The 2nd Epistle of
Peter
Chapter One
  1. SIMON Peter, a servant of ⟨Jesus⟩ ⟨Christ⟩, to them that have ob­tained like pre­cious faith with us through the righ­teous­ness of ⟨God⟩ and our Sav­iour ⟨Jesus⟩ ⟨Christ⟩:
  2. Grace and peace be mul­ti­plied un­to you through the knowl­edge of ⟨God⟩, and of ⟨Jesus⟩ our ⟨Lord⟩,
  3. According as his di­vine pow­er hath giv­en un­to us all things that per­tain un­to life and god­li­ness, through the knowl­edge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
  4. Whereby we are giv­en un­to us ex­ceed­ing great and pre­cious prom­ises: that by these ye might be par­tak­ers of the di­vine na­ture, have es­caped the cor­rup­tion that is in the world through lust.
  5. And beside this, giv­ing all dil­i­gence, add to your faith vir­tue; and to vir­tue knowledge;
  6. And to knowl­edge tem­per­ance; and to tem­per­ance pa­tience; and to pa­tience godliness;
  7. And to godliness bro­ther­ly kind­ness; and to bro­ther­ly kind­ness charity.
  8. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall nei­ther be bar­ren nor un­fruit­ful in the knowl­edge of our ⟨Lord⟩ ⟨Jesus⟩ ⟨Christ⟩.
  9. But he that lack­eth these things is blind, and can­not see a­far off, and hath for­got­ten that he was purged from his old sins.
  10. Wherefore the ra­ther, breth­ren, give dil­i­gence to make your call­ing and e­lec­tion sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
  11. For so an en­trance shall be min­is­tered un­to you abun­dant­ly in­to the ever­last­ing king­dom of our ⟨Lord⟩ and Sav­iour ⟨Jesus⟩ ⟨Christ⟩.
  12. Wherefore I will not be neg­li­gent to put you al­ways in re­mem­brance of these things, though ye know them, and be es­tab­lished in the pres­ent truth.
  13. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tab­er­na­cle, to stir you up by put­ting you in remembrance;
  14. Knowing that short­ly I must put off this my tab­er­na­cle, even as our ⟨Lord⟩ and Sav­iour ⟨Jesus⟩ ⟨Christ⟩ hath shewed me.
  15. Moreover I will en­deav­our that ye may be able af­ter my de­cease to have these things al­ways in remembrance.
  16. For we have not fol­lowed cun­ning­ly de­vised fa­bles, when we make known un­to you the pow­er and com­ing of our ⟨Lord⟩ ⟨Jesus⟩ ⟨Christ⟩, but were eye­wit­ness­es of his majesty.
  17. For he re­ceived from ⟨God⟩ the Fath­er hon­our and glo­ry, when there came such a voice to him from the ex­cel­lent glo­ry, This is my be­lov­ed Son, in whom I am well pleased.
  18. And this voice which came from heav­en we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
  19. We have al­so a more sure word of pro­phe­cy; where­unto ye do well that ye take heed, as un­to a light that shin­eth in a dark place, un­til the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
  20. Knowing this first, that no pro­phe­cy of the scrip­ture is of any pri­vate interpretation.
  21. For the pro­phe­cy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of ⟨God⟩ spake as they were moved by the Holy ⟨Ghost⟩.
Chapter Two
  1. BUT there were false proph­ets also among the peo­ple, even as there shall be false tea­chers among you who pri­vi­ly shall bring in dam­nable her­e­sies, even de­ny­ing the ⟨Lord⟩ that bought them, and bring up­on them­selves swift destruction.
  2. And many shall fol­low their per­ni­cious ways; by rea­son of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
  3. And through cov­et­ous­ness shall they with feigned words make mer­chan­dise of you: whose judg­ment now of a long time ling­er­eth not, and their dam­na­tion slum­ber­eth not.
  4. For if ⟨God⟩ spared not the an­gels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and de­liv­ered them in­to chains of dark­ness, to be re­served un­to judgment;
  5. And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a prea­cher of righ­teous­ness, bring­ing in the flood up­on the world of the ungodly:
  6. And turning the cities of Sod­om and Go-‍mor′-‍rha in­to ash­es con­demned them with an over­throw, mak­ing them an en­sam­ple un­to those that af­ter should live ungodly;
  7. And delivered just Lot, vexed with the fil­thy con­ver­sa­tion of the wicked:
  8. (For that righ­teous man dwell­ing among them, in see­ing and hear­ing, vexed his righ­teous soul from day to day with their un­law­ful deeds;)
  9. The ⟨Lord⟩ know­eth how to de­liv­er the god­ly out of temp­ta­tions, and to re­serve the un­just un­to the day of judg­ment to be punished:
  10. But chiefly them that walk af­ter the flesh in the lust of un­clean­ness, and de­spise gov­ern­ment. Pre­sump­tu­ous are they, self­willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
  11. Whereas an­gels, which are great­er in pow­er and might, bring not rail­ing ac­cu­sa­tion against them be­fore the ⟨Lord⟩.
