What Does 2 Peter 3:2 Mean?
That you may remember the words spoken before by the set-apart prophets, and the command of us the sent ones of the Lord and deliverer.
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
That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:THE KEY
Remembering is where the prophets’ words and the apostles’ command meet you in the present.
THE MEANING
The prophets’ words spoken beforehand and the apostles’ command stand together in your awareness now. Remembering keeps them present to you, and their source remains the Lord and Deliverer named here.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that words spoken beforehand have become inert or irrelevant; the verse presents remembering as how they remain present now.
THE ROOT
μνησθῆναι
mnēsthēnai
GROWS FROM
μνη- (mnē-, the memory family of μιμνῄσκομαι, mimnēskomai)
To remember, recall, or call to mind.
The form here means “that you may remember,” holding the prophets’ speech and the apostles’ command in the mind together now. This memory-family makes the verse’s central action a keeping-present: earlier words remain active in the mind.
ALSO GROWS
mnēmē: Memory, remembrance.
μνήμη
This related word shows the same root returning as memory that holds something present.
mnēmoneuō: Remember, keep in mind.
μνημονεύω
This branch makes explicit the ongoing keeping-in-mind carried by “mindful.”
ἀποστόλων
apostolōn
GROWS FROM
ἀποστέλλω
apostellō
To send out or dispatch.
“apostles” in this verse is apostolōn. The title carries motion: these are people sent out with the Lord’s command. Remembered speech comes through a chain of sending as well as through memory.
ALSO GROWS
apostellō: Send out, dispatch.
ἀποστέλλω
This verb carries the sending within the title “apostles.”
apostolos: Sent one, emissary.
ἀπόστολος
The verse’s “us the apostles” identifies the command’s carriers as people sent out.
σωτῆρος
sōtēros
GROWS FROM
σωζ-
sōzō family
To deliver, rescue, bring out to safety.
The title identifies the Lord through deliverance. The same word-family holds the deliverer and deliverance together, so the remembered command comes from the one whose nature is to bring out.
ALSO GROWS
sōzō: Deliver, rescue.
σῴζω
The verb names the action carried in the title “Saviour.”
sōtēria: Deliverance.
σωτηρία
This noun names the movement associated with the Deliverer.
THE PATTERN
Words spoken before remain present through remembrance and inward keeping.
And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart.I store your word in my heart, so that I do not miss the mark against you.Therefore I will not hold back from reminding you always of these things, though you know them and are made steady in the truth at hand.THE THREAD
This second letter, beloved, I now write to you, and in both of which I rouse your clear minds by way of a reminder.The word translated “remembrance” is ὑπομνήσει (hypomnēsei, “remembrance”), from the same Greek memory-family as “mindful” in 3:2. Verse 1 says the letter stirs the mind through remembrance; verse 2 names what that remembrance holds: the prophets’ words and the apostles’ command.
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