Albert Barnes Commentary 2 Peter 3:5

"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;" — 2 Peter 3:5 (ASV)

For this they willingly are ignorant of. The Greek is lanyanei gar autouv touto yelontav. There is some considerable variety in the translation of this passage. In our common version, the Greek word (yelontav) is rendered as if it were an adverb, or as if it referred to their ignorance regarding the event. This means that while they might have known this fact, they made no effort to learn it, or they preferred to keep its recollection far from their minds. So Beza and Luther render it.

Others, however, take it as referring to what follows, meaning, "being so minded; being of that opinion; or affirming." This view is held by Bloomfield, Robinson (Lexicon), Mede, Rosenmuller, and others. According to this interpretation, the sense is, "They who thus will or think—that is, they who hold the opinion that all things will continue to remain as they were—are ignorant of this fact: that things have not always remained this way, and that there has been a destruction of the world once by water." The Greek seems rather to demand this interpretation. The sense of the passage would then be, "It is concealed or hidden from those who hold this opinion that the earth has once been destroyed."

Whichever interpretation is adopted, it is implied that the will was involved. They were influenced by their will rather than by sober judgment and reason. Whether the word refers to their ignorance or to their holding that opinion, there was obstinacy and perverseness in it.

The will has usually more to do with the denial and rejection of the Bible's doctrines than the understanding has. The argument to which the apostle appeals in reply to this objection is a simple one. The adversaries of the doctrine affirmed that the laws of nature had always remained the same, and they affirmed that they always would.

The apostle denies the fact they assumed, in the sense in which they affirmed it. He maintains that those laws have not been so stable and uniform that the world has never been destroyed by an overwhelming visitation from God. It has been destroyed by a flood; it may be again by fire. So far as the argument from the stability of the laws of nature is concerned, there was the same improbability that such an event would occur in the one case as there is in the other. Consequently, the objection has no force.

That by the word of God. By the command of God. He spake, and it was done. (Compare to Genesis 1:6, 9; Psalms 33:9).

The idea here is that everything depends on His word or will. As the heavens and the earth were originally made by His command, so by the same command they can be destroyed.

The heavens were of old. The heavens were formerly made (Genesis 1:1). The word heaven in the Scriptures sometimes refers to the atmosphere, sometimes to the starry worlds as they appear above us, and sometimes to the exalted place where God dwells. Here it is used, doubtless, in the popular signification, as denoting the heavens as they appear, embracing the sun, moon, and stars.

And the earth standing out of the water and in the water. The marginal reading is consisting. The Greek is sunestwsa. The Greek word, when used in an intransitive sense, means to stand with, or together; then, tropically, to place together, to constitute, place, or bring into existence—Robinson. The idea our translators seem to have had is that in the formation of the earth, a part was out of the water and a part was under the water. They believed that the former, or the inhabited portion, became entirely submerged, and thus the inhabitants perished.

This was not, however, probably Peter's idea. He doubtless refers to the account of the earth's creation in Genesis 1, where water played such an important part. The thought in his mind seems to have been that water entered materially into the formation of the earth, and that in its very origin, the means existed by which it was later destroyed. The word translated as "standing" should instead be rendered consisting of or constituted of. The meaning is that the creation of the earth resulted from divine agency acting on the mass of elements called waters in Genesis (Genesis 1:2, 6, 7, 9).

There was at first a vast fluid, an immense unformed collection of materials, called waters, and from that the earth arose. The point of time, therefore, in which Peter looks at the earth here, is not when the mountains, continents, and islands seem to be standing partly out of the water and partly in the water, but when there was a vast mass of materials called waters from which the earth was formed.

The phrase "out of the water" (ex udatov) refers to the origin of the earth. It was formed from, or out of, that mass. The phrase "in the water" (di udatov) more properly means through or by. It does not mean that the earth stood in the water in the sense that it was partly submerged. Instead, it means not only that the earth arose from that mass called water in Genesis 1, but also that this mass called water was, in fact, the grand material from which the earth was formed.

It was through or by means of that vast mass of mingled elements that the earth was made as it was. Everything arose out of that chaotic mass; through that, or by means of that, all things were formed. And, because the earth was thus formed out of the water, or because water entered so essentially into its formation, causes existed that ultimately resulted in the deluge.