05_Biblica_1_H_Collins_Layout 1 05/11/12 12:19 Pagina 424 424 C. JOHN COLLINs but so also was Josephus 43. second, as already mentioned above, the Gentile inhabitants of asia Minor knew several flood stories, and Jewish authors deliberately brought the biblical story into contact with these native traditions when this would help to commend Jewish faith to the Gentiles there. Third, these first two lines of argument converge in their relevance to interpreting the Petrine letters. These letters do indicate that they address people in asia Minor (explicit in 1 Pet 1,1; implicit in 2 Pet 3,1) 44, and thus the presence of native flood stories comes into view. Further, there is evidence that 2 Peter makes use of Hellenistic termi- nology and ideas elsewhere in the book 45. The final test for the likelihood of an intentional allusion is whether it sheds interpretive light on the Petrine letters. The best hint on that account comes from the way in which other Jewish and early Christian writers have connected the biblical flood story with the Gentile versions, namely the apologetic and point-of-contact motif. karen Jobes, drawing on Trebilco’s work on the Jewish communities of asia Minor, and noting that 1 Peter is addressed to Christians in that area, suggests that 1 Peter “3:19-21 is intended to connect the cultural heritage of the region to which Peter writes with the Christian faith of his readers living there”. she goes on to explain 46, Noah’s flood was an OT event that displayed God’s salvation of the righteous few and his judgment on, and destruction of, an entire society that refused to repent. It was, and still remains, a type of the eschatological judgment that has been fulfilled in Christ but yet still looks to the future for its consummation in history. … Peter ’s readers will be among those who escape the second “flood” of judgment because they have already passed through the waters of Christian baptism … see, e.g., Hadas, Hellenistic Culture, 72-82; L. FeLdMaN, “Josephus’ Portrait of Noah and Its Parallels in Philo, Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities, 43 ation of the literary evidence”, GRBS 21 (1980) 245-260, at 250-251 for the and rabbinic Midrashim”, 40 n. 15; d.J. LadOUCeUr, “Masada: a consider- On 2 Pet 3,1 as a reference to 1 Peter, see BaUCkHaM, Jude, 2 Peter, likely influence of Plato on a couple of speeches in Josephus. 44 see, for example, BaUCkHaM, Jude, 2 Peter, 179-182, on “partakers of 285-286. 45 k.H. JOBes, 1 Peter (Baker exegetical Commentary on the New Testa- the divine nature” (1,4). 46 ment; Grand rapids, MI 2005) 252.