Chapter 2

Chapter Two — Exposition of the Second Chapter

¹ But there were also false prophets among that people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who shall bring in heresies of destruction, and denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their licentious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be blasphemed. And through covetousness shall they make merchandise of you with fabricated words. By false teachers he means the followers of Nicolaus and of Cerinthus. And since the name of prophecy is applied in common both to the prophets and to the false prophets, he now makes them secure, that they should not give heed to the false prophets. And what makes the distinction, Paul taught, that No one says “Lord Jesus” except in the Holy Spirit. And from here he begins his assault upon the heresy of the Nicolaitans, saying that their wickedness is twofold. For they are most impious concerning doctrines, which he showed by their blasphemy against the Master Christ; and concerning life, most licentious. And this he also sets forth now through their foul deeds; but going on a little further, he will bring it out more plainly. For in saying covetousness now, he signified their base love of gain. For covetousness sometimes signifies injustice, and sometimes simply base gain. Hence fittingly he added to make merchandise; and, alienating them utterly from the divine teaching, he said that they use fabricated words. But they shall have, he says, the wages of impiety—death. And the word of old is significant of the foreknowledge of God. And just as for the good he foreknowingly prepared good things, so also for the wicked the place suited to them. For their judgment of old does not linger.

² Whose judgment of old does not linger, and their destruction does not slumber. Not simply does he proceed from the more honored cases, but wishing to show that these men, in sinning, are the more liable to judgment. Since, then, these men too have the more honored standing—as having been called first to apostleship, yet having turned aside from the straight way—they shall have the greater condemnation too. Having raised hypothetically the exemplary proof, he did not render the consequence of the figure, but mingled the example with the assumption of the righteous. And while he ought to have made the apodosis upon what was first set forth—that is, concerning those who sinned, for whose sake also the example was given—and to say, If he did not spare these, will he then spare the licentious men of the present? (by way of denial: Much more will he not spare these either)—he does not do this. Why? Because this apodosis is found, when two examples are set forth, of the good and of the evil, to apply to the evil alone, and no longer to the good as well; for evils are not requited to the good. In cases, then, where a single apodosis did not suffice to complete what was set forth, he managed it otherwise in the phrasing, and by an exclamation accomplished what was owed. And why does he add to the evil the examples of the good? It shall be told in the fitting place. As, then, we have said in anticipation, neither does the sense follow the prior matters according to the figure of the apparent discourse. For the apodosis that is wont to follow such constructions does not here apply; but there is a simple exemplary proof, both of those punished for sin and of those honored for righteousness. As if he were saying: God knows both how to punish without sparing, inexorably, those who live in sins—as the angels that sinned, as at the Flood, as the cities of Sodom—and again how to honor those who work righteousness, as Noah, as Lot. And the construction is of this kind: Having said that the false teachers shall be punished for their blasphemies and for their licentious life, he brings in the examples: For God did not spare the angels that sinned, nor the ancient world. And again he expounds those who practiced righteousness, that he preserved both Noah and Lot for their chastity from the destruction of the men of their time. For Noah was not carried away by the impiety of those before the Flood; and Lot, having in no way emulated the licentiousness of those in Sodom, but rather, when the angels in the form of men were lodged with him, did not deliver them up to those who demanded them for licentiousness—although he was outraged in countless ways by those who demanded them. For this he indicated by the word oppressed.

³ For if God did not spare the angels that sinned, but, casting them into Tartarus with chains of darkness, delivered them up to be kept unto judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, the eighth person, a herald of righteousness, bringing a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with overthrow, reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who should afterward live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the conduct of the lawless in licentiousness—for that righteous man, dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, day by day vexed his righteous soul with their unlawful deeds—the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to keep the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. This too he says concerning Lot: The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and what follows. And having said nothing beforehand concerning the righteous, but only concerning the ungodly and their punishment, he inserted the examples of these also: first, because history records together both the destruction of the ungodly and the salvation of the righteous; then, because by the comparison of these—exalting the evil of those who sinned, making bright the good deeds of those who did well; and further, persuading the hearers, on the one hand, to hate licentiousness because of the punishments, and on the other, to draw to themselves the good deed because of the salvation.

