Authorship of 2 Peter

In reflecting the second letter of Peter, we begin by establishing the authorship. Without going to external sources, we will stay close to what the letter had testified for itself. The best prove of the authorship of Peter is found in the letter itself.

In the very first verse, Peter plainly said that he was the author of this letter. He even made it indisputably certain who he was. He was none other than Simon Peter, the bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. Besides, 2 Peter 3:1 firmly establish this fact. The author, Peter himself, states it clearly that this is his second letter. Here, he was alluding to the first letter, which we know is referring to 1 Peter.

In addition, the internal testimonies from the letter itself point to Peter’s authorship. In 2 Peter 1:13-15, he made mention of the Lord Jesus’ prediction of the kind of death that he was to undergo. It collaborates with the Lord’s statement made in John 21:18. In 2 Peter 1:13-15, we also sense that he knew his death was imminent. And Church fathers placed his martyrdom around AD 67-68 in Rome, where he was said to have spent his last three decades.

In 2 Peter 1:16-18, he alluded to his presence at the Mount of Transfiguration, and was himself a witness of what transpired then. All these facts made his claim to the authorship of 2 Peter undeniable. Just as 2 Timothy was Paul’s swan song, this letter was Peter’s. Their two books bear some similarities in that they were both warnings about impending apostasy. While Paul warned of heresy among the laity; Peter warned of heresy among the teachers. In his former letter, Peter warned of trials and sufferings, here he would warn about false teachers and teachings. 

While the author is explicit, the addressees seem ambiguous. Peter did not identify specifically who his readers were. However, he did mention his recipients as “those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours …” He was generally writing to believers who had embraced the same faith as them, the apostles.

This letter is worth our meditation so that we will not be hook-winked by the flurry of false teachers and teachings in our day. It will motivate us to walk circumspectly and not fall prey to heresy. We will give some time to carefully consider Peter’s instruction in his second letter so that we can live to glorify God.