2 Peter, Jude (The Anchor Yale Bible Commentary | AYBC)

by Jerome H. Neyrey

Publisher:

Yale University Press

, 2008

Overview

Jerome H. Neyrey gives us a thoroughly up-to-date and comprehensive study of two of the most obscure books of the New Testament. Written after the death of Jesus and his Apostles, the Epistles of 2 Peter and Jude offer a glimpse into the turbulent life of the early Christian communities. Neyrey’s fascinating study not only provides an entirely new translation of the two texts, but also stirring commentary that takes the reader inside groups located at the very edges of Christianity, in contact with the wider Roman world and Greek culture of the day.

Neyrey builds upon the excellent scholarship of the past, and introduces readers to the discussion factors that were rarely understood or considered in earlier times: the social, political, and economic setting in which the New Testament Epistles were written and read—the church as a community within the larger context of the vast Roman empire of the late first and early second centuries. And while these letters are often considered peripheral or marginal to the New Testament, they nevertheless reveal and interpret one of the murkier eras in the life of the church. They reflect the hard times and difficult circumstances of the faithful, beset by treacherous comrades within and malevolent enemies without. But all the while, these documents express the constancy and commitment of those who found salvation and the renewal of life in the one Lord, Jesus Christ.

Key Features

• Offers original translations, including alternative translations, annotations, and variants
• Provides verse-by-verse commentary on the text
• Presents the reader with historical background, including analysis of authorship and dating
• Features an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary literature

Contents

• Jude
  • Jude: Introduction
  • Letter Opening: Address and Greeting (Jude 1–2)
  • Letter Occasion: Insinuation of Deviants (Jude 3–4)
  • Crimes Judged: Three Old Testament Examples (Jude 5–7)
  • Triple Crimes and Their Judgment (Jude 8–9)
  • Triple Example of Deviants Judged (Jude 10–13)
  • Prediction of Future Judgment (Jude 14–16)
  • Comparison and Contrast: Faithless Deviants and Faithful Disciples (Jude 17–23)
  • Letter Closing: Doxology (Jude 24–25)
• 2 Peter
  • 2 Peter: Introduction
  • Letter Opening: Address and Prayer (1:1–2)
  • Patron’s Benefaction and Clients’ Response (1:3–11)
  • Occasion of the Letter: Peter’s Farewell Address (1:12–15)
  • Reply to the First Slander: Prophecy of the Parousia Defended (1:16–18)
  • Reply to the Second Slander: Prophecy and Interpretation Defended (1:19–21)
  • The Third Slander: The Master Denied (2:1–3a)
  • Reply to the Third Slander: Divine Judgment Defended (2:3b–10a)
  • Shame on the Opponents: Beasts, Lust, and Greed (2:10b–16)
  • More Shame on the Opponents: Hypocrisy and Harm (2:17–22)
  • The Fourth Slander: God’s Powerful Word Challenged (3:1–4)
  • Reply to the Fourth Slander: Divine Word of Judgment Defended (3:5–7)
  • The Fifth Slander and Reply: Delay of Divine Judgment Defended (3:8–13)
  • Final Exhortation and Letter Closing: Stand Firm in the Tradition (3:14–18)

Top Highlights

“Dorothy correctly tells Toto that they are no longer in Kansas.” (Page 2)

“All of this is to say that the social sciences can offer fresh and compelling reading scenarios about the social world of the ancient authors which greatly complement standard exegesis.” (Page 3)

“The document may profitably be examined as the author’s riposte to an honor challenge.” (Page 52)

“In part such scenarios were elements of the conventional description of the state visit of an honorable sovereign, in particular the God of Israel. The power and honorable status of the sovereign are publicly expressed through symbolic, even cosmic, phenomena. The same is applicable both for the birth of God’s Christ (Matt 2:2) and his death (27:45, 51–54). Yet as the document explains later, the parousia of the Lord came to include expectation of new heavens and a new earth, which entails the destruction of the old ones (see Rev 6:12–14; 8:12; 21:1). Thus notions of honor, that is, the cosmic phenomena accompanying the sovereign’s visit, are linked with those of purity, the cleansing of the corrupt world and its replacement with a new, pure one.” (Pages 228–229)

“This mockery in turn calls into question the Lord’s role as lawmaker and enforcer of laws. As the author interprets his opponents, they reject the traditional understanding of God as sovereign; they call into question God’s providential powers to create and to judge. The honor of God has been impugned.” (Page 237)

Product Details

• Title: 2 Peter, Jude
• Author: Jerome H. Neyrey
• Series: Anchor Yale Bible (AYB)
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication Date: 1994
• Pages: 300

About Jerome H. Neyrey

Jerome H. Neyrey is Professor Emeritus of New Testament at the University of Notre Dame. His other books include Give God the Glory: Ancient Prayer and Worship in Cultural Perspective and the Gospel of John in the New Cambridge Bible Commentary .