2 Peter 3

2 Peter 3:3

But before this come, there is one thing to precede, a very remarkable defection of many from the Christian profession, (see 2 Thess. ii. 3,) according to what was foretold by Christ, Matt. xxiv. 12; and those that thus forsake Christ shall betake themselves to all unclean practices; and therefore this is now to be expected.

[a] scoffers] Ἐμπαικται, scorners, here and Jude 18, is answerable to the Hebrew לְצִים, very frequent in the Old Testament, which denotes the highest degree of defection from and renouncing of piety: so psalm i. 1, of the three degrees of ungodly men the לְצִים, irrisores, scoffers or scorners, are the last. By these therefore are fitly here noted the Christians, which at this time in great numbers fell off to the Gnostic heresy, and by so doing complied and joined with the persecuting Jews, and fell into all the villany in the world, expressed here by κατὰ τὰς ἰδίας αὐτῶν ἐπιθυμίας πορευόμενοι, walking, that is, going on habitually, as in a course, according to their own desires, or, (as when there was no king in Israel,) every one doing that which was right in his own eyes, without any restraint of law, of nature, or Christ, &c. Of these St. Jude saith, that the apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had foretold they should come in the last time; by the last time, or days, meaning there and here, the time immediately preceding the destruction of the Jews, (as hath been often shewed.) And so, as Christ had foretold, Matt. xxiv. 11, that at that point of time many false prophets should arise, and deceive many; and again, that many should be scandalized, or fall off from Christ, ver. 10; and the love of many, that is, their zeal to the faith of Christ, grow cold, ver. 12: so the apostles of Christ, in their preachings and in their epistles, had also frequently foretold this, 2 Thess. ii. 3, that this coming or day of Christ, ver. 1, 2, was not to be ἰὰν μὴ ἔλθῃ ἡ ἀποστασία πρῶτον, unless the apostasy first come, this apostasy of the many Christians to the foul Gnostic heresy;

2 Peter 3:4

And they that do thus forsake the faith shall, as a ground of it, pretend that they perceive themselves cheated by those prophecies, which have promised and foretold this coming of his, (see ch. i, and note [b] Matt. xxiv.) which, say they, is so far from being performed, that all things stand unchanged, in the same constant form, from the beginning of the world till now, save only that all the men that have lived upon the earth (father Adam, Noah, Abraham, &c.)

³¹ Or, return backward, or, to what was behind: for the King’s MS. reads εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω ἀνακάμψαι. ³² But that of the true proverb is befallen them, The dog returning— Σομβάβηκε δι’ αὐτοῖς τὸ τῆς ἀληθοῦς καροιμίας, Κύων ἐπιστρέψας— ¹ your apostles: for the King’s MS. reads ὑμῶν ἀνοστόλων. ² the end of the days, ἀρχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν. ³ except that.

[b] since] Ἀφ’ ἦς, a qua, or a quo, may be taken in respect of time, as an epocha from whence the writer takes his rise, from such or such a time, excluding what was before, and including all since. But it may also refer to matters as well as to time, and then it notes no more than the excluding or excepting that which is named, and including all that is not named, and will then best be rendered unless it be, or except that. That this must be the notion of it here, and not the former, is evident by what follows, that all things remain in the same manner from the beginning of the creation, where the creation is an epocha of a far longer date than that of the death of the fathers. Besides it would be hard to define what fathers are here meant, if that were the meaning of it: for it cannot be applicable so to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the fathers of the people of the Jews; for to confute this speech of these scoffers, the apostle draws his proof from the times of the flood, which was long before them, which would not be a good way of arguing against them, if they had dated their observation no farther than the times of Abraham; for they might well acknowledge a change in the deluge, though none since Abraham. But in the other notion the matter is clear, From the creation of the world, say they, there hath been no change in any material thing, so as to be fit to deter men from complying with the Jews, for the avoiding of persecutions, so as to make men fear that Christ will now come in any eminent manner to destroy the Jews or Gnostics, or to persevere in hope that he will deliver the persecuted Christians out of their hands. One change they acknowledge there hath been in the world; some men have slept with their fathers, and others have lived in their stead, a succession of fathers and sons to replenish the world; men have not been immortal, the fathers have died, and given way to their children: but except this, (which is an unconsiderable matter, not pertinent to the point in hand,) all things else, say they, have continued in the ordinary constant course, without any discernible interposing of God’s providence to punish one, or to relieve another. This sure is the atheist’s objection, occasioned by the delay of Christ’s coming to destroy the Jews. And this it is which is punctually confuted in the following

