2 Peter 3:16

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

speaking of these things in all his letters. Some things in these letters are hard to understand, things the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Ὡς καὶ ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἐπιστολαῖς, λαλῶν ἐν αὐταῖς περὶ τούτων· ἐν οἷς ἐστιν δυσνόητά τινα, ἃ οἱ ἀμαθεῖς καὶ ἀστήρικτοι στρεβλοῦσιν, ὡς καὶ τὰς λοιπὰς γραφὰς, πρὸς τὴν ἰδίαν αὐτῶν ἀπώλειαν.

Transliteration

As also in all the epistolais, lalōn in them about these; in which estin dysnoēta some, which the amatheis and astēriktoi strebloustin, as also the loipas graphas, toward the idian of-them apōleian.

Grammar Details

• *epistolais*: dative, feminine, plural - letters/epistles
• *lalōn*: present active participle, nominative, masculine, singular - speaking/talking
• *estin*: present active indicative, 3rd person singular - is/are
• *dysnoēta*: nominative, neuter, plural - hard to understand/difficult
• *amatheis*: nominative, masculine, plural - ignorant/unlearned
• *astēriktoi*: nominative, masculine, plural - unstable/unsteadfast
• *strebloustin*: present active indicative, 3rd person plural - distort/twist
• *loipas*: accusative, feminine, plural - remaining/other
• *graphas*: accusative, feminine, plural - writings/scriptures
• *idian*: accusative, feminine, singular - own/personal
• *apōleian*: accusative, feminine, singular - destruction/ruin

Word Meanings

• *epistolais*: letters/epistles/written communications
• *lalōn*: speaking/talking/discussing
• *estin*: is/are/exist
• *dysnoēta*: hard to understand/difficult/complex
• *amatheis*: ignorant/unlearned/untaught
• *astēriktoi*: unstable/unsteadfast/not firmly established
• *strebloustin*: distort/twist/pervert
• *loipas*: remaining/other/rest of
• *graphas*: writings/scriptures/sacred texts
• *idian*: own/personal/private
• *apōleian*: destruction/ruin/perdition

