This paper seeks to exegete a single verse in Peter’s Second Epistle, namely 2 Peter 2:1. This verse presents, on the face of it, a difficulty for the Calvinist doctrine of particular redemption.[1] The difficulty, in essence, is that the verse seems to indicate, according to one interpretation, that Christ’s atonement was on behalf of people who are not truly Christians, and therefore by implication, his atonement must be on behalf of every person—all without exception.
We Calvinists understand the Scriptures, as a whole, to teach that Christ’s death was intended only to save the elect and so Christ did not die to redeem (or buy) the non-elect, such as the false teachers whom Peter mentions.
Issues of Translation and Meaning
Let us begin by looking at the verse in question. Although the verse presents difficulties of interpretation, it does not present any real significant translation issues. The main English translations, across the theological spectrum, all translate the verse in a similar way. Here is a list of ten translations and their publication years, ranging from 1611 to 2017.
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. (KJV – 1611)
But there arose false prophets also among the people, as among you also there shall be false teachers, who shall privily bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. (ASV - 1901)
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. (RSV – 1971)
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. (NRSV – 1989)
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. (NASB – 1995)
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. (ESV - 2001)
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them – bringing swift destruction on themselves. (NIV – 2011)
But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. (NLT - 2015)
There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. (CSB - 2017)[2]
As can be seen, the translations are all very similar, particularly in the key words found in the middle of the verse, which are essentially this: ‘even denying the Master/Lord/Sovereign Lord that/who bought them.’ Within this phrase, the two important words are the noun that most translations render ‘Master’ and the verb that all the translations render ‘bought.’
We begin by looking at these two words important words.
‘Master’ or ‘Lord’ or ‘Sovereign’ is a translation of the Greek word δεσπότης (despotés). It is the root of the English words ‘despot’ and ‘despotism.’ It carries the connotation of an absolute ruler or sovereign, having power without limitations or restraints, Let us begin by looking at the verse in question. though without necessarily having a negative connotation (unlike the English word).
The word is not very common in the New Testament, occurring just ten times, both as a singular and a plural. The meaning is not really in dispute in any of the occurrences. Slightly more open for discussion is who Peter is referring to as ‘Master’ or ‘Lord.’
The word was used to refer to a human master, i.e. an owner of slaves, though this meaning is rare in the New Testament. Or the word may refer to either God (the Father) or Christ the Son.
Of the other nine occurrences, the word refers to God or God the Father in four places (Luke 2:29, Acts 4:24, 2 Timothy 2:21, Revelation 6:10), to human masters in four places (1 Timothy 6:1 and 6:2, Titus 2:9 and 1 Peter 2:18), and to Christ in one place (Jude 4).
Therefore, there is nothing inherent in the word that must mean Christ in 2 Peter 2:1. However, given that Jude 4 is probably the most important other reference, due to the close parallels between 2 Peter and Jude, this gives at least an indication that ‘Master’ in 2 Peter 2:1 may well refer to Christ himself.
The verse in Jude 4 reads: ‘For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ’ (ESV).
From the context, it is not certain whether Peter had in mind God the Father or Christ the Son as the ‘Master’ in this verse. We keep an open mind on that, but to make our task as difficult as possible from a Calvinist perspective, let us assume—in line with the Jude parallel—that Master means Christ here.
The second translational issue concerns the word ‘bought’ which is the Greek word ἀγοράσαντα (agorasanta), meaning indeed ‘having bought.’ It is an active aorist participle grammatically. It comes from the common verb ἀγοράζω (agorazo), to buy or purchase. There can be no objection to the common English translations. It stems from the word for marketplace and from a person who goes to the marketplace.
A final brief word about the word ‘deny’ which is what these false teachers are said to do with their Master. The word is ἀρνούμενο (arnoumenoi), which is found in this form only here and in Jude 4 in the New Testament, but other forms of the verb are found at Matthew 10:33, Matthew 26:70 and 72, Mark 14:70, Luke 8:45 and Acts 3:14 among others. There is no dispute the word means ‘to deny’ or ‘to disown’ something or someone.
In terms of translation and meaning, therefore, the key phrase is relatively straightforward. The false teachers whom Peter identifies are said to ‘deny the Master who bought them.’
There is no dispute about the key phrase says. The issues, as we shall see, concern how we interpret this phrase.
Interpreting the Key Phrase
We begin to explore the interpretation of 2 Peter 2:1 agreed on what the verse says and how it should be translated. The ESV rendering is a good representative and is our starting point:
There will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
The meaning of the text seems clear enough. Peter says that the church will experience false teachers within its midst, similar to the way that false prophets plagued the people of Israel in the Old Testament. These false teachers will bring in ‘destructive heresies’ and they will even deny the Master who bought them. That much is clear.
Assuming the Master is Christ, then the false teachers will in one way or another deny Christ. Perhaps they will deny his deity, perhaps his full humanity, perhaps some aspect of his atoning death or his resurrection. Most Christians would have no issue with understanding that there may be false teachers in the church who will deny important truths about Christ.
