promise of His coming?" he referred his readers to the epistles of Paul, who, said he,

deals with this matter of longsuffering and apparent postponement and speaks of these

things (II Pet. 3: 15, 16). The word pleroma is used in the Septuagint some fifteen times.

These we will record for the benefit of the reader who may not have access to that

ancient translation.  I Chron. 16: 32: "let the sea roar and the fullness thereof."  So,

Psa. 96: 11; 98: 7; 24: 1 "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof", and

with slight variations, Psa. 50: 12; 89: 11.

In several passages, the fullness, or "all that is therein" is set over against flood or

famine, as Jer. 8: 16; 42: 3; Ezek. 12: 19; 19: 7; and 30: 12. Some of the words

used in the context of these Septuagint references are too suggestive to be passed over

without comment. Instead of "time of healing" we find "anxiety", the land "quaking",

"deadly serpents" and a "distressed heart" (Jer. 8: 15-18). Again, in Jer. 47: 2

(29: 2 in the LXX) we have such words of prophetic and age time importance as "an

overflowing flood" Greek katakluzomai, kataklusmos and variants, a word used with

dispensational significance in II Pet. 2: 5 and 3: 6, and preserved in the English

cataclysm, a word of similar import to that which we have translated "the overthrow" of

the world. The bearing of II Pet. 3: on this "gap" in the outworking of the purpose of

the ages, will be given an examination in this series.

In the context of the word "fullness" found in Ezek. 12: 19, we have such words as

"scatter" diaspero, a word used in James 1: 1 and in I Pet. 1: 1 of the "dispersed" and

"scattered" tribes of Israel, also the word "waste" which calls up such passages of

prophetic import as Isa. 34: 10, 11 and Jer. 4: 23-27 where the actual words

employed in Gen. 1: 2 are repeated. The pleroma or "fullness" is placed in direct

contrast with desolation, waste, flood, fire and a condition that is without form and void.

Schisma, the word translated "rent" in Matt. 9: 16, is from schizo which is used of the

veil of the temple and of the rocks that were "rent" at the time of the Saviour's death

and resurrection. Two words translated "new" have been mentioned. One agnaphos

refers to the work of a "fuller", who smoothes a cloth by carding. The work of a fuller

also includes the washing and scouring process in which fuller's earth or fuller's soap

(Mal. 3: 2; Mark 9: 3) is employed. A piece of cloth thus treated loses its original

harshness, and more readily yields to the cloth that has been more often washed. The

whole purpose of the ages is set forth under the symbol of the work of a fuller, who by

beating and by bleaching at length produces a material which is the acme of human

attainment, for when the Scriptures would describe the excellent glory of the Lord, His

garments are said to have been "exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth could

white them" (Mark 9: 3).

So too, the effect upon Israel of the Second Coming is likened to "a refiner's fire and

like fuller's soap" (Mal. 3: 2). It is this "fulled" cloth that makes the "fullness", although

there is no etymological connexion between the fuller and the fullness. The other word

translated "new" is kainos, and has the meaning of "fresh, as opposed to old", "new,

different from the former" and as a compound the meaning "to renew". It is this word

that is used when speaking of the new covenant, the new creation, the new man, and

the new heaven and earth.  We shall have to take this into account when we are