2 Peter
Author: Peter
Peter starts his epistle identifying himself:
"Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours..." (2 Peter 1:1 NIV).
Date: There is indication that it was soon before his death, so between 64 and 67 A.D., yet probably closer to 67 A.D. (1)
Language: Greek
Place: Rome
Purpose: To encourage people as an eyewitness of the life of Jesus when He was physically in this world. "We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty" (2 Peter 1:16 NIV).
What kind of book?: A general epistle to followers of Jesus.
Reflection: One of our textbooks this semester was a study Bible, which I quickly found to be on the "biblically liberal" side. Honestly, it was a moment to remember this semester when Professor Tafoya asked the class about what that text said about the author of one of the books of the Bible. An attentive student, a young lady who rarely speaks in class, spoke up and said with such sincerity, 'According to that commentary, we do not know any of the authors of the Bible.'
She had the final word on the nature of that study Bible commentary for the semester :)
The reason is that modern scholarship is ignoring the statements by early Christian writers! History is no longer taken into consideration by a large number of modern scholars. Thus they proceed to doubt even the opening sentences of books of Scripture, which are actually part of Scripture.
There is a reason so much attention and research regarding authorship is important? If a person is inspired by the Holy Spirit, he could know something that happened to Jesus even if he was not there. But the more people get away from the validity of eyewitness accounts, the more people can claim the information recorded in the "Holy Bible" is inaccurate. Yet the New Testament is full of eyewitness accounts indeed. Matthew and John were disciples of Jesus, eyewitnesses of His ministry as members of the Twelve. Mark and Luke recorded much history having been directly told accounts by eyewitnesses. And Mark was a friend, (or the son), of the apostle Peter, and Luke was a friend of the apostle Paul. Now Paul never saw Jesus when Jesus was in this world, yet He had a direct encounter with Jesus after He ascended into heaven, an unusual encounter, appropriate since Paul was an unusual guy, as can be seen from his statement in Philippians 3:5. James and Jude were eyewitnesses, whether you take them to be the ones who grew up with Jesus, or two of the Twelve. And here is Peter. His epistles are often ignored by Protestant ministers, yet here is an expression of his heart, inspired by God, straight from his pen. 2 Peter 1:16 is a quote to always remember!
Hunter Irvine
Scripture Love Blog
(1) See Samuel Cartledge, A Conservative Introduction to the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing 1938), 174.
{The definition of "conservative" in this context means giving the biblical text the upmost of authority, working to interpret the writing as the author intended, not having anything to do with politics.}
