Sacra Pagina
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Crisis in the church is not a new phenomenon. In fact, the church has always been - and probably always will be - involved in some kind of crisis. Even in the apostolic period, which is regarded by many as the church's golden age, there were serious crises coming both from the outside, as in 1 Peter, and from the inside, as in Jude and 2 Peter. The three short New Testament letters treated in 1 Peter, Jude and 2 Peter illustrate the problems early Christians faced, as well as the rhetorical techniques and theological concepts with which they combated those problems.
In the first part of this volume, Donald Senior views 1 Peter as written from Rome in Peter's name to several churches in northern Asia Minor - present-day Turkey - in the latter part of the first century C.E. The new Christians addressed in 1 Peter found themselves aliens and exiles in the wider Greco-Roman society and suffered a kind of social ostracism. But they are given a marvelous theological Vision of who they have become through their baptism and pastoral encouragement to stand firm. They are shown how to take a missionary stance toward the outside world by giving the witness of a holy and blameless life to offset the slander and ignorance of the non-Christian majority and possibly even to lead them to glorify God on the day of judgment.
In the second part of this volume, Daniel Harrington interprets Jude and 2 Peter as confronting crises in the late first century that were perpetrated by Christian teachers who are described polemically as intruders in Jude and as false teachers in 2 Peter. In confronting the crises within their churches, the authors appeal frequently to the Old Testament and to early summaries of Christian faith. While Jude uses other Jewish traditions, 2 Peter includes most of the text of Jude as well as many distinctively Greek terms and concepts. It is clear that for the authors, despite their different social settings, what was at stake was the struggle for the faith.
Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, is a professor of New Testament at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and general editor of New Testament Abstracts. He is a past-president of the Catholic Biblical Association of American and the editor of the Sacra Pagina series. He also wrote The Gospel of Matthew in the Sacra Pagina series.
Donald Senior, CP, is a professor of New Testament studies and president of Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He was recently appointed by Pope John Paul II to the Pontifical Biblical Commission. General editor of The Bible Today, he also co-edited The Collegeville Pastoral Dictionary of the Bible and the 22-volume international commentary series New Testament Message, and he wrote the four-volume The Passion series published by The Liturgical Press.
Editor’s Preface ix
Authors’ Preface xi
Abbreviations xiii
1 PETER
Introduction
1. Authorship and Origin 4
2. Date and Circumstance of the Letter 7
3. Form, Style, and Structure 10
4. The Sources, Pastoral Strategy, and Major Motifs of the Letter 12
5. Text and Translation 16
6. The Abiding Significance of 1 Peter 16
7. General Bibliography 17
Translation, Notes, Interpretation
1. The Address of the Letter (1:1-2) 25
2. The Foundation of Christian Life (1:3-12) 30
3. The Call to Holiness (1:13-16) 39
4. Fear Before a God of Hope (1:17-21) 43
5. Earnestly Love One Another from the Heart (1:22–2:3) 47
6. The Living Stones and the Household of God (2:4-10) 52
7. Freedom and Responsibility (2:11-12) 64
8. Commitment in the World (2:13-17) 68
9. The Christian Witness of the Slaves (2:18-25) 74
10. The Witness of Christian Wives and the Responsibilities of Christian Husbands (3:1-7) 81
11. The Obligations of Community (3:8-12) 89
12. Giving a Testimony of Hope (3:13-17) 93
13. The Ascent and Exaltation of the Triumphant Christ (3:18-22) 99
14. Living by the Will of God (4:1-6) 112
15. Living in Awareness of the End-time (4:7-11) 119
16. Suffering as a Christian (4:12-19) 127
17. Responsibility of the Elders (5:1-5) 136
18. Confidence in the God of All Grace (5:6-11) 145
19. Final Word (5:12-14) 152
JUDE AND 2 PETER
Introduction
1. This Commentary 161
2. The Links between Jude and 2 Peter 162
3. Are Jude and 2 Peter “Early Catholic” Documents? 164
4. Their Abiding Value 167
5. Issues in Scholarship 168
6. General Bibliography 170
JUDE
Introduction to Jude
1. Text and Language 175
2. Genre and Structure 176
3. Jewish and Christian Traditions 179
4. The Opponents 180
5. Author, Date, and Place 182
Translation, Notes, Interpretation
1. Salutation (1-2) 185
2. Purpose and Occasion (3-4) 189
3. Examples and Applications (5-13) 194
4. Prophecies and Applications (14-19) 213
5. An Exhortation and Doxology (20-25) 220
2 PETER
Introduction to 2 Peter
1. Text and Language 227
2. Genre and Structure 228
3. Jewish, Greek, and Christian Traditions 231
4. The Opponents 233
5. Author, Place, and Date 235
Translation, Notes, Interpretation
1. Salutation (1:1-2) 239
2. Christian Life (1:3-11) 243
3. Peter’s Testament (1:12-15) 251
4. The Witness of Peter and Holy Scripture (1:16-21) 255
5. False Teachers (2:1-3) 260
6. Biblical Precedents (2:4-11) 265
7. Denunciations (2:12-16) 271
8. More Denunciations (2:17-22) 276
9. The Delay of the Parousia (3:1-4) 281
10. Biblical Responses (3:5-10) 286
11. Final Exhortation (3:11-18) 293
Indexes
Scriptural Index 301
Index of Ancient Writings 307
Subject Index 309
Author Index 312
Supplementary Bibliography 316