A synopsis of 2 Peter & Jude.

[Ben C. Smith]

I have viewed synopses of 2 Peter and Jude before, but do not recall ever having made one for myself... until today:

2 Peter	Jude
1.1 Symeon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ;	[1.]1 Judas, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of Jacob, to those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ;
2 grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,	2 may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

2 Peter

3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, 4 through which things He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self control, and in your self control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or shortsighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

12 Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. 13 I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14 knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such a voice as this was brought to Him by the Majestic Glory: “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased” — 18 and we ourselves heard this voice brought from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

19 We have the more sure prophetic word, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. 20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

2 Peter	Jude
-	3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.
2.1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.	4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; 3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.	-
-	5 Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, the second time destroyed those who did not believe.
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;	6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,
5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;	-
6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter;	7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after different flesh, are exhibited as an example of eternal fire in undergoing punishment.
7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men 8 (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,	-
10a and especially those who go after the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.	8 Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile glories.
-	9 But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
10b Daring, self willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic glories, 11 whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed,	10 But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are corrupted.
[Refer to verses 15-16 below.]	11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have poured themselves out into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
13a suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime.	-
13b They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, 14 having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children.	12a These are the men who are stains in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves;
15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16 but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.	[Refer to verse 11 above.]
17 These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved.	12b clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shameless deeds like foam; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.
-	14 It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with His holy ten thousands, 15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
18 For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error,	16 These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; their mouth speaks arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.
19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. 22 The thing of the true proverb has happened to them: “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and: “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”	-
3.1 This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles. 3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”	17 But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, 18 that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” 19 These are the ones who cause divisions, natural, not having the Spirit.
5 For they are willfully ignorant of this fact, that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, 6 through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. 7 But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.	20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on some, who are doubting; 23 save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

2 Peter

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and the works in it will be burned up.

11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, 18a but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

2 Peter	Jude
18b To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.	24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and to all the ages. Amen.

Most of the epistle of Jude is represented in 2 Peter; the same cannot be said in reverse. The few items in Jude which are not represented in 2 Peter are the quite innocuous statement of intent in verse 3, the extremely difficult textual issue in verse 5, the extracanonical allusion to the Testament or Assumption of Moses in verse 9, and the extracanonical quotation of 1 Enoch in verses 15-16.

Just wanted to get this synopsis posted for convenience.

Ben.

[Secret Alias]

Compare Jude 4 παρεισέδυσαν with 2 Peter 2:1 παρεισάξουσιν. The same hand wrote both entries. The most likely candidate is Irenaeus or whatever historical personage lies behind 'Irenaeus.' cf. παρεισάξουσιν αἱρέσεις. Look at the story of Cerdo in AH 3 "Cerdon, too, Marcion's predecessor, himself arrived in the time of Hyginus, who was the ninth bishop. Coming frequently into the Church, and making public confession, he thus remained, one time teaching in secret, and then again making public confession; but at last, having been denounced for corrupt teaching, he was excommunicated from the assembly of the brethren." This is almost the explicit 'historical' realization of what is being reported in the Jerusalem Church by Jude (presumably). Notice also that 'creeping' or shifting around 'secretly' necessarily is juxtaposed against an EXPLICIT episcopal succession list - something associated with Irenaeus most famously - allegedly against from Hegesippus. But the 'apostolic' documents serve as 'backup' for Irenaeus's own obsessions. I would add the falsified section of Galatians - viz. Galatians 2:4, where we have both παρεισάκτους and παρεισῆλθον. We hear in Tertullian's Prescription also of a 'secret' gospel. The discovery of Secret Mark fits perfectly in this milieu. The new fourfold gospel is arranged in four vertical columns which 'agree' with one another. They are explicit. They (likely) circulate at the insistence of Church authorities to counter the influence of those who formerly dwelt in secrecy with their gospel. Paul also speaks of 'secret wisdom' which the heretics AH 3.1 take to reinforce their secret practices and gospel. The extended (additional) section in Galatians chapter 2 makes it seem like Paul opposed secrecy. Why? Because he was (originally) the champion of secrecy. In the new material in Galatians 2.4 secrecy, and lack of legitimate introduction, are plainly expressed - viz. “crept in" into the Christian church certain men.

There are two ways to take these passages (1) there really were these evil men 'secretly' infiltrating the True Church or (2) someone was writing fake history to explain how the Church got corrupted and how - through the falsifiers methodology - the 'original truth' was restored.

