What Does 2 Peter 2:11 Mean?
Whereas messengers, greater in strength and power, do not carry a judgment of harm against them before the Lord.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.THE KEY
Even beings greater in power treat strength as no license to pronounce a slanderous verdict before the Lord.
THE MEANING
The verse shows beings greater in power and might withholding slanderous judgment against others before the Lord. Their strength does not turn accusation into a rightful verdict; the matter remains in the Lord’s presence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that greater strength or spiritual standing makes a condemning accusation harmless before God.
THE ROOT
κρίσιν
krisin
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
To separate, distinguish, decide, or judge.
The noun translated “accusation” belongs to the word family of deciding and judging: the verse describes restraint from issuing a slanderous verdict, not merely from using harsh phrasing. Its branches name the judge and the judgment, holding speaker, decision, and verdict within one word-family.
ALSO GROWS
kritēs: A judge; one who makes a decision.
κριτής
The judge is the one who carries out the act of discernment, making clear that this word-family concerns authority to decide.
krisis: Judgment or decision.
κρίσις
This is the noun form for judgment itself, showing how closely the verse’s “accusation” is bound to the act of rendering a verdict.
THE PATTERN
Accusatory judgment is restrained and left in the Lord’s hands.
Yet Michael, the chief messenger, when contending with the Slanderer, argued about the body of Moses, did not dare to lift a judgment of reviling against him, but said, "Let the LORD rebuke you."Do not speak down against one another, brothers. The one who speaks down against a brother, or judges his brother, speaks down against the instruction and judges it. But if you judge it, you are not a doer of the instruction, but a judge.And the LORD said to the Adversary, May the LORD roar against you, and may the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem roar against you. Is this not a stick snatched from the fire?THE THREAD
Yet Michael, the chief messenger, when contending with the Slanderer, argued about the body of Moses, did not dare to lift a judgment of reviling against him, but said, "Let the LORD rebuke you."Jude uses the same language of bringing a railing judgment, making the link between the verses unusually direct. Together they show restraint from issuing a condemning verdict and leave the rebuke with the Lord.
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