2 Peter 1:16 - Exposition

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables; rather, did not follow. The participle ( ἐξακολουθήσαντες ) is aorist. This compound verb is used only by St. Peter in the New Testament; we find it again in 2 Peter 2:2 and 2 Peter 2:15 . Bengel and others have thought that the preposition ἐξ , from or out of, implies wandering from the truth after false guides; but probably the word merely means "to follow closely," though in this case the guides were going astray. Perhaps the use of the plural number is accounted for by the fact that St. Peter was not the only witness of the glory of the Transfiguration; he associates in thought his two brother-apostles with himself. The word μῦθοι , fables, with this exception, occurs in the New Testament only in St. Paul's pastoral Epistles. There is a remarkable parallel in the procemium of the 'Antiquities' of Josephus, sect. 4, οἱ μεν ἄλλοι νομοθέται τοῖς μύθοις ἐξακολουθήσαντες . St. Peter may be referring to the "Jewish fables" mentioned by St. Paul ( Titus 1:14 ), or to the stories about the heathen gods such as those in Hesiod and Ovid, or possibly to some early inventions, such as those ascribed to Simon the Sorcerer, which were afterwards to be developed into the strange fictions of Gnosticism. The word rendered "cunningly devised" occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in 2 Timothy 3:15 ; but there a different part of the verb is used, and in a different sense. When we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Peter can scarcely be referring to St. Paul or other missionaries, as the following words identify the preachers with the witnesses of the Transfiguration; he must be alluding either to his First Epistle, or to personal teaching of his which has not been recorded, or, just possibly, to the Gospel of St. Mk. St. Peter had seen the power of the Lord Jesus manifested in his miracles; he had heard the announcement of the risen Saviour, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth;" he had, like the rest of the apostles, been "endued with power from on high." By the coming ( παρουσία ) he must mean the second advent, the invariable meaning of the word in Holy Scripture. But were eye-witnesses of his majesty. The word for "eye-witnesses" is not the common one ( αὐτόπται , used by St. Luke 1:2 ), but a technical word ( ἐπόπται ), which in classical Greek designates the highest class of those who had been initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries. The choice of such a word may possibly imply that St. Peter regarded himself and his brother-apostles as having received the highest initiation into the mysteries of religion. The noun is found only here in the New Testament; but the corresponding verb occurs in 1 Peter 2:12 and 1 Peter 3:2 , and in no other of the New Testament writers. Here again we have an undesigned coincidence which points to identity of authorship. The word for "majesty" ( μεγαλειότης ) occurs in St. Luke's description of the healing of the demoniac boy immediately after the Transfiguration ( Luke 9:43 ), and elsewhere only in Acts 19:27 .