The question really concerns the meaning of the words ‘who bought them.’ What does it mean that Christ somehow ‘bought’ these false teachers.
For Arminians and others who affirm a universal atonement, there is no difficulty. For them, Christ died with the intention of saving all, the false teachers as much as the true believers within the church. The little phrase ‘who bought them’ would simply mean that even though Christ died to save them, they denied him.
Calvinists, who maintain the doctrine of limited atonement or particular redemption, cannot interpret the verse this way. In our view, the intention of the atonement was to save God’s elect and according to our view the atonement is entirely effective in its intent. In other words, all those for whom Christ died to save are saved by him.
It is not our aim in this article to argue for the doctrine of limited atonement. The resources arguing for the truth of this doctrine are many and thorough.[3] Instead, for our purposes, we are going to assume its truth and then show why 2 Peter 2:1 presents a problem uniquely for Calvinism and offer a solution to that problem.
The apparent difficulty is obvious. If Christ’s death was a definite atonement (or particular redemption) made for the elect—those chosen for salvation and who are actually saved—then why would Peter talk about these false teachers denying the Master who bought them? The verse is clear that the end of these false teachers is not salvation, but rather ‘destruction,’ a form of the noun ἀπώλεια (apólia), which means in this context spiritual or eternal destruction, ruin or loss.
In essence, the interpretative difficulty boils down to this: if Christ died only with the intention of saving the elect, and the atonement is always successful in its divine intent, how can Peter say that Christ ‘bought’ these false teachers if their fate is ‘swift destruction’?
The advocates of unlimited or universal atonement do not only find this verse easily comprehensible according to their view, but use the verse to argue against definite or limited atonement.
How does the Calvinist respond?
As we have seen, the meaning and interpretation of most of the verse is simple. These false teachers are not ultimately saved, but rather will be destroyed. And they deny the Master, whom we accept likely refers to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The only real room for interpretative variation concerns the meaning of ‘bought’ in this verse. Does it refer to the atoning death of Christ and if so in what sense can Christ be said to have ‘bought’ these false teachers who are not saved? Or does ‘bought’ have some other meaning here that is plausible?
Based on the understanding that Christ’s atonement was specifically and definitely made with the intention of saving only the elect, Peter saying the false teachers were ‘bought’ must either refer to the atonement in some other way than that Christ died with the intention of saving these false teachers or must refer to ‘bought’ in some sense other than the atonement altogether.
This, we find are the precise lines of argument that Calvinists have indeed taken on the interpretation of this verse.
In precise form we find the verb participle ‘having bought’ in this verse, there are no other occurrences in the New Testament. Apart from the verse in question, there are some 29 other occurrences of the verb in various forms in the New Testament. Of these, 23 are instances where buy or bought is used in connection with the ordinary purchase of goods, land or services.[4] More significantly for our purposes, a further six occurrences relate to redemption or the atonement. The following are all the relevant verses with the key words marked in bold:
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.’ (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, ESV)
You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. (1 Corinthians 7:23, ESV)
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. (Revelation 3:18, ESV)
And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.’ (Revelation 5:9-10, ESV)
And they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb. (Revelation 14:3-4, ESV)
These verses are instructive in their way but do not settle the matter of interpreting 2 Peter 2:1. The two instances in 1 Corinthians clearly refer to the atonement, but as they seem to refer to those saved by it, they cast no light on the verse in question. The same can be said of three of the instances in Revelation 5 and 14. The verse in Revelation 3:18 falls neither under the verses referring to the atonement nor the larger group referring to normal purchases. In that verse, Christ himself speaks to the church at Laodicea to buy (metaphorically) from Christ what they need. Again, the verse does little to help our discussion.
In no other verse does ‘buy’ or ‘bought’ refer to individuals or groups that are not saved. Therefore, they cannot settle the matter of the use of ‘bought’ in 2 Peter 2:1.
Given the evidence in favour of limited or definite atonement, what could ‘bought’ mean in this verse then? If indeed the atonement is intended to be effectual only for the salvation of the elect, in what sense can Christ be said to have ‘bought’ the false teachers who are destined for swift destruction?
There are three main Reformed interpretations of this verse that seek to interpret it in a manner that harmonises with the truth of particular redemption.
The first interpretation, advocated by many Reformed theologians,[5] is that ‘bought’ may refer to the external and apparent ‘redemption’ of the visible church, of which the false were a part, though not a part of the saved elect of God. In this view, by being outwardly part of the people of God, even these false teachers could be said to have been ‘bought’ by their association with the church, though not truly a part of it. They may even have received certain covenant blessings as being in outward covenant with God’s people, though not the blessing of salvation.
This view is supported by verses in the Old Testament, which speak of God having redeemed or bought Israel as a nation, even though the nation contained both believers and unbelieving Jews.[6]
The second interpretation regards ‘Master’ as referencing God the Father rather than Christ.[7] The basis for this view is that despotes more often refers to the Father than it does to Christ (see Luke 2:29; Acts 4:24). In this view, the ‘bought’ refers to God’s deliverance of his people, again of whom the false teachers professed to be a part. The nation of Israel was said to be delivered or redeemed from slavery in Egypt, even though the nation included non-believers. Despite the pedigree of the exegetes who have taken this view, I do not consider it a convincing argument, particularly since the close parallel in Jude 4 clearly refers to Christ and not the Father.
