Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear list,

Although it seems far from the purpose of B-Hebrew, it seems necessary, in
view of the post below, to say that you do not have to be a fundamentalist
to believe in Petrine authorship of 2 Peter. It is Jude, in my view, that
leans on 2 Peter, not the reverse. Nor is the outlook of 2 Peter
overwhelmingly Hellenistic as opposed to Hebraic, in my opinion. There are
plenty of Jewish ideas. Peter traveled extensively, we believe, outside of
Palestine; so reflections of Hellenistic culture in his letter should not
surprise us.

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard

>Incidentally, as a further clarification, would you say the same for ALL
>scriptures, oracles etc. - or only the Judaeo-Christian ones? Your reference
>to 2 Peter is in some ways a little unfortunate. Almost all scholars outside
>of the totally fundamentalist camp agree that 2 Peter is not by the disciple
>Peter, both because of its clear literary dependence on the Letter of Jude,
>and the completely Hellenistic outlook of the author. That it claims to be
>by Peter while at the same time talking about prophetic inspiration does not
>inspire confidence  in the standpoint. "Inspiration" anyway is a very
>elastic word. Even secular poets are often described as "inspired", but from
>the way you express yourself, I take it you mean it as a synonym for
>"inerrant".