2nd Peter Chapter 2 verse 4 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 4. - For if God spared not the angels that sinned; rather, angels when they sinned ; there is no article. St. Peter is giving proofs of his assertion that the punishment of the ungodly lingereth not. The first is the punishment of angels that sinned. He does not specify the sin, whether rebellion, as in Revelation 12:7; or uncleanness, as apparently in Jude 1:6, 7, and Genesis 6:4. Formally, there is an anacoluthon here, but in thought we have the apodosis in verse 9. But cast them down to hell. The Greek word, which is found nowhere else in the Greek Scriptures, is ταρταρώσας, "having cast into Tartarus." This use of a word belonging to heathen mythology is very remarkable, and without parallel in the New Testament. (The word τάρταρος occurs in the Septuagint, Job 40:15. Compare also the Septuagint rendering of the name of Job's daughter Keren-Happuch, Ἀμαλθαίας κέρας, the horn of Amalthaea; and the word σειρῆνες in Isaiah 43:20.) Apparently, St. Peter regards Tartarus not as equivalent to Gehenna, for the sinful angels are "reserved unto judgment," but as a place of preliminary detention. Josephus, quoted by Professor Lumby in the 'Speaker's Commentary,' speaks of the oldest heathen gods as fettered in Tartarus, ἐν Ταρτάρῳ δεδεμένους ('Contra Apion,' 2:33). And delivered them into chains of darkness. The Revised Version "pits" represents the reading of the four oldest manuscripts; but the variations in two of them (the Sinaitic and Alexandrine have σειροῖς ζόφοις), and the fact that σειρός seems properly to mean a pit for the storage of corn, throw some doubt upon this reading. The other reading σειραῖς, cords, may possibly have arisen from the parallel passage in Jude 1:6, though the Greek word for "chains" is different there. The chains consist in darkness; the pits are in darkness, Παρέδωκε, delivered, is often used, as Huther remarks, with the implied idea of punishment. It is simpler to connect the chains or pits of darkness with this verb than (as Fronmuller and others) with ταρταρώσας, "having cast them in bonds of darkness into Tartarus" (comp. Wisd. 17:2, 16, 17). To be reserved unto judgment; literally, being reserved; but the readings here are very confused. St. Jude says (verse 6) that the sinful angels are reserved "unto the judgment of the great day." Bengel says, "Possunt autem in terra quoque versari mancipia Tartari (Luke 8:31; Ephesians 2:2; etc.) sic ut bello captus etiam extra locum captivitatis potest ambulare." But in the case of a mystery of which so little has been revealed, we are scarcely justified in assuming the identity of the angels cast into Tartarus with the evil spirits who tempt and harass us on earth.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(4-8) Three instances of divine vengeance, proving that great wickedness never goes unpunished.(4) For if God.--The sentence has no proper conclusion. The third instance of God's vengeance is so prolonged by the addition respecting Lot, that the apodosis is wanting, the writer in his eagerness having lost the thread of the construction. The three instances here are in chronological order (wanton angels, Flood, Sodom and Gomorrha), while those in Jude are not (unbelievers in the wilderness, impure angels, Sodom and Gomorrha). Both arrangements are natural--this as being chronological, that of St. Jude for reasons stated in the Notes there. (See on 2Peter 2:5.)The angels that sinned.--Better, the angels for their sin: it gives the reason why they were not spared, and points to some definite sin. What sin is meant? Not that which preceded the history of the human race, commonly called the fall of the angels--of that there is no record in the Old Testament; and, moreover, it affords no close analogy to the conduct of the false teachers. St. Jude is somewhat more explicit (Jude 1:6); he says it was for not keeping their own dignity--for deserting their proper home; and the reference, both there and here, is either to a common interpretation of Genesis 6:2 (that by "the sons of God" are meant "angels"), or, more probably, to distinct and frequent statements in the Book of Enoch, that certain angels sinned by having intercourse with women--e.g., Enoch vii. 1, 2; cv. 13 (Lawrence's translation). Not improbably these false teachers made use of this book, and possibly of these passages, in their corrupt teaching. Hence St. Peter uses it as an argumentum ad hominem against them, and St. Jude, recognising the allusion, adopts it and makes it more plain; or both writers, knowing the Book of Enoch well, and calculating on their readers knowing it also, used it to illustrate their arguments and exhortations, just as St. Paul uses the Jewish belief of the rock following the Israelites. (See Note on 1Corinthians 10:4.)Cast them down to hell.--The Greek word occurs nowhere else, but its meaning is plain--to cast down to Tartarus; and though "Tartarus" occurs neither in the Old nor in the New Testament, it probably is the same as Gehenna. (See Note on Matthew 5:22.) . . .