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  • From: "Kym Smith" <khs AT picknowl.com.au>
  • To: corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Peter and Paul
  • Date: Thu, 6 Jun 2002 00:36:24 -0400


Hyam wrote,

<<<Few scholars nowadays would see I Peter as the genuine work of the apostle
Peter. Its style of Greek is of a high literary quality not to be expected of
a Galilean fisherman,>>>

If we can be certain that Peter did not write either 1 or 2 Peter, then we
may be able to make this claim. However, as it is unlikely that we can be
absolute in such a claim, the door must not be shut to alternatives.

The fact that Peter was a Galilean fisherman is no reason to question his
fluency in Greek perhaps three decades or more later. Even in Galilee he
probably had dealings with Greek speakers from the time he could talk
himself. Across the lake was the Decapolis; the gospels indicate that it
was a small thing to go over and interact with what must have been a
largely Greek speaking population there. I suspect that it would not have
required a crossing to practice Greek, however, as the legacy of the Greek
Empire was still evident around much of the Mediteranean, especially the
eastern end. No doubt some Greek would have been useful in the fishing
trade for dealing with both customers and other fishermen (i.e. those from
the region of the Decapolis).

Assuming that Peter did write the epistles that bear his name, it is
probable that he had some dealings with the regions named and, to varying
degrees, all of them retained centres of Greek culture - especially Asia
and Pontus.

If the Roman tradition that Peter ministered in Rome on and off over a
period of 25 years is correct - and some would say there are good grounds
for it - then Peter had ample opportunity to become very familiar with the
Greek language.

Hazarding a guess that Peter was probably 60 years old at least before he
died and that the epistles (if he wrote them) were penned towards the end
of his life, then there is no reason why he could not have been quite
familiar with Greek, and every reason why he should have been very
familiar with it. Many modern scholars would claim to be experts in
biblical Greek in a comparatively short time and that despite the fact
that there are few - if any - who could hold a normal conversation with
someone else in that tongue. For six decades or more Peter would have been
exposed to it as a living language and as part of normal life.

I think we are out of order if we think that the disciples never moved
beyond their simple fisherman level of understanding. Even in that trade
they appear to have been followers of John the Baptist and anticipating
the appearance of the Messiah (e.g. Jn 1:35ff).

Kym Smith
Adelaide
South Australia
khs AT picknowl.com.au






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