The Delay Is Not Slackness

This is the only New Testament letter that numbers itself, and the earlier one is most naturally 1 Peter. “Pure” is eilikrines, unmixed or sincere, a word traditionally explained as “tested by sunlight”, as cloth was held up to the light to find flaws. Paul prays that the Philippians may be “sincere” with the same word (Philippians 1:10).

“The holy prophets” is the phrase Peter used in the temple: God spoke “by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21). The oldest manuscripts read “the commandment of your apostles”, not “of us the apostles”, naming the apostles who first brought the gospel to these readers.

The oldest manuscripts read “scoffers shall come with scoffing”, a Hebrew-style doubling the King James does not carry. Jude 18 records the same warning: “there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.” The motive is named before the argument is heard: their theology serves their desires.

“Fell asleep” is koimaomai, the Christian way of speaking of death, used of Stephen (Acts 7:60) and of the Thessalonian dead (1 Thessalonians 4:13). “The fathers” may be the patriarchs of Israel or the first generation of believers; if the second, the scoffers are pointing at graves of people who expected to see the coming.

Genesis 1:6–9 divides the waters and has the dry land appear out of them, and Psalm 24:2 says God “hath founded it upon the seas”. “Standing” is synistemi, to hold together, the verb of Colossians 1:17, “by him all things consist”. The earth was formed out of water and held in the midst of water, which is why water could undo it.

“Whereby” is plural in Greek, “through which”, pointing back to the waters, or to the water and the word together. The flood came from both directions, “the fountains of the great deep” below and “the windows of heaven” above (Genesis 7:11). The world “perished” in the sense of its order ending; the earth itself remained.

Josephus records an old Jewish tradition that Adam foretold the destruction of the world twice, once by water and once by fire, so Seth’s children carved their learning on two pillars, one of brick and one of stone (Antiquities 1.70). Isaiah 66:15–16 has the LORD come “with fire” to plead with all flesh. “Perdition” is apoleia, destruction.

“Be not ignorant” answers verse 5: the scoffers choose not to know; the beloved must not share that ignorance. Jubilees 4:30 used the same psalm to explain why Adam died at 930, within the “day” he ate the fruit. The early Epistle of Barnabas (15:4) built on it the idea that history would run six thousand years.

Ezekiel 18:23 had put the same will as a question: “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” “Come to” is choreo, to make room for or advance toward repentance. The oldest manuscripts read “longsuffering toward you”, not “to us-ward”.

“With a great noise” is rhoizedon, found only here, a word that imitates its sound: the whoosh of an arrow, the rush of wings, the roar of flame. “Elements” is stoicheia, the basic parts of anything, the letters of the alphabet, and so either the heavenly bodies or earth, water, air and fire. “Fervent heat” is kausoo, a medical word for burning fever.

“Dissolved” is lyo, to loosen, as a building is taken apart, and it is present tense in Greek, “are being dissolved”, spoken as if the process were already under way. “Conversation” and “godliness” are both plural in Greek, holy acts and godly deeds, not a general mood of piety.

“The day of God” is a rare phrase; the New Testament usually says “the day of the Lord”, and only Revelation 16:14 has anything close, “that great day of God Almighty”. The melting heavens come from the Greek of Isaiah 34:4, “all the powers of the heavens shall melt”, and Micah 1:4 has mountains “molten” under the LORD.

The promise the scoffers mocked in verse 4 is the promise the believers wait on here; the word comes back deliberately. Isaiah speaks of new heavens and a new earth twice (65:17, 66:22), and Revelation 21:1 sees them. “New” is kainos, new in kind, not merely recent.

“Without spot, and blameless”, aspiloi and amometoi, answers 2:13, where the false teachers were “spots… and blemishes”, spiloi and momoi. The same pair of roots marks the two groups: the teachers are the stains, the readers are to be found without them. “In peace” means found at peace with him when he comes.

“Our beloved brother” is warm from the man Paul once opposed “to the face” at Antioch (Galatians 2:11). “The wisdom given unto him” echoes Paul’s own words, “according to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder” (1 Corinthians 3:10). Paul’s Romans 2:4 joins God’s longsuffering to repentance in the same way.

“In all his epistles” implies a collection of Paul’s letters already circulating together. “Hard to be understood” is dysnoetos, found only here. Paul himself had to warn the Thessalonians against a letter “as from us” claiming the day of Christ had already come (2 Thessalonians 2:2), a case of his teaching on this very subject being bent.

“Led away” is synapago, to be carried off along with others, the verb Paul uses at Antioch when “Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation” (Galatians 2:13), in the episode where Peter himself had drawn back. “Stedfastness” is sterigmos, firmness, found only here. “Know these things before” is proginosko, forewarned.

“For ever” is literally “to the day of eternity”, eis hemeran aionos, a phrase found nowhere else in the New Testament, so the letter that argued about the day ends on one. The doxology is addressed plainly to Jesus Christ. “Grow” is auxano, the verb of 1 Peter 2:2, newborn babes growing by the milk of the word.