18
seems to come from locals, including former friends and family who cannot fathom their
rejection of pagan practice (1 Pet. 4:3-4).
52
Jude and 2 Peter have defied the best scholarly attempts to identify the teachings
they oppose. Jude clearly stresses that "tolerance has its limits,"
53
a salutary reminder in
an age of rampant pluralism, but few additional clues concerning the false teaching
emerge. We learn more from both letters about the false teachers' immorality than about
their ideology. The two most recent detailed analyses of the opposition behind 2 Peter,
by Jerome Neyrey and Daryl Charles, have made plausible cases for Epicureans and
Stoics, respectively, as being in view.
54
That these philosophies diametrically opposed
each other on numerous points simply highlights how little we actually can conclude on
this topic!
The epistles of John can be somewhat more precisely assigned, probably to the
90s, addressing various house churches in and around Ephesus. Colin Kruse's recent
commentary plausibly suggests that we should see a combination of elements, including
emerging Gnosticism, docetism and Cerinthianism (themselves considerably
overlapping), as defining the false teaching combated in these letters.
55
Key doctrinal
tenets opposed would then include perfectionism, antinomianism and an inadequate
Christology.
The Book of Revelation
As we come to the end of the New Testament, canonically and chronologically,
we encounter the most serious Roman persecution to date--Domitian's short-lived but
51
See esp. William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8 (Dallas: Word, 1991), li-lxvi.
52
See, e.g., Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 7-10
53
D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo, and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1992), 463.
54
Jerome H. Neyrey, 2 Peter, Jude (New York: Doubleday, 1993); J. Daryl Charles, Virtue amidst Vice
(Sheffield: SAP, 1997).