  12. But these, as na­tur­al brute beasts, made to be tak­en and de­stroyed, speak evil of the things that they un­der­stand not; and shall ut­ter­ly per­ish in their own corruption; [⇒]
 
  1. And shall re­ceive the re­ward of un­righ­teous­ness, as they that count it pleas­ure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blem­ish­es, sport­ing them­selves with their own de­ceiv­ings while they feast with you;
  2. Having eyes full of adul­tery, and that can­not cease from sin; be­guil­ing un­sta­ble souls: an heart they have ex­er­cised with cov­et­ous prac­tic­es; cursed children:
  3. Which have for­sak­en the right way, and are gone astray, fol­low­ing the way of Ba′-laam the son of Bo′-sor, who loved the wag­es of unrighteousness;
  4. But was re­buked for his in­iq­ui­ty: the dumb ass speak­ing with man’s voice forbad(e) the mad­ness of the prophet.
  5. These are wells with­out water, clouds that are car­ried with a tem­pest; to whom the mist of dark­ness is re­served for ever.
  6. For when they speak great swell­ing words of vanity, they al­lure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wan­ton­ness, those that were clean es­caped from them who live in error.
  7. While they prom­ise them lib­er­ty, they them­selves are the serv­ants of cor­rup­tion: for of whom a man is over­come, of the same is he brought in bondage.
  8. For if af­ter they have es­caped the pol­lu­tions of the world through the knowl­edge of the ⟨Lord⟩ and Sav­iour ⟨Jesus⟩ ⟨Christ⟩, they are again en­tan­gled there­in, and over­come, the lat­ter end is worse with them than the beginning.
  9. For it had been bet­ter for them not to have known the way of righ­teous­ness, than, af­ter they have known it, to turn from the holy com­mand­ment de­liv­ered un­to them.
  10. But it is hap­pened un­to them ac­cord­ing to the true pro­verb, The dog is turned to his own vom­it again; and the sow that was washed to her wal­low­ing in the mire.
Chapter Three
  1. THIS second epistle, beloved, I now write un­to you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
  2. That ye may be mind­ful of the words which were spo­ken be­fore by the holy proph­ets, and of the com­mand­ment of us the apostles of the ⟨Lord⟩ and Saviour:
  3. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scof­fers, walk­ing af­ter their own lusts.
  4. And say­ing, Where is the prom­ise of his coming? for since the fath­ers fell asleep, all things con­tin­ue as they were from the be­gin­ning of the creation.
  5. For this they will­ing­ly are ig­no­rant of, that by the word of ⟨God⟩ the heav­ens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
  6. Whereby the world that then was, be­ing over­flowed with wa­ter, perished:
  7. But the heav­ens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, re­served un­to fire against the day of judg­ment and per­di­tion of un­god­ly men.
  8. But, beloved, be not ig­no­rant of this one thing, that •one day is with the ⟨Lord⟩ as a thou­sand years, and a thou­sand years as one day.•
  9. The ⟨Lord⟩ is not slack con­cern­ing his prom­ise, as some men count slack­ness; but is long­suf­fer­ing to us-‍ward, not will­ing that any should per­ish, but that all should come to repentance.
  10. But the day of the ⟨Lord⟩ will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heav­ens shall pass away with a great noise, and the el­e­ments shall melt with fer­vent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
  11. Seeing then that all these things shall be dis­solved, what man­ner of persons ought ye to be in all holy con­ver­sa­tion and godliness,
  12. Looking for and hast­ing un­to the com­ing of the day of ⟨God⟩, where­in the heav­ens be­ing on fire shall be dis­solved, and the el­e­ments shall melt with fer­vent heat?
  13. Nevertheless we, ac­cord­ing to his prom­ise, look for new heav­ens and a new earth, where­in dwell­eth righteousness.
  14. Wherefore, beloved, see­ing that ye look for such things, be dil­i­gent that ye may be found of him in peace, with­out spot, and blameless.
  15. And account that the long­suf­fer­ing of our ⟨Lord⟩ is sal­va­tion; even as our beloved broth­er Paul al­so ac­cord­ing to the wis­dom given un­to him hath writ­ten un­to you;
  16. As also in all his epis­tles, speak­ing in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be un­der­stood, which they that are un­learned and un­sta­ble wrest, as they do also the oth­er scrip­tures, un­to their own destruction.
  17. Ye there­fore, beloved, see­ing ye know these things be­fore, be­ware lest ye al­so, be­ing led away with the er­ror of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
  18. But grow in grace, and in the knowl­edge of our ⟨Lord⟩ and Sav­iour ⟨Jesus⟩ ⟨Christ⟩. To him be glo­ry both now and for ever. A-men′.
“Line upon line, precept upon precept”…
for knowledge shall cease and wisdom fail,
but understanding remains (if gained from the former).