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Title: The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Book 68: 2 Peter

Release date: June 1, 2005 [eBook #8368]
                Most recently updated: December 26, 2020

Language: English



*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIBLE, DOUAY-RHEIMS, BOOK 68: 2 PETER ***




This eBook was produced by David Widger
from etext #1581 prepared by Dennis McCarthy, Atlanta, Georgia
and Tad Book, student, Pontifical North American College, Rome.





THE HOLY BIBLE




Translated from the Latin Vulgate


Diligently Compared with the Hebrew, Greek,
and Other Editions in Divers Languages


THE OLD TESTAMENT
First Published by the English College at Douay
A.D. 1609 & 1610

and

THE NEW TESTAMENT
First Published by the English College at Rheims
A.D. 1582


With Annotations


The Whole Revised and Diligently Compared with
the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner
A.D. 1749-1752





THE SECOND EPISTLE OF ST. PETER THE APOSTLE

In this Epistle St. Peter says (chap, 3): Behold this second Epistle I
write to you: and before (chap. 1,): Being assured that the laying away
of this my tabernacle is at hand. This shews, that it was written a very
short time before his martyrdom, which was about thirty-five years after
our Lord's Ascension. In this Epistle he admonishes the faithful to be
mindful of the great gifts they received from God and to join all other
virtues with their faith. He warns them against false teachers, by
describing their practices and foretelling their punishments. He
describes the dissolution of this world by fire and the day of judgment.


2 Peter Chapter 1

He exhorts them to join all other virtues with their faith, in order to
secure their salvation.

1:1. Simon Peter, servant and apostle of Jesus Christ: to them that have
obtained equal faith with us in the justice of our God and Saviour Jesus
Christ.

1:2. Grace to you and peace be accomplished in the knowledge of God and
of Christ Jesus our Lord.

1:3. As all things of his divine power which appertain to life and
godliness are given us through the knowledge of him who hath called us
by his own proper glory and virtue.

1:4. By whom he hath given us most great and precious promises: that by
these you may be made partakers of the divine nature: flying the
corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world.

1:5. And you, employing all care, minister in your faith, virtue: And in
virtue, knowledge:

1:6. And in knowledge, abstinence: and in abstinence, patience: and in
patience, godliness:

1:7. And in godliness, love of brotherhood: and in love of brotherhood,
charity.

1:8. For if these things be with you and abound, they will make you to
be neither empty nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ.

1:9. For he that hath not these things with him is blind and groping,
having forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

1:10. Wherefore, brethren, labour the more, that by good works you may
make sure your calling and election. For doing these things, you shall
not sin at any time.

1:11. For so an entrance shall be ministered to you abundantly into the
ever-lasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

1:12. For which cause, I will begin to put you always in remembrance of
these things: though indeed you know them and are confirmed in the
present truth.

1:13. But I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir
you up by putting you in remembrance.

1:14. Being assured that the laying away of this my tabernacle is at
hand, according as our Lord Jesus Christ also hath signified to me.

1:15. And I will endeavour that you frequently have after my decease
whereby you may keep a memory of these things.

1:16. For we have not by following artificial fables made known to you
the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ: but we were
eyewitnesses of his greatness.

1:17. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, this voice
coming down to him from the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him.

1:18. And this voice, we heard brought from heaven, when we were with
him in the holy mount.

1:19. And we have the more firm prophetical word: whereunto you do well
to attend, as to a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day
dawn and the day star arise in your hearts.

1:20. Understanding this first: That no prophecy of scripture is made by
private interpretation.

No prophecy of scripture is made by private interpretation...  This
shows plainly that the scriptures are not to be expounded by any one's
private judgment or private spirit, because every part of the holy
scriptures were written by men inspired by the Holy Ghost, and declared
as such by the Church; therefore they are not to be interpreted but by
the Spirit of God, which he hath left, and promised to remain with his
Church to guide her in all truth to the end of the world. Some may tell
us, that many of our divines interpret the scriptures: they may do so,
but they do it always with a submission to the judgment of the Church,
and not otherwise.

1:21. For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time: but the holy
men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Ghost.

2 Peter Chapter 2

He warns them against false teachers and foretells their punishment.

2:1. But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there
shall be among you lying teachers who shall bring in sects of perdition
and deny the Lord who bought them: bringing upon themselves swift
destruction.

Seeds of perdition... That is, heresies destructive of salvation.

2:2. And many shall follow their riotousness, through whom the way of
truth shall be evil spoken of.

