2 Peter 3 — Greek text and reception
Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.
Chapter 3
The promised day and steadfast hope
Remember the prophetic and apostolic words
Verse 3:1
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Beloved, this is now the second letter I am writing to you. In these letters I stir up your sincere mind by way of reminder,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: The writer calls this a second letter; the plural reference to the letters remains without asserting the full history of their transmission. Reception [C12]: Calvin, on 3:1, defends repeated admonition because even instructed minds can become sluggish when reminders cease.
Verse 3:2
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
so that you may remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: The prophets' prior words and the commandment mediated through “your apostles” remain distinct. G has your, not our, with apostles. Reception [C12]: Calvin, on 3:2, directs readers to the prophets and apostolic teaching as sufficient grounds for persevering against opposition.
Scoffers and the promised coming
Verse 3:3
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
knowing this first: in the last days scoffers will come with scoffing, walking according to their own desires,
Verse 3:4
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, everything continues as it was from the beginning of creation.”
Verse 3:5
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For they willingly overlook this: that heavens existed long ago, and earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: The earth is said to be “out of water” and “through water,” two separate prepositional relations; synestōsa attributes its constituted existence to God’s word. Reception [C13]: Calvin, on 3:5, stresses that water serves God's command and that the world's apparent stability does not make it independent of Him.
Verse 3:6
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
through which the world that then existed was flooded with water and perished.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: “Through which” represents a plural relative in Greek; its precise antecedents among the preceding word and watery creation are not specified by adding new nouns. Reception [C13, A20]: Calvin, on 3:6, directs readers to Augustine, City of God 20.18. Augustine uses the flood as an analogy for the extent of cosmic change and interprets the affected heavens as the atmosphere; this is his cosmology.
Text [G]: NA28 reads singular δι᾽ ὃν (NA27 and SBLGNT plural δι᾽ ὧν); the rendering above follows SBLGNT, and NA28 would read "on account of which [word]" with a singular antecedent.GC13A20
Verse 3:7
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
But the present heavens and earth have been stored up by the same word for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly people.
The Lord’s patience and the day of God
Verse 3:8
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
But do not let this one thing escape you, beloved: with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
Verse 3:9
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
The Lord is not slow concerning the promise, as some consider slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing anyone to perish but all to come to repentance.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: G has patience toward “you.” The desire concerning anyone and all remains without restricting the scope by an added noun. Reception [C14]: Calvin, on 3:9, reads the delay as time for repentance; he distinguishes God's invitation disclosed in the gospel from his doctrine of a hidden decree.
Verse 3:10
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day the heavens will pass away with a rushing roar, and the elements will be dissolved by burning heat, and the earth and the works in it will be found.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: G has the difficult heurethēsetai, “will be found,” without a negative; this is preserved rather than replaced by “will be burned up.” The contextual sense may be exposure or discovery for judgment, but that explanation is not inserted as a different Greek reading. Reception [C14]: Calvin, on 3:10, urges vigilance and moral renewal. His exposition uses burning language; it is reception of his presentation, not independent evidence for replacing SBLGNT's will be found.
Text [G]: NA28 reads οὐχ εὑρεθήσεται, a reading carried by no other edition in TAGNT (NA27 and SBLGNT εὑρεθήσεται); the rendering above follows SBLGNT, and NA28 would read "will not be found".GC14
Verse 3:11
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Since all these things are being dissolved in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy acts of conduct and godliness,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: Anastrophais and eusebeiais are plural: “holy acts of conduct and godliness” conveys their practical expressions. The question continues into 3:12. Reception [C14]: Calvin's paragraph on 3:11 within 3:9–13 turns cosmic dissolution into an appeal for holy living and treats the elements as renewed rather than annihilated.
Verse 3:12
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved by fire and the elements melt in burning heat?
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: Speudontas is rendered “hastening”; eagerly desiring is another possible sense. G's last verb is present, “melt,” within the anticipated scene; it is not silently changed to a separate prediction. Reception [C14]: Calvin, on 3:12, combines patient expectation with energetic diligence. His interpretation does not supply a mechanism for changing God's timetable.
Verse 3:13
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
But according to His promise we await new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: The newness of both heavens and earth and the dwelling of righteousness remain. Reception [A20]: Augustine, City of God 20.18, explicitly quotes the new-heavens-and-earth promise and discusses the transformed world; his account is later theological and cosmological reception.
Diligence, understanding, and growth
Verse 3:14
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Therefore, beloved, as you await these things, be diligent to be found by Him spotless and blameless, in peace,
Verse 3:15
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and consider the patience of our Lord to be salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: The Lord's patience is related to salvation; Paul's wisdom is described as given, without naming a particular letter that the verse does not name. Reception [C15]: Calvin, on 3:15, reads the Lord's patience as concern for salvation and tentatively sees the Paul reference as attesting apostolic agreement.
Verse 3:16
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
as also in all his letters, speaking in them about these things. In them are some things hard to understand, which the unlearned and unstable distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: SBLGNT’s feminine en hais refers to the letters. “Other Scriptures” places them alongside writings so called; it does not enumerate a later complete canon. Reception [C15]: Calvin, on 3:16, commends teachable reading of difficult passages and blames destructive distortion on readers' instability, rather than prohibiting access to Paul's letters.
Text [G]: NA28 reads future στρεβλώσουσιν, carried by no other edition in TAGNT (NA27 and SBLGNT present στρεβλοῦσιν); the rendering above follows SBLGNT, and NA28 would read "will distort".GC15
Verse 3:17
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, guard yourselves so that you are not carried away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own firm position.
Verse 3:18
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text [G]: The two spheres of growth remain. The unusual “day of eternity” is retained, and G's final Amen is included. Reception [C15]: Calvin, on 3:18, relates perseverance to continued growth and treats the doxology addressed to Christ as testimony to His divinity.
Text [G]: NA28 closes without ἀμήν (NA27 bracketed it; SBLGNT reads ἀμήν); the rendering above follows SBLGNT, and NA28 would end "to the day of eternity."GC15