2 Peter 3:10

ἡμέρα Κυρίου. No distinction is made between the Day of the Lord, and the Coming of Christ. This is remarkable, as excluding any idea of millenarian teaching, which speedily made its appearance in the Early Church, is ὡς κλέπτης, cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:2; Matthew 24:43; Luke 12:39; Revelation 3:3; Revelation 16:15. That day will surprise those who are clinging to the idea that no change is possible. ῥοιζηδὸν, onomatopoetic, expressing the sound produced by rapid motion through the air, e.g., flight of a bird, or an arrow. It is also used of the sound of a shepherd's pipe. No doubt the sound of a fierce flame is meant. “It is used of thunder in Luc. Jup. Trag. 1; of the music of the spheres in Iamblich, Vit. Pyth. c. 15; Oecumenius says the word is especially used of the noise caused by a devouring flame” (Mayor, ed. p. 157). στοιχεῖα. Spitta interprets στ. as being the spirits that preside over the various parts of nature. But the situation of στ. between γῆ and οὐρανοὶ makes it practically certain that the heavenly bodies are meant. The universe consists of οὐρανοὶ, στοιχεῖα and γῆ. οὐρανοὶ is the vault of heaven,“the skies”. στ. would therefore mean sun, moon and stars. Cf. Justin. Apol. 2 Peter 2:5, Trypho. 23. Cf. Isaiah 34:4; Joel 2:30-31; Matthew 24:29; Revelation 6:12-14 in illustration of the Jewish belief that the stars will share in the final destruction of the Last Day. καυσούμενα. A medical term, used of the heat of fever (καῦσος). This is the only known use of the word applied to inanimate objects. Whether the writer of 2 Peter has here indulged a fondness for unusual words, or whether καυσόομαι was ever used in other than a medical sense in the Κοινὴ, it is impossible as yet to say. In any case it denotes a violent consuming heat. εὑρεθήσεται. The only alternative reading that is worthy of notice in connexion with this difficult passage is κατα καήσεται, but one would expect a word expressing dissolution, like παρελεύσονται, or λυθήσεται. εὑρεθήσεται is found in an absolute sense in Clement, Cor. 9:3 (of Enoch) οὐχ εὑρέθη αὐτοῦ θάνατος, “his death was not brought to light”. In 2 Clem. xvi. (see textual note) φανήσεται is the paraphrase of εὑρεθήσεται (cf. Introd. pp. 90 f.).