2 Peter 3:10, will the earth be burned up, or found out?
2 Peter 3:10 has both readings: the earth will be found or laid bare, and the earth will be burned up. The APB prints will be found; Nestle-Aland 28 prints a third wording, will NOT be found.
The APB text at this verse
The manuscripts, editions, and versions
The committee record at this verse
The APB is translated by a committee of language models that works blind. The translators are never told they are translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and never shown the witnesses listed above. Where the manuscripts disagree, the choice between readings is made before translation by the same kind of translator working the same way: it sees the competing readings and the witnesses by age and class, but never a reference or a manuscript name. There are 14,877 such places. For APB 4.0 every one was decided again in October 2026. GPT-6.1 Sol decided every one first. Claude Fable 5.1, from another model family, decided 2,483 of them second, including every place where the first translator left the base text. A departure from the base text needs both translators to agree and the first to be at least 0.8 confident. There is no third translator, so the base text stands when the two disagree. APB 4.0 is translated over those decisions. Whatever was done at this verse was done on the language and the evidence alone, and the record is public.
“The base text reads κλέπτης. The copies also carry κλέπτης ἐν νυκτί [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The longer wording completes a well known phrase and is late.”
“The base text reads (nothing). The copies also carry ἡ [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Retain the default with strong confidence.”
“The base text reads (nothing). The copies also carry ἐν νυκτί [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The day comes as a thief, without in the night. The extra words are a later addition from the familiar phrase.”
“The base text reads λυθήσεται. The copies also carry the omission [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The early evidence favors the default despite a possible explanation for addition.”
“The base text reads εὑρεθήσεται. The copies also carry the omission [later majority tradition], οὐχ εὑρεθήσεται. [early greek manuscript tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The difficult 'will be found' or 'will be exposed' best explains the other wordings, which soften it. Readers should know the verse was felt to be hard from early on.”
“The base text reads ἡμέρα. The copies also carry ἡ ἡμέρα [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The evidence favors retaining the default.”
The APB 4.0 committee retained the verb rendered will be found. Its textual decision states: "the committee kept the base text." GPT-6.1 Sol (OpenAI) served as the first translator, and Claude Fable 5.1 (Anthropic) served as the second translator. The committee's printed text ends the sentence with "and the earth and the works in it will be found." This preserves the difficult verb alongside the description of the elements burning and dissolving.
The argument for each reading
If “found / laid bare”
The case for εὑρεθήσεται, will be found, rests on the oldest uncials and its adoption by WH, Treg, and NA27. The verb is puzzling because the surrounding sentence describes the heavens passing away and the elements dissolving as they burn. Applied to the earth and its works, found or laid bare suggests exposure within that scene of destruction. This reading therefore brings scrutiny into view alongside fire. Its difficulty gives a possible reason for alternative wordings to arise, though difficulty alone cannot settle which wording preceded the others.
If “burned up”
The case for κατακαήσεται, will be burned up, rests on the Byzantine majority tradition represented by Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform. This wording also fits the immediate description of the heavens passing away and the elements dissolving as they burn. It extends that destructive imagery directly to the earth and its works. The resulting sentence has a straightforward sequence: the heavens pass away, the elements burn and dissolve, and the earth burns up. That coherence helps explain the reading's appeal, although it does not establish whether the verb belonged to the earlier wording or made a difficult sentence easier.
The uncertainty concerns the final verb applied to the earth and its works. Found or laid bare suggests exposure; burned up states destruction by fire. NA28 adds another possibility with will NOT be found, a conjectural reading supported by translations but unattested in Greek manuscripts. The surrounding language of burning and dissolution remains in the APB's text, as does the following call to holy conduct and godliness. This verb alone does not settle a complete account of the world's end.
Related entries
Witness readings for critical editions are quoted from the SBLGNT apparatus (CC BY 4.0); Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible). Readings of ancient manuscripts and versions are cited from the sources linked above.