Ver. 6. δι ὧν. Μαγοτ απἀ Schmeidel, against the evidence of nearly all manu- scripts, read δι’ ὄν.. This is rendered un- necessary (1) if the above rendering of ἐξ ὕδατος κ.τ.λ. is taken, and the plural δι ὧν refers to the two waters. δι’ dv would refer to λόγῳ alone, or (2) if δι ὧν reiers to t8dtwv and λόγῳ taken to- gether, which would in some ways suit the sense of the whole passage better. The false teachers had ignored the agency of the Divine word. κατακλνι- σθείς; am. Ney. in N.T.; found several times in P.Tebt. e.g. 54! (B.c. 86) [ὥστε] . .. συµβεβηκότων κατακλυσθῆ- ναι. ‘“Sothat in consequence of what happened, it was flooded’’; 56°/ (late ii. B.C.) γείνωσ]κε δὲ περὶ τοῦ κατακεκ- λΏσθαι τὸ πεδίον “but know about ous plain having been inundated”’.
Ill.
c Se a > ΔΝ Ay Le a ~ ων λό θ , Ieee, 7. οι οε νυν ουρανοι και η YN τῷ αυτῷ ογῳ τε ησαυρισμ.ενοι εισιν
4 , > ς / , ‘ 3 , ~ ο) πυρὶ τηρούµενοι eis ἡμέραν κρίσεως καὶ ἀπωλείας τῶν ἀσεβῶν
8. “Ev δὲ τοῦτο μὴ λανθανέτω Spas, ἀγαπητοί, ὅτι μία ἡμέρα παρὰ Κυρίῳ ὥς χίλια ἔτη καὶ Χίλια έτη ὡς ἡμέρα µία.
ο.
οὐ βραδύνει Κύριος τῆς ἐπαγγελίας, ὥς τινες βραδύτητα ἡγοῦνται,
144 ἀνθρώπων. ‘f WM. iii. § Xix. 2 , > , an b). πάντας εἰς µετάνοιαν χωρῆσαι.
ἀλλὰ μακροθυμεῖ εἰς pas, μὴ βουλόμενός τινας ἀπολέσθαι ἀλλὰ
10. ξει δὲ ἡμέρα Κυρίου ὡς
1τῳ αντῳ ABP, vulg., sah., boh., WH, Ti.; τῷ αυτου SCKL, syrr., Treg.
Ver. 7. πυρὶ typovpevor. According to the Jewish conception of the rainbow promise, water would not again be the destructive agency. The heaven and the earth are reserved for destruction by fire. τεθησαυρισµένοι: ‘“‘setapart for”. The writer means that both the rainbow pro- mise and the delay are not to be regarded as implying that there will be no more great cosmical changes.
The idea of the association ofa great cosmical change with the coming of Christ is an interesting one. It involves the question of our environment when the natural is exchanged for the spiritual body. This writer evidently expects not complete annihilation of the present en- vironment, but a ‘“‘new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous- ness’ (v. 13). St. Paul speaks of ‘the deliverance of the creation itself from the bondage of corruption into the glory of the liberty of the children of God”. ‘‘ We are not informed as to the nature of our future environment, yet it must be such as to satisfy all the longings, and give scope for all the activities of a per- fected humanity’ (Mayor, ed. p. 207. See also his most interesting and sug- gestive note: ‘ Answer to the objection that no change is possible in the material universe’; and with whole passage, vv. 5-7, cf. Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies, p. 24. Vv. 8-10. A further argument to ex- plain the apparent delay. ‘ One thing beloved, you must not forget. The sense of the duration of time in the Divine Mind is not the same as in the human. One day is the same to God asa thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. God must not be judged as slack by human standards, in the fulfilment of His pro- mise. He is better than the promise. He is long-suffering to usward, not willing that some should perish, but that all should come to repentance. We know not when His long-suffering will be exhausted. The day of the Lord will
come asa thief. Then the heavens will pass away with hurtling noise, and the elements being burned, shall pass away, and the earth and the works of men con- tained in it, will be made manifest.”
Ver. δ. pia ἡμέρα, κ.τ.λ. Cf. Ps. xl. 4. The literal application of this statement to the story of creation, em- ployed by patristic writers, in which one day is interpreted as τοοο years, and therefore the creation ‘in six days really means 6000 years, is of course absurd. On the other hand, it can scarcely be said that the writer of 2 Peter has attained to the conception that the category of time does not exist for the Divine Mind. Rather the meaning is that infinite com- passion overrides in the Divine Mind all finite reckoning. Cf. Barnabas, 15, Jus- tin, Dialogue, 81.