Summary: Bible - Book of 2 Peter

The GIST

2 Peter, a short letter in the New Testament of the Bible, presents itself as the work of "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ," and has traditionally been attributed to Peter the Apostle. Most critical scholars, however, regard it as written in Peter's name by one or more of his followers, and estimates of its date run all the way from AD 60 to 150. It was composed in Koine Greek, in a more elevated and elaborate style than most of the New Testament.

The letter is only three chapters long, but it moves with urgency. Its writer speaks as a man who knows his death is near and wants to leave his readers with what matters most. He urges them to build a life of virtue on the foundation of faith, warns them in fierce language against teachers who will lead them astray, and answers those who mock the promise that Christ will return. Scholars describe the three chapters as a triangle: who Christ is, how to live, and what is coming.

What It Says

Chapter 1: A ladder of virtue and the witness of the mountain

The letter opens with a greeting to those who have received a faith as precious as the apostles' own, and with a bold claim about what God has already supplied. His divine power, the writer says, has given "all things that pertain unto life and godliness," along with "exceeding great and precious promises." Through these, believers may become "partakers of the divine nature" and escape the corruption that is in the world.

Because so much has been given, effort is called for. The readers are to give all diligence to building on their faith, and the writer sets out the steps like the rungs of a ladder: "add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge." To knowledge is added temperance, then patience, then godliness, then brotherly kindness, and finally charity. Where these qualities are present and growing, a person will not be barren or unfruitful. Whoever lacks them is short-sighted to the point of blindness and has forgotten being cleansed from old sins. So the appeal follows: "give diligence to make your calling and election sure." Those who do these things will never fall and will be given a rich welcome into the everlasting kingdom.

The writer then explains why he is saying what they already know. He intends to keep reminding them for as long as he lives, and he uses a tender image for his own body, calling it a tent. "Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle," he writes, he wants them to be able to remember these things after his departure.

His authority for all this is personal experience. "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables," he insists, "but were eyewitnesses of his majesty." He recalls the moment on the holy mount when Jesus received honour and glory from God the Father and a voice came from heaven: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The apostles heard that voice themselves.

Alongside that eyewitness testimony stands the word of prophecy, which the readers should attend to "as unto a light that shineth in a dark place," until the day dawns and the day star rises in their hearts. Prophecy, the chapter concludes, is not a matter of private interpretation and never came by human will. Rather, "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

Chapter 2: The false teachers

The second chapter turns from light to shadow. Just as there were false prophets among the people in earlier times, there will be false teachers among the readers. They will quietly bring in destructive heresies, "even denying the Lord that bought them." Many will follow them, and the way of truth will get a bad name because of it. Their motive is greed. With invented words they will make merchandise of the faithful.

The writer is sure their judgment is not asleep, and he argues the point from three examples in older scripture. God did not spare the angels that sinned but delivered them into chains of darkness to await judgment. He did not spare the ancient world but brought the flood, while saving Noah, whom the letter calls "a preacher of righteousness." He reduced Sodom and Gomorrha to ashes as a warning, yet rescued Lot, a just man who was tormented day after day by what he saw and heard around him. The lesson cuts both ways, and the writer states it plainly: "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished."

Then comes a portrait of the false teachers that spares nothing. They follow the cravings of the flesh and despise authority. They are presumptuous and self-willed, speaking evil of glorious beings where even angels, greater in power, bring no railing accusation. He compares them to "natural brute beasts," speaking evil of things they do not understand. They revel in broad daylight and feast alongside the believers while deceiving them. They have "eyes full of adultery," hearts trained in greed, and they prey on unstable souls.

The writer reaches for another figure from the old stories. These teachers have left the right way and gone after the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, "who loved the wages of unrighteousness" and was rebuked when a dumb ass spoke with a human voice and checked the prophet's madness.

The imagery piles up. "These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest." They speak grand, empty words and lure back people who had only just escaped from a life of error. Their central offer is exposed as a fraud in one of the letter's sharpest sentences: "While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption." A person is the slave of whatever has mastered him.

The chapter ends on a sobering note about those who have known the way and turned back. Having escaped the world's pollutions through knowing Christ and then become entangled again, they are worse off at the end than at the beginning. It would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness. Two proverbs seal the point: the dog returns to its vomit, and the washed sow goes back to wallowing in the mire.

Chapter 3: Where is the promise of his coming?

The final chapter begins by naming the letter's purpose. This is the second epistle the writer has sent, and both are meant to stir up the readers' minds by way of reminder, so that they hold on to two things: the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord delivered through the apostles.

They should know that in the last days scoffers will come, following their own desires and asking a taunting question: "Where is the promise of his coming?" Since the fathers died, they say, everything has gone on just as it has since creation began.

The writer gives three answers. First, the scoffers deliberately overlook history. The heavens and the earth came into being by God's word, and the world that then existed perished when it was flooded with water. By that same word the present heavens and earth are being kept for fire, until the day of judgment.

Second, God does not count time as people do. "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

Third, and most important, the delay has a merciful purpose. "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." What looks like slowness is patience.

Still, the day will come, and suddenly: "the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." The heavens will pass away with a great noise, the elements will melt with fervent heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. The writer draws a practical conclusion at once. If everything is going to be dissolved, what sort of people ought the readers to be, in holy conduct and godliness? Their hope is not destruction but renewal: "we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." So they should be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless.

There is a notable aside near the end. The writer mentions "our beloved brother Paul," who has written to them of the same things with the wisdom given to him. In Paul's letters, he admits, there are "some things hard to be understood," which the unlearned and unstable twist, as they do the other scriptures, to their own destruction.

The last two verses gather the whole letter into a warning and a wish. Be on guard against being carried away by the error of the wicked. "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

Why It Matters

2 Peter has had one of the more contested histories in the New Testament. The earliest undisputed mention of it comes from Origen, who noted that a second letter of Peter was doubted. Eusebius voiced doubts of his own, though he said the majority supported it, and by the time of Jerome it was mostly accepted as canonical. The Peshitta, the standard Bible of the Syriac churches, does not include it.

The authorship debate continues. Read at face value, the letter would date to the 60s, since Christian tradition holds that Peter was martyred under Nero and the writer speaks of his approaching death. Most biblical scholars conclude that Peter did not write it. They cite its differences in language from 1 Peter, its apparent use of the Epistle of Jude, with which it shares many passages, its response to a delayed return of Christ, and weak early attestation. Some see it as an example of the ancient "testament" genre, a farewell address with ethical warnings and revelations of the future. Defenders of Peter's authorship, following a suggestion first made by Jerome, propose that Peter used different secretaries for his two letters. This view is in the minority.

The letter is also important for what it shows about scripture taking shape. It places the words of the prophets beside the commandment of the apostles as a two-part authority, which some see as a forerunner of an Old and a New Testament. And it speaks of Paul's letters alongside "the other scriptures," one of only two places where a New Testament writing refers to another in that way.

Who Should Read It

Read 2 Peter if you want a compact, forceful statement of how early Christians were urged to live while waiting for a promise that seemed slow in coming. It will appeal to readers who like a clear moral ladder to climb, to those wary of teachers who trade on faith for profit, and to anyone interested in the puzzles of who wrote the New Testament and how its books came to be accepted.