1883 Haydock Douay Rheims Bible
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| II Peter 3:3 | Knowing this first, *that in the last days there shall come scoffers with deceit, walking according to their own lusts, 1 Timothy 4:1.; 2 Timothy 3:1.; Jude 1:18. | Scoffers{ Ver. 3. In deceptione illusores; the true reading in the Greek is, as Dr. Wells has restored it, en empaigmone empaiktai, illusione illudentes.|} with deceit, (such as make a jest of all revealed religion) walking according to their own lusts, as if they might indulge themselves in every thing which their inclinations prompt them to, saying: where is his promise, or his coming? They have no belief nor regard for what has been revealed concerning the coming of Christ to judge every one, to reward the good, and punish the wicked. Such were the Sadducees, who believe not the immortality of the soul, nor the resurrection; such were at all times those atheistical men, who endeavoured to persuade themselves that all religion is no more than a human and politic invention; of this number are they who some in our days call free-thinkers. St. Peter here gives us the words of these unbelieving libertines, whom he calls scoffers: where, they say, is his promise? those pretended promises of God, those predictions and menaces in the Scriptures? what appearance of Christ's coming to judge the world? for, since the Fathers slept, ever since the death of the patriarchs and prophets, all things continue. (Witham) |