2 PETER 2:22 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”
What the true proverb says has happened to them: 'The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mud' — the twin proverbs (one about the dog from Proverbs 26:11) illustrate the impossibility of genuine moral transformation without genuine conversion. Wallowing (kylindō) suggests deliberate, shameless return to filth. The false teachers' relapse demonstrates that external cleansing (baptism, doctrinal instruction) without internal transformation produces a fate worse than the original state.
Church Fathers on 2 Peter 2:22
Differently to be admonished are those who lament their transgressions, and yet forsake them not, and those who forsake them, and yet lament them not. For those who lament their transgressions and yet forsake them not are to be admonished to learn to consider anxiously that they cleanse themselves in vain by their weeping, if they wickedly defile themselves in their living, seeing that the end for which they wash themselves in tears is that, when clean, they may return to…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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