VILIFICATION IN 2 PETER 2: A COMPARISON WITH THE LETTER OF JUDE

Abstract

The relationship between the content of 2 Peter 2 and the Letter of Jude is widely discussed among scholars, although a particular dependency has not been proven conclusively. In a recent article it was demonstrated that Jude used female sexual depravity as vilification to effeminate his opponents in order to maintain authority over the Christians in his community. The aim of this article is to compare the depiction of the opponents in 2 Peter 2 with the vilification technique used by Jude to ridicule his opponents, thus influencing the author’s audience to dissociate themselves from these adversaries. The question is whether the writer of 2 Peter 2 maintained the same austerity towards his opponents as Jude did. Moreover, this article seeks to address the question of whether the vilification technique applied in 2 Peter 2 could be an indication of the way the author and his community viewed women and, by extension, their sexuality. A logical outcome of the article is to provide commentary on the relatedness between 2 Peter 2 and the Letter of Jude, as well as discussing the moral traditions underlying 2 Peter 2.