2 Peter - Verse-by-Verse Biblical Exegesis

will also be so after the judgment by fire. Earth was not uninhabitable after the Noahic
flood, because after the waters returned to their source, the earth was repopulated once
again.
RELEVANT OPINIONS
They have chosen the path of deliberate forgetfulness … Peter wants his opponents to
understand that their arguments are erroneous and misleading in the light of God’s
revelation. God rules His creation and governs the course of world history. (S. Kistemaker)
The earth “being overflowed with water, perished.” This refers to the cataclysm of Gen. 1:2
where we read, “and the earth became without form and void, and darkness was on the face
of the deep.” It was the judgment upon the fall of the angel Lucifer and the consequent
apostasy of the pre-Adamic race. (K. Wuest) The understanding of creation is Near Eastern
(Gen. 1:2, 6-10) – the earth and sky were created by the pushing back of the waters of a
primeval ocean above, below, and around the earth. (D. Watson) The waters above the
firmament, being divided from the waters below the firmament, by furnishing moisture, and
rain, and keeping moist the earth, are the means by which the earth came into existence. (H.
Alford) At His command the earth stood out of the waters and there was a separation
between the sea and the dry land. (T. Westwood)
Two kinds of water are meant. The first may refer to the primeval watery chaos – “the face
of the waters” in Gen. 1:2. The second is perhaps connected with the formation of the dry
land by “the gathering together of the waters into one place” in Gen. 1:9. The above
interpretation is in substantial agreement with Alford’s, who distinguishes “the waters above
the firmament,” and “the fountains of the great deep.” The Hebrew had no notion of
evaporation. The rivers run into the sea, and the water returns subterraneously to their
sources again – Eccl. 1:7. (R. Nicole) The false teachers seem to be basing their scoffing and
denial of the parousia on the premise that the world has not experienced judgment of cosmic
magnitude like that expected to accompany the parousia. (D. Watson) The writer means that
water was, in a loose sense, the instrument of creation, since it was by separating and
gathering the waters that God created the world. (R. Bauckham, Knopf, Windisch, Kelly,
Chaine) The originally created world has already been annihilated once and has been
replaced by the current one. (J. Kelly)
According to Genesis, there was originally a kind of watery waste (Gen. 1:2). Then by divine
fiat, the world was formed by the separation of land from water (Gen. 1:6-10). Furthermore,
life in that world was sustained by water in Gen. 2:6. (N. Hillyer) It is possible that in the
view of Peter the first heaven and earth were absolutely destroyed and succeeded by the
present, as these again will be replaced by a new heaven and earth … We must make
allowance for rhetorical colour. The author presses as far as he can the analogy between two
cases [Gen. 1:2 deluge or Noahic flood] which were not absolutely parallel. (C. Bigg) Since
this undoubtedly refers to Genesis 1:9, note is taken of verse 2 in the same chapter. By
comparison with Isaiah 45:18 it is apparent that the original creation of Gen. 1:1 was not
without form and void. Therefore, some great catastrophe must have befallen the original
creation … By divine fiat God had to bring order out of the existing chaos. Therefore, the
first judgment upon the earth marks a great break in the settled order or nature. (H. Hoyt)