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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - 2 Peter 3:5 - 3:5
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2Pe 3:5. Λανθάνει γὰρ, for it escapes their notice) This is the reason why they thus speak. Antithetical to, let it not escape your notice, 2Pe 3:8.-τοῦτο, this) The nominative case.-θέλοντας) willing it to be so. Their ignorance is voluntary. They obstinately neglect to consider the deluge.-οὐρανοὶ-γῆ, the heavens-the earth) The heavens and the earth before the deluge were very different in quality, though not in substance, from their present state.-ἦσαν ἔκπαλαι) had been, of old, just as they are now. The deluge, and the destruction of the world by fire, Peter says, might have appeared equally incredible: and yet the former event has taken place, and the latter will take place. Just as the mockers were arguing against the destruction of the world by fire, so before the deluge men might have argued against the deluge. But as the argument of these last was proved to be groundless by the testimony of the event, so also is the argument of the former. The urgency of the reasoning derived from the deluge destroys the force of the thus, as they were (οὕτω), of the mockers, 2Pe 3:4. The pluperfect has a backward reference from the time of the deluge to the time of the creation: and the word then, 2Pe 3:6, has also a reference to that.-ἐξ ὓδατος καὶ διʼ ὓδατος, out of the water and by the water) A gradual process. The water had covered the earth: the earth emerged out of the waters; and the water was serviceable for the stability of the earth, as the Creator formed and placed it. Water is in other cases lighter than earth, and earth seeks the lower parts, to such a degree, that all water in a straight line from the surface to the centre of this globe, or round system, always has earth beneath it: but on the surface itself, the earth everywhere rises above the water in a greater or less degree; and even this place the water yielded and left to the earth, as it were unwillingly, and when compelled by the most powerful command of God, Exo 20:4; Psa 24:2; Psa 104:5-8; Psa 136:6; Job 38:10-11; 2Es 16:59.-συνεστῶσα, standing together) that is, was. The joining together and lasting duration of the earth is pointed out: and thus standing firmly, answers to the word of old. Thomas Burnet, in his Theory of the Earth, 2Pe 2:5, applies the participle (which in the English Version is ambiguous, standing), not only to the earth, but also to the heavens. By paying attention to this error, you will avoid many things which Burnet has raised upon it.-τῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγῳ, by the word of God) Gen 1:6-9. This is constructed with were (ἦσαν), expressed, and was (ἦν), understood. The duration of all things is determined by the Word of God, so that it can be neither longer nor shorter.