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  • From: Jeff Peterson <peterson AT austingrad.edu>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Peter and Paul
  • Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2002 19:46:09 -0500


A couple of comments on this interesting topic:
1. Profs. Maccoby and Krentz are of course right that 1 Peter is
widely regarded as pseudonymous. I'm not sure the grounds are the
strongest, however. Especially notable in 1 Peter is an
eschatological expectation rivalling that of 1 Thessalonians in its
immediacy (2:12; 4:7, 17), which is unfashionable for a proper
Frühkatholik. The letter's style poses problems for genuineness only
on the assumption that early Christian letters were entirely solo
productions, the named author locked in a room with papyrus until the
letter was done; Paul's letters were not written this way, but rather
with the aid of secretaries (Rom 16:22), and 1 Pet 5:12 suggests that
Silvanus played such a role in that letter's composition, conceivably
even serving as Peter's translator and editor in the composition of
the letter; no surprise if one should find some echoes of Paul in a
letter on which his one time co-worker collaborated. One wonders why
a deutero-Petrine author would clutter his composition up with an
allusion to so minor a figure; if the idea was to connect Peter with
Paul and so unite Baur's polarized Christianity, something like 2 Pet
3:15-16 would seem more effective.

2. On the question that originated the thread, we have evidence
apart from 1 Peter that Peter conceived of Christ's death and
resurrection along lines congruent with Paul. In a passage that
summarizes his initial instruction in Corinth (and likely elsewhere,
too), Paul attributes his understanding of the death of Jesus as "for
our sins" to Peter, the 12, James the Lord's brother, and "all the
apostles" (1 Cor 15:3-8, 10-11) -- i.e., to the leadership of the
Jerusalem church and the extra-Pauline mission. Similarly, in Gal
1:23, Paul attributes to Judean churches the recognition that the
content of his faith agreed with theirs. The second of these
statements Paul makes in a controversial context where an easily
refuted statement of concord with Jerusalem would be sure to invite
rebuttal and damage Paul's credibility; one chapter after his summary
in 1 Corinthians, Paul invites his converts to accompany him to
Jerusalem, even to to make the trip without him to deliver their alms
to the church there. In both of these cases, Paul can only be thought
a fool if he made such claims after having misled his converts about
the degree of concord between the faith he preached and Jerusalem
theology.

All best,

Jeff Peterson




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