Adoption Into The Canon
ADOPTION INTO THE CANON
The first reference to this letter is that in 2 Peter 3:1, but from this we learn no more than that Peter had written a letter. There are many coincidences of language with 1 Clement, which may indicate that Clement used the letter (or that they shared common material), and there are further examples in Barnabas, Polycarp (there seems no doubt about quotations in Polycarp), Hermas, and others. The first to quote it explicitly as a writing of Peter is Ireneus, and thereafter it is routinely accepted in the church—apart from its exclusion, along with all the other Catholic Epistles, from the Syriac Canon. It is not listed in the Muratorian Canon, but Selwyn and others think that the text of that writing is not complete. 18 If the omission is deliberate, we have no indication of the reason, nor is there record of any objection to this letter in antiquity. Eusebius includes it among the authentic writings (H.E. 3.3.25). There never seems to have been serious doubts in the church about 1 Peter.