彼得后书 2
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Simplified)
假教师
2 以往曾经有假先知在百姓中出现，将来在你们中间也同样会有假教师出现。他们暗地里引进使人沉沦的异端邪说，甚至否认那位买赎他们的主。这些人正迅速地自招灭亡。 2 许多人会效法他们邪恶无耻的行为，致使真理之道被人毁谤。 3 他们贪婪成性，想用花言巧语在你们身上谋利。这种人的刑罚自古已经判定，他们很快就会灭亡。
4 即使天使犯了罪，上帝也没有容忍他们，而是把他们丢在地狱里，囚在幽暗的深坑等候审判。 5 上帝也没有容忍远古的世代，曾用洪水淹灭了世上不敬虔的恶人，只留下传讲上帝公义的挪亚和他的七位家人。 6 上帝也审判了所多玛和蛾摩拉，将二城毁灭，烧为灰烬，作为以后不敬虔之人的警戒。 7 祂只拯救了因恶人的淫乱放荡而忧伤的义人罗得， 8 因为义人罗得住在他们当中，天天耳闻目睹他们一切无法无天的丑行，他正直的心很痛苦。 9 上帝知道怎样拯救敬虔的人脱离试炼，把不义的人拘禁在刑罚之下，等候审判的日子， 10 尤其是那些放纵污秽的情欲、轻视权柄的人。他们胆大妄为，肆无忌惮地毁谤有尊荣的。 11 即使力量和权能更大的天使都不敢在主面前用毁谤的话控告有尊荣的。 12 但他们好像没有理性，生下来就是预备让人捉去宰杀的牲畜，连自己不懂的事也随口毁谤。他们在毁坏别人的时候，自己也必灭亡。 13 他们多行不义，必自食恶果。他们喜爱在大白天寻欢作乐，是你们中间的败类和渣滓，一面和你们同席，一面以欺骗为乐。 14 他们眼中充满淫欲，不停地犯罪，引诱那些信心不坚定的人。他们贪婪成性，实在是该受咒诅！ 15 他们离弃正道，走入歧途，重蹈比珥之子巴兰先知的覆辙。巴兰贪爱不义之财， 16 因自己的罪而受了责备。不能说话的驴竟然像人一样说起话来，制止了他狂妄的行为。
17 他们如同枯干的水井和被狂风吹散的雾气，有幽幽黑暗留给他们。 18 他们口出狂言，空话连篇，以肉体的邪情私欲为饵，诱惑那些刚刚摆脱了荒谬生活的人。 19 他们应许那些人可以得自由，而自己却做罪恶的奴隶，因为人被什么制服，就被什么奴役。
20 如果他们借着认识我们的主和救主耶稣基督，已经摆脱了世俗的污秽，但后来又被这些事缠住、俘虏了，他们的处境会比以前更糟糕。 21 他们明知道正路，却背弃了传给他们的神圣诫命，这样倒不如不知道的好。 22 俗语说得好：“狗转过身来，吃自己所吐的；猪洗干净了，又回到污泥里去打滚。”这些话正好用在他们身上。
2 Peter 2
New Catholic Bible
Warning against False Teachers[a]
Chapter 2
False Teachers Will Arise. 1 Just as there were false prophets who arose among the people, so there will be false teachers among you. They will introduce their disruptive views and even deny the very Master who redeemed them, thus bringing swift destruction on themselves.
2 Many will be seduced by their licentious ways, and because of these teachers the way of truth will be brought into disrepute. 3 In their greed they will exploit you with concocted stories.
The Condemnation of False Teachers. However, their condemnation has been hanging over them for a long time, and the destruction awaiting them does not slumber. 4 For God did not spare the angels who sinned, but he cast them into the dark abyss to be chained, where they are being held until the judgment.[b] 5 Nor did he spare the ancient world,[c] even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, one of eight, when he brought a flood upon the world with its godless people.
6 God also reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, thereby condemning them to total ruin and making them an example of what awaited the ungodly. 7 However, he rescued Lot, an upright man who was sickened by the licentiousness of the lawless society in which he lived 8 for that man was greatly tormented in his righteous soul by the crimes that he saw and about which he was told day after day.
9 Therefore, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials and to hold the wicked for punishment until the Day of Judgment. 10 Above all, he will punish those who succumb to the desires of their corrupt human nature and show no respect for authority.
