Allusions to Peter
Allusions to Peter
The letter plainly indicates that Peter was the author. The writer calls himself "Simeon [or Simon] Peter,” adding "a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:1). The form "Simeon” is not generally used of Peter (in the New Testament only in Acts 15:14, and apparently not in the apostolic fathers or the Christian pseudepigraphic literature). 6It would be more natural for Peter himself to use the original form of his name than for an imitator to employ a form used of the apostle practically nowhere else. By definition an imitator would surely use the form found in 1 Peter.
The writer says that the Lord had shown him that his death was close (2 Pet. 1:14), or "swift” (the meaning the word has in 2:1), and he goes on to say that he was an eyewitness of the transfiguration and to quote the words of the heavenly voice (1:16
18). He says that he has previously written a letter to the same recipients (3:1), and he calls Paul "our dear brother Paul” (3:15), which seems to betoken a certain closeness to that apostle. It is suggested by some that a reference to the transfiguration rather than, say, the resurrection is unlikely from an apostle. But it is just as unlikely from a pseudepigraphic writer. In favor of Peter it might be said both that the transfiguration must have been a high point for him and that there are slight differences from the way the incident is reported in the Gospels (here there is no mention of Moses and Elijah, no "hear him,” the emphatic εγω [ego] is used, etc.).