2 Peter 3:10 King James Bible - But the day of the Lord will come as a thief IN THE NIGHT; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein SHALL BE BURNED UP.
Modern day textual criticism is done by men who do not believe that The Bible IS or ever was the complete, inspired and infallible words of God. They are Bible agnostics who do not know for sure what God has said and not one of them has any complete and infallible Bible in any language they believe in themselves or they can show you. No reading is sure. No text is settled. Everything is open to debate, discussion and doubt.
2 Peter 3:10
The Traditional Greek Text, which is also the Majority reading and the Byzantine and the text used by the Greek Orthodox churches to this day reads just as it is found in the King James Bible - "Ἥξει δὲ ἡ ἡμέρα κυρίου ὡς κλέπτης ἐν νυκτί, ἐν ᾗ οἱ οὐρανοὶ ῥοιζηδὸν παρελεύσονται, στοιχεῖα δὲ καυσούμενα λυθήσονται, καὶ γῆ καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ ἔργα κατακαήσεται."
This last word here is where all the changes are found in a few manuscripts that differ so often even among themselves. The word κατακαήσεται simply means "shall be burned up".
On the other hand, the Westcott-Hort text, as well as the UBS and the Nestle critical Greek text through 27 different editions read - "Ἥξει δὲ ἡμέρα Κυρίου ὡς κλέπτης, ἐν ᾗ οἱ οὐρανοὶ ῥοιζηδὸν παρελεύσονται, στοιχεῖα δὲ καυσούμενα λυθήσεται, καὶ γῆ καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ ἔργα εὑρεθήσεται.
There are two textual problems here. Number one is the omission of the words "in the night" - ἐν νυκτί - which are found the Majority of all texts as well as C, but are omitted by Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. The second and more important difference is the word εὑρεθήσεται instead of κατακαήσεται.
This completely different Greek word here - εὑρεθήσεται- literally means (as even Dan Wallace notes and the ESV tells us in their footnote) "SHALL BE FOUND".
So, as it stands in the critical Greek UBS and Nestle 27th edition, a literal and more honest translation would be the nonsensical "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; (omits "in the night") in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein SHALL BE FOUND."
In fact, The Faithful N.T. 2009 translates it this way, saying: "...and the earth and its works WILL BE FOUND."
The new Legacy Standard Bible of 2021 has the goofy reading of “the earth and its works will be FOUND OUT.” What does that even mean?
The ever changing NASBs -
The NASBs from 1960 to 1995 followed the traditional reading of “the earth and its works WILL BE BURNED UP.”
But in their latest revision, the NASB 2020 edition now reads: “the earth and its works WILL BE DISCOVERED.”
The Holman Standard 2009 and Lexham English Bible 2012 also followed this errant reading and translated it as - "the earth and the works on it WILL BE DISCLOSED."
The ISV 2014, Mounce N.T. 2011 and The International Children's Bible 2015 translated it as "and the earth and everything done on it WILL BE EXPOSED."
The Voice 2012 followed this wrong reading and even paraphrased it badly to actually say - "and the earth and all the works done on it WILL BE SEEN AS THEY TRULY ARE."
And then it footnotes "other manuscripts read "and be burned up."
The Pioneer's N.T. 2014 has - "and the earth and the deeds in it WILL BE FOUND-OUT."
Even Dan "Anything but the King James Bible" Wallace has noted - "One of the most difficult textual problems in the NT is found in v. 10. The reading εὑρεθήσεται, which enjoys by far the best support (א B K P 0156vid 323 1241 1739 txt pc) is nevertheless so difficult a reading that many scholars regard it as nonsensical. NA27 lists five conjectures by scholars, from Hort to Mayor, in this text."
Of course I totally disagree with Mr. Wallace that this absurd reading has "by far the best support" for two reasons. Number one is that his so called oldest and best manuscripts, Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, often differ radically from not only the Majority of all Greek manuscripts but also from each other by literally hundreds of words, phrases and numerous whole verses.
To see what these two "oldest and best manuscripts" are really like, see many examples of their confusion and mutual disagreement here -
The true character of the so called "Oldest and Best Manuscripts" Part One - Matthew thru Luke.
The True Character of the so called "oldest and best" manuscripts Part Two - John to Revelation.
It should also be noted that codex C has a completely different reading here than the others. It says ἀφανισθήσονται - which means "IT SHALL DISAPPEAR" and P72, the early papyrus manuscript, adds another word to the verb not adopted by anybody. It says -ἑυρεθήσεται λυόμενα - which would then be translated as "SHALL BE FOUND LOOSED".
Secondly, the reading found in the King James Bible is that of the Majority of all remaining Greek manuscripts as well as the Old Latin copies of ar, c, dem and p, the Syriac Harclean, the Coptic Boharic and the Ethiopic ancient versions.
"SHALL BE BURNED UP" is also the reading found in almost every Bible translation ever made in all languages and not even many of the modern critical text versions like the RV, ASV, RSV, NASB 1960 to 1995 editions followed this ridiculous reading found in the Nestle-Aland, UBS (United Bible Society) critical text editions.
But now the NASB 2020 edition does and it now reads “its works will BE DISCOVERED.” - which itself is a paraphrase of a wrong textual reading.
And those that do, have been very deceptive and dishonest in how they have gone about attempting to translate this false reading in a manner to make it appear not quite so absurd.