The Ways of False Teachers. Bold and headstrong, they are not afraid to insult celestial beings, 11 whereas angels, despite their superior strength and power, do not bring slanderous accusations against such men in the Lord’s presence.[d] 12 These men are like wild beasts, mere creatures of instinct born to be caught and killed.
They pour abuse on things they do not understand, and in their corruption they also will be destroyed, 13 receiving the penalty[e] for doing wrong. They regard it as a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. While they share your table, they are ugly blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures.
14 They have eyes that are always on the trail of adultery, insatiable in their desire for sinful pursuits. They seduce unstable people, and their hearts are fixed on greed. Truly, they are an accursed brood.[f] 15 They have abandoned the straight path and have gone astray, following in the steps of Balaam, the son of Beor,[g] who loved to receive payment for wrongdoing. 16 However, he received a rebuke for his crime when a mute donkey spoke with a human voice and put a stop to the prophet’s madness.
17 Such people are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of darkness has been reserved. 18 They speak boastful words devoid of meaning, and by arousing licentious desires of the flesh they entice people who are just escaping from living in error.
19 They promise them freedom, although they themselves are slaves of depravity.[h] For people are slaves of whatever has mastered them. 20 If they have escaped the world’s defilements through coming to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then again become entangled and are overpowered, they are worse off in this latter state than they were before.
21 It would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back and abandon the holy commandment that was handed on to them. 22 What happened to them manifests the truth of the proverbs:
“The dog returns to its own vomit,”[i]
and
“The washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud.”
Footnotes
- 2 Peter 2:1 The portrait of the false teachers is drawn in living colors. They deny Christ and his salvation, disfigure the Gospel’s grand ideas about life, and seek their own profit and personal success. They “are not afraid to insult celestial beings” (v. 10)—either the angels or the evil powers whom they claim the right to judge although this right belongs to the Lord. The teachings of the Gnostics multiply theories about the heavenly beings. But these lofty speculations do not prevent them from being propagators of immorality; the author likens them to Balaam, who at this time had become the prototype of the false, venal, and corrupting teacher (see Num 22:2—24:25; Deut 23:5; Rev 2:14-15); all of their preaching focuses only on false freedom, enslavement, and degeneracy. Despite all this, these teachers of falsehood call themselves Christians.
The notice of their fate is severe. The author recalls the great chastisements of the past, the fall of the heavenly beings, the Flood, the unforgettable cursed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the story of Balaam. These illustrations are taken from ancient Biblical accounts (see Gen 6:1-2; 6:5—8:22; 19:1-29; Num 22:2—24:25).
Above all, the author wishes to exhort the believers to stand firm in their faith so that they will be spared on the day of judgment, as were Noah and Lot. Once in a while people have need of such efficacious admonition in order to take stock of their spiritual life. - 2 Peter 2:4 The Bible gives no details on the sin of the angels. The dark abyss or Tartus: the term used by the Greeks for the place where the most wicked spirits were imprisoned.
- 2 Peter 2:5 The ancient world: the world before the Flood.
- 2 Peter 2:11 In the Lord’s presence: some manuscripts have: “from the Lord.”
- 2 Peter 2:13 Receiving the penalty: some manuscripts have: “receiving a reward.” In their pleasures: some manuscripts have: “in their love feasts.”
- 2 Peter 2:14 Accursed brood: literally, “children of a curse.”
- 2 Peter 2:15 Balaam, the son of Beor: see Num 22–24. Even though God had forbidden Balaam to curse Israel, Balaam was intent on doing it because he wanted the money he had been promised by Balak. In the same way, the false teachers wanted to extract money from those who listened to them.
- 2 Peter 2:19 Freedom . . . depravity: the “scoffers” use “freedom” to divest themselves of the moral law. But it is faith in Christ that leads to good behavior and true freedom (see Rom 6:15; Jas 1:25; 1 Pet 2:16).
- 2 Peter 2:22 The dog . . . vomit: see Prov 26:11. The washed . . . mud: its source is unknown. The dog that returns to its own vomit and the sow that is washed portray people who have made a religious profession or outward change without an inner change that affects their nature. They soon return to their true nature.
Chinese Contemporary Bible Copyright © 1979, 2005, 2007, 2011 by Biblica® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
