II Peter 3:8 (1,000 years)

[Salty]

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

What does 2 Peter 3:8 mean when it says a thousand years are a day? | GotQuestions.org

So does that verse mean that one day is literally a thousand years?
Or is just figurative?

Open for discussion

 

[Deacon]

It's a common saying that the Bible interprets itself.
In the case of 2 Peter 3:8, Peter is using a passage in Psalms to support his message.
One needs to know how it is used in the Psalm of Moses and then examine the context of 2 Peters 3:8 to understand it correctly.

Psalm 90:1-4 (Robert Alter)
A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
1O Master, You have been our abode

in ever generation.​

2Before the mountains were born,

before You spawned earth and world,

from forever to forever You are God.​

3You bring man back to the dust

and say, “Turn back, humankind.”​

4For a thousand years in Your eyes

are like yesterday gone,

like a watch in the night.​

5You engulf them with sleep,

In the morn they are like grass that passes,​

6In the morning it sprouts and passes,

by evening it withers and dies.
​

Context: Moses leads God's chosen people through a long march in the wilderness
Themes: refuge; trust; eternality; temporary nature of creation;
Comparisons: God and man; permanence and impermanence; power and weakness;

Hebrew poetry is a type of literature that communicates with terse lines employing parallelism and imagery in high frequency. (Mark D. Futato, Interpreting the Psalms: An Exegetical Handbook, ed. David M. Howard Jr., Handbooks for Old Testament Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional, 2007), 24.)​

As literal interpretations are not a prominent feature of modern poetry, similar rules apply to the Hebrew psalter.

Answer: Psalm 90 is using the phrase "a thousand years" in a figurative manner: the time period is compared to "yesterday" and "a watch in the night".

2 Peter 3:8
Peter is using the message conveyed in Psalm 90 to comfort the people of faith (1:1)
Phrases used: last days (3:3); beginning of creation (3:4); long ago (3:5); at that time (3:6); day of judgement and destruction (3:7); day of the Lord (3:10); day of God (3:12)
These are imprecise periods of time.

Let us not overlook the two ὡς, “as.” Peter does not say: “A single day is a thousand years, and a thousand years are a single day.” Peter does not use ὡς as being equal to “like” or as a mere conception of the mind but in the sense of “as in reality.” Whether it be a day or a thousand years as we count time, both are really the same with the Lord; neither hampers nor helps him.
R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Epistles of St. Peter, St. John and St. Jude (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1966), 345​

So does that verse mean that one day is literally a thousand years?
Or is just figurative?

Answer: Peter is saying that God's time is not measured in the same way as mankind measures time.
Peter is using it figuratively.

Rob

 

[37818]

Regarding 2 Peter 3:8, personally I draw a connection between John 6:44, ". . . and I will raise him up at the last day. . . ." And that being the "first resurrection" in Revelation 20:4-6" prior to the rapture per 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17.

 

[percho]

there doth remain, then, a sabbatic rest to the people of God, Hebrews 4:9
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Gen 1:29

The creation and things being made is complete.

for to vanity was the creation made subject -- not of its will, but because of Him who did subject it -- in hope, Rom 8:20 also read verses 24,25 for in hope we were saved, and hope beheld is not hope; for what any one doth behold, why also doth he hope for it? and if what we do not behold we hope for, through continuance we expect it.

What followed the sixth day?

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. Gen 2:1-3

Does the hope of verse 20 have anything to do with the people of God entering into the rest of God?

Also consider:
And not only so, but also we ourselves, having the first-fruit of the Spirit, we also ourselves in ourselves do groan, adoption expecting -- the redemption of our body; Romans 8:23
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. Rev 20:6

Is, "the first resurrection," the redemption of the body? Is that thousand years, the day of the Lord and or the Lord's day of Rev 1:9? Entering His rest?