The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Peter — Section 72

mise w0uld crnr be fulfilled. For sinoe the St. Peter refers to it in words evidently de- fathers fell asleep ; better, from the day that. rived from the Book of Genesis, not from By "tile fotbers" must be meant here the any other sources, whether Greek, Egyptian, fathers of tile Christian Church. St. Peter or Indian. There were heavens from of old was writing more than thirty years after the (the word l1<11aAa1 occurs elsewhere only in Ascension. The first generntion of Cllristians eh. ii. 3). There was an earth formed or was rapidly passing away. Stephen "fell standing out of the water. The Greek par- asleep" :first, then James the son of Zebedee, ticiple here used is <rvvE<TTw<ra, liternlly, the other James the Lord's brother,aud mimy "standing together or consisting" (comp. others who lrnd looked, it may be, to sec the Col. i. 17); it may be taken closely with coming of the Lord among those " which 8J'e both prepositional clauses, "earth consisting ali\·c and remain" (1 Thess. iv. 17). But of water and by means of water." Thales they had died, and he came not; and from had taught that water was the beginning of the day of their death things went on as things, the original element (,rclvra. i{ iiliaros they were. Should men look for him still, <ruv,,rrclva,) ; the narrative in Genesis repre- the mockers asked. when the fathers looked sents water as originally overspreading all in ,ain? The mockers adopted, in mockery, things: "The earth was without form [&&pa· doubtless, the Christian phrase for death. ros, Septuagint], and void; and darkness The Lord first had said, "Our friend Lazarus was upon the face of the deep. And the sleepeth ; " then the holy Stephen " fell Spirit of God moved upon the face of the asleep ; " and so " they whic.h are asleep " waters." We may therefore understand St. became the recognized name for the dead in Peter as meaning that tbe ee.rtb was formed Christ. Death is like sleep; the holy dead or compacted out of water, or out of those rest from their labours. They "sleep not substances which the water 11t first held in idly," for they are at home with the Lord, solution ; and that it is kept together in co- and they are blessed; but yet the quiet rest herence and solidity by means of water. If, of Paradise, though " far better " than this on the other hand, we regard the participle earthly life, is sleep compared with the per- as closely connected with the second prepo- fect consummation and bliss, both in body sition only, the meaning will be that tbe and soul, which the redeemed of the Lord earth, held together and compacted by means shall enjoy at last in his eternal glory. All of water, rose up out of the water, and ap- things continue e.s they were from the be- peared above it, when God said, "Let the ginning of the creation ; literally, all thir.gs waters under the heaven be gathered to- continue thus, as they are, and as they have gether unto one place, and let the dry land been from the beginning. There bas been appear." It is possible, age.in, to understand no sudden catastrophe; the world has gone the preposition 3,cl locally, and to transla.te on as it was; the laws of nature are still "amidst water." Comp. Ps. cxxxvi. 6, "He working with their changeless uniformity" stretched out the earth above the waters ; " (see a remarkable parallel in Clement, I. and Ps. xxiv. 2, "He hath founded it upon =iii., which is important also as an inde- the sea~, and established it upon the floods." pendent proof that this argument of the Of course, neither St. Peter nor Mo8es is scoffers is as old as the end of the :firsi speaking in the language of science ; their century). object was, not to teach scientific truth, but Ver. 5.-For this they willingly are iguo- to present the great fact of creation in e.n rant of; literally, for this escapes them of aspect suitable to our poor capacities. For their own will. All things have not always the clause, "by the Word of God (r,ji .,-oi) been as they are; there have been great 0eoii Ao-yq,)," comp. Heh. xi. 3, "Through changes; there was once a great catastrophe; faith we under~tand that the worlds were but this they wilfully forget. Ruther trans• framed by the Word of God (/nfµ.a..,., 0eoii)." ]ates di1ferently, "For, whilst they assert St. Peter may be referring to the formula, this, it is hidden from them that," etc. But "And God said," so constantly repeated in this rendering seems forced and unsatisfac- the account of the creation, or (what is tory, and gives a meaning to 8eAw which it really the same truth) to the fact that "all has nowhere in the New Testament. That things were made by him [by God the by the Word o! God the heavens were of old, Word], and without him was not anything and the earth standi.Dg out of the water and made that was made." in the water. The Revil!ed Version trans- Ver. 6.-Whereby the world that then lates, That there were heavens from of old, was, being overll.owed with water, perished. and an earth co1T!paded out of water and The Greek for" whereby" is 31' i:iv, literally, araidt;t water, by the Word of God. The "through which things." The plural here mockers say tLat all things continue as they presents some difficulty. Tho roost obvious were from tlie beginning of creation. That antecedents are "the heavens and the earth" creation its,M was a great, a stupendous of the last verse; but many commentatora cLange, a mighty effort of the power of God. refel" the relative to the twice-repeated OH. m. 1-18.J THE SEOOND EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER. 67