Texts in Conversation
Sirach 36 asks God to bring the time of judgment sooner, pleading for a faster fulfillment of divine promises and justice. 2 Peter 3 echoes this idea, suggesting that righteous conduct can help bring the Day of the Lord sooner.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 36:4
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
3 Lift up your hand against the foreign nations and let them see your mighty power. 4 As you showed your holiness in us before them, so be magnified in them before us. 5 Let them know you, as we also have known you, that there is no God but only you, O God. 6 Show new signs, and work various wonders. 7 Glorify your hand and your right arm. 8 Raise up indignation and pour out wrath. 9 Take away the adversary and destroy the enemy. 10 Hasten the time and remember your oath. Let them declare your mighty works. 11 Let him who escapes be devoured by raging fire. May those who harm your people find destruction. 12 Crush the heads of the rulers of the enemies who say, “There is no one but ourselves.” 13 Gather all the tribes of Jacob together,
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
2 Peter 3:11
New Testament
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; when it comes, the heavens will disappear with a horrific noise, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze, and the earth and every deed done on it will be laid bare. 11 Since all these things are to melt away in this manner, what sort of people must you be, conducting your lives in holiness and godliness, 12 while waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God? Because of this day, the heavens will be burned up and dissolve, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze! 13 But, according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness truly resides.
Date: 120–130 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Peter proclaims that lives of holiness and godliness can actually expedite (σπεύδω) the Day of the Lord; believers can make the day of the Lord happen sooner. (The word σπεύδω can have bear either a transitive or an intransitive sense. The intransitive sense can be rendered “seek eagerly, strive after”; the transitive significance is reflected in translations such as “to cause to happen soon,” “to hurry up,” “to promote” ... Reflecting the latter usage, Sirach 36:6 urges God to expedite the exercise of his wrath: σπεῦσον καιρὸν καὶ μνήσθητι ὁρκισμοῦ, “hasten the time and remember your oath”. Only the transitive significance of σπεύδω seems plausible in 2 Peter 3:12, considering that Peter has already cited lack of repentance as the cause of the Parousia’s delay) So, eschatology not only stimulates ethics, but ethics stimulate eschatology; the two are mutually reinforcing. And this makes good sense; if Peter believes that the eschaton is delayed so that people can repent from wickedness, it stands to reason that lives of holiness would expedite the eschaton ..."
Christopher M. Hays, When the Son of Man Didn’t Come: A Constructive Proposal on the Delay of the Parousia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2016), 92.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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