2 Peterchapter 3
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Speaks with:2 Peter 3×52 Peter 2×3Jude 1×2Matthew 24×21 Peter 2×2Romans 2×2
Summary
Chapter summary
The last chapter names the objection: 'in the last days mockers shall come with mockery… saying, Where is the promise of his coming?': all things continue as from the beginning of the creation. Peter's answer is the flood: they willfully forget that the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished, and the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire. Delay is scale and mercy: 'one day is with the Lord as a thousand years' (Psalm 90), and 'the Lord is not slack concerning his promise… not wishing that any should perish' (3:9). 'The day of the Lord will come as a thief'. But we look for 'new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness' (Isaiah 65). Paul's letters, he adds, contain 'some things hard to be understood.'
Context
Epistle · Peter — 2 Peter overview
- A. 1–7 Scoffers Ask: Where Is the Promise of His Coming?
- B. 8–13 A Thousand Years as a Day; The Elements Shall Melt
- C. 14–18 Paul's Hard Sayings, and Growing in Grace
The outline
A.Scoffers Ask: Where Is the Promise of His Coming?vv. 1 to 7
Read vv. 1 to 7 →B.A Thousand Years as a Day; The Elements Shall Meltvv. 8 to 13
Read vv. 8 to 13 →C.Paul's Hard Sayings, and Growing in Gracevv. 14 to 18
Read vv. 14 to 18 →
The world behind this chapter
2 Peter 3The history
The mocking question is a real one: everything goes on as it always has since the fathers fell asleep. Thirty years had passed, the founding generation was dying, and the argument from unbroken normality is the argument people always reach for.
Peter's counter is the flood. The world that existed then was destroyed by water, so the claim that nothing has ever interrupted the ordinary course is simply false — and the readers' own Scriptures said so.
A world ending in fire was not an alien idea to Greek-trained hearers. Stoic philosophers taught that the universe periodically burns up and begins again, so the language of the elements dissolving in heat connected with something they already discussed. What Peter adds is a moral purpose and a new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells.
The last paragraph mentions Paul's letters and puts them alongside 'the other Scriptures,' which tells us Paul's correspondence was already circulating and being collected while Peter was alive. It also says frankly that some of it is hard to understand.
What it meant to them
For hearers embarrassed by the delay, the answer reframes it: the delay is patience, and it is aimed at people who have not yet turned. The waiting has a reason and the reason is mercy.
Read in a premillennial frame, the day of the Lord in this chapter is a real coming event on God's calendar, not a figure of speech — which is exactly why the chapter ends with a question about conduct: what sort of people ought you to be.
Sources cited
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
- Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 2 Peter 3. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 9 · Written to them
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise
topics/waiting→MannaFest topical index
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.