II Peter – “Pondering Order”

One of the reasons I chose to study II Peter was to ponder its similarity to Jude. There was no question in my mind that Jude is chiastically ordered. II Peter 2 in particular is obviously very similar to Jude, such that people have pondered for years whether Peter is copying Jude or Jude Peter or if perhaps both are referencing some other document. Regardless, the similarities are undeniable. After observing the very clear chiasm in Jude, the thought occurred to me that maybe II Peter is also chiastically ordered and that the two chiasms were deliberately related—perhaps one the mirror image of the other, like the top and bottom v’s of an X.

(For whatever it’s worth, once again, I want to assert that such investigations are not mere academic exercises. The text we’re considering is the Words of the living God. If there is order present, it is deliberate – and since it’s His Word, it’s Him being deliberate. He’s using order to provide emphasis, to communicate His truth in some way. Now, since His truth is logically fractal, one does not have to discern that order to “understand” Him. As anyone would read or study the Word, every little nugget we grasp, every individual piece of the fractal pattern we see is divine truth and when we know the truth, the truth sets us free. But, to understand more is to know Him better … and that is my goal. It’s not a matter of knowing Him at all. It’s a matter of knowing Him better. If the order is there, it is His order, it is deliberate, and to understand it is to understand Him a little better, to think just a little more like Him, to see the world just a little more through His eyes. So, just in case anyone is wondering, I don’t think it is at all a frivolous academic exercise to ponder the order of Scriptural text. I intend it to be intensely practical).

So, is there an order to the book of II Peter?  And is that order somehow tied to Jude?

I don’t know. I think there is order in the book itself, although I don’t see it yet. But I “smell” it. There is considerable repetition of terms within the book. I noted about 25 Greek words that get repeated in ways that look suspiciously like ordered terms.

In particular, there are two phrases that get repeated, one word for word, and the other very closely. In 1:20 and then again in 3:3, the Greek words identically say, “…knowing this first, that ...”. In the NIV, 1:20 is translated, “Above all you must understand that …” and 3:3 gets translated, “First of all, you must understand that …” The two phrases are obviously similar in English, but they are identical in Greek. Their position on either side of chapter 2 looks suspiciously ordered and deliberate.

The other repeated phrase has to do with “stirring you up to remember” and is in 1:13 and 3:1. Interestingly, in Jude 5 and 17, there is also reference to “remembering” and there the two references serve clearly as level D in the chiasm(!). In 1:13, the phrase is “διεγειρειν ύμας εν ύπομνησει” while in 3:1 it is “διεγειρω ύμων εν ύπομνησει”.

Then another very interesting repetition is the word and concept of “coming.” In 1:16, Peter asserts, “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ …” Then specifically what the scoffers challenge in 3:4 is His coming: “They will say, ‘Where is this coming He promised?’” Of course chapter 3 centers entirely around the fact of verse 10, “The Day of the Lord will come …” (although “coming” is a different Greek word there).

Other interesting repetitions include the word “promise” (1:4,2:19,3:4,9,13), “diligence” (1:5,10,15;3:12,14), “destruction” (2:1a,1b,3; 3:6,7,16), and words for “remembering/forgetting” (1:9,12,13,15;3:1,2,5,8).

Then, interestingly, the list of virtues in 1:5-7 contains exactly seven virtues.

I strongly suspect that chapter 2 does somehow correspond to the chiasm in Jude while chapters 1 and 3 serve as some kind of (perhaps) chiastic border around it.

I still don’t see anything for sure but I do see a lot of indications that the order is there. So I’ll keep staring at it for just a bit longer before I close up my file and head off to another delicious study.