Use of the Letter of Jude by the Second Letter of Peter 55 in two carefully constructed parallel clauses: “these slander whatever they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct”. 2 Pet 2,12 revised this to emphasize the comparison with irrational animals (33). The author of 2 Peter put this comparison first. He inserted the phrase “like irrational animals”, from the second clause of Jude 10, immediately after “these”, giving prominence to the assertion that the false teachers are like irrational animals. The author also changed the adverb “by instinct”, from the second clause of Jude 10, into an adjective, “of instinct”, and used it to describe irrational animals. He then described them further as having a very limited purpose — “born to be caught and killed”. The author of 2 Peter converted “slander”, the main verb of Jude 10’s first clause, into a participle and used it to describe the false teachers as slandering what they do not understand. 2 Peter also replaced Jude 10’s words for “whatever they do not understand” with synonyms. Finally the author says, “in their destruction they also will be destroyed”. This is 2 Peter’s revision of the second clause of Jude 10. Having already used “by instinct” and the comparison with irrational animals, the author of 2 Peter omitted Jude 10’s statement that the opponents do know some things. The remainder of Jude 10’s second clause says “by these they are destroyed”. The author of 2 Peter changed the tense of the verb from present to future and replaced “by these” with “in their destruction”. The antecedent of “their” is unclear; the most likely possibilities are that it refers to the irrational animals, or that it refers to the ones slandered by the false teachers (34). This seems less clear than the text of Jude that underlies it; however, Jude’s statement that the opponents are destroyed by the things they know by instinct is far from transparent. Repetition of the root meaning “destruction” (fqor- / fqar-) three times in 2 Pet 2,12 is paronomasia. 2 Peter 2,13a further describes the future destruction of the false teachers as “suffering the penalty for doing wrong”. Repetition of the root meaning “wrongdoing” (ajdik-) twice in this verse is another example of paronomasia. The remainder of 2 Pet 2,13-14 is further description of the false teachers. The author of 2 Peter took the description of them as “blots” and as “feasting with” the readers from Jude 12, using a cognate of the (33) Fornberg argues that the purpose of this revision is to deny “all understanding to the adversaries” (Early Church, 48-49). (34) BAUCKHAM, Jude, 2 Peter, 263-264.