World English Bible · Under Rome
2 Peter 2
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
But false also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift . Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, of the truth will be maligned. In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn't linger, and their will not slumber. For if didn't spare when they , but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of to be reserved for ; and didn't spare the ancient world, but preserved with seven others, a preacher of , when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of and into , condemned them to , having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way, and , who was very distressed by the lustful life of (for that man dwelling among them was tormented in his from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds), then knows how to the godly out of and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of , but chiefly those who walk after in the of defilement and despise . Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas , though greater in might and , don't bring a slanderous against them before . But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed, receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you; having eyes full of , and who can't cease from , enticing unsettled , having a trained in greed, children! Forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed of the son of , who loved the wages of wrongdoing; but he was rebuked for his own . A speechless donkey spoke with a man's voice and stopped the madness of the . These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm, for whom the blackness of has been reserved . For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of , by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error; promising them , while they themselves are of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him. For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of and , they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known of , than after knowing it, to from the to them. But it has happened to them according to the true , "The dog turns to his own vomit again," and "the sow that has washed to wallowing in the mire."
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under Rome, 63 BC to AD 100 ›
Judea as a client kingdom and then a province. Roads, garrisons, taxes, crucifixion, and a common Greek language that let a message travel the empire faster than any before it.
- Rome
- The republic tears itself apart in civil war and comes out as an empire under Augustus. What follows is two centuries of relative peace across the whole Mediterranean, enforced by legions and paid for by taxes, with safe roads and safe sea lanes. Every one of Paul's journeys depends on that.
- Judea
- Governed first through Herod the Great, a client king of enormous ability and enormous brutality who rebuilds the temple into one of the wonders of the ancient world, then directly by Roman prefects. Crucifixion is the standard penalty for sedition and is used often and publicly.
- The wider world
- Greek is spoken from Spain to Syria, which means a letter written in Corinth can be read in Rome without translation. Jewish communities already exist in most major cities, which is where the first Christian preaching lands. Mystery religions, imperial cult, and philosophy all compete in the same marketplace.
- Further afield
- The Han dynasty rules China and trades silk westward along routes that touch the Roman world at second hand. In Britain the Roman conquest begins within a decade of the crucifixion.