2 Peter 3:5

For this they [c] willingly are ignorant of, that 5 by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the [d] earth standing out of the water and in the water:

[c] willingly] The word θέλοντες seems here to be taken in a sense not ordinary in other places, for being of opinion or affirming, perhaps with this addition of asserting it magisterially, without any reason rendered for it, but a Sic volo, &c., So I will—I command—my will is my reason. Thus in Latin we are wont to use it, Qui hoc volunt, They that will this, for, They that are of this opinion; and thus à βούλομαι, 2 Cor. i. 17, the things that I will, that is, which I teach or affirm. See note [c] on that chapter. And so τοῦτο θέλοντες, they that will this, are they that are of this mind, that affirm this.

[d] earth standing out of the water] The meaning of this fifth verse will be best discerned by considering it as preparative to the sixth: for the one thing that was here to be affirmed and proved for the confuting of that atheistical aphorism, ver. 4. that there was no such thing as punishment inflicted on wicked men, or deliverance for the godly, to be expected from any overruling power of heaven, all things going on in a constant course from the beginning of the world to that time, was this, that the whole world was once drowned for the sins of the inhabitants; and that is said, ver. 6. But to prepare for this, here is, in this verse, a description of the frame of this lower world in the first creation, as it was formed τῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγῳ, by the word of God, that word by which he said, Let there be light, and there was light; Let there be a firmament, and there was so; and God saw that it was good, that is, all that he did was designed for such uses as he in his wisdom thought agreeable. And that is thus described, οὐρανοὶ ἦσαν ἵππαλαι, there were heavens from of old, that is, in the beginning the heavens were created, and so the earth also, Gen. i. 1, the earth so formed that, whensoever God pleased, it might be drowned without creating any new thing. For thus it was framed: the very globe of the earth consisted of a great quantity of waters, called the abyss or deep, Gen. i. 1, so great as to cover the face of the earth, till God put it into one place, that dry land might appear, Gen. i. 9. And this is it that now makes the whole body of the ocean, and all other rivers in the world, and besides great quantities of water in the bowels of the earth, breaking forth in fountains, that flow perpetually, and maintaining with supplies all the rivers and seas in the world. And this may fitly own the expression that is here used of the globe of the earth, that it is ἐξ ὕδατος συνεστῶσα, made up of water, hath abundance of water in its compass, which is the water which, Gen. i. 7, is called the water under the רקיע or expansion, that is, under the body of the air, and so makes up, as the philosophers say, one globe with the earth. And so this part of the frame of the earth did competently prepare it for drowning, it being evident that there was so much water in that globe of the earth as, till it was put into receptacles and cavities, it covered the face of the earth, no dry land appeared, Gen. i. 9. But beside this, there was great store of waters in the clouds, which is called the waters above the expansion, Gen. i. 7, the lower region of the air being between them and the earth; and when God is pleased to loosen those clouds, which is called opening the windows of heaven, then the rain falls, and adds to that store of waters which was in the globe of the earth already. And these clouds encompassing the earth on every side, the earth is here also said to be

2 Peter 3:7

But the world which now is, by the same appointment of God, is now secured that it shall be drowned no more, (God having given his promise for it, Gen. ix. 11,) nor suffer any other kind of destruction but by fire, which is the punishment to be expected by abominable men.

[e] the heavens and the earth] The phrase οἱ οὐρανοὶ καὶ ἡ γῆ, the heavens and the earth, are here set to signify the whole compages of this sublunary world, and all the creatures that are in it, all that was destroyed by the flood, and is now secured from perishing so again, and is reserved for fire, by which it is (by perpetual tradition) believed that the world shall finally be destroyed. The Hebrews have no one word to signify this, but ordinarily use שכּוִים וארץ, the heavens and earth. And so the heavens, and elements, and earth, vv. 10 and 12, which would literally denote the world, signify figuratively the whole city of Jerusalem, temple and palace, towers and buildings of the city, not one signified by one, another by another, but all by all together, and proportionably to that the new heavens and new earth are a Christian people, ver. 13. And so it is ordinary in other expressions in that language; as, his body, his flesh, and his bones, Eph. v. 30, signifies him, and no more: and so in other authors, the body and the soul are set severally, when yet they signify nothing distinct, but the whole man together. See A. Gellius, l. 3. c. 1. And so the evening and the morning signify the natural day: see note [n] on Matt. xii. So the elders, high priests, and scribes, everywhere in the Gospels signify the sanhedrim; and so in like manner the phrase father and mother, and wives and children, and fields, &c., signifies this one thing, possessions or comforts of life, and must so be rendered in the gross, and not in the retail, or else the true meaning of some places in the New Testament will not be intelligible. As Mark x. 30, when it is said that he that leaves father and mother, &c., shall receive an hundred-fold more in this life, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers: for it is clear enough that he shall not receive an hundred mothers; but as all these severals put together denote the comforts and possessions of this life, so it is to be expected that the promise of God will be performed to those that part with any thing for Christ’s sake. See note [h] on Ephes. v. and note [c] on Col. i.

