Within the Catholic Epistle (CE) corpus, the letters entitled 1 and 2 Peter are a veritable hornet’s nest of critical issues generating never-ending debate over historical concerns. Whether focused on issues of pseudonymity, dating, or the dependency of 2 Peter and Jude, the theological import of these writings has received paltry regard in NT biblical and theological studies. It has even been suggested that 2 Peter and Jude offer nothing of added theological value to NT theology, and too few scholars are willing to engage 1 Peter and 2 Peter in association due to historical-critical hurdles. Thus, within modern scholarship, these texts have been valued for their particularity, forfeiting any notion of theological unity or purpose.
However, the writings of “Peter” and “Jude” indeed function together theologically as members of the historically received CE sub-collection. Rather than disparate or incongruent texts, 1–2 Peter and Jude are uniquely situated conversation partners, displaying a substantial “collection consciousness” within the CE sub-collection. By adopting a canonical approach to the corpus, this paper seeks to stimulate a reading of 1–2 Peter and Jude as intentional and theologically coherent conversation partners, united within the CE subcollection and indispensable for a comprehensive NT theology. It will be argued that a canonical reading of 1–2 Peter and Jude collectively and connected symbiotically within the subcollection of the CE is profitable—and perhaps even necessary—for biblical-theological interpretation within their corpus and the CE sub-collection in the larger framework of the NT.
To advance this reading, this study will demonstrate the hermeneutical impact that a literary canonical approach makes on hearing these letters in biblical-theological textual dialogue. First, a brief introduction will be offered on the relevance of collections and sub-collections for theological interpretation. Second, it will be observed that the shared collection context, eschatological focus, and inter- and intra-textual connections presented in the content of these letters—while discernable in their own right—are mutually interpretive; together, they are supported, filled out, and clarified. Read in this way, the complex dialogue partners of 1–2 Peter and Jude enlarge and deepen the theological message of the CE collection.