2nd Peter Chapter 1 verse 14 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 14. - Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle; literally, knowing that swift is the putting off of my tabernacle. St. Peter may mean by these words either that his death was near at hand, or that, when it came, it would be sudden, a violent death, not a lengthened illness. So Bengel, "Qui diu aegrotant, possunt altos adhuc pascere. Crux id Petro non erat permisura. Ideo prius agit quod agendum est." Compare the use of the same word (ταχινή) in 2 Peter 2:1. St. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5:1-4, speaks, like St. Peter here, of putting off a tabernacle or tent as we talk of putting off a garment. Alford quotes Josephus, 'Ant.,' 4:08. 2, where Moses says, "Since I must depart from life, I have thought it right not even now to lay aside my zeal for your happiness." The word used here for "putting off" (ἀπόθεσις) is one of the links between the two Epistles; it occurs also in 1 Peter 3:21. Even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me; better, as in the Revised Version, signified unto me. The aorist points to a definite time. St. Peter is thinking of our Lord's prophecy, which St. John afterwards recorded (John 21:18); he could never forget that touching interview; he had already referred to it once in 1 Peter 5:2.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(14) Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle.--This is rather wide of the mark. Among English versions Wiclif alone is right. The meaning is, Knowing as I do that the putting off of my tabernacle will be done swiftly (comp. 2Peter 2:1)--i.e., will soon be over when it once begins. The point is not that the writer believes himself to be near his end, but that his end would be such as to allow of no deathbed exhortations; what he has to say must be said in good time, for Christ had told him that his death would be a violent one (John 21:18). Some of those who have taken the passage in the sense of the Authorised version have supposed a special revelation to be implied in the last half of the verse. But without any revelation an old man might know that his end must soon come; and Christ had already told him that it should come when he began to be old. "The putting off of my tabernacle" involves rather a mixture of metaphors; we have a similar mixture in Colossians 2:11. The word for "putting off" occurs nowhere but here and 1Peter 3:21; but the coincidence is not one on which much stress can be laid.Hath shewed me.--More strictly, shewed me. The substitution of perfect for aorist is here objectionable, as it obscures the reference to a definite moment in the Apostle's life. If the reference were to John 21:18, this would be at once fatal to the authenticity of our Epistle; for of course no part of St. John's Gospel, and least of all the last chapter, was written during the life of St. Peter. But if the reference be to the event narrated in John 21:18, then that narrative confirms what is said here, this being a prior and independent allusion to the same occurrence. In this case we have strong evidence of the authenticity of St. Peter. . . .