[Secret Alias]

I want to stress again that:

1. either this WAS actual history - i.e. that a universal worldwide Church existed in absolutely monarchic unity - and then heretics slipped in secretly to fuck things up
2. OR someone introduced the idea into falsified texts ACROSS the alleged spectrum of 'divisions' within the Church i.e. Galatians (Pauline corpus), 2 Peter (Petrine corpus) and Jude (alleged Jerusalem episcopacy).

This is to me the most critical issue in early Christianity. Forget whether or not Jesus was a real person. The idea that canonical documents were forged and falsified - and forged and falsified to a specific HISTORICAL purpose - necessarily means that 'real' history was something else. In other words, the real history was not that a few heretics 'slipped in secretly' to cause division but the opposite - namely that secrecy was from the beginning viz. 'secret' gospel, 'secret' mysteries etc.

Why is this significant? Let's examine what benefits the stories added to Galatians, 2 Peter and Jude do for the Church and its 'history.'

1. clearly it overcomes a difficulty. For there was a basic schism from the beginning or at least the early period of the Church. The Clementines tell of a struggle between two GNOSTIC or mystery communities. Simon vs Simon. Yet it would obviously seem that the secrecy and mystery employed by both communities had some role in the split. In other words, if you have a variety - even two - groups of Christians carrying on their business SEPARATE and SECRETLY from each other and they drift apart, IT CUTS INTO THE IDEA THAT GOD WAS SECRETLY GUIDING BOTH COMMUNITIES. For how could he have allowed for two different 'secret' gospels to have emerged with contrary details emerging from one another?

2. the three documents make it seem as if 'division' was happening all over the world. Galatians is reporting on things in Asia Minor. 2 Peter presumably reports from Rome. Jude apparently from Jerusalem. IN ALL THREE LOCALES 'heresies' were secretly invading the immaculate Church. It preserves the monarchian origins to Christianity but also it necessarily introduces the idea that 'the Devil' or Satan and his demons were orchestrating a campaign against the Church WHICH WAS CONTINUING AGAINST HER TO THE TIME OF THE INTRODUCTION OF THE DOCUMENTS - i.e. late second century. So we see Irenaeus introduce the coming of Cerdo and Valentinus in similar ways.

Interestingly Marcion is NOT introduced this way. Where he is identified he is identified as boldly going forward and attempting to buy the Church. Simon Magus is not introduced as being this sort of 'secret agent.' He openly contests with Peter everywhere. The point is that I thing this 'secret infiltration' is a later invention. It was born out of the specific Roman Imperial accusation that Christianity (or contemporary Christianity) gathered in illegal associations OWING TO THEIR SECRECY. So Imperial attitudes toward Christianity at the end of Marcus Aurelius's reign have filtered into official documents and recast the tradition enmity and rivalry between the community of Paul/Simon and the 'other' (poor) community in contemporary terms.

The point is that in the earliest history there was no concern with 'secrecy.' The issue seems rather to have been the opposite - viz. that Christian heretics had too much parrhesia, too much outspokenness. Simon and Simon battling in public might have been seen as an unfortunate situation because 'secrets' - holy mysteries - would be revealed. Then in the late second century the whole understanding gets turned on its head - now things that were meant to openly proclaimed were corrupted by the seductive sirens of mysteries and secrecy. Important distinction.

[Secret Alias]

The point again is that YOU NEED the Satanic conspiracy for this to make sense. Presumably there were these pre-existent Christian communities everywhere. NOTICE HOW THE THEORY is careful to acknowledge THAT ALL communities were (1) these monarchic universal episcopacies with firm lines of succession (except Alexandria interestingly at least until Eusebius) and (2) THAT ALL were corrupted by secret agents.

You look at Paul in Asia Minor. The secret agents were Judaizers. You look at Peter in Rome - Peter who just succumbed to the pressure of the secret Judaizers in Galatians - and he's attacking diametrically opposed secret agents. You look at the 'Jewish Church' in Jerusalem - who knows WTF these heretical assholes were about but they were invading a Jewish episcopacy (presumably the heretics held the original 'Ebionite' views).

But the point is that the POV is clearly the same as the Ignatius corpus - i.e.

1. One day in one community Ignatius is condemning doceticst
2. Another day in another community Ignatius is condemning Judaizers

The point is that the historical portrait isn't 'historical' in the sense that there were all these 'secret agents' infiltrating the Church but rather a kind of supernatural conspiracy history where the Devil just wants to destroy the unbroken succession of 'truth.' He isn't 'for' the Judaizers, nor is he 'for' docetists. He is waging a war against the Church to bring the Church into disrepute by showing division.

