Use of the Letter of Jude by the Second Letter of Peter 43 3,3 tou'to prw'ton ginwvskonte" o{ti 1,18 o{ti e[legon uJmi'n: ªo{tiº ejp∆ ejscavtou ejleuvsontai ejp∆ escatwn twn hJmerw'n v v ' ªtouº' crovnou e[sontai ejmpai'ktai kata; ªejnº ejmpaigmonh/' ejmpai'ktai kata; ta" ; ta" eautwn ejpiqumiva" poreuomenoi twn ;J ' v ' ijdiva" ejpiqumiva" autwn poreuovmenoi. j' ajsebeiw'n. It seems that 2 Peter’s use of Jude can best be described as a rather free paraphrase (3). Working from the written text of Jude, the author of 2 Peter re-wrote Jude, avoiding direct quotation, but using much of Jude’s language. The procedure was similar to that used by the author of a paper like this one who paraphrases the work of others in developing his/her own presentation (4). Jude 4–18 consists of 311 words. 2 Pet 2,1–3,3 incorporated 80 of these words directly and substituted synonyms for another 7 of these words. In these ways 2 Pet 2,1–3,3 used 28% of the vocabulary of Jude 4-18. 22 of the 87 words of Jude 4-18 used in 2 Pet 2,1–3,3, or 25% of them, are found in the two clauses that are virtual quotations from Jude, i.e., 2 Pet 2,17b and 3,2-3. Another 23 words (= 26%) are used by 2 Peter in the same syntactical structures as found in Jude: participial phrases (2 Pet 2,1.10), clauses (2 Pet 2,11-12.17), an adjective-noun phrase (2 Pet 2,12), and direct address (2 Pet 3,1). The remaining 42 of the words taken by 2 Pet 2,1–3,3 from Jude 4-18, or 48% of them, are used in syntactical structures different than those found in Jude. All of this clearly indicates the degree to which 2 Peter has reworked Jude. 2 Pet 2,1–3,3 consists of 426 words. The 87 of these words that are taken from Jude 4-18 constitute 20% of the total. This is another indication of how completely 2 Peter has reworked Jude. The principal purpose of 2 Peter is to argue against those who denied that Jesus would come again (5). This is most explicit in 3,4-10, but the earlier part of the letter prepares for this explicit argument. As part of that preparation, in 2,1–3,3 the author of 2 Peter criticized false teachers who would arise among its addressees. This section of the (3) Sidebottom, James, 95, 112. (4) Bauckham says, “This dependence is never slavish. The author takes what he wants from Jude, whether ideas or words, and uses it in a composition that is very much his own” (Jude, 2 Peter, 236). “It is characteristic of our author’s use of Jude that he gets an idea from Jude and then gives it a fresh twist or development of his own…” ( Jude, 2 Peter, 260). (5) KELLY, Epistles, 229; BAUCKHAM, Jude, 2 Peter, 154-157; WATSON, Invention, 82. Neyrey describes the purpose of the letter as opposition to those “who rejected traditional theodicy” (2 Peter, Jude, 122).