2 Peter 3:6

2Pe 3:6. Δἰ ὧν, by means of which) by means of the heavens and the earth; whence the water flowed together.—ὁ τότε κόσμος, the world which then was) that is, the human race: for ἀπώλεια, destruction, is not here attributed to the heaven and the earth, as Burnet understands it. Comp. the end of 2Pe 3:7 and 2Pe 3:10-13. The deluge was universal.—ἀπώλετο, perished) There follows an emphatic increase of the sense by the figure Epitasis[18] of judgment and perdition, 2Pe 3:7. With this corresponds the saying, they shall perish, they shall be judged, Rom 2:12. Before the deluge God said: My Spirit shall not always pass sentence (judgment) upon man, Gen 6:3. Judgment is reserved for the last day.

[18] See Append. on this figure.—E.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Pe_3:6. διʼ ὧν κ.τ.λ.] The question is, to what has ὧν retrospect? The answer depends on the meaning attached to: ὁ τότε κόσμος. To appearance this phrase must be regarded as identical with οὐρανοὶ καὶ γῆ, 2Pe_3:5; 2Pe_3:7 (2Pe_3:10; 2Pe_3:13), and in support of this view appeal may be made also to the τότε as distinguished from νῦν, 2Pe_3:7. On this interpretation, accepted by most expositors (as also in this commentary), διʼ ὧν can refer only either to ἐξ ὕδατος and τῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγῳ (Gerhard, Brückner, Besser, Wiesinger, in this commentary also), or to ὕδατος alone (Calvin, Pott, etc.)[91]the plural being explained from the circumstance that the water was formerly spoken of both as substance and as medium. The objection to this explanation, however, is that in the account of the flood there is nothing to show that it caused the destruction both of the heaven and of the earth, and that the earth only but not the heaven was submerged; Hofmann accordingly understands by ὁ τότε κόσμος, the world of living creatures, as Oecumenius already had done: ΤῸ ἈΠΏΛΕΤΟ ΜῊ ΠΡῸς ΠΆΝΤΑ ΤῸΝ ΚΌΣΜΟΝ ἈΚΟΥΣΤΈΟΝ, ἈΛΛᾺ ΠΡῸς ΜΌΝΑ ΤᾺ ΖῶΑ. On this view (where ΝῦΝ only, 2Pe_3:6, seems to cause difficulty) ὯΝ refers to ΟὐΡΑΝΟῚ ΚΑῚ Γῆ (Oecumenius, Beza, Wolf, Hornejus, Fronmüller, Steinfass, Hofmann).[92]

[91] With this reference Burnet (Archaeol. Philos. p. 467) agrees, yet he incorrectly explains διʼ ὧν by: earn ob causam, or: propter illam (aquam); for he strangely assumes that whilst the former world was ex aqua et per aquam constituta, this constitutio perished by the flood, so that therefore the κόσμος that now is, is no longer, ex aqua et per aquam, but aliter constitutus.

[92] Beda likewise applies ὧν to heaven and earth, but interprets (evidently erroneously) διά thus, that these are not the causa, but the objectum perditionis; i.e. διʼ ὧν as equivalent to in quibus partibus aere et terra.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Pe 3:6 . διʼ ὧν . Mayor and Schmeidel, against the evidence of nearly all manuscripts, read διʼ ὅν . This is rendered unnecessary (1) if the above rendering of ἐξ ὕδατος κ . τ . λ . is taken, and the plural διʼ ὧν refers to the two waters. διʼ ὅν would refer to λόγῳ alone, or (2) if διʼ ὧν relers to ὑδάτων and λόγῳ taken together, which would in some ways suit the sense of the whole passage better. The false teachers had ignored the agency of the Divine word. κατακλυσθείς ; ἁπ . λεγ . in N.T.; found several times in P.Tebt. e.g. 54 17 ff (B.C. 86) [ ὥστε ] … συμβεβηκότων κατακλυσθῆναι . “So that in consequence of what happened, it was flooded”; 56 5 f (late ii. B.C.) γείν [ ωσ ] κε δὲ περὶ τοῦ κατακεκλῦσθαι τὸ πεδίον “but know about our plain having been inundated”.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Secondly, he setteth against them the universal flood which was the destruction, as it were of the whole world.

