2 Peter
About this date: Dates are broad scholarly estimates of composition or final editing, not dates of the events narrated. Traditional attributions and scholarly assessments can differ.
2 Peter urges growth in virtue, warns against false teachers, and answers scoffers about the promised coming of the Lord. Its relation to Jude, its authorship, and its early reception require careful study. The letter itself refers to Paul's writings but does not define a completed New Testament collection.
Key points
- The transfiguration memory supports the letter's appeal to trustworthy witness.
- The false-teacher polemic draws on earlier Jewish and Christian examples.
- The discussion of delay in chapter 3 joins judgment with divine patience.
Scripture
- 2 Peter 1:3-21 — Virtue, transfiguration, and prophetic Scripture ground the exhortation.
- 2 Peter 2:1-22 — The warning against false teachers uses judgment examples.
- 2 Peter 3:1-18 — The letter answers scoffers and urges patience and growth.
Primary sources
2 Peter 3:16 states:
The letter refers to Paul's letters and compares their misuse to that of other Scriptures; it does not enumerate a completed New Testament canon.
as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
Passage context and translation
The letter answers scoffers and urges patience and growth.
Before the excerpt
Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you,
After the excerpt
You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness.