Passage

2 Peter 3.5

Book: 2 Peter · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

3. knowing this first, that in the last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their own lusts, 4. and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

5. For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of God;

by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7. but the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. (2 Peter 3:3-7, ASV)

WEB

3. knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts, 4. and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

5. For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water, by the word of God;

by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. 7. But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. (2 Peter 3:3-7, WEB)

KJV

3. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4. And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

5. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: ^{standing: Gr. consisting}

Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7. But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. (2 Peter 3:3-7, KJV)

YLT

3. this first knowing, that there shall come in the latter end of the days scoffers, according to their own desires going on, 4. and saying, 'Where is the promise of his presence? for since the fathers did fall asleep, all things so remain from the beginning of the creation;'

5. for this is unobserved by them willingly, that the heavens were of old, and the earth out of water and through water standing together by the word of God,

through which the then world, by water having been deluged, was destroyed; 7. and the present heavens and the earth, by the same word are treasured, for fire being kept to a day of judgment and destruction of the impious men. (2 Peter 3:3-7, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Simon Peter, writing as an apostle and eyewitness (1:1, 1:16), aware that his death is near (1:14)
Audience: Believers addressed as having received a faith of the same kind as the apostles' (1:1); 3:1 calls this the second letter to them, pointing to the same congregations as 1 Peter in Asia Minor
Location: Traditionally Rome, in the period of Peter's final imprisonment
Time period: c. AD 64-68 on the traditional attribution; the letter is written against teachers who had entered the churches denying the Lord's return and using freedom as cover for licence (2:1-3, 3:3-4)

Theological reading

The verb rendered escapes their notice carries the sense of deliberate overlooking rather than simple ignorance, and the object is the creation account: by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water. The letter's point is that the mockers' premise of unbroken continuity is maintained by leaving out data, not by weighing it. Placing the word of God at the origin also sets up verse 7, where the same word is what reserves the present order for judgment, so that the argument runs on a single agency from creation to consummation.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G3056 - logos, logos, Strong's G3056
G2316 - theos, theos, Strong's G2316

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Big Bang
Eschatology, via 2 Peter 3.3-9
Genesis Flood, via 2 Peter 3.5-6
Laws of the Universe as Witness to Design
Water and Life, via 2 Peter 3.5-6
Young Earth Creationism, via 2 Peter 3.5-7

Passages:

Psalms 33.6

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.