For the waters returning into their former place this world, that is to say, this beauty of the earth which we see, and all living creatures which live upon the earth perished.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Whereby--Greek, "By which" (plural). By means of which heavens and earth (in respect to the WATERS which flowed together from both) the then world perished (that is, in respect to its occupants, men and animals, and its then existing order: not was annihilated); for in the flood "the fountains of the great deep were broken up" from the earth (1) below, and "the windows of heaven" (2) above "were opened." The earth was deluged by that water out of which it had originally risen.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

It seems, however, strange that he says that the world perished through the deluge, when he had before mentioned the heaven and the earth. To this I answer, that the heaven was then also submerged, that is, the region of the air, which stood open between the two waters. For the division or separation, mentioned by Moses, was then confounded. (Genesis 1:6;) and the word heaven is often taken in this sense. if any wishes for more on this subject, let him read Augustine on the City of God. Lib. 20.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(6) Whereby.—The meaning of this is much disputed. The original literally signifies, by means of which things. But what things? The context allows various alternatives: (1) These facts about the Creation; (2) the heavens and the earth; (3) the water out of which, and the water by means of which, the world was made; (4) any or all of these together with the word of God. There is good reason for preferring the second of these. Both the heavens and the earth contributed to the deluge; for then “all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened” (Gen_7:11). The English “whereby” is as vague as the original.

The world that then was, . . . perished.—So that it is absurd to say that all things continue unchanged since the Creation. The world was so transformed by the deluge that the world previous to that catastrophe perished, chaos for the moment returned, and a new world issued from the crisis. “The world that then was, perished” is equivalent to “He spared not the old world” in 2Pe_2:5.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished] The “whereby” is not without its difficulties. Does it refer to the whole fact of creation described in the previous verse, or to the two regions in which the element of water was stored up? On the whole, the latter has most in its favour. In the deluge, as described in Gen_7:11, the “fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened,” and so the waters above and those below the firmament were both instruments in the work of judgment. The stress laid on the same fact here and in 1Pe_3:19-20 is, as far as it goes, an evidence in favour of identity of authorship. In the use of the word “perished,” or “was destroyed,” we have a proof, not to be passed over, as bearing indirectly upon other questions of dogmatic importance, that the word does not carry with it the sense of utter destruction or annihilation, but rather that of a change, or breaking up, of an existing order. It is obvious that this meaning is that which gives the true answer to those who inferred from the continuity of the order of nature that there could be no catastrophic change in the future.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whereby the world that then was,.... The old world, as it is called in Pe2 2:5; and as the Ethiopic version here renders it; the world before the flood, that had stood from the creation 1656 years:

being overflowed with water; by the windows of heaven being opened, and the waters over the earth poured down upon it; and by the fountains of the great deep being broken up in it; thus by these waters from above and below, a general inundation was brought upon it; for that the deluge was universal is clear from hence, and from the account by Moses; for as the earth was filled with violence, and all flesh had corrupted its way, God threatened a general destruction, and which was brought by a flood, which overflowed the whole earth; for all the hills that were under the whole heaven were covered with it, and everything that had life in the dry land died, and every living substance was destroyed that was upon the face of the ground; see Gen 6:11; and hence it follows, that hereby the then world

perished; not as to the substance of it, whatever alteration there might be in its form and position; but as to the inhabitants of it; for all creatures, men and cattle, and the creeping things, and fowls of the heaven, were destroyed, excepting Noah and his wife, and his three sons and their wives, and the creatures that were with him in the ark; see Gen 7:23; and by this instance the apostle shows the falsehood of the above assertion, that all things continued as they were from the beginning of the creation; for the earth was covered with water first, and which, by the command of God, was removed, and, after a long series of time, was brought on it again, and by it drowned; and from whence it also appears, that this sort of reasoning used by those scoffers is very fallacious; for though the heavens and the earth may continue for a long time, as they did before the flood, in the same form and situation, it does not follow from thence that they always will, for the contrary is evident from what follows.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

