Palai simply means `old', palaios, palaiotes and palaioo also occur and

should be examined.  We give just two examples.

`But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off,

and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins' (2 Pet. 1:9).

`God, Who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past'

(Heb. 1:1).

The expression, `the heavens were of old', therefore refers quite

legitimately to Genesis 1:6.  This `firmament' was temporary and is to pass

away, as many passages of Scripture testify.  There is no passage, however,

that teaches that Heaven Itself, the dwelling place of the Most High, will

ever pass away, and this is an added reason for limiting Peter's words to the

present creation.

The earth `standing' out of the water, appears to refer to the way in

which the present system was brought into being.  Sunistemi is translated

`consist' in Colossians 1:17, and while it would take a scientist to explain

the meaning of 2 Peter 3:5, the reference is so evidently back to Genesis 1:3

onwards that scientific proof is not necessary to our argument.

The association of the `water' and creation, with the `water' that

caused the `overflow' of 2 Peter 3:6, is emphasized when one observes that

after the many references to water in Genesis 1, no further mention is made

until the ominous words of Genesis 6:17 are reached, `I do bring a flood of

waters upon the earth'.

These things the scoffers `wilfully ignored'.  The future dissolution

will involve the heavens as well as the earth (2 Peter 3:10) whereas it was

`the world' not the heaven and the earth that `perished' in the days of Noah.

The heavens and the earth remained, and so could be called by Peter `the

heavens and the earth which are now'.  In the second chapter of his epistle,

Peter refers to the Flood and speaks of `the old world' and `the world of the

ungodly' (2 Peter 2:5), similarly in both 2 Peter 2:4 and 2 Peter 3:7 he uses

the word `reserved' in reference to judgment.

Again in 2 Peter 3:6 the Greek word katakluzo is used where the

translation reads `being overflowed with water'.  In 2 Peter 2:5 he uses the

word kataklusmos (which becomes in English `cataclysm') `bringing in the

flood upon the world of the ungodly', which makes the parallel between these

two chapters even more obvious.  The result of our examination leaves us with

the conviction that Peter refers to the creation that came into being for the

habitation of man, and that we are not justified in using his words to cover

the whole of the record of Scripture, except as a type and shadow of the

greater event.

If `before the overthrow of the world' and `before the age times' refer

to the same datum line, and, if the `overthrow' be Genesis 1:2, then this

must have taken place before the ages began, and consequently we have an

indication that the ages are coincident with the present temporary creation,

which together with its `firmament' will pass away when the purpose of the

ages shall be accomplished.