2 Peter and the Apocalypse of Peter: Towards a New Perspective

336 Pages·2019·2.904 MB·English

by  Jörg Frey, Matthijs Dulk, den, Jan van der Watt

2 Peter and the Apocalypse of Peter: Towards a New Perspective
Biblical Interpretation Series
Editors-in-Chief
Paul Anderson (George Fox University)
Jennifer L. Koosed (Albright College, Reading)
Editorial Board
A.K.M. Adam (University of Oxford)
Colleen M. Conway (Seton Hall University)
Nijay Gupta (Portland Seminary)
Amy Kalmanofsky (Jewish Theological Seminary)
Vernon Robbins (Emory University)
Annette Schellenberg (Universität Wien)
Johanna Stiebert (University of Leeds)
Duane Watson (Malone University)
Christine Roy Yoder (Columbia Theological Seminary)
Ruben Zimmermann (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)
volume 174
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bins
2 Peter and the Apocalypse
of Peter: Towards a New
Perspective
Radboud Prestige Lectures by Jörg Frey
Edited by
Jörg Frey
Matthijs den Dulk
Jan G. van der Watt
LEIDEN | BOSTON
This volume is based on the Radboud Prestige Lectures delivered by Jörg Frey in Nijmegen
in 2016. The Radboud Prestige Lectures provide a forum for cutting-edge research in New
Testament and Early Christian Literature. The lectures are published by Brill Academic
Publishers along with responses by scholars from all over the world. This unique format
allows for in-depth discussion among leading scholarly voices.
Previous publications based on Radboud Prestige Lectures include:
– Alan Culpepper—Creation Stories in Dialogue: The Bible, Science, and Folk Traditions (edited by Alan
Culpepper and Jan van der Watt), Leiden: Brill, 2015.
– Pieter W. van der Horst—Saxa judaica loquuntur: Lessons from Early Jewish Inscriptions, Leiden: Brill, 2014.
– Michael Wolter—The Quest for the Real Jesus (edited by Jan van der Watt), Leiden: Brill, 2013.
For more information about the Radboud Prestige Lectures, please visit https://www.ru.nl/theology/
radboud-prestige-lectures/radboud-prestige-lectures/
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Frey, Jörg, editor.
Title: 2 Peter and the Apocalypse of Peter : towards a new perspective :
 Radboud prestige lectures by Jörg Frey / edited by Jörg Frey, Matthijs
 den Dulk, Jan G. van der Watt.
Other titles: Second Peter and the Apocalypse of Peter
Description: Boston : Brill, 2019. | Series: Biblical interpretation series,
 ISSN 0928-0731 ; volume 174 | “This volume is based on the Radboud
 prestige lectures delivered by Jörg Frey in Nijmegen in 2016”—ECIP t.p.
 verso. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019010445 (print) | LCCN 2019016952 (ebook) |
 ISBN 9789004399549 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004390249 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Peter, 2nd—Criticism, interpretation, etc. |
 Apocalypse of Peter (Greek-Ethiopic version)—Criticism, interpretation,
 etc.
Classification: LCC BS2795.52 (ebook) | LCC BS2795.52 .A13 2019 (print) |
 DDC 227/.9306—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019010445
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
ISSN 0928-0731
ISBN 978-90-04-39024-9 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-39954-9 (e-book)
Copyright 2019 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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Contents
Contributors vii
1 Introduction: A Second Look at Second Peter 1
Matthijs den Dulk
2 Second Peter in New Perspective 7
Jörg Frey
3 The Apocalypse of Peter as the First Christian Martyr Text: Its Date,
Provenance and Relationship with 2 Peter 75
Jan N. Bremmer
4 Petrus-Diskurse in Alexandria: Eine Fortführung der Gedanken von
Jörg Frey 99
Tobias Nicklas
5 The Second Letter of Peter, Josephus and Gnosticism 128
Terrance Callan
6 2 Peter, the Johannine Epistles, and the Authority of “Eyewitness”
Apostolic Tradition 147
David R. Nienhuis
7 Reading 2 Peter 3 in the Light of the Apocalypse of Peter and the
Sibylline Oracles 160
Jeremy Hultin
8 ‘In Aegyptum, ut denuo disseratur de me’ 196
Martin G. Ruf
9 Does the Apocalypse of Peter Help to Determine the Date of
2 Peter? 217
Paul Foster
vi Contents
10 2 Peter and the Apocalypse of Peter Revisited: A Response to
Jörg Frey 261
Richard Bauckham
11 2 Peter and the Apocalypse of Peter: Concluding Reflections 282
Jörg Frey
Index of Ancient Sources 307
Index of Modern Authors 324
Contributors
Richard Bauckham
(Ph.D., Cambridge) is Emeritus Professor of New Testament Studies and Bishop
Wardlaw Professor in the School of Divinity, University of St. Andrews.
Jan Bremmer
(Ph.D., Leiden) is Emeritus Professor of Science of Religion and Comparative
Religious Studies at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University
of Groningen.
Terrance Callan
(Ph.D., Yale) is Emeritus Professor of Biblical Studies at the Athenaeum of Ohio.
Matthijs den Dulk
(Ph.D., Chicago) is Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Radboud University.
Paul Foster
(DPhil., Oxford) is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity in the
School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh.
Jörg Frey
(Dr. theol., Dr. theol. habil., Tübingen) is Professor of New Testament Studies at
the University of Zurich.
Jeremy F. Hultin
(Ph.D., Yale) is Visiting Associate Professor of Biblical Languages at Union
Theological Seminary, New York City.
Tobias Nicklas
(Dr. theol., Regensburg) is Professor of New Testament Exegesis and
Hermeneutics at the Fakultät für Katholische Theologie, Universität
Regensburg and Research Associate at the Department of New Testament,
University of the Free State, South Africa.
viii Contributors
David Nienhuis
(Ph.D., Aberdeen) is Professor of New Testament Studies at Seattle Pacific
University.
Martin Ruf
(Ph.D., Utrecht) teaches classical languages at the Gemeentelijk Gymnasium
Hilversum.
Chapter 1
Introduction: A Second Look at Second Peter
Matthijs den Dulk
In 2015, Jörg Frey’s commentary on 2 Peter and Jude was published in the
Theologischer Handkommentar zum Neuen Testament series.1 This commen-
tary results from many years of studying these intriguing early Christian texts
and is one of many significant achievements in Frey’s exceptionally fruitful
career. The present volume arises out of a number of key insights Frey devel-
oped during his decade-long study of 2 Peter. In the next chapter, based on
his Radboud Prestige Lectures delivered in Nijmegen in 2016, Frey presents a
new perspective on 2 Peter that draws on these insights. In the chapters that
follow, Frey’s new perspective is discussed by eight specialists in the field,
who respond to his proposal in ways both critical and constructive. The final
chapter consists of Frey’s rejoinder to these critiques.
Building on and extending the work of Wolfgang Grünstäudl,2 the key
contention of Frey’s new perspective is that 2 Peter depends on the Greek
(Ethiopic) Apocalypse of Peter (not to be confused with the Coptic document
by the same name found at Nag Hammadi). Previous scholarship has also
posited a literary relationship between the two documents but construed the
direction of influence in the opposite direction. Richard Bauckham’s work in
particular convinced many that the Apocalypse of Peter postdates the canonical
letter.3 Frey sees the relationship between the canonical and the noncanonical
1  Jörg Frey, Der Brief des Judas und der zweite Brief des Petrus, ThHK 15/II (Leipzig: Evangelische
Verlagsanstalt, 2015). English translation: Jörg Frey, The Letter of Jude and the Second Letter of
Peter: A Theological Commentary (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2018).
2  Wolfgang Grünstäudl, Petrus Alexandrinus: Studien zum historischen und theologischen Ort
des Zweiten Petrusbriefes, WUNT 2/315 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013).
3  See especially Richard J. Bauckham, “2 Peter and the Apocalypse of Peter,” in The Fate of the
Dead: Studies in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses, NovTSup 93 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 290–303.
Bauckham’s many studies on the Apocalypse of Peter were instrumental in drawing attention
to this previously somewhat neglected text. See, in addition to the study cited above, Richard
J. Bauckham, “The Two Fig Tree Parables in the Apocalypse of Peter,” JBL 104 (1985): 269–87;
idem., “The Apocalypse of Peter: An Account of Research,” ANRW 2.25.6 (1988): 4712–50; idem.,
“The Martyrdom of Peter in Early Christian Literature,” ANRW 2.26.1 (1992): 539–95; idem.,
“The Apocalypse of Peter: A Jewish Christian Apocalypse from the Time of Bar Kokhba,”
in The Fate of the Dead: Studies in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses, NovTSup 93 (Leiden:
Brill, 1998), 160–258. (first published in Apocrypha 5 [1994]: 7–111; the 1998 version is cited
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004399549_002