- There are several reasons why numerous scholars consider 2 Peter to possibly be the latest writing that was included in the New Testament. This includes its lack of early attestation, its concerns about the delay of Jesus’s second “coming” (parousia), its dependence on the epistle of Jude, and its commendation of a collection of Paul’s letters as scriptural.
- 2 Peter faces the same questions about whether the author’s facility in Greek and rhetorical skill matches the Galilean preacher Cephas. Further, the grandiose “Asiatic” Greek style and the allusions to Old Testament narratives rather than direct citations is quite different from the style of 1 Peter. The Church Fathers recognized the different style of the two epistles, leading to debates over the authorship and canonicity of 2 Peter.
- Relationship between 1 Peter & Synoptic Tradition:
- “Richard Bauckham [Jude, 2 Peter, 148] helpfully lists certain allusions to Synoptic traditions in 2 Pet 1:16–18 (Mark 9:2–7/Matt 17:1–5/Luke 9:28–35), 2:20 (Matt 12:45/Luke 11:26) and 3:10 (Matt 24:43/Luke 12:39; cf. 1 Thess 5:2) and less plausible echoes in 1:16 (Mark 9:1/Matt 16:28), 2:9 (Matt 6:13), 2:21 (Mark 9:42; 14:21; cf. 1 Clem.
- Grünstäudl [Petrus Alexandrinus, 34] expands on 2 Peter’s Matthean affinities (2 Pet 1:17/Matt 12:18, 17:5; 2:6/10:15; 2:9/6:13; 2:14/5:27–29; 2:20/12:45; 2:21/21:32; 2:22/7:6; 3:4/24:3, 27, 37, 39; 3:4, 9/24:48 and 25:5; 3:13/19:28), but some of his examples seem closer to other non-Matthean parallels (e. g., 2 Pet 2:6/Jude 7; 2 Pet 2:22/Prov 26:11 and Ahikar 8.18 [Syriac]; 2 Pet 3:13/Isa 65:17 and 66:22) and an intertextual relationship may not be necessary to account for most of them.” (78-79)“The petition for deliverance in the Lord’s Prayer (2 Pet 2:9a; cf. Matt 6:13; Luke 11:4; Did. 8:2) and the thief logion (2 Pet 3:10; cf. Matt 24:43; Luke 12:39; 1 Thess 5:2; Rev 3:3; 16:15; Gos. Thom. 21) could have been drawn from oral catechetical traditions or the source(s) of the Synoptic double tradition, though the latter could also be primarily based on the construal of the metaphor in 1 Thessalonians given the respect for the Pauline epistles in 2 Pet 3:15f.” (79)“There is almost verbatim agreement between 2 Pet 2:20b… and Matt 12:45/Luke 11:26… 2 Pet 2:20b may be a re-contextualization of the verse in Matthew’s Gospel, but it may also have been in contact with a hypothetical sayings source underlying Matt 12:45/Luke 11:26. Alternatively, as a short, memorable aphorism, its precise wording could have remained intact in the oral transmission.” (79-80)
- “[Robert] Miller’s [“Is There Independent Attestation for the Transfiguration in 2 Peter?“, 623] crucial point is that Matthew imports the line “in whom I am well pleased” (ἐν ᾧ εὐδόκησα) from the baptism to the transfiguration (cf. Matt 3:17; 17:5), a piece of Matthean redaction reduplicated in 2 Peter, though the author substitutes εἰς ὅν for ἐν ᾧ due to accidentally conflating the wording of Matt 17:5 with 12:18.” (81-82)
2 Peter as a Forgery (Michael Kok)
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