Ver. 6. Being overflowed with water] Therefore that is not altogether true, that all things continue as they were at first, as the scoffers affirmed, 2Pe 3:4.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whereby - Δι ̓ ὧν Di' hōn. Through which, or by means of which. The pronoun here is in the plural number, and there has been much difference of opinion as to what it refers. Some suppose that it refers to the heavens mentioned in the preceding verse, and to the fact that the windows of heaven were opened in the deluge (Doddridge), others that the Greek phrase is taken in the sense of (διὸ dio) “whence.” Wetstein supposes that it refers to the “heavens and the earth.” But the most obvious reference, though the plural number is used, and the word “water” in the antecedent is in the singular, is to “water.” The fact seems to be that the apostle had the “waters” mentioned in Genesis prominently in his eye, and meant to describe the effect produced “by” those waters. He has also twice, in the same sentence, referred to “water” - “out of the water and in the water.” It is evidently to these “waters” mentioned in Genesis, out of which the world was originally made, that he refers here. The world was formed from that fluid mass; by these waters which existed when the earth was made, and out of which it arose, it was destroyed. The antecedent to the word in the plural number is rather that which was in the mind of the writer, or that of which he was thinking, than the word which he had used.

The world that then was ... - Including all its inhabitants. Rosenmuller supposes that the reference here is to some universal catastrophe which occurred before the deluge in the time of Noah, and indeed before the earth was fitted up in its present form, as described by Moses in Gen. 1. It is rendered more than probable, by the researches of geologists in modern times, that such changes have occurred; but there is no evidence that Pater was acquainted with them, and his purpose did not require that he should refer to them. All that his argument demanded was the fact that the world had been once destroyed, and that therefore there was no improbability in believing that it would be again. They who maintained that the prediction that the earth would be destroyed was improbable, affirmed that there were no signs of such an event; that the laws of nature were stable and uniform; and that as those laws had been so long and so uniformly unbroken, it was absurd to believe that such an event could occur. To meet this, all that was necessary was to show that, in a case where the same objections substantially might be urged, it had actually occurred that the world had been destroyed. There was, in itself considered, as much improbability in believing that the world could be destroyed by water as that it would be destroyed by fire, and consequently the objection had no real force. Notwithstanding the apparent stability of the laws of nature, the world had been once destroyed; and there is, therefore, no improbability that it may be again. On the objections which might have been plausibly urged against the flood, see the notes at Heb 11:7.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whereby; by which heavens and water, mentioned in the former verse, the fountains of the great deep being broken up, and the windows of heaven opened, Gen 7:11. Or, by the word of God, as the principal cause, and the water as the instrumental, which, at his command, was poured out upon the earth both from above and below.

The world; the earth, with all the inhabitants of it, eight persons excepted. This the apostle allegeth against the forementioned scoffers, who said that all things continued as they were, when yet the flood had made so great a change in the face of the lower creation.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. Whereby—Literally, through which; that is, through, or by means of, the doubly-mentioned waters. By means of the waters the earth was overflowed with water.

Perished—Not was annihilated, but wrecked and ruined; so as to require a renewal for any purpose of a moral kingdom of God on earth. A type, though perhaps a feeble one, of the final dissolution. As Adam Clarke notes, the divine fiat separating the oxygen of the atmosphere from the other elements could reduce the world to molten fluid. The same divine fiat could renew the earth in a new and divine perfection. All these changes may, under divine authority, take place in the natural order of cause and effect, or by the special interposition of the divine cause.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. The Greek for" whereby" is dij w=n, literally, "through which things." The plural here presents some difficulty. The most obvious antecedents are "the heavens and the earth" of the last verse; but many commentators refer the relative to the twice-repeated "water." The meaning will be the same whichever view we take. "The fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened;" that is, the Deluge was brought to pass by means of the heavens, i.e., the waters that were above the firmament, and the earth, i.e., the waters that were below the firmament, which came from the earth as the waters first mentioned came from the heavens. Another possible view is that of Huther, who refers diJ w=n to the water and the Word of God. By the world here must be meant the world of living creatures. This is St. Peter"s answer to the mockers: there had been one great catastrophe; there will be another. Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. The Greek for" whereby" is dij wn, literally, "through which things." The plural here presents some difficulty. The most obvious antecedents are "the heavens and the earth" of the last verse; but many commentators refer the relative to the twice-repeated "water." The meaning will be the same whichever view we take. "The fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened;" that is, the Deluge was brought to pass by means of the heavens, i.e., the waters that were above the firmament, and the earth, i.e., the waters that were below the firmament, which came from the earth as the waters first mentioned came from the heavens. Another possible view is that of Huther, who refers diJ w=n to the water and the Word of God. By the world here must be meant the world of living creatures. This is St. Peter"s answer to the mockers: there had been one great catastrophe; there will be another.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Through which - Heaven and earth, the windows of heaven being opened, and the fountains of the great deep broken up. The world that then was - The whole antediluvian race. Being overflowed with water, perished - And the heavens and earth themselves, though they did not perish, yet underwent a great change. So little ground have these scoffers for saying that all things continue as they were from the creation.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

world

kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. Whereby. By means of the waters of heaven and earth; “the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened,” the old world was overflowed and perished.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

6. διʼ ὦν. I am inclined (in spite of the fact that the word is rather remote in position) to think that οὐρανοί is the antecedent of ὧν. “There were heavens … by means of which the old world was deluged.” The other alternative, that the two “waters” are the antecedent, also yields a fairly good sense. Mayor with one good cursive MS. reads διʼ ὂν and refers it to λόγος. De Zwaan (1909) agrees.

ὁ τότε κόσμος, cf. ἀρχαιὸς κόσμος 2Pe 2:5. The human beings who perished at the Flood are primarily meant.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6.] by means of which (two) (viz. the waters under the firmament and the waters above the firmament: for in the flood (1) the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and (2) the windows of heaven were opened, Gen 7:11. The interpretations of διʼ ὧν have been very various. Œc. understands ὧν to refer to the heavens and the earth, τῆς μὲν τὸ ὕδωρ ἐπικλυσάσης, τῶν οὐρανῶν δὲ τοὺς καταῤῥακτὰς αὐτῶν ἐπαφέντων: and so (but giving a curious meaning to διʼ ὧν: not, as Huther states, ‘in quibus partibus,’ but grammatically, though strangely, ‘by means of which (its parts perishing), the world, which was made up of heaven and earth, perished:’ “per hæc enim perdita mundus qui in his constiterat, periit”), Beza, Wolf, Horneius, De Wette, al. Again Grot., Piscator, Dietlein, al., take διʼ ὧν for ‘quamobrem,’ i. e. because the world was ἐξ ὕδ. κ. διʼ ὕδ., or because it was τῷ τοῦ θεοῦ λόγῳ. Luther renders wrongly, dennoch¸ nevertheless. Calvin, Pott, al. and recently Huther, understand διʼ ὧν of waters; and account for the plur. by the ὕδωρ as material and the ὕδωρ as medium, above, or as Gerhard by understanding “things,” and taking in also the word of God as comprehended) the then world (i. e. the whole state of things then existing. The Apostle’s argument is, as against the assertors of the world’s endurance for ever, that it has once been destroyed, so that their assertion is thereby invalidated. The expression ὁ τότε κόσμος must neither be limited, as Œc., τὸ ἀπώλετο μὴ πρὸς πάντα τὸν κόσμον ἀκουστέον, ἀλλὰ πρὸς μόνα τὰ ζῶα, ἃ τὸν ἅπαντα κόσμον οἱονεί εἰδοποιεῖ: nor strictly pushed to its utmost extent, as Huther, who maintains that it must be exactly identical with οἱ οὐρανοὶ καὶ ἡ γῆ below. The analogy is not exactly, but is sufficiently close: and κόσμος, as an indefinite common term, takes in the οὐρανοὶ κ. γῆ, which were then instrumental in, and purified by, the destruction, if not altogether swept away by it. Nay the analogy is closer than this: for just as Noah stepped out of the Ark on a new world, the face of the heavens clear, and the face of the earth renewed, so we look for a new heavens and earth (ver. 13), yet like these others constructed out of the materials of the old) being inundated with water, perished (ἀπώλετο, see last note; not, was annihilated, but lost its then form and subsistence as a κόσμος, and passed into a new state. Only thus, as Huther observes, does the verse come in logically as a contradiction to the saying of the scoffers, πάντα οὕτως διαμένει ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς κτίσεως):

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The world that then was [ο τοτε κοσμος] . Lit., the then world. The word for world is literally order, and denotes the perfect system of the material universe.

Being overflowed [κατακλυσθεις] . Only here in New Testament. Cataclysm is derived from it.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.