2 Peter 3:7

but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word Some of the better MSS. give by His word, but the received reading rests on sufficient authority.

are kept in store, reserved unto fire Literally, are treasured up. The use of the word in reference to punishment has a parallel in Romans 2:5. In naming "fire" as the instrument of that "destruction" of the existing framework of the world, which is, like that by water, to be the starting-point of a new and purified order, the Apostle follows in the track of 2 Thessalonians 1:8, and Daniel 7:9-11. It may be noted, though not as pointing to the source from which the Apostle derived his belief, that this destruction of the world by fire entered into the physical teaching of the Stoics. It is not without interest to note that it was specially prominent in the teaching of Zeno of Tarsus, who succeeded Chrysippus as the leading teacher of the School (Euseb. Praep. Evang. xv. 18). It appears also, in a book probably familiar to the Apostle, the Book of Enoch, c. xc. 11.

against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men The word for "perdition" is the same as that rendered "destruction" in chap. 2 Peter 2:1, and is identical in meaning with the verb "perished" in the preceding verse. We cannot accordingly infer from it that the "ungodly" will cease to exist, but only that there will be a great and penal change in their condition. An interesting parallel to the teaching of this passage, probably in great part derived from it, is found in an Oration of Melito of Sardis, translated from the Syriac by Dr Cureton in a. d. 1855. "There was a flood of water.… There will be a flood of fire, and the earth will be burnt up together with its mountains … and the just shall be delivered from its fury, as their fellows in the Ark were saved from the waters of the Deluge."