PETER, SECOND EPISTLE OF. This epistle claims to have been written by "Simon (or Symeon) Peter, a servant and Apostle of Jesus Christ." The author, after a preliminary ex hortation, declares his desire to testify again to the power of Jesus. He bases his testimony partly on his own experience "in the holy mount," and partly "on the word of prophecy." The mention of prophecy leads him to deal with the question of false prophets who are accused of false doctrine and immoral practices. In this section (ii. 1-22) is included almost the whole of the epistle of Jude (q.v.). The author then deals with the expecta tion of the Parousia which some were beginning to doubt. This is the main object of the letter, to attack the false prophets and to defend the certainty of the Parousia of the Lord.
As I. Peter was the first of the Catholic Epistles to be admitted into the canon, so II. Peter was the last. It was accepted at Alexandria in the third century, thence it passed into the canon of the church of Constantinople ; but not until the fourth century was it accepted at Rome, and the Syrian church admitted it in the sixth century.
The cumulative weight of the following objections to its au thenticity is generally held to disprove its claim to Petrine au thorship:— (a) Origen, the first to mention it as Petrine, admits that its authorship was disputed. (b) The style, language and thought not only differ from I. Peer but from the rest of the New Testament. (c) References to immorality associated with false teaching seem to belong to a date much later than that of the Apostle Peter. (d) The incorporation of Jude makes Petrine
authorship improbable. (e) The attribution of scriptural au thority to the Pauline epistles (iii. 16) points to a date not earlier than the second century.
It is impossible to say when or where the epistle originated. For the date, a terminus a quo must be fixed by (f ) the prevalence of an immoral gnosticism; (2) the attainment by the Pauline epistles of a quasi-scriptural authority ; (3) the use made of the epistle of Jude, and perhaps of the Apocalypse of Peter. The terminus ad quem is the use of the epistle by Origen. We may say that the most probable date for its composition is the middle of the second century.
It may have been written in Egypt, where it first appears; or, as Deissmann thinks, it may have originated in Asia Minor.
The theology of II. Peter is suggestive of a late date. Christ is referred to as "our God and Saviour," and the fatherhood of God seems to be understood only in reference to the Son. The work of Christ was the redemption of the elect, and this re demption awaits its consummation in the Parousia. The present world will be destroyed by fire, and the wicked, whether angels or men, will be finally condemned; then will begin a new era of happiness for the elect.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—See the bibliographies to PETER, FIRST EPISTLE OF,