External Attestation
External Attestation
E. M. B. Green takes from Westcott the point that while no book of the New Testament is as poorly attested in the early church as 2 Peter, this epistle "has incomparably better support for its inclusion than the best attested of the rejected books.” 5This is perhaps as far as we can go along this line. Those who reject Petrine authorship will point to the weakness of the attestation; those who accept it point out that no noncanonical book has as much acceptance. They also remind us that in the nature of the case—owing to both its brevity and its content—2 Peter is unlikely to be quoted or even referred to as often as most of the other New Testament writings. Even today those who accept it fully do not often find themselves in a position where they must quote it.