222 Peter: True and False Prophecy About three years after Peter penned his rst letter to saints in exile, the Spirit moved him to write again The second epistle is shorter, but no less important I BACKGROUND There are not as many personal references in Peter as there are in Peter Nevertheless, a fairly accurate picture can be composed concerning the epistle’s background A AUTHOR The opening verse of the epistle identi es the author as Simon Peter, an apostle of Christ This Petrine authorship has been challenged by critics, who have maintained, among other things, that internal evidence points to a date later than Peter’s lifetime, and that the style of the second epistle differs from that of the first External evidences of the church’s early acceptance of Peter as one of the inspired books of the New Testament canon are relatively scanty For example, the epistle is not quoted directly by any of the church fathers before Origen (c A.D 250).1 By the end of the fourth century, however, the book’s rightful place in the canon was recognized by the Christian church The arguments favoring Petrine authorship are strong Consider these internal evidences: The name of Simon Peter appears in the text (1:1).2 The writer is identi ed as an apostle of Jesus Christ in 1:1 The writer refers to an earlier epistle having been written by him to the same readers (3:1) The writer was a close friend of Paul and had read many if not all of Paul’s epistles (3:15-16).3 Autobiographical references in the epistle are about Peter Read these: a Mount of Trans guration experience (1:16-18; cf Mark 9:2-9) b Christ’s foretelling Peter’s death (1:1315; cf John 21:18-19) B DATE AND PLACE WRITTEN Peter wrote this letter from Rome around A.D 67, when his death was imminent (1:14; cf Tim 4:6, concerning Paul) C DESTINATION From 3:1 we conclude that the Christian exiles addressed in Peter also received this letter Others besides them may have been addressed in the second epistle, however D OCCASION AND PURPOSE In his rst epistle Peter had much to say about opposition to Christians originating outside the group, in the form of persecution In this epistle he refers mostly to the more serious danger originating inside the group, namely, apostasy and false teaching Thus his purpose in writing the epistle was to expose the false teachers and instruct the Christians on what they should to combat the ugly threat of apostasy The following further comparisons of and Peter reveal more of the purposes of this second letter of Peter.4 ... early acceptance of Peter as one of the inspired books of the New Testament canon are relatively scanty For example, the epistle is not quoted directly by any of the church fathers before Origen... the epistle was to expose the false teachers and instruct the Christians on what they should to combat the ugly threat of apostasy The following further comparisons of and Peter reveal more of. .. 250).1 By the end of the fourth century, however, the book’s rightful place in the canon was recognized by the Christian church The arguments favoring Petrine authorship are strong Consider these