But NOW, the latest Nestle-Aland 28th edition has come down the pike and has made every translation out there "out of date" with their latest findings of modern scholarship. They have once again changed their critical Greek text and it now has the exact opposite meaning of what it has had for 27 different editions.
The Nestle Aland 28th edition now says - "καὶ γῆ καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ ἔργα οὐχ εὑρεθήσεται." They have simply ADDED one more little word that makes it mean the polar opposite from what it used to mean. Their ever changing Critical Text now reads: "and the earth also and the works in it shall NOT be found."
And where exactly do they get this reading of "shall NOT be found"? Well, it doesn't come from a single Greek manuscript. Not one. Instead this newly adopted reading comes from a single Coptic Sahidic manuscript and one Syriac Philoxenian manuscript. That's it. And, Violá, we now have a new text!
"SHALL BE BURNED UP"
Now let's look at the various Bible translations and see what text they have followed. Agreeing with the Traditional Greek Text and the reading found in the King James Bible of "the earth also and the works that are therein SHALL BE BURNED UP." are Wycliffe 1395, Tyndale 1525, Coverdale 1535, the Bishops' Bible 1568, Douay-Rheims 1582, the Geneva Bible 1587, the Beza N.T. 1599, the Bill Bible 1671, Mace N.T. 1729, Whiston's N.T. 1745, Wesley's translation 1755, Worsley Version 1770, Haweis N.T. 1795, Living Oracles 1835, Noyes Translation 1869, Alford N.T. 1870, Darby 1890, Youngs literal 1898, the Revised Version 1881, the ASV 1901, Godbey N.T. 1902, Worrell N.T. 1904, Weymouth 1912, Goodspeed 1943, J.B. Phillips 1962, New Life Bible 1969, the New Berkeley Version in Modern English 1969, Living Bible 1971, the RSV 1973, the NKJV 1982, the Amplified Bible 1987, the NASB 1960-1995 editions, the Complete Jewish Bible 1998, the Third Millennium Bible 1998, The Koster Scriptures 1998, The Last Days Bible 1999, God's First Truth 1999, Green's literal 2005, The Resurrection Life N.T. 2005, the Hebraic Transliteration Scripture 2010, The New European Version 2010, The Conservative Bible 2010, the Jubilee Bible 2010, The Work of God's Children Bible 2011, World English Bible 2012, Bond Slave Version 2012, the 2012 Knox Bible, Interlinear Hebrew-Greek Scriptures 2012 (Mebust), The Modern Literal N.T. 2014 and The Modern English Version 2014.
Many of these Bible versions were Critical Text editions that chose not to follow the Westcott-Hort, Nestle- Aland Greek text here in 2 Peter 3:10.
The first major bible version to begin to adopt this silly reading found in the Westcott-Hort, Nestle, UBS critical Greek text was the liberal NRSV of 1989. Not even the earlier RSV attempted to put it into their translation, but had: "and the earth and the works that are upon it WILL BE BURNED UP."
But the 1989 NRSV and the 2003 Holman Standard say: "and the earth and everything that is done on it WILL BE DISCLOSED."
The 2001-2016 ESVs, as well as the critical text 2012 Common English Bible, follows suit and say: "and the earth and the works that are done on it WILL BE EXPOSED."
Then the ESV footnotes that the Greek literally says "shall be found". Likewise the NIV and Dan Wallace's NET version say: "and the earth and everything in it WILL BE LAID BARE."
There is no way the Greek word they followed here - εὑρεθήσεται- can possibly be translated as "laid bare". Even Dan Wallace admits in his footnote that a literal translation would be "shall be found".
The NIV has translated this same Greek word as "finds", "find" and "found" 151 times and only one time as "laid bare". This is a dishonest attempt to try to make their corrupt reading not sound quite so absurd.
The ever changing NASBs.
The NASBs from 1960 until the 1995 edition (that's 10 different editions) all read as does the King James Bible with "and its works WILL BE BURNED UP." But now in their 2020 edition they have once again changed their text and it now reads - "its works will be DISCOVERED." But they are still not following the latest Greek reading found in the Nestle-Aland 28th edition. They are just a tad behind "the latest findings" of textual criticism.
The Catholic/Jehovah Witness Connection
As usual, the Catholic versions disagree among themselves. The older Douay-Rheims 1582 and the Douay Version 1950 followed the traditional text and said: "and the earth, and the works that are in it, WILL BE BURNED UP."
But then the St. Joseph New American bible 1970 went with the Critical text reading and said: "and the earth and all its deeds WILL BE MADE MANIFEST."
But then after this, the New Jerusalem bible 1985 went back to the traditional text reading and now says: "the earth and all that it contains WILL BE BURNED UP."
As for the Jehovah Witness New World Translation 1961 edition, it too follows the Westcott-Hort/UBS/Vatican text reading and says: "and earth and the works in it WILL BE DISCOVERED." but the Jehovah Witness updated version of 2013 has: "and earth and the works in it WILL BE EXPOSED."
Keep in mind that the Jehovah Witness NWT is translated from the same, ever changing, Vatican supervised Nestle-Aland critical Greek text as are the ESV, NIV, NASB, NET and Holman versions.
All of grace, believing the Book of God - the King James Holy Bible.