2:3. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make
merchandise of you. Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not: and
their perdition slumbereth not.

2:4. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them,
drawn down by infernal ropes to the lower hell, unto torments, to be
reserved unto judgment:

2:5. And spared not the original world, but preserved Noe, the eighth
person, the preacher of justice, bringing in the flood upon the world of
the ungodly.

2:6. And reducing the cities of the Sodomites and of the Gomorrhites
into ashes, condemned them to be overthrown, making them an example to
those that should after act wickedly,

2:7. And delivered just Lot, oppressed by the injustice and lewd
conversation of the wicked:

2:8. For in sight and hearing he was just, dwelling among them who from
day to day vexed the just soul with unjust works.

2:9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly from temptation, but to
reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be tormented:

2:10. And especially them who walk after the flesh in the lust of
uncleanness and despise government: audacious, self willed, they fear
not to bring in sects, blaspheming.

2:11. Whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, bring not
against themselves a railing judgment.

Bring not a railing judgment, etc... That is, they use no railing, nor
cursing sentence; not even in their conflicts with the evil angels. See
St. Jude, ver. 9.

2:12. But these men, as irrational beasts, naturally tending to the
snare and to destruction, blaspheming those things which they know not,
shall perish in their corruption:

2:13. Receiving the reward of their injustice, counting for a pleasure
the delights of a day: stains and spots, sporting themselves to excess,
rioting in their feasts with you:

The delights of a day: that is, the short delights of this world, in
which they place all their happiness.

2:14. Having eyes full of adultery and of sin that ceaseth not: alluring
unstable souls: having their heart exercised with covetousness: children
of malediction.

2:15. Leaving the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the
way of Balaam of Bosor who loved the wages of iniquity,

2:16. But had a check of his madness, the dumb beast used to the yoke,
which, speaking with man's voice, forbade the folly of the prophet.

2:17. These are fountains without water and clouds tossed with
whirlwinds, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved.

2:18. For, speaking proud words of vanity, they allure by the desires of
fleshly riotousness those who for a little while escape, such as
converse in error:

2:19. Promising them liberty, whereas they themselves are the slaves of
corruption. For by whom a man is overcome, of the same also he is the
slave.

2:20. For if, flying from the pollutions of the world, through the
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they be again entangled
in them and overcome: their latter state is become unto them worse than
the former.

2:21. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of
justice than, after they have known it, to turn back from that holy
commandment which was delivered to them.

2:22. For, that of the true proverb has happened to them: The dog is
returned to his vomit; and: The sow that was washed to her wallowing in
the mire.

2 Peter Chapter 3

Against scoffers denying the second coming of Christ. He declares the
sudden dissolution of this world and exhorts to holiness of life.

3:1. Behold this second epistle I write to you, my dearly beloved, in
which, I stir up by way of admonition your sincere mind:

3:2. That you may be mindful of those words which I told you before from
the holy prophet and of your apostles, of the precepts of the Lord and
Saviour.

3:3. Knowing this first: That in the last days there shall come
deceitful scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

3:4. Saying: Where is his promise or his coming? For since the time that
the fathers slept, all things continue as they were from the beginning
of the creation.

3:5. For this they are wilfully ignorant of: That the heavens were
before, and the earth out of water and through water, consisting by the
word of God:

3:6. Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water,
perished.

3:7. But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are
kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and
perdition of the ungodly men.

3:8. But of this one thing be not ignorant, my beloved, that one day
with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

3:9. The Lord delayeth not his promise, as some imagine, but dealeth
patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that
all should return to penance,

3:10. But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the
heavens shall pass away with great violence and the elements shall be
melted with heat and the earth and the works which are in it shall be
burnt up.

3:11. Seeing then that all these things are to be dissolved, what manner
of people ought you to be in holy conversation and godliness?

3:12. Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of the Lord, by
which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements
shall melt with the burning heat?

3:13. But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to his
promises, in which justice dwelleth.

3:14. Wherefore, dearly beloved, waiting for these things, be diligent
that you may be found before him unspotted and blameless in peace.

3:15. And account the longsuffering of our Lord, salvation: as also our
most dear brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, hath written
to you:

3:16. As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in
which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and
unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own
destruction.

3:17. You therefore, brethren, knowing these things before, take heed,
lest being led aside by the error of the unwise, you fall from your own
steadfastness.

3:18. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and unto the day of eternity,
Amen.







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