Referenced Verses

• 2 Pet 2:14 : 14 Their eyes, full of adultery, never stop sinning; they entice unstable people. They have trained their hearts for greed, these cursed children!
• Heb 5:11 : 11 The Need to Move on to Maturity On this topic we have much to say and it is difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish in hearing.
• Matt 15:6 : 6 he does not need to honor his father.’ You have nullified the word of God on account of your tradition.
• Jer 23:36 : 36 You must no longer say that the LORD’s message is burdensome. For what is‘burdensome’ really pertains to what a person himself says. You are misrepresenting the words of our God, the living God, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.
• Hab 1:4 : 4 For this reason the law lacks power, and justice is never carried out. Indeed, the wicked intimidate the innocent. For this reason justice is perverted.
• Matt 15:3 : 3 He answered them,“And why do you disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition?
• Jude 1:4 : 4 For certain men have secretly slipped in among you– men who long ago were marked out for the condemnation I am about to describe– ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
• Jas 1:8 : 8 since he is a double-minded individual, unstable in all his ways.
• 1 Pet 1:1 : 1 ¶ Salutation From Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those temporarily residing abroad(in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the province of Asia, and Bithynia) who are chosen
• 1 Pet 2:8 : 8 and a stumbling-stone and a rock to trip over. They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
• 2 Pet 2:1 : 1 The False Teachers’ Ungodly Lifestyle But false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. These false teachers will infiltrate your midst with destructive heresies, even to the point of denying the Master who bought them. As a result, they will bring swift destruction on themselves.
• Matt 22:29 : 29 Jesus answered them,“You are deceived, because you don’t know the scriptures or the power of God.
• Rom 8:1-9 : 1 The Believer’s Relationship to the Holy Spirit There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. 6 For the outlook of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness. 11 Moreover if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you. 12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh 13 (for if you live according to the flesh, you will die), but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry,“Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 And if children, then heirs(namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ)– if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him. 18 For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the coming glory that will be revealed to us. 19 For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility– not willingly but because of God who subjected it– in hope 21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now. 23 Not only this, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God’s will. 28 And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, 29 because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified. 31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all– how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is the one who will condemn? Christ is the one who died(and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,“For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• 1 Cor 15:1-9 : 1 Christ’s Resurrection Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you– unless you believed in vain. 3 For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received– that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as though to one born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been in vain. In fact, I worked harder than all of them– yet not I, but the grace of God with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, this is the way we preach and this is the way you believed. 12 No Resurrection? Now if Christ is being preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is futile and your faith is empty. 15 Also, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified against God that he raised Christ from the dead, when in reality he did not raise him, if indeed the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is useless; you are still in your sins. 18 Furthermore, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have also perished. 19 For if only in this life we have hope in Christ, we should be pitied more than anyone. 20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man. 22 For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; then when Christ comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he has brought to an end all rule and all authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be eliminated is death. 27 For he has put everything in subjection under his feet. But when it says“everything” has been put in subjection, it is clear that this does not include the one who put everything in subjection to him. 28 And when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all. 29 Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they baptized for them? 30 Why too are we in danger every hour? 31 Every day I am in danger of death! This is as sure as my boasting in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32 If from a human point of view I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what did it benefit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. 33 Do not be deceived:“Bad company corrupts good morals.” 34 Sober up as you should, and stop sinning! For some have no knowledge of God– I say this to your shame! 35 The Resurrection Body But someone will say,“How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 Fool! What you sow will not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare seed– perhaps of wheat or something else. 38 But God gives it a body just as he planned, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. 39 All flesh is not the same: People have one flesh, animals have another, birds and fish another. 40 And there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. The glory of the heavenly body is one sort and the earthly another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory. 42 It is the same with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So also it is written,“The first man, Adam, became a living person”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man is from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 Like the one made of dust, so too are those made of dust, and like the one from heaven, so too those who are heavenly. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, let us also bear the image of the man of heaven. 50 Now this is what I am saying, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I will tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed– 52 in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 Now when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will happen,“Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! 58 So then, dear brothers and sisters, be firm. Do not be moved! Always be outstanding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
• Phil 3:19 : 19 Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they think about earthly things.
• 1 Thess 4:1-5 : 1 A Life Pleasing to God Finally then, brothers and sisters, we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us about how you must live and please God(as you are in fact living) that you do so more and more. 2 For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is God’s will: that you become holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality, 4 that each of you know how to possess his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God.
• 2 Tim 3:5-7 : 5 They will maintain the outward appearance of religion but will have repudiated its power. So avoid people like these. 6 For some of these insinuate themselves into households and captivate weak women who are overwhelmed with sins and led along by various passions. 7 Such women are always seeking instruction, yet never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
• Gen 49:4 : 4 You are destructive like water and will not excel, for you got on your father’s bed, then you defiled it– he got on my couch!
• Exod 23:2 : 2 “You must not follow a crowd in doing evil things; in a lawsuit you must not offer testimony that agrees with a crowd so as to pervert justice,
• Exod 23:6 : 6 “You must not turn away justice for your poor people in their lawsuits.
• Deut 16:19 : 19 You must not pervert justice or show favor. Do not take a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and distort the words of the righteous.
• 1 Kgs 10:1 : 1 Solomon Entertains a Queen When the queen of Sheba heard about Solomon, she came to challenge him with difficult questions.
• 2 Kgs 1:1-9 : 1 ¶ Elijah Confronts the King and His Commanders After Ahab died, Moab rebelled against Israel. 2 Ahaziah fell through a window lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria and was injured. He sent messengers with these orders,“Go, ask Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, if I will survive this injury.” 3 But the LORD’s angel told Elijah the Tishbite,“Get up, go to meet the messengers from the king of Samaria. Say this to them:‘You must think there is no God in Israel! That explains why you are on your way to seek an oracle from Baal Zebub the god of Ekron. 4 Therefore this is what the LORD has said,“You will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die!”’” So Elijah went on his way. 5 When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them,“Why have you returned?” 6 They replied,“A man came up to meet us. He told us,“Go back to the king who sent you and tell him,‘This is what the LORD has said:“You must think there is no God in Israel! That explains why you are sending for an oracle from Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron. Therefore you will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die.”’” 7 The king asked them,“Describe the appearance of this man who came up to meet you and told you these things.” 8 They replied,“He was a hairy man and had a leather belt tied around his waist.” The king said,“He is Elijah the Tishbite.” 9 The king sent a captain and his fifty soldiers to retrieve Elijah. The captain went up to him, while he was sitting on the top of a hill. He told him,“Prophet, the king says,‘Come down!’” 10 Elijah replied to the captain,“If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!” Fire then came down from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers. 11 The king sent another captain and his fifty soldiers to retrieve Elijah. He went up and told him,“Prophet, this is what the king says,‘Come down at once!’” 12 Elijah replied to them,“If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!” Fire from God came down from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers. 13 The king sent a third captain and his fifty soldiers. This third captain went up and fell on his knees before Elijah. He begged for mercy,“Prophet, please have respect for my life and for the lives of these fifty servants of yours. 14 Indeed, fire came down from the sky and consumed the two captains who came before me, along with their men. So now, please have respect for my life.” 15 The LORD’s angel said to Elijah,“Go down with him. Don’t be afraid of him.” So he got up and went down with him to the king. 16 Elijah said to the king,“This is what the LORD has said,‘You sent messengers to seek an oracle from Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron. Is it because there is no God in Israel from whom you can seek a message? Therefore you will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die.’” 17 And he did die in keeping with the LORD’s message that he had spoken through Elijah. In the second year of the reign of King Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat over Judah, Ahaziah’s brother Jehoram replaced him as king of Israel, because he had no son. 18 The rest of the events of Ahaziah’s reign, including his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel.
• Ps 56:5 : 5 All day long they cause me trouble; they make a habit of plotting my demise.