| (2) In chap. iii. 4 the words occur, ἀφ᾽ ἧς γὰρ ot πατέρες ἐκοιμήθησαν, πάντα οὕτως διαµένει ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς κτίσεως. Here oi πατέρες refers to the immediately preceding generation of Christians. The whole sentence refiects the disappointment and disillusionment experienced by those who saw men and women believing in the coming of the Lord in their life-time, and dying without having realised their expecta- tion, and who felt that all signs of an immediate coming in their
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own day were absent. Such an atmosphere of thought would be most intense in the second generation of Christians, and much of the Epistle is meant for the encouragement of those who still expected the delayed Parousia of the Lord, and whose minds were likely to feel the element of truth in the words of the false teachers. 4&4’ js need not denote a long interval of time (cf. Luke vii. 45). It may therefore be possible that the Epistle is addressed to the second generation of Christians. Moreover, chap. i. 16-18 is most naturally regarded as addressed to those “who have not seen, and yet have believed,” and the superior position of the eye-witnesses therein implied is an idea that would be most prominent in sub-Apostolic times.
(3) Chap. iii. 8—As an indication of an early date for the Epistle, the absence of any millennial significance in this passage has been adduced (Bigg, pp. 214, 295). Against this, Mayor (of. cit. cxxvi. has pointed out that we learn from Justin Martyr (Dzal., chap. 80)
ethat there were also many orthodox believers in his time who
refused to accept the millenial teaching. It may, however, be noted that the passage in Justin hardly negatives Dr. Bigg’s conclusion. There it is said that ‘‘ many think otherwise,” 1.ε., in opposition to a millenial doctrine. In 2 Peter, the context in which the words are used is entirely apart from any millenarian notion at all. The sig- nificant thing is that 2 Peter, unlike all subsequent writers does not employ Psalm xc. 4. in connection with the idea. He is dealing with the very verse out of which Chiliasm arose, and he could hardly have so completely ignored the opinion unless he had been writing at a date previous at least to its later widespread acceptance in the Church.
At what time the view became common in the Early Church is uncertain. In Barnabas xv. 5 we meet with the conception, but there is no trace of the doctrine in either 1 Clem., Ignatius, Polycarp, the Epistle to Diognetus, or the Didache. Hermas is not uninflu- enced by the idea. Innone of the apologists, except Justin, is there any trace of Chiliasm. 2 Peter ili. 8, therefore, with its peculiar use of Psalm xc. 4 would indicate a date certainly much earlier than Justin Martyr (140-161), who refers to the belief as a tenet of the orthodox faith, and probably earlier than Barnabas. If the absence, of reference to millenial doctrine in 1 Clem., Ignatius, and the Didache means the same as in 2 Peter, a date at the very end of the first century and the very beginning of the second is probable for our Epistle.
(4) Chap. iii. 2.---τῶν ἀποστόλων ὑμῶν. The writer must be re- garded as including himself among the Apostles (cf. 1. 1), and not as