stances of the churches addressed by him were eonsid- erably changed, and that the second was written iu greater baste, not to speak of a jn.--ii.le decay of facul- ties, the differences may he regarded as Insufficient to justify more than hesitation in admitting it- genuine- ness. The authenticity of the epistle ha- been main- tained more or less decidedly by Michaeli-, Nit/.-che, Flatt, Angusti, Storr, Dahl, Hug, rleydenreich, Lard- ner, Wlndischmann, Guericke, Thiersch, Stier, Diet- lein, Hofmann, Luthardt, Bruckner, and Olshausen. Feilmoser and Davidson incline to the same side. These are great names: yet. though we agree with their opinion, we cannot venture to -ay. with Bonnet, that " of all the books of the N. T. which have been controverted at certain times, there is not on whose authenticity is so certain as that of the second epistle of Peter" (Now. Test., Introd., ii. 701, Geneve, 1852).
II. Time, Place, Design, and Persons addressed. — When anil where the epistle was written cannot be definitely known. The place was Rome in all proba- bility ; for Peter, after coming to B \ did not. so far
as we know, leave that city till his death. Hi- death is usually placed in CI, but it may have been later, and this epistle was written just before it. Mayerhoff a-cribes it to a .Jewish Christian of Alexandria about the middle of the second century. Iluther places it in the last quarter of the first century or the beginning of the second.
The persons for whom the epistle is intended are "those who have obtained like precious faith with us;" and iii, 1 identifies them with those addressed in the first epistle. It is objected that this epistle as- serts that Peter had taught them in person — such not being the case with those addressed in the first epistle.
But the phrase adduced — lyVU)pi<TCtfltV VfUV fj,16),"we
made known unto you" — seems to refer not to oral dis- course, but to various portions of the first epistle in which the coming and glory of Christ are dwelt on. The object of the epistle is to warn against "false teachers," '•bringing in damnable heresies," "deny- ing the Lord that bought them," holding a peculiar ihemonology — covetous, sensual, and imperious apos- t ites, the victims and propagators of Antinomian delu- sion. Probably they taught some early form of Gnos- tic error, which, denying the Lord's humanity and atoning death, ridiculed his second advent in man's nature, set aside the authority of law, and by this ef- frontery justified itself in licentious impurity. The false teachers were like the "false prophets," perhaps claiming di\ ine basis for their teachings, and therefore the more aide to shake the faith of others, and -educe them into perilous apostasy. Thus, in brief, as the writer himself describes it (iii, 17). his object i-. first, warning, or to caution his readers against seduction : ■■ ll.vi arc lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness" — -poyi- yvwoKovric — "as ye know those things beforehand,"
that is, from his descriptive account-: ami, B mdly.
counsel, or to urge on them, as the best of all antidot s to apostasy, to '-grow in grace, and iu the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus < Jhrist." For this xapig and yvwoiQ would fortify them and make them invin- cible against those assaults which so often succeeded with the unwary who fell in their heedlessness, the who trusted in their own strength, and the ignorant or half-informed, so liable from theii parti. .1 knowledge to be imposed upon by any system that dealt in novel speculations, professed to unfold inv>- teri --.or give license and warrant for lawless practices. The supposition ofGrotius, that it was written in the reign of Traj in against the Carpocratians, and by Sim- eon, bishop of Jerusalem, i- without any probability, a- I ".tit li.-l.lt hi- more than sufficiently shown. The
arguments of Schwegler for its place a- Borne, it- d ite
the end of the second century, and its purpose a- an ell, ut to conciliate l'ctrine and Pauline theological dif- ferences, are answered conclusively by Iluther.
PETER
III. The contents of the epistle seem quite in accord- ance with its asserted origin. The customary opening salutation is followed by an enumeration of Christian blessings and exhortation to Christian duties, with special reference to the maintenance of the truth which had already been communicated to the Church (i, 1-13). Referring then to his approaching death, the apostle assigns as grounds of assurance for believ- ers his own personal testimony as an eye-witness of the transfiguration, and the sure word of prophecy, that is the testimony of the Holy Ghost (14-21). The danger of being misled by false prophets is dwelt upon with great earnestness throughout the second chapter ; their covetousness and gross sensuality, combined with pre- tences to spiritualism, in short all the permanent and fundamental characteristics of Antinomianism, are de- scribed; while the overthrow of all opponents of Chris- tian truth is predicted (ii, 1-29) in connection with prophecies touching the second advent of Christ, the destruction of the world by fire, and the promise of new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth right- eousness. After an exhortation to attend to Paul's teaching, in accordance with the less explicit admoni- tion in the previous epistle, and an emphatic warning, the epistle closes with the customary ascription of glo- ry to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.