2 Peter 3:8

This answer being first given to the latter part of the atheist’s objection, ver. 4, that all things continue as they were since the creation, I now proceed, in the second place, (by way of regressus, ordinary in scripture, see note [b] Matt. vii,) to answer the former part proposed by way of question, Where is the promise of his coming? that is, Sure God’s promise in the Old Testament repeated by Christ, Matt. xxiv, of his coming to punish the obdurate Jews and Gnostics, and delivering the pure, persevering believers, is not performed. And my answer is this, That you may be mistaken in reckoning of times, in thinking that what the prophets have foretold of the latter days, the times of the Messias, must be instantly performed, as soon as Christ is gone to heaven, or else it will not be performed at all. In this matter it must be considered who it is that makes the promise, ver. 2, an infinite

2 Peter 3:9

As for any slowness in performing his promise of coming, which they that expect and desire to reap a sudden fruit of it in their deliverance, or that others, which would corrupt them, and make them fall off through despair of it, are apt to charge upon God, it is merely a mistake in them; for it is not thus deferred out of want of kindness to the persevering Christians, but out of abundance of patience and long-sufferance to the worst, and an earnest desire that they may all amend and be delivered, without which amendment, whensoever this coming shall be, all are infallibly destroyed: (see note [a] Acts iii. 19.)

2 Peter 3:10

But this judgment of Christ, so remarkable on the Jews, shall now shortly come, and that very indiscernibly, (see Luke xvii. 20, 1 Thess. v. 2,) and the temple shall be suddenly destroyed, the greater part of it burnt, and the city and people utterly consumed: (see note [d], and Matt. xxiv. 30, and Acts ii. 19, 20.)

[f] with a great noise] ‘Ροίξει, διώκει, ὁρμᾷ, τρέχει’ ῥοιζηδόν, σφοδρῶς, μετὰ ἤχον, saith Phavorinus: so that it signifies swiftly as well as with a noise. And that the former is the meaning of it here, is probable, because it is added to the coming of that day as a thief, unexpectedly, and in order to that is this of swiftness, not that other notion of μετὰ ἤχον, with noise; for thieves in the night do not willingly do

[g] melt with fervent heat] The destruction of Judæa is here, vv. 10 and 12, described by dissolution, or consumption, by fire; and so Isa. ix. 5, and lxvi. 15, 16, and Mal. iv. 1, and Joel ii. 3, 30, where that destruction is described; so 2 Thess. i. 8, in flaming fire taking vengeance; (which that it belongs to that matter, see the context of that place, and note [b];) so Heb. x. 27, πυρὸς ζῆλος, a burning of fire to consume the ἀντικείμενοι, all that obdurately stand out against Christ, and that belonging to this matter also, as will appear by comparing verses 25 and 37; see note [a] on that chapter; and so perhaps 1 Cor. iii. 13, 15. And this either, first, figuratively, after the manner of prophetic style, wherein fire, and burning, and melting signifies destruction and utter desolation: or else, secondly, in relation to the zealots, and that πύρωσις raised by them, the fearful combustion and conflagration within the nation and city, the fire of sedition and contention, which was so great an instrument of destruction among them, killing vast multitudes at once, Joseph. de Bel. Jud. lib. 7. c. 14, rifling the palace and all the wealth of the city, (being at that time carried thither,) and many other particulars of that kind in that story: or else, thirdly, in reference to the exact truth of the fact, (of which this is a literal description,) the burning of Jerusalem, mentioned by Josephus, lib. 7. c. 14, where it is said of the Romans that they fired all unto Siloa; and again in the same chapter that the Sicarii, the other faction in the city, contrary to the zealots, got into vaults, from whence they fired the city more than the Romans, and murdered them that, escaping the flames, fled into the caves: and again, c. 16, “The Romans being entered fired houses, and,” saith he, “many things that were fired were quenched with the blood of the slain, with which the streets of the city flowed:” and again, “All the night long the fire increased, and in the morning, Sept. 8th, all was on fire:” and, c. 17, “They fired the outward parts of the city.” Then for the burning of the temple particularly, that is set down lib. 3. c. 9, first of the doors, where the silver plate being melted first, the flame quickly fired the wood, and from thence increased to the next porch; and that day and all the next night the fire increased, till Titus caused the army to quench it: but, as it follows, “the sentence of God had already determined that it should be consumed with fire;” and so it was on August 10; of which he pronounceth, “Now the fatal day was come after many years,” the phrase so usual in the New Testament, the day, and the coming of that day. And, c. 10, “a soldier without command cast a firebrand into the golden gate,” and presently it set a flaming; and when Titus came violently in to quench it, nobody would hear him, but cried the more to set it on fire; and neither his commands nor entreaties would serve turn, but it was (absolutely against his will) burnt down, and no help for it, saith he, because the destinies had so determined, that is, the counsel and decree of God, testified by predictions. What is here thus expressed by St. Peter is ordinarily conceived to belong to the end of the world, and by others applied to the end of this world, and the beginning of the millennium or thousand years. And so, as St. Peter here saith, ver. 16, many other places, in St. Paul’s Epistles and in the Gospel, especially Matt. xxiv, are mistaken

2 Peter 3:11

Seeing then this destruction shall thus involve all, and now approacheth so near, what an engagement doth this lay upon us to live the most pure, strict lives that ever men lived!

2 Peter 3:12

Looking for the coming of Christ for our deliverance, and by our Christian lives quickening and hastening God to delay it no longer, (see ver. 9,) that coming of his, I say, which as it signifies great mercy to us, so it signifies very sharp destruction to the whole Jewish state: (see note [d].)

2 Peter 3:13

Instead of which we look for a new, a Christian state, in which all provision is made by Christ for righteousness to inhabit, according to the promise of Christ, concerning the purity that Christ should plant in the evangelical state: (see note [d], and Rev. xxi. 1, and note [a].)

2 Peter 3:14

This therefore being your expectation, you must in reason use all diligence to keep yourselves from all pollution, spot or blemish, from indulging to any of the carnal invitations that are now soliciting you, and so to continue till this coming of his, that you may then be found acceptable before him, and that then you may reap the profit of it, that all may be prosperous with you.

2 Peter 3:15

And resolve that the end of God’s delaying this judgment, this execution so long, hath been (see ver. 9.) on purpose to bring in and increase the number of convert Jews, those to whom this deliverance is promised, according as St. Paul hath also said, Rom. ii. 4, 5, and especially Rom. xi, to which this place seems to refer: (see the sum of that chapter at the conclusion of the paraphrase of it.)

2 Peter 3:16

And indeed in most, if not in all his epistles, hath he said somewhat of this matter, concerning this famous day of vengeance on the obdurate Jews, and deliverance of the faithful, and deferring that day of destruction on the former on purpose (ver. 15.) to gather in as many of the latter as he could. So Rom. ix. 29. 33, Rom. x. 8—10, &c., Rom. xi. 5, Rom. xiii. 11, 12, 1 Cor. i. 7, 8, and ch. iii. 13, 1 Thess. ii. 16, and ch. v. 1, 2, 3. 9, and 2 Thess. i. 6—10, and ch. ii. 1, 2, 3. 8, and 1 Tim. iv. 1, and ch. vi. 14. In which matter some things there are concealed by God purposely from the knowledge of men and angels, as the punctual time of the coming of it, &c., from whence some unskilful, unsettled Christians have taken occasion to fall off from the faith of Christ, and to ruin themselves by so doing. This they do by deductions from some places of scripture, wrested by them, (as it is ordinary with them to wrest and distort the writings of the prophets, &c.); but it is through their ignorance and ungroundedness on the Christian faith that they do so.

[h] in which] In this place the king’s MS. reading ἐν υἱς, in which, in the feminine gender, (which if it be true, then it must refer to the epistles forementioned,) but other copies, and the printed ones generally reading ἐν οἷς in the neuter, which cannot agree with epistles, but with περὶ τούτων, of these things, it is not certain which reading must be adhered to. That which seems to me most probable is, that the ordinary reading should be retained, ἐν οἷς, &c., and that rendered among which things some are hard to be understood, &c. If this be the sense, then St. Peter doth not at all give this character of any parts of St. Paul’s epistles, that they are δυσνόητα, hard to be understood, but that among those things, (of which St. Peter is now a treating, and of which, saith he, St. Paul hath written in all his epistles, and generally the prophets of the Old and the apostles of the New Testament, ver. 2,) ἐστι δυσνόητα τινα, some are hard to be understood, &c. What the things here spoken of are hath been cleared by the paraphrase of this and the former epistle, viz. in general the coming of Christ to destroy his crucifiers, and deliver the pious Christians out of their persecutions. This is apparently spoken of by the prophets, and by Christ, and by the apostles, both in their preaching (see note [a] on the title of the Epistle to the Romans) and in their epistles, written but a little before it was to come. That it was so long deferred was matter of some trouble to some, and objection against the truth of these predictions, ver. 4; to which this apostle here answers, ver. 9, that the reason why God doth make some stay in this matter is, that men may have time to repent, and reform, and escape this vengeance, which when it comes will come so suddenly and unexpectedly as to surprise many that look not for it, ver. 10; and that he repeats again, ver. 15, bidding them count the longsuffering of the Lord (that is, this deferring his judgments) salvation, that is, a means designed by God to bring men to repentance. And for this particular it is that he cites St. Paul as concurring with him in this account of the reason of Christ’s delaying his coming, adding only this of St. Paul, that in all his epistles he hath spoken of these things, that is, said a great deal concerning this coming of Christ. Having gone thus far, he passeth his observation of the then present temper of men, and behaviour in this matter, that there were some giddy, unsettled Christians, which upon occasion of some things not so clearly revealed by those that have foretold this coming of Christ, have fallen into pernicious errors. What things those were which are here said to be δυσνόητα, hard to be understood, and what dangerous errors drawn from thence, will perhaps be hardly defined by us at this distance. That Cerinthus, by misunderstanding some of these predictions, came to think that Christ should have a temporal kingdom upon earth, where men should enjoy all carnality, see note [a] on Rev. ii; and he and his followers may be thought to be these ἀστήρικτοι here, the unstable Christians that distorted these predictions. Or because it is added of the same men, that they do distort other scriptures also to their own destruction, it will not so fitly be restrained to Cerinthus, but more generally be spoken of the Gnostics, who by a

2 Peter 3:17

You therefore, my brethren, whom I have thus timely warned and instructed, ought to make this prudent use of my admonitions, to take all care that ye be not ensnared by the filthy, unnatural practices of the Gnostics, (see note [b] Jude,) and so apostatize from the faith.

¹² Or, deliverance, σωτηρίαν.

¹³ Or, in all his epistles: for the King’s MS. leaves out ὡς καί. ¹⁴ among which things some are hard—ἐν οἷς ἐστι δυσνόητά τινα, but the King’s MS. reads ἐν αἷς, referring to epistles.

¹⁵ by the seduction of abominable men, τῇ τῶν ἀδείσμων πλάγῳ.

[f] tempest] Δαίλαψ is by Hesychius rendered καταιγίς and ἀνέμου συστροφή. What καταιγίς notes is by him best expressed elsewhere, ἐπιφορά ἀνέμου σφοδρῶν, the violence of a strong wind. To this Phavorinus adds, σκότος μετὰ συστροφῆς ἀνέμου, darkness with a violent wind: and so it is here fitly set to signify that black wind, as it were, of dark heathen errors and practices, by which these νεφέλαι, clouds, to which St. Jude adds ἄνυδροι, empty, waterless clouds, the Gnostics, are driven and carried about; to which therefore is apportioned ὁ ζόφος τοῦ σκότους, the blackness of darkness for ever, in the end of the verse.

2 Peter 3:22

But now their condition is a most profane unclean state, best signified by a dog and a swine, two most unclean, profane creatures, which among the Jews stood interdicted both for sacrifice and food, and are both observed proverbially for this quality, that the dog, when any thing lies upon his stomach which causes him to vomit, when that trouble is over, he presently licks up again what he had before vomited up, (see Prov. xxvi. 11;) and the swine, when she is washed never so clean, takes pleasure to tumble again in the next mire she comes to.

THIS second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:

[g] sow that was washed] The Hebrew word for a swine חוֹר is deduced from חוֹר, rediit, reversus est, returning, to note this quality of the swine, taken notice of by this proverb, of returning to the mire again.