2 Peter 2:21 - Exposition

For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness; better, as in the Revised Version, for it were better. (For this use of the imperfect indicative, see Winer, 3:41, 2, a.) The verb ἐπεγνωκέκαι , "to have known," here, and the participle ἐπιγνοῦσιν , "after they have known," in the next clause, correspond with the noun ἐπίγνωσις of the preceding, and, like that, imply that these unhappy men once had the full knowledge of Christ. (For "the way, of righteousness," compare "the way of truth" in 2 Peter 2:2 , and note there.) Than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. The manuscripts exhibit some slight variations here: the Sinaitic and Alexandrine give "to turn back." By "the holy commandment'' St. Peter means the whole moral Law, which the Lord enforced and widened in his sermon on the mount; from this the false teachers turned away. For the word "delivered" ( παραδοθείσης ) , comp. Jud 2 Peter 1:3 . Like the corresponding word παράδοσις , tradition ( 2 Thessalonians 3:6 ), it implies the oral transmission of Christian teaching in the first ages (comp. also 1 Peter 1:18 ).