2 Peter | Practical Teaching on Coming Conditions
Session 3 | 2 Peter 1:12-15
2 Peter 1:12-15 | Exhortation Based on Peter's Experience
Verse 12 --
Even though there is not need, in one sense, to remind his hearers of these things, Peter wants to not be negligent to do just that.
The things of which he is reminding them (i.e. these things) are the things of his exhortation of verses 5-11 (for there are no things that are listed after verse 12).
His followers already know them*. Peter uses the word οἶδα [oida] which is a word of understanding* rather than educational knowledge.
They are also established in the present truth.
The word established is in the perfect tense, thus something that happened in the past and its result remains to the present.
The present truth is the truth of the offer of the Kingdom to Israel, currently being rejected, and thus resulting in the turmoil coming upon the nation.
Verse 13 --
This particular Greek word translated tabernacle is σκήνωμα [skenoma“body."
“as long as he is alive" he should bring his hearers in remembrance of the Kingdom message.
The word meet is δίκαιος [dikaios] which is literally, righteous.
The word stir up is διεγείρω [diegeiro], a compound of *dia* (through/thorougly) and egeiro (to raise/arouse).
Verse 14 --
The reason it was meet to stir you up (v. 13) is because Peter had something on his mind: his own death.
In John 21:18-19 Peter was shown his own manner of death. This was clearly something that Peter had not forgotten, now some thirty-plus years later.
“gospel truth" that Peter was crucified in Rome, upside down, by Nero, who was avenging the burning of Rome on Christians.
This tradition began to be taught early in Christian history in the spurious Acts of Peter, a pseudo-graphical work of the mid-first century.
Most retelling of the tradition fails to mention that this same tradition tells of Peter fleeing Rome to escape persecution, but returns when he sees an apparition of Jesus, who asks him, in Latin Quo Vadis? (Where are you going?). Peter says that he is fleeing Rome, then asks where Jesus is going. The Lord's reply is I am going to Rome to be crucified again. This statement would contradict the New Testament teaching that Jesus died once for all. In the Acts of Peter, Peter then gets enough courage to go back to Rome and face his own death.
This same work attributes the death in Rome not to Nero, but to Agrippa, who was supposedly enraged with Peter because he had preached to his concubines and convinced them to chastity.
There is nothing in the New Testament that speaks of Peter's death in historical terms. It is doubtful, in my opinion, that he ever went to Rome or died in the manner described.
Verse 15 --
Peter's desire is that after my decease his followers would have these things always in remembrance.
This statement could be taken as a purpose statement of 2 Peter. If so, then verses 5-11 become the heart of the epistle.
The word decease is ἔξοδος [exodos].
It is used here, as well as in Luke 9:31, to refer to departure in death.
It is used in its more traditional meaning in Hebrews 11:22.
The Old Testament book of Exodus was given its popular English name by Latin (exodus, vs Greek exodos), first used by Jerome in the Latin Vulgate (late fourth century).
The Hebrew name for the book is Shemot*, meaning names*, the first word in the book (these are the names of the children of Israel - Ex. 1:1).
