Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 2 Peter 1:2

"Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;" — 2 Peter 1:2 (ASV)

The first seven words of this verse are identical with 1 Peter 1:2b (see comment there), but here the words “through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” are added. As in other NT letters, the basic theme of the letter is quickly sounded. For 2 Peter it is the “knowledge” (epignosis; GK 2106) of God (cf. vv.3, 8; 2:20); a related verb (GK 2105) occurs twice in 2:21. Another related word meaning “knowledge” (gnosis; GK 1194) occurs at 1:5, 6; 3:18; and its companion verb “to know” (GK 1182) occurs at 1:20 and 3:3. This makes a total of eleven occurrences of these related words in this short letter. The knowledge of God is a central biblical theme (cf. Jeremiah 9:23–24), but it was also claimed by the false teachers of the apostolic and postapostolic times. As Paul warned in Tit 1:16, “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him.” Later a developed “Gnosticism” became a great challenge to the Christian church.