112 Terrance Callan seen as like those animals in their aggressive behavior (39). In Epistles 1.2.26 Horace says that Ulysses, if he had drunk from Circe’s cup, would have lived like a filthy dog or a hog delighting in mire. In Epistles 2.2.75 he describes the busy streets of Rome by saying that here runs a mad dog, there rushes a sow begrimed with mire. Musonius Rufus in 18B (LUTZ, 116-117) says that gluttons are greedy like swine or dogs. Epictetus contrasts the behavior of dog and pig, saying that the former does not roll in the mud (kulivetai ejn borbovrw/) while the latter does; humans should imitate the former (4.11.31). Shab 155b says that no one is poorer than a dog or richer than a pig; this is because no one gives food to a dog, but pigs are fattened for slaughter. All of this shows that criticism of people by comparing them to dogs and pigs is rather common in the context of 2 Peter. However, the specific ways they are criticized in 2 Peter are not common. The author of 2 Peter did not originate his comparison, but derived it from a proverb. Nevertheless, it is an unusual use of the comparison that suited the purposes of 2 Peter very well. In 2,18-22 the author of 2 Peter warns the addressees against following the false teachers by returning to the defilements of the world after having been saved from them (v. 20). The behavior of the dog and pig mentioned in v. 22 is a very good analog to such backsliding. Having expelled something harmful from his body, the dog returns to it; having been washed clean, the sow makes herself dirty again. The washing may refer to baptism (cf. also 1,9) (40). * ** As we have seen, comparison of humans to animals is very common in the ancient world. This comparison can be neutral, simple observation of ways that humans and animals are alike. It can also be positive, a way of praising humans as superior to animals, or for possessing the good qualities of animals. Comparison of humans with animals can also be negative, a way of criticizing humans for possessing the bad qualities of animals or for lacking good qualities that animals have. 2 Peter’s comparison of humans with animals is of this last kind. In 2 Peter 2,12 and 22 the author criticizes humans for possessing bad qualities of animals; in 2 Peter 2,16 the author implicitly criticizes humans for lacking the good qualities of Balaam’s donkey. Although 2 Peter’s comparison of humans to animals is generally similar to comparisons made by others, we have also seen that the specific way 2 Peter compares them is unique. No other author compares humans to irrational animals in that both are destined for capture and corruption, as 2 Peter does in 2,12. No other author has used the story of Balaam or the proverb about the dog from Prov 26,11 to characterize humans negatively as 2 Peter does in 2,16 and 22. And finally, no other author has used the proverb (39) The first element of this exhortation is quoted in Didache 9.5 and applied explicitly to the Eucharist. A parallel to this first element is found in Bekh 15a; Tem 130b. Commenting on Deut 12,15 it says that one should not release holy (food) in order to let the dogs eat it. (40) W. GRUNDMANN, Der Brief des Judas und der Zweite Brief des Petrus (THKNT 15; Berlin 1974) 101.