Journal: Bulletin for Biblical Research
Volume: BBR 15:1 (NA 2005)
Article: The Angels under Reserve in 2 Peter and Jude
Author: J. Daryl Charles

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BBR 15:1 (2005) p. 39

The Angels under Reserve in 2 Peter and Jude

J. Daryl Charles

Union University, Jackson, Tennessee

In both 2 Peter and Jude, the reader encounters the rebellious angels, a paradigm of hard-heartedness that appears frequently in Jewish tradition. In both epistles, OT characters and events (and exegetical traditions extending from them) are paraenetic rather than didactic in nature. That is, they are illustrative and serve as moral types to warn the reader. In their function the rebellious angels constitute an important weapon in the rhetorical arsenal of both writers. Despite similarities in their appearance, they function in slightly different ways in the two epistles, suggesting a literary-rhetorical strategy that is unique to each writer.

Key Words: angelology, 2 Peter, Jude, moral paradigm, typology, Old Testament, extrabiblical tradition

In the epistles of 2 Peter and Jude, the rebellious angels appear in a series of moral paradigms that receive no commentary, explanation or interpretation. These paradigms, while enigmatic to the modern reader, are proverbial in character and part of moral-typological tradition well established in the history of Jewish interpretation. In both 2 Peter and Jude, where such allusions are particularly dense, OT characters and events (and exegetical traditions extending from them) are paraenetic rather than didactic in nature; that is, they are illustrative and serve as moral types to warn the reader.1

Author’s note: Presented at the 2002 Midwest Regional Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, University of Saint Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, IL, 22-24 February 2002.

BBR 15:1 (2005) p. 40

In Jewish tradition the example of the disenfranchised angels (Jude 6 and 2 Pet 2:4) appears frequently alongside hard-hearted Israel (Jude 5), Sodom and Gomorrah (Jude 7 and 2 Pet 2:6), and Noah and the flood in extrabiblical tradition.2 Stereotypically, these are employed as types of apostasy upon which divine judgment fell. The angels function in what appear to be similar contexts, since the theme of moral accountability is present in both 2 Peter and Jude. And while reference to the angels in both letters is abrupt, parenthetical, syntactically alike, and without qualification, faint exegetical nuances can be detected in the two allusions. Noting these nuances sharpens the reader’s apprec...

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