The third interpretation sees ‘bought’ as applying to the professed faith of the false teachers.[8] It is as if Peter in a sense grants the false teachers profession. If they had believed in Christ, he would indeed have bought them and saved them. It is as if he is being ironic here. The false teachers deny the very Master they claimed had bought them.
Both interpretations one and three are similar and there is considerable overlap between them, in that Peter’s description applies to the outward profession and the visible church membership of these false teachers, rather than their true state before God, which was outside of salvation and heading for destruction in hell. It is no different to any preacher addressing a church congregation as the redeemed and saved, even though there may be false professors within the congregation.
Whether we take a pure form of interpretation one or three, or a blend of both, the important point is that it is perfectly consistent with the text to argue that Peter here is merely referring to matters from the point of view of outward covenant membership and profession of faith and not regarding the effectual, substitutionary redemption that only the actual elect enjoy.
This is not a case of special pleading for 2 Peter 2:1. In fact, throughout the Scriptures, there are numerous examples of places where the whole nation of Israel is spoken of as though they were God’s covenant people who enjoy salvation, even though the nation contained many unbelievers and only a faithful remnant.
Relevant verses include Deuteronomy 7:6-8 and Exodus 19:5-6 which speak of the whole nation being a ‘chosen people’ and ‘holy nation’ and as those ‘redeemed’ from Egypt, even though many were not truly in a saving relationship with God. The principle is that it is possible to be spoken of as ‘redeemed’ and ‘holy’ through outward covenant membership while remaining spiritually unregenerate.
Likewise, the covenant sign of circumcision (Genesis 17:10-14) marked out a Jewish male as being in covenant with God, yet the Bible is clear that not all who are outward Israelites truly belong to God’s true Israel (Romans 2:28-29 and Romans 9:6-8).
In the New Testament, the same broad principle of a distinction between outward appearance and inward reality persists. The case of Judas Iscariot is significant in that Jesus chose him to be as apostle and appointed him with the others in the Twelve to mission, yet Judas was never saved (see Matthew 10:1-8 and compare John 6:70-71).
Also, in Jesus’ Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, both believers and non-believers are shown to co-exist in the visible or outward manifestation of the kingdom (Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-43).
The distinction between the outward or visible church consisting of all who profess the faith (and also their children) and the invisible church consisting of the elect only is taught in the Reformed confessions, including the Westminster Confession chapter 25.
To conclude, therefore, 2 Peter 2:1 does not require the abandonment of the doctrine of definite or limited atonement. It is fully consistent in the Reformed faith to speak of false professors of faith as being part of the visible church, the redeemed community, and so in that sense ‘bought’ by Christ, while acknowledging that they are part of the invisible church, the elect, or actually redeemed by Christ.
[1] Particular redemption is also frequently called ‘limited atonement’ or ‘definite atonement’ in Reformed theology, but the
[2] The translations are the following: KJV is the King James (or Authorised Version), ASV is the American Standard Version, RSV is the Revised Standard Version, NRSV is the New Revised Standard Version, NASB is the New American Standard Bible, ESV is the English Standard Version, NIV is the New International Version, NLT is the New Living Translation, and CSB is the Christian Standard Bible.
[3] Some works arguing for the truth of limited atonement include classic works such as The Death of Death in the Death of Christ by John Owen, For Whom Did Christ Die? by R. B. Kuiper, and The Potter’s Freedom by James White. The most comprehensive large-scale work on the subject is From Heaven He Came and Sought Her edited by David Gibson and Jonathan Gibson. In addition to these, any work on the Five Points of Calvinism including those by David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas, Edwin H. Palmer, W. J. Seaton, Robert Lewis Dabney, or John Piper. The relevant chapters of any Reformed systematic theology text such as those by Francis Turretin, Charles Hodge, Robert Lewis Dabney, W. G. T. Shedd, Herman Bavinck, Louis Berkhof, Wayne Grudem, John Frame, Robert Letham or Robert Reymond also cover the subject.
[4] These include: Matthew 13:44 and 46; Matthew 14:15; Matthew 21:12; Matthew 25:9 and 10; Matthew 27:7; Mark 6:36 and 37; Mark 11:15; Mark 15:46; Mark 16:1; Luke 9:13; Luke 14:18 and 19; Luke 17:28; Luke 22:36; John 4:8; John 6:5; John 13:29; 1 Corinthians 7:30; Revelation 13:17; Revelation 18:11.
[5] This is the view put forward by John Owen and John Gill among others.
[6] See Exodus 15:16, Deuteronomy 32:5. Also see Romans 9:6.
[7] This is the view of John Murray and Robert Reymond among others.
[8] This is the view of John Calvin and Francis Turretin among others.
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