2 Peter 1:5 “what type of knowledge?”

Question

What type of knowledge is Peter asserting we attain?

“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,” ‭‭II Peter‬ ‭1:5‬

Peter never says to add to Scriptural knowledge or book knowledge.

Q: So can this text be used to justify study outside of Scripture alone? Some people assert they should ONLY rely on the Spirit of God & the Bible, yet, Peter doesn’t specify what type of knowledge. Can anyone help me interpret this?

Answer 1

2 Peter 1:5 “what type of knowledge?”

Peter had just spoken about this knowledge in the preceeding verses:

² Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, ³ as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,–2 Peter 1:2,3 (NKJV) [bold mine]

So can this text be used to justify study outside of Scripture alone?

If you are asking about book knowledge such as literature, art, or science, these are helpful but what can they provide that has the quality of salvation?

Jesus himself attested to the need for knowledge and its saving quality:

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.–John 17:3 (NKJV)

So, knowledge of the scriptures, Jehovah God, his son Jesus Christ, etc. can provide us with much more than what this imperfect world ruled by Satan can give. (1 John 5:19)

Answer 2

The operative word in 2 Peter 1:5, 6, is γνῶσις (gnósis). When referring to divine/spiritual knowledge is often referenced as follows:

• Luke 1:77 - to give to His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
• Rom 2:2 - an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth
• Rom 11:33 - O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
• 1 Cor 12:8 - To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by the same Spirit,
• 2 Cor 2:14 - But thanks be to God, who always leads us triumphantly as captives in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.
• 2 Cor 4:6 - For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
• 2 Cor 10:5 - We tear down arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
• Phil 3:8 - But indeed, therefore, I also count all things to be loss because of the excelling knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, because of whom I have lost all things, and esteem them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
• 2 Peter 3:18 - But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Indeed, the closely related word, ἐπίγνωσις (epignósis) is found in many places with an almost identical meaning when it is used spiritually: Rom 1:28, Eph 1:17, 4:13, Col 1:9, 10, 1 Tim 2:4, 2 Tim 2:25, 3:7, Heb 10:26, 2 Peter 1:2, 3, 8, 2:20.

Thus, the meaning in 2 Peter 1:5, 6 is clear - Peter is refering to the knowledge of God, the truth about Jesus Christ. This is usually understood to be the knowledge of God's saving grace in Christ Jesus.

Answer 3

Knowledge is not necessarily a knowledge of information written in the Scriptures. One can know how to fight sin of, say, alcoholism, and this is not a bookish knowledge, but a one that comes from an experience of fighting this damaging passion.

Here also, we have a logical sequence of a) faith, b) virtue and c) knowledge. Take an analogy: a) Bjorn Borg conceives faith that he can win Wimbledon; b) he develops and strengthens this faith by training and gaining the virtues of a superstar tennis player; c) having entered the Wimbledon tournament he gradually sets himself on the victorious course until he wins also the final and knows, already by experience and not merely a dream or expectation, what it is to win the Wimbledon final.

Same in life of faith in Christ: a) a promiscuous woman had faith that her sins could be forgiven by Jesus Christ; b) she augments and develops this faith by a virtue of humility and daring of overcoming the public opinion and public shame, thus she becomes virtuous alongside with being faithful, for virtue is formed by practicing the faith; c) she is actually forgiven by Jesus Christ and she experiences this forgiveness, coming therefore to its experiential/existential knowledge, and this will imply knowledge of Jesus Christ's divinity, for only God can forgive immediately, as Jesus Christ did to her, having forgiven her authoritatively, Himself, without asking or praying to God, which was immediately noticed as scandalous by the expert-theologians, probably the Pharisees present there (Luke 7:47-50).

Now, the profligate woman could not know about divinity of Christ from any text of the Jewish Holy Scriptures, but she existentially experienced the forgiveness of her sins and saw with her own eyes that Jesus Christ did it with His own self-sovereign authority, and that was enough for her to conclude that He was God. Similarly, when holy apostles worked miracles among non-Jews, they came to knowledge of the power of Christ sometimes without even knowing about any Scriptures whatsoever.