Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 2 Peter 3:13 - 3:13
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
2Pe_3:13. καινοὺς δὲ οὐρανοὺς καὶ γῆν καινήν ] This verse, which does not depend on διʼ ἥν (Dietlein), but is joined in an independent manner to what goes before, forms the antithesis to the thought last expressed, and serves to strengthen the exhortation contained in 2Pe_3:11-12.
By καινοὺς … καινήν the heaven and the earth of the future are distinguished as to their character from those of the present, and prominence is given to their glorified condition; cf. 2Co_5:17.
The same idea of a new heaven and a new earth is expressed in Rev_21:1.
κατὰ τὸ ἐπάγγελμα αὐτοῦ ] cf. Isa_65:17; Isa_66:22.
αὐτοῦ ] i.e. Θεοῦ ; the O. T. promise, principally at least, is meant. προσδοκῶμεν , which looks back to προσδοκῶντας , 2Pe_3:12, significantly designates the new heaven and the new earth as the aim of the certain hope of believers.
ἐν οἷς δικαιοσύνη κατοικεῖ ] A similar thought is contained in Isa_65:25; cf. also Rev_21:3-27. Erasmus incorrectly refers ἐν οἷς to the subject contained in προσδοκῶμεν ; it plainly goes back to καινοὺς οὐρ . κ . γῆν καιν . δικαιοσύνη , not equivalent to gloria et felicitas coelestis, utpote verae justitiae praemium (Vorstius), but the vera justitia itself, i.e. the holy conduct, completely in harmony with the divine will, of those who belong to the new heaven and the new earth.[103] Hofmann widens the idea too much, when he says that “ δικαιοσύνη is to be understood not as applying only to the right conduct of men, but in the sense of integrity of nature generally.”
[103] In the Book of Enoch also, similar conceptions are to be found; chap. Psa_90:17 : “and the former heavens, they shall pass away and be dissolved, and new heavens will appear;” chap. Psa_54:4-5 : “In that day will I cause mine elect to dwell in their midst, and I will change the heavens,” etc.; “I will also change the earth,” etc.; 1. 5: “the earth shall rejoice, the righteous shall dwell therein, and the elect shall go and walk therein;” x. 17: “The earth shall be purified from all corruption, from all crime, from all punishment, and from all suffering.”