PETER, EPISTLES GENERAL Os', the name given to two epistles contained in the canon of the New Testament. They are called general, because they are not addressed to particular churches or persons, like those of St. Paul; but (al in the case of the 1st epistle) to all the Christians scattered throughout Asia Minor, or (as in the case of the 2d) to the entire body of Christians without. exception. The objects of the 1st epistle are to strengthen kelievers under trials; to exhort them to the earnest performance of all duties—personIft, social, and domestic; and to demonstrate how thoroughly that per formance depends on a spiritual recognition of Christ and his work. There is a strong eschntologien1 tendency in the epistle; the apostle seems to grow more intensely serious, under the conviction that "the end of all things is at .band" (chap. iv. 7). That the epistle is the composition of Peter is very generally admitted. The external evidence is singularly strong; while the internal, derived front a consideration of style. sentiment, and doctrine, is equally so. We see in every sentence the ardent, impassioned, practical, unspeculative character of Peter, who held with a fine Hebraic vehemence of faith the great facts and principles of Christianity, but could not, like the more subtle and logical Paul, give them a systematic representation. Many critics have warmly praised the
beauty and strength of the language.—The second epistle stands in a very different posi tion from the first. So far as external authority is concerned, it has hardly any. The most critical and competent of the fathers were suspicious of its authenticity; it was rarely, if ever, quoted, and was not formally admitted into the canon till the council of Hippo, 303 A.D. The internal evidence is just as unsatisfactory. The great difference of style between it and the 1st epistle is universally admitted. Bunsen, Ullmann, and Lange hold indeed I hat the second chapter is an interpolation, but-consider the first and third genuine. Many of the ablest critics, however, regard the whole epistle as a fabri cation; aid believe that its contents prove it was meant as an attack on the Gnosticism of the 2d century. [See the remarks. on the second epistle of Peter in Neander's Ges deicitte der 1:yanzung nod Leitung der Kirche durch die Apostel.] The principal arguments adduced for maiutaining its apostolic chnraeter are: 1. that its rejection would endanger the authority of the canon: 2. that it is inexplicable how the church should have received it if it had not thought that Peter was the author.