Journal: Bulletin for Biblical Research
Volume: BBR 08:1 (NA 1998)
Article: The Language and Logic of Virtue in 2 Peter 1:5-7
Author: J. Daryl Charles

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BBR 8:1 (1998) p. 55

The Language and Logic of Virtue in 2 Peter 1:5-7

J. Daryl Charles

Taylor University, Upland, Indiana

Although the polemical development of 2 Peter mirrors interaction between Stoic and Christian moral thought-worlds, the moral grammar of the Stoa employed by the writer in 2 Peter 1 expresses a distinctly Christian qualification. The readers are reminded that a profession of faith without ethical fiber is wholly incommensurate with their gracious calling. The rhetorical effect created by the progression and climax of the catalog of virtues in 2 Pet 1:5-7 can be understood to reflect a concrete situation in which there has been a fundamental ethical breakdown. In addressing this crisis the writer appropriates paraenesis and a standard hortatory device to underscore the necessity of the moral life.

Key Words: virtue and vice, ethical catalog, Christian paraenetic tradition, Stoic ethics, 2 Peter

2 Peter stands alongside Jude as one of “the most neglected” among the writings of the NT.1 This relative lack of attention can be attributed to a complex of factors, not least of which are fundamental assumptions about the historical situation behind the epistle. In accordance with the governing “early Catholic” schema, described by Richard Bauckham as “ripe for radical reexamination,”2 biblical scholarship has broadly assumed that given the purported intrusion of second-century gnosticism, the burden of 2 Peter is doctrine—and specifically, false doctrine.

While more recent reconstructions of the epistle suggest the inadequacy of the “early Catholic” rubric and move the discussion in a

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welcome direction,3 further exploration into the paraenetic character of 2 Peter is needed. To probe literary strategy in 2 Peter is to sharpen our focus and raise questions concerning authorial intent. What purpose lies behind the language of paraenesis and conspicuously pagan metaphysical terminology being utilized in the epistle? Why is the epistle’s vocabulary as a whole distinct from the writings of the NT? What do the catalog of virtues and reminder terminology in chap. 1—coupled with the moral paradigms and caricature of the moral sceptic in chaps. 2 and 3—suggest concerning the recipients’ social location, and thus, the author’s purpose in writing?

As a component of the Christian paraenetic tradition, 2 Pet 1:5-7 pres...

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