2 Pietro 3:4

4 e diranno: Dov’è la promessa della sua venuta? perché dal giorno in cui i padri si sono addormentati, tutte le cose continuano nel medesimo stato come dal principio della creazione.

2 Pietro 3:4 Meaning and Commentary

2 Peter 3:4

And saying, Where is the promise of his coming?
&c.] That is, of the coming of the Lord and Saviour, ( 2 Peter 3:2 ) ; the object of their scorn and derision, and whom they name not, through contempt; and the meaning is, what is become of the promise of his coming? where the accomplishment of it? The prophets foretold he would come; he himself said he would come again, ( John 14:3 John 14:28 ) ; the angels, at his ascension, declared he would come from heaven in like manner as he went up, ( Acts 1:11 ) ; and all his apostles gave out that he would appear a second time to judge both quick and dead, ( Acts 10:42 ) ( 2 Timothy 4:1 ) ( 1 Peter 4:5 ) , and that his coming was at hand, ( Philippians 4:5 ) ( 2 Thessalonians 2:2 ) ; but where is the fulfilment of all this? he is not come, nor is there any sign or likelihood of it:

for since the fathers fell asleep;
or "died": which is the language of the Scriptures, and here sneered at by these men, who believe them so fast asleep as never to be awaked or raised more; and by "the fathers" they mean the first inhabitants of the world, as Adam, Abel, Seth and all the patriarchs and prophets in all ages; the Ethiopic version renders it, "our first fathers":

all things continue as [they were] from the beginning of the creation;
reasoning from the settled order of things, the constant revolution of the sun, moon, and stars, the permanency of the earth, and the succession of the inhabitants of it, to the future continuance of things, without any alteration; and consequently, that Christ would not come, as was promised, to raise the dead, judge mankind destroy the world, and set up a new state of things: the fallacy of which reasoning is exposed by the apostle in the following words.

2 Pietro 3:4 In-Context

2 onde vi ricordiate delle parole dette già dai santi profeti, e del comandamento del Signore e Salvatore, trasmessovi dai vostri apostoli;

3 sapendo questo, prima di tutto: che negli ultimi giorni verranno degli schernitori coi loro scherni i quali si condurranno secondo le loro concupiscenze

4 e diranno: Dov’è la promessa della sua venuta? perché dal giorno in cui i padri si sono addormentati, tutte le cose continuano nel medesimo stato come dal principio della creazione.

5 Poiché costoro dimenticano questo volontariamente: che ab antico, per effetto della parola di Dio, esistettero de’ cieli e una terra tratta dall’acqua e sussistente in mezzo all’acqua;

6 per i quali mezzi il mondo d’allora, sommerso dall’acqua, perì;