2 Peter 1:2 - Exposition

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you. The order of the words in the Greek is the same as in 1 Peter 1:2 . The exact correspondence should be noticed. The writer of the Second Epistle, if not St. Peter himself, must have been attempting to imitate of set purpose the opening salutation of the First Epistle. Through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord; rather, in the knowledge. The knowledge of God is the sphere in which grace and peace are communicated to the soul; they cannot be found outside that sphere. "Full knowledge" ( ἐπίγνωσις ) may be regarded as the key-note of this Epistle, as "hope" is of the first. ἐπίγνωσις is a stronger word than γνῶσις ; it means "knowledge" directed towards an object, gradually approaching nearer and nearer to it, concentrated upon it, fixed closely upon it. So it comes to mean the knowledge, not merely of intellectual apprehension, but rather of deep contemplation; the knowledge which implies love—for only love can concentrate continually the powers of the soul in close meditation upon its object.

Comp. 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 , where, after saying in 1 Corinthians 13:8 that "knowledge ( γνῶσις ) shall be done away," St. Paul continues, in 1 Corinthians 13:12 , "Now I know ( γινώσκω ) in part, but then I shall know ( ἐπιγνώσομαι ) even as also I am known ( ἐπεγνώσθην )." He contrasts our present imperfect knowledge with the full knowledge which the blessed will have in heaven, and which God now has of us, using the verb ἐπιγινώδκω of that fuller knowledge, as he had used γνῶσις of the imperfect knowledge. The word ἐπίγνωσις occurs several times in the Gospels, and is common in St. Paul's Epistles; it seems to imply a sort of protest against the knowledge that "puffeth up" ( 1 Corinthians 8:1 ), and especially against the knowledge "falsely so called" ( 1 Timothy 6:20 ), which was claimed by the false teachers, who were the precursors of the coming Gnosticism (comp. Colossians 1:9 , Colossians 1:10 ; Colossians 2:2 ; Colossians 3:10 ). St. Peter had learned mere of the doings of these false teachers since he wrote the First Epistle, and this may perhaps be a reason for his frequent use of the word ἐπίγνωσις in the second. "Jesus our Lord" is a variation of the more common form, such as "the Lord Jesus;" it occurs only here and in Romans 4:24 .