So
we have a prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive
to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until (εως ου) the day dawns and
the morning star rises in your hearts. (2 Pet 1:19 NRSV)
2 Pet 1:19 is sometimes used by Catholic apologists as an example
of the main clause continuing once the "until" (εως ου) is reached.
This is important as “until” in Matt 1:25 is the same term εως ου. For example, Ronald K. Tacelli
argued that:
Clearly,
St. Peter was not insinuating that we should cease being attentive to the
truths he was presenting after "the day dawns and the morning star rises
in [our] hearts.". (He's
an Only Child)
Eric D. Svendsen responded to Tacelli thusly:
. . . once again, Tacelli misses
the point of the passage. Peter is not addressing truth as a category, but
specifically “the word of the prophets” that are subsequently inscripturated
(vv. 20-21). Scripture then is compared to a “shining light.” The “dark place”
is this present age through which the Scriptures give us safe passage. The
phrase “day dawns and the morning star rises” is doubtless a reference to the parousia (second coming of Christ), after which it will no
longer be necessary to turn to the word of the prophets as a guide which
navigates us through a dark place, since Christ himself will supersede any such
need. Hence, once the “until” is reached at Christ’s coming, we will no longer
“see through a mirror dimly,” or “know in part”; rather we will “see face to
face,” and “know fully just as we also have been known” (1 Cor 13:12). Once
again, when we read the passage aright, we see that heos hou retains its normal usage. (Where
Have All the Critics Gone? Reflections on the Roman Catholic Response to the
Phrase Heos Hou in Matthew 1:25)
This reflects what Svendsen wrote in his 2001 book on Mariology:
Peter
entreats us to pay attention to the word of the prophets “as to a light shining
in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises” (2 Pet
1:19)—doubtless a reference to the parousia, after which it will no
longer be necessary to turn to the word of the prophets as a guide which
navigates us through a dark place; Christ himself will supersede any such need.
(Eric D. Svendsen, Who Is My Mother? The Role and Status of the Mother of
Jesus in the New Testament [Amityville, N.Y.: Calvary Press, 2001], 52)
Now, I think Svendsen put a little too
much weight into εως ου in his writings
as there are examples of the main clause continuing after the εως ου is reached even during his arbitrary
timeline (e.g., 4 Maccabees 7:1-3). With
that being said, it should be noted that figures in the first millennium of
Christianity understood the “until” in 2 Pet 1:19 results in the termination,
not continuation, of the main clause. For example:
Augustine of Hippo (354-430):
8. Behold, even lamps bear witness to the day, because
of our weakness, for we cannot bear and look at the brightness of the day. In
comparison, indeed, with unbelievers, we Christians are even now light; as the
apostle says, "For ye were once darkness, but now light in the Lord: walk
as children of light:" and he says elsewhere, "The night is far
spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast away the works of darkness,
and put on us the armor of light; let us walk honestly as in the day." Yet
that even the day in which we now are is still night, in comparison with the
light of that to which we are to come, listen to the Apostle Peter: he says
that a voice came to the Lord Christ from the excellent glory, "Thou art
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This voice," said he,
"which came from heaven, we heard, when we were with Him in the holy
mount." But because we were not there, and have not then heard this voice
from heaven, the same Peter says to us, "And we have a more sure word of
prophecy." You have not heard the voice come from heaven, but you have a
more sure word of prophecy. For the Lord Jesus Christ, foreseeing that there
would be certain wicked men who would calumniate His miracles, by attributing
them to magical arts, sent prophets before Him. For, supposing He was a
magician, and by magical arts caused that He should be worshipped after His
death, was He then a magician before He was born? Hear the prophets, O man
dead, and breeding the worms of calumny, hear the prophets: I read, hear them
who came before the Lord. "We have," saith the Apostle Peter,
"a more sure word of prophecy, to which ye do well to give heed, as to a
lamp in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your
hearts."
