Chapter 3

Chapter Three — Exposition of the Third Chapter

¹ This second epistle, beloved, I now write to you, in both of which I stir up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you may be mindful of the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of your apostles of the Lord and Savior. From this we learn that Peter’s epistles are two in all. And the phrase in both of which I stir you up means this: In which epistles—that is, through which epistles—I stir up the sincere mind in you. For it belongs to a pure mind to be mindful of the saving things already heard or laid up, and to be stirred up to the renewal of the working of them with all power and eagerness. And they were laid up through the proclamations of the prophets and the apostles. Therefore Paul also says, Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. For all of them proclaimed the coming of the Lord; and it is not possible to disbelieve so many witnesses. And why, he says, do I speak of prophets and apostles? Because they proclaimed both the first and the second coming of the Lord himself, our Savior. And the construction is thus: To be mindful of the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets, of the commandment of your apostles, of the commandment of the Lord and Savior. For the preposition by applies in common. And as to why he urges that this remembrance be rekindled, he adds that those who live according to the passions, after their own lusts, seeing some who fear the coming of the Lord—which he, with other God-bearing men and the Lord himself, foretold—and on its account setting aside their unseemly way of life; and chiefly because the experience does not come hard upon the heels of the words, but is prolonged for the sake of the salvation of those written in the book of the saved—these men fasten shamelessly upon believers, mocking them.

² Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last of the days mockers, walking after their own lusts, and saying: Where is the promise of his coming? For since our fathers fell asleep, all things continue thus from the beginning of creation. For this they willingly fail to know. That the experience of the Lord’s coming does not follow hard upon the heels of the words, he says, is for the sake of the salvation of the many who are enrolled in the book of the living—yet they fasten upon believers as mockers, jeering and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? Through this, then—the coming not yet having arrived, for the reasons we have stated—it is not right also to disobey the other saving commandments of the Lord, being dragged headlong by the counsels of evildoers. Now these things the Gnostics of those times—that is, the Naasenes, and Lampetians, and Euchites—prated. He says that all these willingly fail to know; for of their own will they shut their eyes to the truth. And what is it that escapes them? That, just as at the Flood there were heavens, according to the account of Moses’ antiquity, out of water (for he says that God himself commanded a firmament to come to be in the midst of the water), and the earth likewise, holding together out of the waters by his command, being wholly submerged for them, and as the heaven and earth consisted of waters, the Flood came upon them unexpectedly—so also now corruption is laid up for the whole through fire, with which the ungodly too shall perish. For there being two most cohesive elements of the whole, water and fire, from which the two other elements take their being—air being seen when waters are vaporized, earth when waters are condensed, its generation being as from fire and from condensation, with none of the sensible doubting it (for the nature of fire received this power from God the Maker)—there being, then, two, and the former corruption of the ungodly having come through the waters, it is wholly necessary, he says, that the corruption of the ungodly come about through fire.

³ For of this they are willingly ignorant, that the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and through water, by the word of God. Out of water, as from a material cause; through water, as through a final cause. For water is what holds the earth together, binding fast its dust as with glue, and providing it with subsistence. For if not for this, it must needs dissolve into dust and be turned to air. But someone, talking foolishly, will perhaps assail us: Why, then, did God, when he gave the visible world its subsistence, not make it stable from the beginning—from which there would be need to restore it to the right state, once by the Flood in the time of Noah, and at the consummation by fire, as Peter now says? To this we shall say that it is not possible for it to be unchangeable. For how should that be unchangeable which received its being out of change? For it was brought from non-being into being—which no sensible man will deny is alteration. And since the alteration advanced to the worst, being mixed up with the worse, the Maker of it, necessarily leading it back to the better, made the cleansing in Noah’s time through water, and at the consummation through fire. For we too are accustomed to smelt materials with fire, not that we may give them non-existence, but that we may bestow on them what is pure and unalloyed; and this no one will disbelieve. In the same way God also promised to act through fire at the consummation; for it destroys the superfluous things, and those that contribute nothing to human constitution—such as plants, cattle, herbage. These superfluous things, then, shall be destroyed for the sake of the incorruptible life. Since, then, these things are so, those talk in vain who seek that this visible world should not have been incorruptible from the beginning. If this is so, let one not suppose it should be reckoned also of the intellectual essence—since it too was brought forth out of things that were not—but he does not yet understand how that simplicity procures imperishability and the being ranked near the blessed and divine nature in its existence.

⁴ By which the world that then was, being flooded with water, perished.[1] Through the heaven and the earth: the earth flooding it with water, and the heaven loosing its cataracts of water upon the earth. And the word perished—do not understand it of the whole world, but only of the living creatures, which give form, as it were, to the whole world. For when bereft of these, it would no longer be a world.

