A Textual Commentary On The Greek NT

2 Peter 3:10

2 Peter 3:10 eu`reqh,setai {D}

At the close of ver. 2 Peter 3:10 the extant witnesses present a wide variety of readings, none of which seems to be original. The oldest reading, and the one which best explains the origin of the others that have been preserved, is eu`reqh,setai, which is attested by a B K P 424^c 1175 1739^txt 1852 syr^{ph, h^mg} arm Origen. In view of the difficulty of extracting any acceptable sense from the passage, it is not strange that copyists and translators introduced a variety of modifications. Thus, several witnesses retain eu`reqh,setai but qualify it with other words: (a) the Sahidic version and one manuscript of the Harclean Syriac version insert the negative, and (b) the Bodmer Papyrus (î⁷²) adds luo,mena (“the earth and the things in it will be found dissolved”) — an expedient, however, that overloads the context with three instances of the same verb. Other witnesses either (c) omit eu`reqh,setai and the accompanying clause (so Y vg Pelagius al), or substitute another verb that gives more or less good sense. Thus (d) C reads avfanisqh,sontai (“will disappear”), and (e) A 048 049 056 0142 33 614 Byz Lect syr^h cop^bo eth al read katakah,setai (“will be burned up”).

Because eu`reqh,setai, though the oldest of the extant readings, seems to be devoid of meaning in the context (even the expedient of punctuating as a question, “Will the earth and the things in it be found?” fails to commend itself), various conjectural emendations have been proposed: (a) after e;rga the word a;rga has fallen out (Bradshaw), “the earth and the things in it will be found useless”; (b) eu`reqh,setai is a scribal corruption of r`uh,setai or r`eu,setai (Hort), ² “the earth and the things in it will flow”; (c) surruh,setai (Naber), “… will flow together”; (d) evkpurwqh,setai (Olivier), “… will be burnt to ashes”; (e) avrqh,setai (J. B. Mayor), “… will be taken away”; (f) kriqh,setai (Eb. Nestle), “… will be judged”; (g) ivaqh,setai (or evxiaqh,setai) (Chase), “… will be healed (thoroughly)”; (h) purwqh,setai (Vansittart), “… will be burned.”

² In support of Hort’s conjecture, cf. I Enoch 1:6 where, in a similar context, some witnesses read tou/ diaÉrËruh/nai o;rh (“so that the mountains shall waste away”).

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A Textual Commentary On The Greek NT

2 Peter 3:10

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