2 Peter 1 — Greek text and reception
Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.
Chapter 1
Growth, remembrance, and the prophetic word
Greeting and the gift of faith
Verse 1:1
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Simeon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of equal honor with ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: G spells the first name Symeōn, rendered Simeon. The shared article connects God and Savior in one designation of Jesus Christ. Equal honor concerns the faith received. Reception [C01]: Calvin, on 1:1, understands equal preciousness as sharing the same Christ and salvation despite differing measures of faith.
Verse 1:2
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Divine promises and growth in virtue
Verse 1:3
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Since His divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of the One who called us by His own glory and excellence,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: “His own glory and excellence” follows G. The exact divine antecedent of the opening pronoun is not restated as a new proper name. Reception [C01]: Calvin, on 1:3, treats life and godliness as gifts of spiritual renewal and attributes their beginning to God's call.
Verse 1:4
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
through these He has granted us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become participants in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through desire.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: G has “granted us” followed by “you may become”; the change of person remains. Reception [ATH]: Athanasius, Letter to Adelphius 60.4, explicitly cites participation in divine nature in his account of the incarnate Word's deifying work. This is theological reception, not additional Greek wording.
Verse 1:5
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And for this very reason, bringing every effort to bear, supply excellence in your faith, and knowledge in excellence,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: The repeated “in” retains the linked construction, without making one quality replace another. Every effort is explicitly called for. Reception [C02]: Calvin, on 1:5–7, reads the virtues as inseparable companions of faith, not a strict sequence in which one causes the next.
Verse 1:6
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and self-control in knowledge, and endurance in self-control, and godliness in endurance,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: The linked enkrateia (self-control), hypomonē (endurance), and eusebeia (godliness) continue the same repeated “in” construction; no rung replaces the preceding quality. Reception [C02]: Calvin's discussion under 1:5 within 1:5–9 includes self-restraint and endurance among faith's necessary companions; he does not give 1:6 a separate exposition.
Verse 1:7
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and brotherly love in godliness, and love in brotherly love.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: Philadelphia, brotherly love, and agapē, love, are separately named. Their repeated links continue the virtue sequence without forcing mutually exclusive meanings. Reception [C02]: Calvin, under 1:5 within 1:5–9, distinguishes affection among God's children from love extending to all humanity.
Verse 1:8
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For if these things are yours and abound, they make you neither idle nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: Hyparchonta and pleonazonta describe these qualities as present and increasing. Argous and akarpous deny both inactivity and fruitlessness in knowing Christ. Reception [C02]: Calvin, on 1:8, takes fruitful conduct and continued growth as the expression of genuinely knowing Christ.
Verse 1:9
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For the person who lacks these things is blind, being shortsighted, having forgotten the cleansing of his former sins.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: Both blind and shortsighted are retained despite their compressed combination. Cleansing is something forgotten, not denied as having occurred. Reception [C02]: Calvin, on 1:9, warns that professed faith without a changed life forgets Christ's cleansing; he does not claim believers never sin.
Verse 1:10
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election firm, for if you do these things, you will certainly never stumble.
Verse 1:11
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For in this way entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly supplied to you.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: The supplied entrance echoes the supplying of virtues in verse five; the kingdom is explicitly eternal. Reception [C03]: Calvin, in the paragraph on entrance following 1:10, understands God as continually supplying grace throughout the journey into Christ's kingdom.
Remembrance before departure
Verse 1:12
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth that is present with you.
Verse 1:13
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And I consider it right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by way of reminder,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: Skēnōma means a tent or dwelling; the writer uses it for his present embodied life. Diegeirein, stir up, links the reminder with awakening. Reception [C03]: Calvin, on 1:13, applies the tent's brevity to diligent ministry and gentle reminders that counter spiritual drowsiness.
Verse 1:14
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
knowing that the putting off of my tent is soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ also made clear to me.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: “Soon” renders tachinē; “swift” is possible. The disclosure by Christ is stated without inserting a reconstructed occasion or quotation. Reception [C03]: Calvin, on 1:14, reads putting off the tent as departure toward enduring life, distinguishing death from final ruin.
Verse 1:15
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And I will also make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to call these things to mind.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: Departure renders exodos, continuing the expectation of death without replacing the metaphor with a different noun. Reception [C03]: Calvin's concluding paragraph on 1:14–15 says apostolic teaching continues to benefit later readers after its teacher's death; this is a passage-level comment.
Eyewitness testimony and prophecy
Verse 1:16
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we became eyewitnesses of His majesty.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: The text changes to “we.” Power and coming remain separate, and the claim is explicitly to eyewitness experience. Reception [C04]: Calvin, on 1:16, contrasts apostolic testimony to experienced events with fabricated speculation and urges teachers to know what they proclaim.
Verse 1:17
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For He received honor and glory from God the Father when a voice such as this was borne to Him by the Majestic Glory: “This is My Son, My Beloved, in whom I have taken pleasure”—
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: G repeats “My,” with Son and Beloved. Majestic Glory remains a designation in its own right rather than being replaced by a noun for a cloud or place. Reception [C04]: Calvin, on 1:17, reads the heavenly declaration as identifying Jesus with the promised Messiah and locating the Father's love in His Son.
Verse 1:18
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and we ourselves heard this voice borne from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
Verse 1:19
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And we have the prophetic word more firmly established, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: The comparative “more firm” remains. Whether the eyewitness event confirms the prophetic word or the word is compared with the event is not decided by adding an explanatory clause. Reception [C05, BUN]: Calvin, on 1:19, takes prophecy as a guide throughout present life. Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress I, Evangelist's guiding-light scene (§17), offers an allegorical association also linked to Psalm 119:105; the displayed verse labels are editorial.
Verse 1:20
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
knowing this first: that no prophecy of Scripture arises from one's own interpretation.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: The negative applies to every prophecy. “One's own” preserves idias without identifying the person as exclusively the prophet or a later reader; the following verse addresses the source of prophecy. Reception [C05]: Calvin, on 1:20, prefers the sense that prophecy did not originate in human suggestions, while also commending humble, Spirit-guided interpretation.
Verse 1:21
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For prophecy was never borne along by human will, but human beings spoke from God as they were borne along by the Holy Spirit.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: G has people speaking “from God,” not an added adjective holy describing those people. The repeated bearing verb connects human speech with the Spirit's action. Reception [C05]: Calvin, on 1:21, portrays prophets as obedient speakers under the Spirit's direction, not as people deprived of their minds.