2 Peter – Introduction

2 PETER   (Beware of false teachers)

Author:         Peter the disciple of the Lord

Date:             67 AD.  3-years  after 1-Peter.  The letter was written just before he was crucified upside down in Rome.

Location:      Rome, probably from Prison because Peter died in Rome.

Theme:         To expose false teachers and encourage believers to be on guard against destructive doctrines.   

To whom:     To all the believers in Rome and in Asia Minor. This letter too was probably written to the same believers as of first epistle of Peter. 

 Introduction:  In John’s Gospel, Jesus had said that Peter will have violent death.  So for 40-years Peter lived with the knowledge that he would be killed, though he did not know when.  Peter gives a reference of his former letter (2 Pet.3:1). The reason that he wrote the second letter to the same churches was because he was more concerned about the false teachers infiltrating into the churches bringing about heretical and destructive teaching and immorality.  Finally he finishes about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as a note of consolation when the whole church was facing the trials and persecutions due to the tyrant emperor Nero.

There seems to be a clear change in the style between 1^st and 2^nd Peter. The first letter 1-Peter was written with Silas as the secretary. But the second letter 2-Peter was written urgently as the time was getting over.  Further he did not know Greek well, so the grammar is clumsy, though the meaning is clear. 2-Peter is the letter just as Paul letter to Timothy (2-Timothy)  which was his last one.

Peter wrote this letter near the end of his life and the tradition says that Peter was martyred by being crucified with upside down cross.

The messages of 1-Peter and 2-Peter