Aug 17 2020 - Introduction to 2 Peter

Who wrote 2 Peter?

Many think that 2 Peter could not have been written by Peter the apostle, but Michael Green argues that differences in style between 1 and 2 Peter are due to the apostle using different secretaries (amanuenses) in the production of the letters.

Richard Bauckham, however, considers that the letter was written by someone who had assisted Peter during his final days at Rome and who felt that he was able to speak authoritatively on behalf of the dead apostle. It is, he argues, not a personal letter but expresses the pastoral concern of the church in Rome for churches elsewhere in the Empire. Bauckham considers that the letter was written between 80 and 90 AD, reflecting the crisis caused by the death of the apostles (3:4).

What was the purpose of the letter?

2 Peter seems to have been written to a similar audience to that of 1 Peter but at a later date. The chief problems facing the churches seem no longer to be the threat of persecution but rather of false teachers who opposed what the apostles had said about the return of Christ. These teachers, suggests Bauckham, were working hard to gain disciples (2:1-3a, 14, 18). Their teaching was marked by eschatological scepticism: they claimed that there would be no final judgment, no final divine intervention to eliminate evil and bring about a world of righteousness. They had a rationalistic view of the world – like many today who claim to have a "scientific" or materialist view of our world.

They claimed that the apostles had invented the idea of the Parousia (the hope of Christ's physical return in glory). Old Testament passages that seemed to point to such a decisive intervention by God arose from the prophets' misguided attempts to interpret dreams and visions (1:20-21a).

By their teaching these folk claimed to be freeing people from the fear of judgment (2:19a).  They argued that petty moral constraints could be ignored. Instead, they accommodated to pagan society, aiming "to disencumber Christianity of its rigorous moral demands which seemed to them an embarrassment in their cultural environment." In making 'freedom' their catchword they may have appealed to Paul's teaching on justification by faith and on Christian freedom – seeking to give weight and authenticity to their claims.

Relationship between 2 Peter and Jude

There is a clear relationship between 2 Peter and Jude. "Of the twenty-five verses in Jude no less than fifteen appear, in whole or in part, in 2 Peter." Having considered the arguments for 2 Peter's dependence upon Jude or Jude's on 2 Peter, Michael Green concludes that both letters draw upon a common source, perhaps a sermon pattern formulated to resist seducers of the church.

Peter Misselbrook