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2 Peter 1:19–21
“No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (v. 21).
Continuing his defense of the Apostolic message, Peter now moves from eyewitness testimony to the testimony of the prophetic Scriptures. He has just appealed to the transfiguration as a powerful confirmation that Jesus will return in glory, yet in today’s passage he points to what he calls “the prophetic word more fully confirmed” (2 Peter 1:19).
Some interpreters understand Peter to say that the prophetic Scriptures are a more solid proof than even his own experience, while others read the Greek as “most sure” or “guaranteed,” placing Apostolic testimony and scriptural testimony on the same footing. On this reading, the Apostles’ reliable eyewitness account confirms and strengthens the prophetic word. Either way, Peter’s point is clear: The ancient prophecies of the Messiah’s glory and the Apostolic experience of the transfiguration point to the same truth—Christ will return.
The Old Testament prophets foretold both the suffering and the reigning of the Messiah. Isaiah described the Servant who would be pierced for the transgressions of His people (Isa. 53). Daniel saw the Son of Man receiving dominion over all nations (Dan. 7:13–14). Since the prophecies about Christ’s suffering were fulfilled in His first coming, the prophecies about His glorious reign will certainly be fulfilled in His second, and to deny the return of Christ is to deny the prophetic Scriptures themselves.
Second Peter 1:20 addresses the false teachers directly. They apparently treated Old Testament prophecy as merely human interpretation, the prophets’ own speculations about the future. Peter flatly rejects this. His concern is not primarily about who has the right to interpret Scripture but about the origin of Scripture itself. No prophecy of Scripture arises from the prophet’s own impulse or invention. Verse 21 provides the positive explanation: The prophets “spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” The image is that of a ship borne by the wind. The Spirit did not bypass the prophets’ personalities, vocabularies, or historical circumstances, but He so directed their speech that what they produced was the very Word of God—reliable, authoritative, and true. This is why Peter can appeal to prophetic Scripture as a confirmation even more solid than personal experience. The church that holds fast to this truth possesses “a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in [our] hearts” (v. 19).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Because Scripture originates in the sovereign will of God and not in human invention, we can trust it even when its claims challenge our preferences or confound our expectations. Let us read the Bible not as a collection of ancient opinions but as the living and abiding Word of our Creator.
For further study
- Isaiah 55:10–11
- Luke 24:25–27
- Acts 3:17–26
- 1 Peter 1:10–12
The bible in a year
- Psalms 16–18
- Acts 20:1–16