2 Peter 3.5 represents a New
Testament text which is clearly in tune with the Near Eastern traditions which we
saw in chapter 3:
For they willingly forget that the
heavens existed of old and the earth was formed from waters and by waters
through the word of God. (2 Peter 3.5)
2 Peter shows continuity with
the tradition of the creation from waters, but uses the creation in a new
polemic, to justify the teaching of the end of the world and judgment. Already
the polemical connection between creation and final judgment had been made.
Several New Testament texts have been
educed as evidence of creatio ex nihilo. None makes a clear statement
which would have been required to establish such a break with tradition. None
is decisive and each could easily be accepted by a proponent of creatio ex
materia.
In the beginning was the word and the
word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All
things came about through him and without him not one thing came about, which
came about. (John 1.1-3)
The punctuation of the last verse
becomes critical to its meaning. Proponents of creatio ex materia could
easily qualify the creatures of the Word to that “which came about,” excluding the
matter. Proponents of creatio ex nihilo could place a period after “not
one thing came about” and leave “which came about” to the next sentence. The
absence of a determinate tradition of punctuation in New Testament texts leaves
room for both interpretations. Neither does creation by word imply ex nihilo
(contra Bultmann) . . .and even in 2 Peter 3.5, where the word functions
to organize pre-cosmic matter. (James Noel Hubler, “Creatio
ex Nihilo: Matter, Creation, and the Body in Classical and Christian Philosophy
Through Aquinas” [University of Pennsylvania, PhD diss., 1995], 107-8)