Since I’ve just completed a series on 1 Peter, I’m inclined to keep going down the path to 2 Peter. Having always liked matched sets, I feel almost compelled to finish this one.
And already I’ve waded into a controversy.
By calling these two epistles a set, I have implied that Peter wrote them both. In academia these days, that view will evoke scorn from a certain (significant) group of New Testament scholars, who find the evidence that Peter wrote this second epistle completely lacking. In recent decades, however, an increasing number of (conservative) NT scholars are convinced of Petrine authorship, and I count myself as one of them. I won’t go into the arguments here, but I find them thoroughly convincing. For purposes of this blog, I’m effectively going to assume that Peter is the author (because he is). For the insufferably curious, here’s a brief summary of the issues by a qualified NT scholar posted on a careful and reliable website; for a more detailed (and excellent) look at the evidence and arguments, see Michael Green’s volume in the Tyndale Commentary series.
Relevant to the “set” talk is my title for this series. The series on 1 Peter was “A Denier Redirected,” a title that could also make sense, obviously, for 2 Peter; in fact, the two epistles could be a single series. But to be honest, as the earlier series progressed, I found the title and subtitles increasingly unwieldy, and I’m inclined to let them go gently into the good night. So this one I’m calling “2 Peter,” and I’m not expecting a Pulitzer Prize for the title’s creativity. (No sense in even trying; the Puritans have clobbered everybody on that score.) These days I’m much more interested in focusing on the content.
2 Peter is noticeably different from 1 Peter. The style and vocabulary are quite different; that’s an argument (though not a very good one, in my opinion) often raised against Peter as the author. The subjects are different as well—as would be expected in a separate epistle, even one written to the same audience. We see diversity of subjects in the Thessalonian epistles and the Corinthian epistles as well, and there’s little doubt among scholars that Paul wrote all four of those.
We’re pretty sure that 2 Peter was written after 1 Peter. That may seem like a “Well, duh!” observation, but in fact there are legitimate questions about the order, for example, of the Thessalonian epistles; some think that 1 Thessalonians is first simply because it’s longer. In the case of Peter’s epistles, however, Peter refers to 2 Peter as “this second epistle” (2P 3.1)—and while we can’t be certain that his reference there is to the letter we know as 1 Peter, that option makes the most sense and works well.
So why does Peter write a second epistle to the Christian Jews scattered from Israel across central and northern Turkey (to use the modern name) (1P 1.1)? You’ll recall that in the first epistle he emphasized the theme of submission in a context of suffering, applying it to every area of the culture: the state, the workplace, the home, and the church. What does he emphasize now?
In this shorter epistle, he begins by noting two ways in which God has graciously supplied our needs: in sanctification, or spiritual growth (2P 1.3-15), and in the Word (2P 1.16-21). Then, having established a basis for truth, he turns to the problem that apparently motivated him to write: false teachers (2P 2.1-22). We’ll note when we get there that this chapter is quite similar to the little epistle of Jude, the Lord’s half-brother. (I think Jude was written later, and pretty much everybody disagrees with me. I’ll give my reason when we get there.) The final chapter focuses on the coming Day of the LORD, a topic undoubtedly spurred by the discussion of false teachers. This is a word of encouragement: the false teachers do not win, for God wins in the end, and the enemies of truth will be defeated.
Peter, as we would expect, packs a powerful punch. This small epistle is filled with warning, supply, and encouragement.
Next time: the journey begins.
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