9. When, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ shall
come, and, as the Apostle Paul also says, will bring to light the hidden things
of darkness, and will make manifest the thoughts of the heart, that every man
may have praise from God; then, in presence of such a day, lamps will not be
needed: no prophet shall then be read to us, no book of an apostle shall be
opened; we shall not require the witness of John, we shall not need the Gospel
itself. Accordingly all Scriptures shall be taken out of the way,--which, in
the night of this world, were as lamps kindled for us that we might not remain
in darkness,--when all these are taken away, that they may not shine as if we
needed them, and the men of God, by whom these were ministered to us, shall themselves,
together with us, behold that true and clear light. Well, what shall we see
after these aids have been removed? Wherewith shall our mind be fed? Wherewith
shall our gaze be delighted? Whence shall arise that joy which neither eye hath
seen, nor ear heard, nor hath gone up into the heart of man? What shall we see?
I beseech you, love with me, by believing run with me: let us long for our home
above, let us pant for our home above, let us feel that we are strangers here.
What shall we see then? Let the Gospel now tell us: "In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Thou shalt
come to the fountain from which a little dew has already besprinkled thee: thou
shalt see that very light, from which a ray was sent aslant and through many
windings into thy dark heart, in its purity, for the seeing and bearing of
which thou art being purified. John himself says, and this I cited yesterday:
"Beloved, we are the sons of God; and it hath not yet appeared what we
shall be: we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we
shall see Him even as He is." I feel that your affections are being lifted
up with me to the things that are above: but the body, which is corrupt, weighs
down the soul; and, the earthly habitation depresses the mind while meditating
many things. I am about to lay aside this book, and you too are going to
depart, every man to his own house. It has been good for us to have been in the
common light, good to have been glad therein, good to have rejoiced therein;
but when we part from one another, let us not depart from Him. (Tractates on
the Gospel of John 35, 8-9 [NPNF1 7:297])
9. "And the just shall see, and shall fear; and
over him they shall laugh" (ver. 7). Shall fear when? Shall laugh when?
Let us therefore understand, and make a distinction between those two times of
fearing and laughing, which have their several uses. For so long as we are in
this world, not yet must we laugh, lest hereafter we mourn. We have read what
is reserved at the end for this Doeg, we have read and because we understand
and believe, we see but fear. This, therefore, hath been said, "The just shall
see, and shall fear." So long as we see what will result at the end to
evil men, wherefore do we fear? Because the Apostle hath said, "In fear
and trembling work out your own salvation:" because it hath been said in a
Psalm, "Serve the Lord in fear, and exult unto Him with trembling."
Wherefore "with fear"? "Wherefore let him that thinketh himself
to stand, see that he fall not." Wherefore "with trembling"?
Because he saith in another place: "Brethren, if a man shall have been
overtaken in any delinquency, ye that are spiritual instruct such sort in the
spirit of gentleness; heeding thyself, lest thou also be tempted."
Therefore, the just that are now, that live of faith, so see this Doeg, what to
him is to result, that nevertheless they fear also for themselves: for what
they are to-day, they know; what to-morrow they are to be, they know not. Now,
therefore, "The just shall see, and they shall fear." But when shall
they laugh? When iniquity shall have passed over; when it shall have flown over;
as now to a great degree hath flown over the time uncertain; when shall have
been put to flight the darkness of this world, wherein now we walk not but by
the lamp of the Scriptures, and therefore fear as though in night. For we
walk by prophecy; whereof saith the Apostle Peter, "We have a more sure
prophetic word, to which giving heed ye do well, as to a lamp shining in a dark
place, until the day shine, and the day-star arise in your hearts." So
long then as by a lamp we walk, it is needful that with fear we should live. But
when shall have come our day, that is, the manifestation of Christ, whereof the
same Apostle saith, "When Christ shall have appeared, your life, then ye
also shall appear with Himself in glory," then the just shall laugh at
that Doeg.… [Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm LII, 9 [NPNF1 8:200])
The
Venerable Bede (d. 735):
In the night of this world, so full of dark
temptations, where there is hardly anyone who does not sin, what would become
of us if we did not have the lamp of the prophetic word? Will this word
always be necessary? No. It is only necessary until the daylight comes.
Right now we have a night lamp because we are children of God, and in
comparison with the ungodly, we are the very daylight itself. But if we compare
what we are now with what we shall be in the future, then we are still in
darkness and need this lamp. (On 2 Peter [PL 93:73], in James, 1-2 Peter,
1-3 John, Jude, ed. Gerald Bray [Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture;
Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 2000], 141)
