What Does 2 Peter 3:6 Mean in the King James?
Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
In Greek, the world that “perished” shares its verb family with what is “lost”, and what is lost can still be sought.
THE MEANING
This verse presents a world completely overtaken by water, and its loss remains stark. The Greek verb also names what is lost, keeping destruction and lostness in one word family. Its living pressure is that what feels like the whole world can end.
THE ROOT
ἀπώλετο
apōleto
GROWS FROM
ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi), from ἀπό (apo, away) + ὄλλυμι (ollymi, destroy)
To destroy, perish, or lose; in some forms, to be lost.
“perished” in this verse is apōleto. This root holds destruction and lostness close together. In Luke 19:10, its “lost” form names someone the Son of Man seeks, so this word family can carry both an ending and the possibility of being found.
ALSO GROWS
apōleia: Loss, ruin, or destruction.
ἀπώλεια
The noun makes explicit the loss held within the verb translated “perished.”
apolōlos: Lost; one who has perished or gone astray.
ἀπολωλός
Luke 19:10 uses this form for the one the Son of Man seeks, linking perishing with lostness.
κατακλυσθείς
kataklystheis
GROWS FROM
κατακλύζω (kataklyzō), from κατά (kata, over) + κλύζω (klyzō, wash over)
To flood over or overwhelm with water.
“overflowed” in this verse is kataklystheis. The word pictures water surging over the world until it is submerged. Its word family also names the flood itself, joining the act of inundation to the force that overtakes the world.
ALSO GROWS
kataklyzō: To inundate or overwhelm with water.
κατακλύζω
This is the verb behind “overflowed,” making the world’s submersion an active, encompassing force.
kataklysmos: A flood or deluge.
κατακλυσμός
The related noun names the flood as an event, the same force that overtakes the world in this verse.
κόσμος
kosmos
GROWS FROM
κοσμέω
kosmeō
To arrange or put in order; κόσμος can mean an ordered arrangement or the world.
The Greek word can hold the lived world as an ordered whole, not only the earth as a physical place. Here, the flood overtakes a κόσμος, a whole arrangement of life.
ALSO GROWS
kosmeō: To arrange, order, or adorn.
κοσμέω
This related verb shows the sense of arrangement that can live inside “world.”
kosmios: Orderly or well-arranged.
κόσμιος
This related adjective carries the same family’s sense of ordered arrangement.
THE PATTERN
Floodwaters mark the end of an inhabited order while scripture also names a remnant passing through them.
And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.THE THREAD
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.The Greek verb behind “perished” (ἀπώλετο, apōleto) shares its root with “lost” (ἀπολωλός, apolōlos) here. In this verse, the lost one is sought; the same word family lets the ending here resonate with the possibility of being found.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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