[Secret Alias]

So if you follow this logic to its ultimate conclusion, the editor/forger through Galatians, 2 Peter, Jude and related Pastoral texts and early Patristic documents makes it seem as if 'Alexandrian-style' mystery religion typology was essentially alien to early Christianity or at least EXAGGERATED by the heresies. All of which makes me wonder, whether the forger was even a Christian at all. What would Christianity be without mysteries? The idea of someone systematically combating 'the mystery characteristic' in Christianity makes me wonder whether or not the 'corrector' of the canon might well have been a pagan philosopher or even a Jew.

[Secret Alias]

Clearly the 'recent' historical reference to Cerdo's entry into the Roman Church is what is being used as a context, reference:

Cerdon, too, Marcion's predecessor, himself arrived in the time of Hyginus, who was the ninth bishop. Coming frequently into the Church, and making public confession, he thus remained, one time teaching in secret, and then again making public confession; but at last, having been denounced for corrupt teaching, he was excommunicated from the assembly of the brethren

The stories in the Pauline canon, the Ignatian canon, the Jerusalem Church etc are all used as precedents to justify the expulsion of individuals based on the presumed authority of the bishop. But clearly if bishops had never before existed, if there never was a succession of Popes or bishops, then presumably there would have been no expulsions in archaic Christianity - i.e. as no one had the ability to expel anyone else. Indeed it is hard to imagine a 'brotherhood' tradition - i.e. where everyone was equal to everyone else - that expulsions could have been justified. How can one man made equal to Christ have authority over another? As such the message is established as a precedent. The false history serves to justify contemporary history.

This is also why the Roman Catholic Church today has such difficulty expelling members of the brotherhood. In theory all are equal to one another. The idea of a bishop is wholly artificial. It was propped up by the Roman state. But in practice a brotherhood of Christ has all members made in the same divine image and absolutely equal to one another. Ritual communism.

[davidmartin]

It always struck me, that the authors of letters such as 2 Peter had a heck of a lot of boldness to write as they did, given that Jesus did not talk that way and was rather mysterious and 'other' - here they come claiming to represent him all bold and angry... with absolute authority... they look and sound like Pharisees, or elders who switched from one pagan mystery to Christ and took their hierarchical system with them.
Maybe those heretics were really hell bent on fornication with all the wives of the bishops and that's why the anger, maybe one slept with HIS wife!
But these late texts show that however things got to this point, the real break and split was far earlier in time, among different people and with far less water flowed under the bridge

[Charles Wilson]

Nice work, Ben and SA --

Acts 19: 1 - 6 (RSV):

[1] While Apol'los was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples.
[2] And he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said, "No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."
[3] And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism."
[4] And Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus."
[5] On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
[6] And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

This is astonishing: "No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."

Homework Assignment:
Compare and Contrast:

"You can knock me down,
step on my face,
Slander my name all over the place.
Do anything that you want to do,
But uh, uh honey, lay off the Holy Spirit..."

"No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."

This is an open, bleeding wound. The early combatants have done the best they could and they keep finding huge, gaping holes in their work. One solution was to have the "Fourfold Gospels": "Let the believers work it out. Tell 'em that there are no contradictions and they'll figure something out. Our group will triumph and we'll make last year's Doctrine this year's Heretical Dogma. If we can only get rid of You-Know-Who and his crowd..."

Still, there are massive contradictions that survive.

CW

[davidmartin]

And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism."
[4] And Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus."
[5] On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Reading between the lines.. it should be "Into what name were you baptized?" John's name
The Gospel of John firmly denies John to be the messiah (or a Christ), suggesting that to some he was
And if Jesus was John's disciple that would make a succession of sorts, with the Holy Spirit being rather central
The revisions are kind of obvious when you know what to look for, John's quote "a person can only receive what is given them from heaven". This sounds genuine, and similar to the language of Jesus.
There was a confusion of names and personages it seems, this is found in some odd places, eg if you are up for some detective word read "The Epistle of Maria the Proselyte to Ignatius" with a careful eye. Read between the lines and you will see something

[klewis]

Thanks Ben,
For what I understand, being that my Greek sucks, is that Jude is far more polish than 2 Peter so that it is likely that Jude was written first and 2 Peter leverage the writing and expanded upon it. For those who may not know, this is also not the only place in that this technique is done in the NT. We see this in the:

• Mark, Matthew, and Luke (the Synoptic Gospels)
• Matthew and Luke using Q
• First Timothy and the Acts of Thecla
• Ephesians and Colossians