“As they do the rest of the Scriptures”

2 Peter 3:16

Cultural referenceSettledPeter

Some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:16 BSB)

* Peter groups Paul's letters with 'the rest of the Scriptures', an early and remarkable sign that Paul's writings were already being read as inspired Scripture alongside the Old Testament.

What it sounds like today

A passing remark that Paul can be confusing.

The cultural key

In a single sentence Peter does two striking things. He candidly admits that Paul's letters contain things 'hard to understand', an honesty rarely noticed. And he places those letters in the same category as 'the rest of the Scriptures' (graphe), the word otherwise reserved for the Old Testament. This is among the earliest internal evidence that the church was already treating apostolic writings as inspired Scripture, on the level of the Hebrew Bible, within the first Christian generation. He also warns that difficult texts get 'distorted', twisted, by the ignorant to their own ruin.

Recovered meaning

Peter quietly ranks Paul's letters with Scripture itself, an early glimpse of the New Testament recognizing its own authority. And he warns that hard passages are dangerous mostly when handled by those eager to twist them.

Parallels: 2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Timothy 5:18