“DIVINE NATURE” IN 2 PET 1,4 WITHIN ITS ESCHATOLOGICAL CONTEXT 99 from the perspectives of the later church apologists as well, who, be- ginning in the second century, appropriated Philo’s approach posi- tively 58, and from those subsequent trajectories of theosis that wrongly take 2 Pet 1,4 as a proof text 59. 2 Peter 1,4 neither signals a dualistic departure from early Christian eschatology nor does it pro- vide support for the later Christian doctrine of theosis. To return to Käsemann, the theology of 2 Peter, like that of the rest of the NT, re- mains a daughter of its apocalyptic mother 60. University of St Andrews Scott HAFEMANN St Andrews, Fife KY16 9JU Scotland (U.K.) SUMMARY This article offers a new reading of what it means in 2 Pet 1,4 to participate in the “divine nature”. The divine φύσις (“nature”) in 2 Pet 1,4 refers not to an abstract, divine “essence” or “being”, but to God’s dynamic “character ex- pressed in action” in accordance with his promises. Being a fellow participant (κοινωνός) of this “nature” thus refers to taking part in the eschatological re- alization of the “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (cf. τὰ ἐπαγγέλµατα in 2 Pet 1,4 with ἐπάγγελµα in 2 Pet 3,13). sal Conflagration, and the Eschatological Destruction of the ‘Ignorant and Unstable’ in 2 Peter”, Stoicism in Early Christianity (eds. T. RASIMUS ‒ T. ENGBERG ‒ PEDERSEN ‒ I. DUNDERBERG) (Grand Rapids, MI 2010) 115-140. Harrill, however, does not argue for the integration of the Stoic motifs within a biblical framework, asserting rather the opposite, that “the author of 2 Peter tries to reformulate early Christian beliefs about the parousia into the rational framework of a scientific eschatology” (131). Cf. RUNIA, Philo, 549-551, pointing, e.g., to Justin and Clement of 58 Alexandria and to Philo’s influence on Arianism and Docetism as well, and J. KLINGER, “The Second Epistle of Peter: An Essay in Understanding”, SVTQ 17 (1973) 163, 163 nn.20-21, pointing to Clement, Strom. 6.17; Origen, Princ. 3.3.2; Cels. 1.10, and to the extensive work of Daniélou on this topic. For the diversity of the theosis-tradition and its sources, see Christiansen 59 – Wittung, Partakers, who nevertheless begin their work with a quotation of 2 Pet 1,4 (see p. 11). E. KÄSEMANN, “The Beginnings of Christian Theology”, New Testament 60 Questions of Today (Philadelphia, PA 1969) 102; and, in the same volume, “On the Subject of Primitive Christian Apocalyptic”, 137. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati