Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
2 Peter 2:10-22, The glorious ones, the way of Balaam, a dog and a sow
The false teachers slander the glorious ones, which even angels do not dare to do. Like unreasoning animals they carouse in daylight, with eyes full of adultery; they have followed Balaam, who loved profit gained by wrongdoing and was rebuked by a donkey. They promise freedom while slaves of corruption, and they are like a dog returning to its vomit and a washed sow to the mud.
2 Peter 2:10-22, in every translation this tool compares.
Peter goes on to describe the false teachers in harsh terms. They insult heavenly beings that even angels treat with respect, indulge themselves openly and chase profit like Balaam, the prophet whose own donkey rebuked him. They promise others freedom while they themselves are enslaved to corruption, and having once known the right way, they are worse off for turning back, like a dog going back to its vomit.
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Who the glorious ones are is read in several ways. Heiser takes them as divine beings of God's council close to his glorious presence, noting that 2 Enoch 21:3 calls Gabriel one of the glorious ones of the Lord. Keener and the cultural backgrounds notes think of angelic powers, whom some Jews cursed along with Satan, and suggest the teachers reviled earthly rulers and the angelic authorities behind them; Arnold notes that Jewish titles for ranks of angels were also used of human officials, though he does not discuss this verse. The ESV Study Bible says they are probably evil angels. The straight way and the way of Balaam draw on the common picture of two paths (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Bosor, Balaam's father's name here, stands in nearly every manuscript where the Old Testament has Beor; the Zondervan dictionary reports that some call it "simply an ancient blunder that spread through virtually the whole MS tradition", others original. The dog comes from Proverbs 26:11, and the sow, the cultural backgrounds notes say, from the story of Ahiqar, whom Price and House place at the Assyrian court of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 2 Peter 2:10-11, 2:12, 2:13, 2:14, 2:15, 2:16, 2:17, 2:18-19 and 2:22
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 2 Peter 2:10, 2:12, 2:13, 2:14, 2:15, 2:16, 2:17, 2:19 and 2:22
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on 2 Peter 2:10b-11 and 2:15-16
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 37, This Means War, section The Glorious Ones in Peter and Jude
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 6, What Are the Powers?, section The Source of Paul's Vocabulary for the Powers
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Bosor
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, Mesopotamian Wisdom Literature, box The Story of Ahiqar
