.*
*1:4.1 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "By their hands."
*1:4.2 Lit. Ar. idiomatic figure of speech: "Give."
*1:5 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "Enter under the weight of all these [gifts.]"
*1:10 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "You will not outrage."
*1:16 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "His Power and Comingness." His power to come in human form, to resurrect and to return.
*1:21 Reference is to Christ's holy Spirit.
2 Peter 2
1. There were also false prophets among the people, however, just as there will be false teachers among you, those who bring in heresies of oblivion and blaspheme against the Lord who redeemed them, whereas they bring upon themselves instant oblivion.
2. And multitudes will follow their demons, for whose sake the Way of the Truth will be blasphemed.
3. And with cheating words they will sell you with their hands, those whose judgment from times of old does not lapse and their deceptions do not sleep.
4. For if God did not forbid the angels that sinned, except for tying them by the chains of darkness in the lower regions, and delivering them to enforce the executioner's sentence,
5. And to the first world He did not forbid, except for protecting Noah's eight preachers of righteousness, as the floods came upon a depraved world.
6. He burned down the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and through that calamity He made them serve as an example for those who were destined to become depraved in the future,
7. Such that even the righteous Lot was affected by that evil calamity, so as those who lived outside the Law would be given a chance.
8. For by seeing and hearing, as he lived in righteousness among them, day by day he found himself being condemned with them by the acts against the Law, though he himself was righteous.
9. He knew that the Lord would save those who were in submission to Him from that tribulation. The abominable acts, however, would be punished on the Day of Judgment reserved for them.
10. Moreover, then, those who follow the flesh through evil lusts and belittle the Lord's Supremacy -- bold and callous, they are not moved by His glory, as they blaspheme.
11. Where the angels, who are greater than them in power and pomp, do not bring upon themselves the judgment of blasphemies.
12. The former, however, are like demonic creatures in nature, they exist to bring destruction and torment, as they blaspheme those that they know not, in the end they will be destroyed by their own machinations,
13. As these abominations that are in them are the recompense of the abominable, while they thought that the pleasures of their days would be ecstasy. Cursing and swearing, they fall through their pleasures as they recline,
14. While their eyes are full of unspeakable acts of sexual suggestiveness and sin, as they entice those souls that are not lying down with them, with hearts trained in seduction -- O, accursed offspring!
15. As they left the straight path, they raved and followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, whose due is the recompense of abomination.
16. He was rebuked because of his transgression, the voiceless donkey spoke with a human voice and stopped the straying prophet in his tracks.
17. These are the waterless wells, the clouds that are blown away by the storm, for whom the dark abyss is reserved.
18. For when they speak of depraved gaiety, they try to trick those who are easily fooled by the evil desires of the flesh.
19. And they pretend to offer them freedom, while these are the works of degeneracy. For whatever offers a human being victory, that is what the person worships.
20. For if they ran away from the evils of this world when told about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, while they were still engaged in this shameful behavior, they would be won over again and their evil will be worse than before.
21. For they were better off not having been told about the way of righteousness, rather than being told and then turning away from the holy commandment that made them adherents.
22. It suits them truly, then, the proverb that says,"The dog returns to its haunts,"and,"The sow that was washed returns to its rolling in the feed basin."
2 Peter 3
1. It has been a while since I have written you, my beloved, this second Letter, through which I would like to make you aware of your beautiful recollections,
2. That you indeed remember the first words spoken by the early prophets, and of the Commandment of our Lord and Savior, through the apostles,
3. So as you should know this beforehand, that there will come in the final days mockers who will mock, while they go around according to their own pleasures,
4. And they shall say, "Where is the Kingdom that He brought? For as our ancestors discovered, everything is still as it was in the beginning of creation."
5. While they sought [the Kingdom,] it was lost on them how from the beginning the heavens came into being and the earth [was differentiated] from the waters, and from the waters the Manifestation of God [created human kind,]*
6. They that brought this world's destruction by the flood with their own hands.*
7. The heavens now and the earth stand by His Manifestation, as they are preserved for the fire on the Day of Judgment and the destruction of a depraved humanity.
8. This is one point, do not lose sight of it, brethren, that one day for the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.
9. The Lord does not treat His Kingdom like a chore, as some people expect it to be like the treatment of a temporary laborer, except He pours out His Spirit on your behalf, as He does not wish that a single person should perish but that everyone should come into grace.*
10. However, the Day of the Lord shall come like a thief, in which all heaven shall pass away. And the elements will be unraveled as they burn in the fire and the earth and its activities shall not be found.
11. While all these are thus unraveled, as they were meant for your satisfaction, so that you may be holy in your ways and in total submission to God.
12. While you hold the vigil to the coming of the Day of God, by Whom the heavens were endowed and yet melted by fire, and the elements were burned and yet a holocaust.
13. The new heavens, then, and the new earth, we hold on to them as His Kingdom, those of us in whom righteousness abides.
14. Because of that, my beloved, as you hold on to these things, do your utmost that you may find Him peacefully, without cursing or swearing.
15. And that you may consider the Lord's outpouring of Spirit as Salvation, whereas also our beloved brother Paul has written you according to the wisdom that was given him.
16. Just as he wrote about these things to them in all his Epistles, containing concepts that are difficult to teach; those who are ignorant of this knowledge cannot abide and uphold [these teachings,] just as they cannot other Books of Scriptures, to their own detriment.*
17. You, therefore, my beloved, since you know this beforehand, guard yourselves that should you be misled by those without faith,* that you do not fall away from what you uphold.
18. Be nourished, then, by the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and our God the Father, for whom belongs the glory now and in every season and of all the days of the universe, amen.
*3:5 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "Raised them."
*3:6 Lit. Ar. idiomatic construction: "They that by their hands this world was flooded by the waters and disappeared."
*3:9 Lit. Ar. idiomatic construction: "The Lord does not scab-labor (unwelcome-labor) His Kingdom, as people expect of scab labor, except
extend His Spirit because of you, while He does not wish that a human goes to oblivion, except come to grace."
*3:16 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "To their oblivion."
*3:17 Lit. Ar. expression: "Without Law."
Translated by Victor Alexander © 2001
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