A Light Shining in a Dark Place

In Peter’s second epistle, he likens the message of the prophets to a “light shining in a dark place.” His readers are to remain fixated on the light as a true and trustworthy guide as they await the coming of Christ. Let’s learn more about the light in this passage with some help from the NIV Application Commentary on the Bible: One-Volume Edition.

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Passage: 2 Peter 1:16–21

For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Original Meaning

Peter’s Eyewitness Testimony to the Parousia (vv. 16–18).

Peter shifts from the first-person singular he used in verses 12–15 (“I will always remind you . . . I think it right . . . I will make every effort”) to the first-person plural in verses 16–18. This “we” must refer to Peter and other apostles, since it was only they who were eyewitnesses of the transfiguration. Peter’s point is that the fact of Christ’s transfiguration, and thus also the belief that he will come again, rests on the testimony of several apostolic eyewitnesses.

Peter’s reminder about the apostolic proclamation of the return of Christ may be the center of the verse grammatically, but the key point he wants to get across comes in the contrasting qualifications of this assertion: the apostles made known the return of Christ not in following “cleverly devised stories” but in being “eyewitnesses of his majesty.” “Stories” translates the Greek word mythos (from which we get “myth”). This Greek word had a broad range of meaning, but the meaning most relevant to our verse is the sense “fictional account, fable.”

Peter is not content simply to deny that the apostles’ teaching about Christ’s return was built on a myth, but he asserts positively that the teaching is the direct product of eyewitness testimony. It was on that occasion, as Peter puts it, that Christ “received honor and glory from God the Father” (v. 17a). Christ’s exalted status is indicated in the transfiguration events especially by the accompanying signs and by the voice from heaven.

Peter was on the mountain to hear the voice, and thus it is reasonable to think that Peter is quoting the words from memory. The voice from heaven identifies Jesus as both Messiah and Suffering Servant.

Ear-witnesses

In verse 18, he reminds his readers that he was an “ear-witness”: “We ourselves heard this voice.” As the Gospel accounts make clear, the “we” here includes Peter, James, and John (see Mark 9:2 and parallels). Jesus selected these three from among the apostolic band so that they might be “with him on the sacred mountain.”

Why does Peter allude to the transfiguration to confirm the truth of Jesus’s return in glory? The transfiguration reveals Jesus as the glorious king, and Peter was there to see it. He therefore has utter confidence that Jesus will return as the glorious king and establish his kingdom in its final and ultimate form.

The Testimony of the Prophets to the Parousia (vv. 19–21).

The reliability of revelation is the idea that links verses 16–18 and verses 19–21. Peter, James, and John can testify to the revelation of Christ’s glory in the transfiguration. But also testifying to Christ’s glorious appearance at the end of history are the prophets.

Confidence in the reliability of the prophetic word should lead to a firm adherence to its teaching. Consequently, Peter urges his readers to “pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place” (v. 19b). The comparison of God’s word to a light is common in Scripture. Peter wants his readers to pay attention to the prophetic word “until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (v. 19c).

In verse 21 Peter reinforces what he has said about the origin of prophecy in verse 20. The belief that the prophets spoke for God is, of course, basic to the Scriptures. Peter is not denying that the prophecies were genuinely the words of the prophets themselves, men who consciously chose their words in accordance with their own vocabulary, style, and circumstances. What Peter does affirm, however, is that the words they chose to use were also the words that God wanted them to use to communicate the message he intended.

Application.

On the inspiration of Scripture. For many, the Bible is “inspired” in only the loosest sense—as, for example, some might think Wordsworth was inspired as he wrote The Prelude. But among confessing Christians also we sometimes encounter those who insist that God must have accommodated himself to the human writers of Scripture. The result, they suggest, is that we still have errors in the Bible. Here, I would argue, we have an imbalance in which the divine author of Scripture is given too little place. God, by nature, does not lie; he cannot utter a falsehood. If, then, the words of Scripture are genuinely God’s words, then the words of Scripture must be without error.

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