For this they willingly are ignorant of. — Literally, For this escapes their notice of their own will. They voluntarily blind their eyes to this fact — at once an explanation of their argument, and first answer to it, drawn from the Mosaic account of the Creation.
The earth standing out of the water and in the water. — The margin is nearer the true meaning with “consisting” for “standing,” and the same word is translated “consist” in Colossians 1:17. The notion is that of coherence, solidarity, and order, as distinct from chaos. “Out of [the] water” indicates the material out of which the earth was made; not, as our version leads us to suppose, that out of which the earth rose, like an island from the ocean. “In the water” is wrong, and again the error is probably derived from Geneva, though Tyndale has it also. We should render rather, by means of [the] water. In both clauses the article should perhaps be omitted — the earth consisting out of water and through water. (Comp. Psalms 24:2; Psalms 136:6.) In the Clementine Homilies (XI. xxiv.) we have the idea of all things being made by water. In the Greek “by the word of God comes last, not first; emphasis is obtained either way. “By the word of God;” not by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, not by spontaneous generation. In the Shepherd of Hermas (I. Vis. I. iii. 4) we read, “Behold, the God of virtues (powers).... by His mighty word has fixed the heaven, and laid the foundation of the earth upon the waters.” (See above on ii. 1, 3, 13, 15, 20.) In an Apology of Melito, Bishop of Sardis, addressed to Antoninus Caesar about A.D. 170, there is a passage bearing a considerable amount of resemblance to these verses (2 Peter 3:5-7).