II. Author

The writer of 2 Peter identifies himself as Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ (1:1). That this is a reference to the apostle Peter of the Gospels finds confirmation when the writer claims to have been an eyewitness to the transfiguration of Jesus (1:16-18). In addition, the writer alludes to a previous letter to his readers, most probably 1 Peter.

Scripture scholars, however, have raised serious questions about the Petrine authorship of 2 Peter. Indeed, a comparison of the differing contents of 1 and 2 Peter, the differing occasion each letter seems to presuppose, and certain indications of the time period in which each letter was written have caused most modern scholars to deny Petrine authorship. It should be observed, however, that the evidence by no means precludes its possibility. Some scholars have suggested that, at the least, there is an indirect connection between our epistle and the apostle Peter so that the teachings and memoirs of the great apostle were taken up by a follower and fashioned into a second letter in order to deal with a situation of crisis within these early Christian communities.