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Second Letter of Peter
PETER, SECOND LETTER OF. A general treatise, written to warn its readers of threatening apostasy. It purports to have been written by Simon Peter and contains a definite allusion to a preceding letter (
I. Authorship. Second Peter has the poorest external attestation of any book in the canon of the NT. It is not quoted directly by any of the church fathers before Origen (c. a.d. 250), who affirms Peter’s authorship of the first letter, but who seemed uncertain about the second, although he did not repudiate it. Eusebius, to whom we are indebted for quoting Origen’s testimony, placed 2 Peter in the list of disputed writings. Its literary style and vocabulary differ from that of 1 Peter, and its close resemblance to the Book of Jude has led some scholars to believe that it is a late copy or adaptation of that work. Numerous scholars have pronounced it spurious and have relegated it to the middle of the second century.
On the other hand, the internal evidence favors authorship by Peter. If a forger knew 1 Peter, it seems he could have been more careful to follow its style exactly. The allusions to Peter’s career agree with the existing records and can best be explained as the testimony of an eyewitness. They include the Transfiguration (
The allusion to the writings of “our dear brother Paul” (
Reasons exist, therefore, for accepting the letter as Peter’s. The relative silence of the early church may be explained by the brevity of the letter, which could have made it more susceptible to being overlooked or lost.
II. Date and Place. Second Peter must have been written subsequent to the publication of at least some of Paul’s letters, if not of the entire collection. It cannot, therefore, have been written before a.d. 60; but if Paul was living and was still well known to the existing generation, it could not have been later than 70. Probably 67 is as satisfactory a date as can be established. The writer was anticipating a speedy death (
III. Destination and Occasion. The reference to a previous letter sent to the same group (
IV. Content and Outline. The key to this letter is the word “know” or “knowledge,” which occurs frequently in the three chapters, often referring to the knowledge of Christ. This knowledge is not primarily academic, but spiritual, arising from a growing experience of Christ (
Second Peter teaches definitely the inspiration of Scripture (
The following is a brief outline of the Epistle:
I. Salutation (1:1)
II. The Character of Spiritual Knowledge (1:2-21)
III. The Nature and Perils of Apostasy (2:1-22)
IV. The Doom of the Ungodly (3:1-7)
V. The Hope of Believers (3:8-13)
VI. Concluding Exhortation (3:14-18)
Bibliography: E. M. B. Green, Second Peter Reconsidered, 1961, and The Second Epistle General of Peter and the General Epistle of Jude (TNTC), 1968; J. N. D. Kelly, The Epistles of Peter and of Jude (HNTC), 1969; R. J. Bauckham, 2 Peter and Jude (Word Biblical Commentary), 1983 (on the Greek text).——MCT