Texts in Conversation
2 Peter teaches that God’s patience allows time for people to repent. This language is similar to the Aramaic translation of Isaiah in the Targum, which says the unrighteous are given time to return to the Torah. The similarity suggests that 2 Peter reflects an early Aramaic tradition later preserved in the Targum.
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2 Peter 3:9
New Testament
8 Now, dear friends, do not let this one thing escape your notice, that a single day is like a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand years are like a single day. 9 The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 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 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Jonathan Isaiah 26:10
Targum
9 My soul desireth to pray before thee in the night; yea, my spirit within me is blessing thee: when thy judgments are prepared for the earth, those that dwell in the world shall be taught to practise truth. 10 Thou hast granted unto the wicked continuance, that verily they should return to the law; but they did not return, all the days that they lived; that they should practice truth in the earth, but they dealt falsely: yea they will not regard the praise of thy glory, O Lord! 11 O Lord, when thou shalt be revealed in thy power to do good to them that fear thee, there will be no light to the enemies of thy people: the wicked shall see it, and shall be confounded. The vengeance of thy people shall cover them; yea, fire shall consume thy enemies. 12 O Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for at all times, when we restrained ourselves from our sins, thou wast working for us. 13 O Lord our God, the nations have had do minion over us, being lords over us beside thee; but we trust in thy Word; we praise thy name.
Date: 200-300 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The Targumim participate in a cosmology that reflects convictions of how eschatological reward and punishment are to be worked out. It is unlikely that the targumic scheme is original; more probably, it reflects widespread expectations. But sometimes the Targumim illuminate otherwise esoteric statements within the New Testament. Isaiah Targum 63:6 specifies the “lower earth” as the place to which God will cast the “mighty men” of his enemies. A similar phrase is used in Ephesians 4:9 in order to refer to Christ’s descent to the dead. Divine anger is invoked in the Isaiah Targum 3:16-24 against women who adorn themselves — especially their hair — in an exaggerated fashion, and that invites comparison with 1 Timothy 2:9 and 1 Peter 3:3. God’s anger is understood to “whiten” (Targum Malachi 3:2) in a way that may illuminate passages such as Mark 9:3 and Revelation 7:14 ..."
* 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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