Interpretation of the 2nd Council Epistle of St. Peter the Apostle

ABOUT THE SECOND COLLECTION EPISTLE OF THE HOLY APOSTLE PETER The writer of the epistle, known in the canon under the name of the second epistle of St. Peter, in the very signing he calls himself Simon Peter, a servant and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, i.e. by the same names that he called himself in the 1st letter, with the addition of two: Simon, a servant (1 Peter 1:1). The content itself contains many similarities with the content of the first epistle, as well as indications of the personality of the great Supreme Apostle Peter. At the very beginning of the letter, 2 Peter 1:2–4, the Apostle, as if continuing his speech at the end of the first letter, 1 Peter 5:12, speaks of the greatness of the blessings of the Christian faith and the height of the blessed state of Christians. Then the Apostle speaks of himself as an eyewitness of the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ and the glory of His transfiguration (2 Peter 1:16–17), and in 2 Peter 3:1 he notes that he is already writing his second epistle to his readers. The spirit of the message, the ardor of speech, reflecting the fiery zeal of Ap. Peter, in turn, testify to the second epistle belonging to him. Finally, in relation to the priest. writer of the Epistle to St. Paul, whom he calls his beloved brother (2 Peter 3:15) and over the distortion of whose teaching by the ignorant he mourns (2 Peter 3:16), you can also see the stamp of the apostolic spirit of the Holy One. Petra. In general, based on the totality of all these contents, last 2. Ap. Peter, “it is a reminder of what was written before” (Blessed Theophilus), and precisely by the Apostle Peter. But, despite this internal evidence that 2 Epistles belongs to St. Peter to the supreme Apostle, many researchers of modern times, starting with Erasmus, Calvin and C. Grotius, dispute the authenticity of this letter and consider it to have been written by an unknown apostolic disciple. The reason for this is indicated, first of all, by the absence of direct evidence about the 2nd Epistle of Peter until the beginning of the 3rd Christian century, and doubts about its origin from St. Petersburg have been expressed more than once. Ap. Petra. 2nd Council Epistle of the Ap. Petra is not found in the Syriac translation of Peshito (2nd century), nor is there any mention of it in the so-called Muratorium fragment. However, if indeed the entire Church recognized this message as authentic only at the end of the 4th century, and in previous centuries it remained unknown in some churches, then this most of all testifies to the extreme caution and legibility with which the Church conducted the matter of establishing the New Testament canon. However, indirect evidence of the knowledge of 2 Peter to the most ancient church writers undoubtedly exists, as shown by individual expressions and thoughts that very closely resemble the corresponding passages from 2 Peter. This is exactly what needs to be said about the first letter of St. Clement of Rome to the Corinthians (chap. IX, cf. 2 Pet I:17, 2:5; chapter XXXV, cf. 2 Pet 2:2), about the “Shepherd of Hermas” (Vid. III, 7; see 2 Pet 2:15, 21, 22), about the writings of St. Justin Martyr “Conversation with Tryphon the Jew” (chap. LXXXI, cf. 2 Pet 3:8) and op. Theophilus of Antioch, Epistle to Autolycus II,9; Wed 2 Peter 1:21. According to Eusebius of Caesarea, Clement of Alexandria even wrote an interpretation of 2 Peter (C. East VI14, 1), which, of course, indicates deep respect for this letter in the ancient Church. And Origen, mentioning that the authenticity of 2 Peter is disputed by some, however, he himself recognizes it as authentic, saying, for example: “Peter speaks with two works of his epistles” (Migne. s. gr. t. XII,857). They strongly accepted the authenticity of 2 Peter to St. Didymus and Athanasius of Alexandria "(Sunday reading. 1877. No. 38). Inauthenticity of Epistles 2 In modern times, they have tried to prove Peter from internal grounds - from the features of dissimilarity and differences noticed in the content of the epistle, differences in comparison with the content of 1 Epistle. So, they say, in the theology of the 1st epistle, the main concept is the concept of hope (έλπίς), in the 2nd - the concept of knowledge (έπίγνωσις). The 1st Epistle speaks more than once about the proximity of the parousia of the second coming; in the 2nd we read only about the suddenness, but not the proximity of the parousia. The 1st Epistle repeatedly speaks of the persecution of Christians, while the 2nd Epistle speaks of the possible or actual appearance of false teachers, against whom the Apostle warns readers. In the first epistle, the Apostle Peter very often uses the books of the Old Testament, but in the second epistle there are almost no literal quotations from the Old Testament; the language of the first epistle is replete with Hebraisms, while the language of the second approaches the Hellenistic dialect. But all these features of difference between the two messages are often extremely exaggerated; for example, the concept of Christian hope is undoubtedly inherent in the writer of 2 Peter (2 Pet 1:4, 11, 3:12), just as the idea of ​​Christian knowledge is not at all alien, but, on the contrary, is inherent in the sacred. to the writer of the first epistle of St. Peter (1 Peter 1:12, 25, 26, 2:2), partly, completely subjective or even imaginary, what are the differences in language and style, partly are quite natural and in the works of one writer, written at different times and therefore reflecting different events or circumstances: when writing the first epistle, Christians were threatened by external persecution, and during the compilation of the second epistle, the beginnings of heretical teachings were identified within Christian society; both found an appropriate response from the great Apostle. Thus, neither the external evidence of the message, nor the internal data of its content contain anything that would force us to retreat from the church view of 2 Peter, as a genuine work of the Supreme Apostle Peter. The immediate motivation for writing this message was the desire of the elder Apostle, who was already approaching death (2 Peter 1:14–15), to give a warning and a weapon to Christians against the emerging false teachings. Having many similarities in the depiction of the latter with the 2nd message of St. Ap. Paul to Timothy (2 Tim. 3), second letter of St. Peter is probably the last modern scripture: just as 2 Tim is the last letter of the Apostle of Gentiles and constitutes the dying testament to his Church, so 2 Pet is written by Apostle. Peter shortly before his death and is also a product of the dying prophetic broadcasts of the great Apostle; both letters were written in Rome, around 66-67. according to R. X. In Russian literature, in addition to the more than once mentioned work of the Reverend. Bishop Michael - The Explanatory Apostle, part 2 (Kyiv, 1905), there are also: 1) archim. (now archbishop) Nikanora - “A publicly accessible explanation of the second Council Epistle of the Holy Apostle Peter.” Kazan, 1889, 2) hieromonk (now bishop) Theory - “Explanation of the most difficult passages of 2 Peter.” Simferopol, 1901, and 3) professor Fr. Archpriest D.I. Bogdashevsky - “Second Council Epistle of St. Apostle Peter" (in "Experiments in the Study of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, Issue I") Kiev, 1909. You might be interested in: