2 Peter 3:5-13

NOTE ON THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD BY FIRE

The passage 2 Peter 3:5-13 is the only one in the New Testament which speaks of the destruction of the world by fire. The coming of Christ, the Resurrection, and the Final Judgment are dwelt upon by other writers, but of a general conflagration nothing is said by them. This is a noteworthy fact; so widely spread is the notion of a final fire, that it comes as a surprise to most people when they realize how very slender is the Biblical foundation for that belief.

Whence did our author derive it? We know that the Stoics held that there would be an ἐκπύρωσις of the world: but their view was that it was an event which would recur at the end of vast periods of time, and that each burning would be succeeded by a παλιγγενεσία, a re-constitution of the world. This differs from the Christian idea, which was that there would be one final burning, and that human history would not repeat itself.

Among the Jews the belief was entertained by some: but it has not left any considerable trace in the apocalyptic literature. Philo argues strongly against the Stoic belief in his tract on the Incorruptibility of the World.

In certain early Christian books pretending to high antiquity the final fire is dwelt upon. The fourth book of the Sibylline oracles, which is assigned to the reign of Titus or Domitian (and is appealed to upon this point by Justin Martyr in his Apology) says (172–177):

εἰ δʼ οὔ μοι πείθοισθε κακόφρονες …

πῦρ ἔσται κατὰ κόσμον ὅλον …

φλέξει δὲ χθόνα πᾶσαν, ἅπαν δʼ ὀλέσει γένος�

καὶ πάσας πόλεας ποταμούς θʼ ἅμα ἠδὲ θάλασσαν,

ἐκκαύσει δέ τε πάντα, κόνις δʼ ἔσετʼ αἰθαλόεσσα.

There is a longer description in the later second book of the oracles (196–213). It is pretty clear that this book derives its matter very largely from the Apocalypse of Peter, in which we now know that the burning of the world was described at some length. See the Additional Note, p. lvii.

Justin Martyr also appeals to a book called Hystaspes as agreeing with the Sibyl. This we no longer possess, but we can tell from scattered quotations that it was a prophecy revealed to an ancient king of the Medes; it seems to have been Christian, and quite early in date.

Another early book which speaks of this, in words which recall 2 Peter, is the so-called Second Epistle of Clement (really a sermon of the second century): cap. xvi. γινώσκετε δὲ ὅτι ἔρχεται ἤδη ἡ ἡμέρα τῆς κρίσεως ὡς κλίβανος καιόμενος (Malachi 4:1 ἰδοὺ ἡμέρα ἔρχεται καιομένη ὡς κλίβανος) καὶ τακήσονταί τινες (corrupt: perhaps αἱ δυνάμεις) τῶν οὐρανῶν (Isaiah 34:4 and Apocalypse of Peter, quoted above), καὶ πᾶσα ἡ γῆ ὡς μόλιβος ἐπὶ πυρὶ τηκόμενος, καὶ τότε φανήσεται τὰ κρύφια καὶ φανερὰ ἔργα τῶν�. Can this last clause (καὶ τότε φανήσεται κ.τ.λ.) be taken as showing that the writer actually had 2 Peter before him, and that his copy of it read εὑρεθήσεται? One is tempted to guess that this was the case, and that he interpreted τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς ἔργα εὑρεθήσεται as meaning “the works that are therein shall be manifested.”

It is not practicable to trace the gradual growth of the belief: but it did grow, and in later times at least, when the Sibylline oracles and other such books were forgotten, the passage in 2 Peter became the authoritative one on the subject.