of matter, against which it is asserted that in the day of the Lord οἱ οὐρανοὶ ῥοιζηδὸν παρελεύσονται, στοιχεῖα δὲ καυσούµενα λυθήσεται (iii. 10). Finally, we are told that the false teachers use the Scriptures of the O.T. as a basis for their heretical teaching (iii. 16).
It is thus apparent that in 2 Peter, far more than in Jude, the doctrine as well as the life of the false teachers is in question. Their ethical character is described in words largely borrowed from Jude, and in no measured terms. They speak evil of the way of truth (ii. 2); make merchandise of their followers (ii. 3); are fleshly and lustful (ii. 10-12); practise a vulgar hedonism (ii. 13) ; defile the love-feasts by their presence (13) ; deceive the hopes of their followers, like waterless fountains (16). They are Christians in name, steal into the Church without disclosing their impious views (ii. 1, 20, 21), and are boastful and irreverent (ii. 10, 18).
The question arises whether these false teachers can be identified with any known heretical sect. Some critics have sought to dis- tinguish between the libertines of chap. ii. and the mockers of chap. ΠΠ., but there is really no difficulty in identifying the two.! The denial of the Parousia by the mockers is really the outcome of a materialistic philosophy, and the denial of a future judgment would have the tendency to emancipate from all moral restraint. “There may have been shades of difference between them; some, perhaps, had a philosophy, and some had not; but in the eyes of a Christian Preacher, judging the party as a whole by its practical results, they would all seem to wear the same livery” (Bigg, op. cit., p. 239, cf. Henkel, of. cit., p. 37).
Harnack, who holds that Jude was written 100-130, suggests that the attack in that Epistle is aimed at some of the older forms of Gnosticism, among which he mentions the Nicolaitans. This sect is known to have had considerable influence in Asia Minor, and is mentioned by name in Rev. ii. 6, 15, in the Epistles to Ephesus and to Pergamum. In the case of the latter Church they are represented as existing side by side, and probably as identical with a sect of « Balaamites” (ii. #4). Νο doubt the same sect is accused of immo- rality in the Epistle of Thyatira (ii. 20). In 2 Peter ii. 15, 16 the example of Balaam is adduced asa parallel to the conduct of the false teachers, and it would appear that the name of Balaamites was given as a nickname to the Nicolaitans. Irenzeus (iii.,c. 1) tells us that the Nicolaitans held the doctrine of two Gods—the God who created the world, and the Rather of Jesus; that an zon descended upon Jesus, and again returned into the Pleroma before the Cruci-
1Cf. Henkel, of. cit., pp. 21 Β., where the question is fully discussed.