⁴ But chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise lordship. From here, deftly, from the foregoing examples, he came to the present subject. He speaks concerning the accursed Nicolaitans, and Naasenes, and Cerdonians. For their wickedness is of many names, and is found confused (in foul deeds, so also in names). For these men, as we have already said, having posited Bythos (Depth) and Sige (Silence) as the primal sources of the world’s generation, and having spun monstrous tales of certain mothers and aeons from these—as did Marcion also, who took evil seeds from them—then, putting away through these the Dominions of the world’s creation, and casting off all reverence, went off without fear into every fleshly uncleanness. And if anyone wishes to learn about these things, taking in hand the book composed about them by Irenaeus the Celt (or: of the Celt), entitled Against Knowledge Falsely So Called, he will find their sins—above all through Mark the most licentious, and the women corrupted by him—and the other unlawful deeds done by the rest, which one could not set forth even in writing, since they harm even through the memory. For those who, out of contempt, do not fear lordship—what wonder, if they went off without fear into every wickedness? The apostle Jude, the blessed one, will speak about these things more plainly, where he also makes mention of the body of Moses. For he himself now only struck upon it in passing, touching and at the same time breaking off the discourse about it. From him, then, and taking the occasions from the matters before us, they have made use of them.

⁵ Presumptuous, self-willed, they do not tremble to blaspheme glories. One must supply who they are. And they do not tremble at glories stands for contemptuously they are not afraid to blaspheme every glory.

⁶ Whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a blasphemous judgment before the Lord. Wishing to restrain them from their boldness in these matters, he says, Whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a blasphemous judgment before the Lord—saying the same as the blessed Jude, as we said; since he too, in chastising the loose talk of certain men, makes his admonition from the same example. More fully, however, in what he says: But Michael the archangel, and so forth, did not dare to bring a blasphemous judgment. Such a thing, then, Peter too wishes to say now: that these wretched men have nothing of restraint in blaspheming glories, whereas not even the angels themselves, being greater in power and strength—namely than these abominable men—do not bring, that is, do not put forward against them, concerning the glories, a blasphemous judgment before the Lord. For since the devil too partakes of some glory, by reason of being the first of God’s creation, the angel did not utter a blasphemous word against him. For if the one more worthy to be blasphemed—I mean the devil—nevertheless, because he partakes of glory, did not meet with this from Michael before the Lord, then those who readily blaspheme glories, being borne far behind the honor of the angels, could in no way be sober. By glories he means the divine powers, or also the ecclesiastical authorities, against whom these blasphemers continually set themselves.

⁷ But these, as irrational animals, born by nature for capture and corruption, blaspheming in the things they do not understand, shall utterly perish in their own corruption; receiving the wages of unrighteousness, counting it pleasure to revel in the daytime. Some expounded this thus: As irrational animals born by nature, they shall be corrupted in their own corruption—that is, differing in nothing from beasts, which came into being only for corruption. As irrational animals by nature—that is, living by sense alone, not by mind and the intellectual life; therefore also easily captured by the round of corruptible life, led and carried about by anger and lust. In the things they do not understand—that is, blaspheming in the ignorance proper to them—they shall be corrupted in the corruption they deserve, receiving the wages of unrighteousness, which they willingly procured for themselves. Counting it pleasure to revel in the daytime. That which is truly desirable, and the true and lovely gladness and pleasure, they place in the daily enjoyment of the gullet. One must note, however, that the divine Scripture, when it reproaches the things naturally present in men—that is, the things present as in animals—likens them to the irrational beasts, saying, Man, being in honor, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless beasts, and was made like them; and, Do not be as the horse and the mule; and, They became as lust-maddened stallions; and, Be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves; not transforming the natures by saying these things, but only exhorting men to turn aside their natural impulses. But when it commands something for salvation, it sends the likeness up to the better things; as, Be merciful, as your Father who is in heaven. Neither here does it transform the natures, but commands them to do this so far as their strength allows.

⁸ Spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceits while they feast together with us; having eyes full of an adulteress and of unceasing sin; enticing unsteadfast souls; having a heart trained in covetousness; children of a curse; who, forsaking the straight way, have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. But he had a rebuke for his own transgression: a dumb beast of burden, speaking with a man’s voice, restrained the madness of the prophet.[1] The sense, in order, is this: Spots and blemishes, having a heart trained in covetousness (that is, trained by covetousness), children of a curse, feasting together with you; having eyes full of an adulteress and of unceasing sin, they entice unsteadfast souls—whom Paul also called little women laden with sins; and these same men, forsaking the straight way, went the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, and so forth. Their voices are waterless springs, clouds vanishing away by the storm, and so forth. And for what cause is the gloom laid up for them unto the age to come? Because of their swollen vanity, by which they entice those who formerly were turned about in error, drawing them back into that very relapse—into licentiousness and into the lusts of the flesh—so that they return like a dog to its own vomit. The intervening clauses are declarations and confirmations of their vanity. And the sense is this: Having nothing that pertains to purity, but, like spots fastening on a clean garment, fastening on the unsullied way of life, when they have deceived some and have been able to make their companions and women licentious in other ways, they count the deed a delight, fulfilling their own licentiousness. And in feasting together with you, they do this not out of love, he says, nor for the sharing of bread, but because they find this an opportune time for their deceit toward women. For these, having eyes, look at nothing else but adulteresses; and looking and sinning unceasingly in this, as children of a curse, they entice unsteadfast souls. For their heart has been trained for nothing else but covetousness (that is, of licentiousness and of possessions, for the sake of which), having forsaken both these and the way that guides them to salvation, they went astray from it, suffering the same thing as Balaam the son of Bosor; since he too, for bribery and the wages of unrighteousness, loved these things. And he had as a rebuke of his own transgression a dumb beast of burden, which, speaking with a man’s voice, restrained the madness of the prophet. From this we learn that, because of his natural passion which Balaam fostered through his frenzied sorcery, having once been hindered by God, he was eager a second time, in contentiousness, to go to Balak; and being bound by the fear of God and by the terrors along the way, he did not pervert the word of blessing—which was not a matter of divination. For the prophets, knowing, utter what they utter. Therefore he also called him a prophet, as one who knew what he uttered. For he would not have been in the choice of the better things, being ignorant of what he uttered. The blessing, then, was not of divination, but of the power of God.[2]

⁹ These are waterless springs, clouds driven by a tempest, for whom the gloom of darkness is kept unto the age. For uttering swelling words of vanity, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, in licentious ways, those who were truly escaping from those who live in error. Promising them liberty, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whatever a man is overcome, to that he is also enslaved. Having digressed at length, in the course of which he brought forward the example of Balaam, he took up again the discourse concerning the unclean Gnostics. And he likens them to waterless springs, as having lost the pure and drinkable water of life that belongs to the preaching; but he also compares them to clouds driven by a wind—the wind of the adversary; therefore he also called it a tempest, as whirling about and confounding that which is driven. They are not, then, he says, translucent clouds, like the saints, but mists full of gloom; and as to why, he added the cause: that they utter swelling words out of vanity, enticing through fleshly lust, in licentious ways, those who had truly and once for all escaped the people who formerly lived in error, and had thereafter been brought under the Lord. But also, he says, being themselves slaves of the aforesaid uncleanness, which he justly calls also corruption, they promise liberty to those they deceive; therefore he adds a marvelous argument, that they are slaves of sin. For by whatever a man is overcome—by what passion—to that he is also enslaved. They themselves promise liberty to others. This will be known more fully through what follows.

¹⁰ For if, having escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returning to its own vomit, and a sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. By the foregoing he establishes two things: that the one overcome must of necessity serve the one who overcomes; and that those who, after the knowledge of the truth, are again held fast by their former ways, have fallen into evils worse than the former. And to these he adds the proverb as a witness. The discourse runs thus: For if, having escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome by them, they assuredly also serve them, and have become, in respect of slavery to them, worse than before the knowledge—Satan zealously striving to bring them round to worse things. Therefore the Apostle also says that, since this lies in store for those who sing the recantation of evils, it would have been better for them not to have known at all than, having known, to be taken in worse things; since a dog too, returning to its own vomit, is the more abominable, just as also a sow seeking to roll, when it does this in the mire, appears more filthy than its former filth.