⁵ But the heavens and the earth which are now, by his word are stored up, kept for fire unto the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. That the corruption of the whole comes about through fire seems good not only to Christians, but also to the wise men of the Greeks. But someone will say: And what is the point of its having a subsistence, if the world must again pass into corruption? We shall say, then, that the world will not pass utterly into corruption, but unto renewal. Therefore the Prophet also says, And you shall renew the face of the earth. For just as the sensible creation, having received its subsistence from God, is fair; but, because of man’s transgression, the creation itself also was subjected to vanity—that is, to not having its being secure—then through the Flood, there being few God-fearing men on the earth, and the world receiving as it were a second beginning, through Noah and the living creatures preserved in the ark, that seed might again be established for the world; yet even so, the nature of men that had gone before not recovering, but flowing away to things worse than the former—from which neither the law given through Moses turned it back, nor the coming of the Lord—since, then, the calling to salvation is manifold, and the destruction from disobedience is of many kinds, for this reason the deluge of fire shall be necessary: a corruption, indeed, even if not complete; for it is not a corruption of souls, nor even of bodies; for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ—not without bodies, with souls alone, but with incorruptible bodies. For how could the soul be punished, naked of the body, when it receives back the things done through the body? For it is not the part of a just judge, when two have offended together, to release the one, and to lay the whole of the charge upon the other. And besides, because we too are accustomed to cleanse impure materials with fire, and to restore them to purity. And the phrase kept unto the day of judgment and destruction—thus the “unto the day” is to be taken in common: that is, unto the day of judgment, and unto the day of destruction. And of judgment stands for of condemnation.

⁶ But of this one thing be not ignorant, beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Having concluded the discourse concerning the consummation—that it will be, both from water and from fire (all of which we too have set forth more at length)—he passed over to the prolonging of the time of the world’s consummation, and says that the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering, awaiting your salvation and the fullness of those to be saved. Inasmuch as he is infinite, nothing is prolonged for him, but even the thousand years are as one day with him; or rather, according to David, not even the smallest fraction of a day (for he says thus, For a thousand years in your eyes, O Lord, are as yesterday, which is past, and as a watch in the night; by the watch indicating the briefest span), having likened the thousand years to a watch of the night. And the night is divided into four intervals, seeing that the Lord also stands by the holy apostles at the fourth watch of the night, as the Gospel says.

⁷ But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with burning heat, and the earth and the works in it shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things are being dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be, in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with burning heat? The uncertainty of the Lord’s coming and its unexpectedness he indicated by the coming of the thief and by the night: by the night, the uncertainty; by the thief, the unexpectedness; for no one who expects a thief will be robbed. Therefore the Lord also says that as in the days of Noah men were making merry with drinking and marriages, until the Flood came upon them, so also the coming of the Lord shall come unexpectedly upon the ungodly. With a rushing noise signifies with a sound; and such a sound is proper to things consumed by fire. And observe that he said the earth and the works upon it shall be burned up, but not men—unless he meant only the destruction of the ungodly, that is, of their ungodly deeds, for the way of the ungodly shall perish, but not the ungodly man as well.

⁸ But according to his promise we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking for these things, be diligent to be found by him spotless and blameless, in peace; and count the longsuffering of our Lord to be salvation. The Lord will give subsistence to new heavens and a new earth, not in their existence and matter; for one who joins together a new house does not make it out of matter that did not exist beforehand. And so God, having once given the matter its subsistence and shaped it into all kinds of forms and combinations, sends away as much as was necessary for the need of that time, but for the incorruptible state hereafter is unprofitable and superfluous; but whatever is profitable, having reshaped it with incorruptible and inconceivable beauty, he will have wherewith to complete the second and incorruptible world.

⁹ Even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to understand, which the unlearned and unsteadfast wrest, as also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware, lest, being led away with the error of the lawless, you fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and God the Father. To whom be glory both now and unto the day of the age. Amen. This too Paul said, in the words, The goodness of God leads you to repentance. And if the longsuffering of God leads to repentance, and repentance is unto our salvation, then assuredly the longsuffering of God is for our benefit and unto salvation. By things hard to understand he means those things which, he says, are also perversely reported by the ungodly. For this is what to wrest signifies; and, that from one instance we may set forth the whole: the divine Paul having said, Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, they, perverting his words, said that Paul means this: Let us sin the more, that we may be the more forgiven; and this they do unto their own destruction. For as those who killed the prophets and the apostles, so also those who do away with their words through perversion, are subject to the same judgment. Since those men killed them in order to stop them, that the saving things might not profit those discipled by them; and these likewise wrest their words, that men might not lay hold of salvation through them. And by his own steadfastness he means faith in the Lord. For as in the other Epistle he ends in a prayer, so also in this one, praying that they may grow in faith in the Lord.

¹⁰ The end of the Second Epistle of the holy Apostle Peter; one hundred fifty-four stichoi.[2]