2 Peter 2:4-16: The Redaction of the Biblical and Intertestamental References Dependent on Jude 5-11 and Their Overall Significance for the Document
For some time now, scholars have noted the close literary connection between Jude and 2 Peter, with thirteen of Jude's twenty-five verses paralleled in 2 Peter. One could say that the argument over the direction of dependency makes it the `synoptic problem' of the Catholic Epistles. Although the literary evidence is overwhelmingly supportive of 2 Peter's dependency on Jude, the prominence of the figure of Peter in Christian history seems to have influenced certain scholars to propose the contrary. The arguments for the dependence of 2 Peter upon Jude will be addressed immediately in this dissertation since the focus of this study is on the way the author of 2 Peter redacted certain key texts in Jude, and more importantly, why he did so. Jude draws on the Old Testament and Pseudepigrapha to present six notorious sinners/ groups of sinners placing them in two clusters of three. In the first cluster (Jude 5-7// 2 Pet 2:4-8) Jude names the Exodus generation, the sinful angels, and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, 2 Peter substitutes the Flood for the Exodus generation and returns to the correct chronological order of the sinful angels, the Flood, and Sodom and Gomorrah. Jude's second cluster (Jude 11) names three characters, Cain, Balaam, and Korah. 2 Peter 2:15-16 eliminates Cain and Korah, and expands upon the sinfulness of Balaam in 2:15-16. While the majority of scholars conclude the 2 Peter is dependent on Jude, they have also made important contributions in the itemization of the ways in which the author of 2 Peter has redacted Jude as well. What they have failed to address is the patterns that show the reasons for these alterations and how 2 Peter uses these texts for a different message to the community. This dissertation now attends to that issue, by focusing on these four narrative references which are foundational to the rest of 2 Peter; they are the key to understanding the function and genre of 2 Peter. My preliminary study already highlights a dramatic difference in the results of 2 Peter's use of these texts. While Jude uses these texts to threaten a forensic end for those who follow the heresy alive within his community, 2 Peter uses them in a benevolent warning, of dangers of heresy that seem to be still outside the community. Further research that will belong to the full study in the dissertation will help to fill out these differences, illustrate their depth, and will show their impact for the rest of the document.
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