Common Apostle’s Jargon or did Peter plagiarized Jude/Jude < Peter?

Introduction

It is not a given that all scholars argued for plagiarized conditions between Jude and 2 Peter. Davidson did and also others but Hengstenberg and Heydenreich did not. Hengstenberg felt that it was common apostle jargon that they were tapping into. Common written sources. Davidson did not like the idea of written sources. He thought it was just oral. Thus plagiarizing one from the other is his view. Hengstenberg and Heydenreich has more for us Adventists than the critical analysts.

In 1894 Samuel Davidson listed some comparisons between Jude and 2 Peter.

Jude:            Defile the flesh (8).

Jude:            Speak evil of dignities (8).

Jude:            In those things they corrupt themselves (10).

2 Peter:         Walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness (2:10)

2 Peter:         Are not afraid to speak evil of dignities (2:10).

2 Peter:         Shall utterly perish ἐπ their own corruption (2:12).

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Jude:            For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ (4).

Jude:             He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness (6).

2 Peter:         But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

2 Peter:         And many shall follow their pernicious ways (lasciviousnesses), &c. ὅσ. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you; whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not (2:1-3).

2 Peter:         Having cast them down to hell, delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment (2:4).

Thus: Judgment not yet

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Jude:             Are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire (7).

2 Peter:         Reducing to ashes condemned them with an overthrow making them an example unto these that after should live ungodly (2:6).

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Jude:   Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core (11).

Jude:   Their mouth speaketh great swelling words (16).

Jude:   But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts (17, 18).

2 Peter:         Following the way of Balaam of Bozor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness (2:15).

2 Peter:         When they speak great swelling words of vanity (2:13).

2 Peter:         This second epistle, beloved. …that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us the apostles,…knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts (2:1-3).

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Jude:             feeding themselves without fear; clouds they are without water, carried about of winds .... wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever (12, 13).

2 Peter:         and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you... . wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever (2:13, 17).

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sea-rocks (Jude 12)                       >        spots in 2 Peter 2:13

Love-feasts or agapae in Jude (12) >        deceits [meaning not sure?] in 2 Peter 2:13

Clouds without water in Jude (12)  >        wells without water 2 Peter 2:17

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Jude 6 compared to 2 Peter 2:4

Jude 9 compared to 2 Peter 2:11

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Samuel Davidson in 1894 explains it as follows:

“there was a dispute between angels and fallen spirits: ‘angels who are greater (than these self-willed blasphemers) in power and might, do not bring against them (angelic dignities) a railing accusation.’ Jude, on the other hand, has a definite statement. We learn from him, that the dispute was between Michael and the devil about the body of Moses. Hence angels in Peter means good angels, Satan being included among angelic dignities. The plural number is employed to express in a more general way what Jude gives clearly in the singular.”

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Some Notes on what we have so far

I think that if scholars do not work with the Rebellion in Heaven understanding, they will have a hard time to understand these passages in Jude and 2 Peter.

Jude 6 with 2 Peter 2:4.

According to Samuel Davidson, one writer plagiarized the other, Jude < 2 Peter or 2 Peter < Jude. [Arguments of Samuel Davidson 1894]

Not necessary, says Heydenreich and Hengstenberg for Jude 17, 18 and 2 Peter 2: 8 says it was spoken of by the apostles before.

Davidson argues that it was spoken but not necessarily written. A feeble argument of Davidson really.

Hengstenberg listed the passages: Acts 20:29; and 1 Tim. 4:1 and 2 Tim. 2:1 and 2 Thess. 2:3. Hengestenberg definitely has a point here. It was common jargon going around. Right?

Jude: But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers

in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.’

2 Peter 2: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts,

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Heretic treatments by Jude and 2 Peter compared

---While Jude does no more than hint at their misleading influence (16, 19), it appears strongly in Peter (2:3, 4,18).

---Samuel Davidson 1894 says Jude: No definite object is assigned to the mockers of the last time in Jude;

---2 Peter: the second advent is the thing they scoff at.

---Jude: The former represents the errorists as denying God and Christ (4);

---2 Peter: the latter concentrates that denial on the power of the Redeemer Christ (2:1).

---Jude: The former presents them as agitators and deceivers;

---2 Peter: the latter as false teachers (2:1).