I move now in this “NT in a Nutshell” series to provide an overview of the epistle of 1 John, one of the General or Catholic Epistles.  This short, five-chapter book is normally called a “letter” even though it does not have the standard features of an ancient piece of correspondence. Normally (not just in the New Testament, but in the ancient world generally) personal correspondence used several standard conventions (just as today you might write a letter to your IRS agent and begin with Dear Mr. Elliott, even if you are not endeared to him at all: it’s a convention).  As a rule, letters had fairly fixed features at the beginning; e.g. the author names themselves, indicates to whom they are writing, extends some kind of greeting, often indicates a prayer being said for the person and/or a thanks to God for them.  Then they get down to the business of what they want to say, and typically end the letter with some words of encouragement, consolation, or admonition, an expression of hope to [...]

Now that I’ve devoted several posts to summarizing the themes, emphases, authors, and occasions of the three Catholic epistles, I can provide some suggestions for further reading: important works written by scholars for non-scholars.  I have given brief annotations for each book to give you a sense of what it’s about and so help you decide which, if any, might be worth your while.   I have divided the list into three sections: Books that provide important discussion of one or more of these Catholic epistles, and of the problem of persecution dealt with in 1 Peter. Commentaries that give lengthy introductions to all matters of importance about the book of Acts and then go passage by passage to provide more detailed interpretation (that’s where you can dig more deeply into “what does this particular word actually mean?”; “what is the real point of this passage”; how does this passage relate to what Luke says elsewhere in his two-volume work or to what we can find in other parts of the New Testament?”; [...]

Now that I have provided a summary of the major themes and emphases of the letter of 2 Peter, I can move to the question of who actually wrote it.  It claims, of course, to be written by Simeon (i.e. Simon) Peter, Jesus disciple.  But it is widely thought in fact to be pseudonymous, more than any other book of the entire New Testament. I’d like to give a relatively fully explanation of why, and for that reason have decided to provide here a fairly heavily edited and accessible account of my discussion in Forgery and Counterforgery (Oxford University Press). ************* 2 Peter is among the least well attested works of the New Testament from Christian antiquity, although it is found already in the manuscript called P72, ca. 300 CE, along with 1 Peter and Jude, the two canonical letters with which it is most closely associated.   Still, during the first four centuries the book had an unsettled status among those interested in establishing the contours of the New Testament.  The church father Origen doubted [...]

In this “nutshell” series that summarizes each book of the New Testament in canonical order, we now come to the second letter that claims to be from the pen of Jesus’s disciple Peter.  Here is my one-sentence, fifty-word description of the book. 2 Peter is a short letter written in the name of Peter to warn readers to avoid false Christian teachers who endorse immoral lifestyles, so as to avoid severe condemnation on the day of judgment that is coming soon, even though some “scoffers” have denied it is coming at all.   Now I can expand on the major emphases and themes of the book before turning, in the next post, to who actually wrote it, when, and why.   The three-chapter letter of 2 Peter does not appear to be directed to any particular Christian community, but to Christians everywhere, or at least those who agree with him on what it means to be a follower of Christ; in his words, he write to those who have obtained “the same kind [...]