Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Welcoming the Thief Part V:

Burn, Baby, Burn...(?)

We must now return to Peter’s use of the verb “luo”. As mentioned before, Peter only uses this verb when the “the heavens and earth” are the object. Just as with the verb/object pairing of “apollumi”, it is crucial that we understand the meaning of both parts of the “luo” equation. Having already discerned the meaning of the object of “luo”: the heavens and the earth, “hoti uranoi [and] hay gay”, as opposed to sinful man, “kosmos”, we must turn our attentions to the meaning of the verb itself. When this passage from 2 Peter is translated into the English, “luo” is commonly assigned the meaning "to destroy". While this is a legitimate meaning carried by the verb, it is by far the definition most infrequently used in the Scriptures. Zodhiates says of this meaning that it is, “by implication,” and even marks its use in 2 Peter as “figurative” (Zodhiates, 932). A brief look at the appearance of the word in John’s gospel reveals that it is used by Jesus when he says, “Destroy [luo]this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” However, the text also tells us that he was not speaking of the temple in Jerusalem, as his Jewish audience supposed, but rather was speaking of his body (John 2:19-21, NAS). Bearing this in mind, we see that even one of John’s uses of “luo” which carries the meaning “destroy” was not a permanent destruction, for certainly none of us would say that Christ’s resurrection was a result of a “re-creation”, or that he was not wholly the same being he was prior to his death. As we can see, assigning the definition of “destroy” to “luo” in 2 Peter is not strong based on other Scriptural uses, and so we must look to the writings of Peter himself, as well as consider the alternate, more frequent meanings that appear in the Scriptures.

In regards to the text of 2 Peter, we have already discussed what the apostle identifies as the result of this “luo”-ing of “the heavens and the earth”: a “kainos”, a renewed, heavens and “kainos”, a renewed, earth. This idea alone speaks loudly against assigning “luo” the definition of “destroyed.” Another verbal clue as to how to translate the verb is found in verse 10. “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up” (2 Pet 3:10). In order to see what Peter intended to say with this verse, as well as what it tells us about his use of the verb "luo", we must consider it carefully as there is some question over what word Peter actually intended to appear at the end of his sentence. We find that some ancient manuscripts contain the verb “kataka-ay-setai”, “burn up,” while others show the verb “heur-is-ko”, “to be found”, or to “discover” (Aland, 811). Though the two words seem to bear very different meanings, there must be some common ground upon which they stand that can account for their appearances in this place on different manuscripts. The verbs are visually dissimilar which seems to discount an error in copying texts, so perhaps there is something to their meaning that a scribe thought would better be reflected by one of the words over the other. “Burn up” is certainly supported by the picture painted by Peter of the present heavens and earth being “stored up for fire” in 3:7, however his use of “fire” must also be considered. The overwhelming use of “fire” in the New Testament is to symbolize judgment, and indeed Peter seems to be echoing this imagery by saying that the creation is being “stored up for fire, being kept for the day of judgment” (2 Pet 3:7, NAS). With this in mind, we must also note that the text goes on to say that this day of judgment is also the day of the destruction of the ungodly, just as the previous day of judgment in the time of Noah, which, as we have already concluded, saw the destruction of sinful men and not the creation. Considering this evidence we can be open to the idea that the “burning up”, the “kataka-ay-setai”, of the earth Peter speaks of in 3:10 is not a literal consuming by fire, but rather the intense judgment of a refining fire; a judgment so intense, that nothing can hide from it. And once all ungodly men and their works are destroyed and burned away like dross, the very created earth and its works will be revealed, or, or “heur-is-ko”, “discovered”. Considering the text in this way shows that these verbs which at first glance have no apparent connection,, “kataka-ay-setai” and “heur-is-ko”, and their respective manuscripts, certainly seem to be speaking of the same thing, and it is not the destruction, the “apollumi”, of the heavens and earth.

To be Concluded...

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