Second Peter 2:11 - Instability in the Critical Text

Second Peter 2:11 in P72

It’s easy to read Second Peter 2:11 in several English versions and never notice the startling difference in meaning – but we’re about to do exactly that.  Compare:

1.  EHV:  whereas angels, even though they are greater in strength and power, do not bring a slanderous judgment against them before the Lord.

2.  KJV:  Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.

3.  ESV:  whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.

4.  LEB:  whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment.

Second Peter 2:11 in GA 2412 (Harklean Group)

5.  NLT:  But the angels, who are far greater in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord a charge of blasphemy against those supernatural beings. 

Was the original text “before the Lord” (παρὰ κυρίῳ) or “from the Lord” (παρὰ κυρίου), or neither?  The textual difference impacts interpretation.  Did the original text mean that angels don’t bring reviling accusations against the ungodly in the Lord’s presence, or that angels don’t deliver to the ungodly reviling accusations that the Lord has made?    

Second Peter 2:11 in Vaticanus (03)

Adding the the trickiness of this context, an impressive array of witnesses (including A Ψ 1505 Vulgate Ethiopic Sahidic) support neither παρὰ κυρίῳ or παρὰ κυρίου – a short reading adopted by Michael Holmes in the SBL-GNT and in the Lexham English Bible (agreeing with the Rheims Version (1582) and the Confraternity Version (1941).  The late Bruce Manning Metzger made a note in Textual Commentary sympathetic with the shorter reading.

The difference between παρὰ κυρίῳ and παρὰ κυρίου in the early manuscripts is a one-letter-difference, for they all contract the sacred name involved:

παρὰ κῳ:  ﬡ B C 049 489 927 945 999 1243 1244 1315 1573 1646 1739 1874 Byz

παρὰ κυ:  P72 056 0142 1 35 69 330 1241 1251 1319 1751 2191 2197 2356 l593

One might think that a reading shared by the Alexandrian flagship manuscripts ﬡ B and the Byzantine Text would be readily adopted, but P72 and the witnesses that favor omission have complicated the equation.  Nestle-Aland 25, 26, and 27 had κυρίου; the 28th edition has  instead κυρίῳ.

Internal considerations decide the issue when the evidence is divided like this.  The parallel in Jude vv. 8-9 alludes to an angel (the archangel Michael) refraining from condemning the devil outright and instead leaving judgment up to the Lord.  The reading that has a corresponding sentiment is παρὰ κυρίῳ. 

Παρὰ κυρίῳ should be maintained in the text with confidence.