Angels unaware

[dolfan]

I agree that the "angelos" could be false prophets, but I think the better reading is angels.

First, look at the progression of Peter's argument. There is no biblical reference to pre-Noah false prophets being thrown into chains and kept for judgment. He moves forward in time with his examples, not backward or out of order. It brings to mind Jesus' own statement that He saw Satan fall as lightning from heaven. Without serious challenge, this was pre-Fall of Adam. So, the weight of Scripture seems to me to favor angels in 2 Peter.

Consider the parallels with Jude 6 as well. Peter may have relied on Jude's epistle for much of what we see in 2 Peter 2; it could be the other way around. Point is that reading Jude 4-19 is almost verbatim with 2 Peter 2, except Jude's writing really distinguishes between "people" and "angels" in the comparison of God dealing with falsity and pride.

But, I could be wrong.

[beckrl]

Dolfan, I would again point us back to the context of the openning chapters of 2 Peter. Peter was warning the people of the danger of false teachers that was among them as it was in the past. He clearly connects those in old times as were false prophets. These were those that speak evil of the truth. These that speak were messengers and never an supernatural being / angel.

Lets compare to how Isaiah 3:14 spoke of the rulers, and princes of the people [priest and elders] that they have eaten up the vineyard of God. Isaiah continues in chapter 5:20 and says to those that eat up the vineyard that they where the ones that called evil good and good evil.

Then later in Isaiah 24 we what scholars call the 'little apocalypse' and here he speaks of the priest shall be punished and gathered in the pit.

So we might see what Peter is describing to the people of his day that there was false prophets and teachers. For the reason that God didn't spare those false messengers but put them in the pit of darkness. He would not spare the false teachers among them that God would bring judgement upon them as well as he did in the days of Naoh and Sodom and Gomorrah.


In Jude we read the same but here Jude gives more information about those messengers. It was those that give a false report for they were saved out of Egypt, but afterward destroyed that believed not. We can see that evil report in Numbers 13:1-33.

The whole context of 2 Peter 2 and Jude is about those wicked and evil false teachers (messnegers). I would apply that same interpertation of angelos to what we read in Hebrews 13:2. That the writer was saying to show love to your brother (neighbor) even when it's a stranger becasue that person could be a messenger, teacher.

[Full Quiver]

So are we to believe that angels announced the birth and the resurrection of Christ as well as his fleshly conception but we are not to believe that they interacted with the early church at all nor do they now?

[beckrl]

So are we to believe that angels announced the birth and the resurrection of Christ as well as his fleshly conception but we are not to believe that they interacted with the early church at all nor do they now?

So you disagree with what Peter called 'false prophets and teachers'. We might all know that Peter was saying that those MESSENGERS and that was not to be meant any supernatural being. That's a rather poor transliteration. For examples:

"As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him;" - Luke 9:51-52 (NIV)

Another verse that can add light on the word 'angelos' occurs in James 2:25. Here the word angelos is translated to spies!!! "In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent then off in a different direction?" - James 2:25 (NIV)

The meaning of this word has been strongly biased by time and culture