Next up is not Paul but the author of I Peter. For rhetorical simplicity we're going to call him Peter, with the understanding that only inerrantists still think he was Jesus' chief disciple and the man known to Paul as Cephas. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, it was probably written in the early second century. And in it, we find:
I Peter 3:9
Do not repay evil with evil, or
insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that
you may inherit a blessing. [NIV]
As Doherty remarks:
The epistle writer gives us not even an "as Jesus himself taught us." It is not to be expected that every writer would provide such a phrase on every occasion, but a reference to an earthly Jesus and his words would seem natural in such a context, both to strengthen the authority of the action being urged by the writer, and to honor Jesus as the source.
And this is the problem with these silences. An occasional unattributed quotation could be dismissed easily enough for any number of reasons, but this kind of consistent omission is another matter.
According to Ted, this particular Christian author should be let off the hook:
In 1 Peter, there are at least 15 quotations of old testament books, and only twice is it even indicated that they are from another source. In those 2 occasions the author simply writes "it is written", without any further identification. Shouldn't a reference to these sources also seem natural . . . ?
It would not have been surprising, but neither is the omission. In certain modern contexts, a writer will not be faulted if he uses a phrase like "to thine own self be true" without crediting Shakespeare. Likewise, within some segments of the early Christian community, a writer could take it for granted that his readers would recognize allusions to the Jewish scriptures.
Could he not also take it for granted that they would
recognize allusions to the words of Jesus? No, not if the documents recording
them were not yet in general circulation, or if there was still some question as
to which of those documents were trustworthy. There was no Christian canon yet.
If Peter had felt certain that Jesus of Nazareth did say something like "Turn
the other cheek," then we may reasonably suppose that he would have made a point
of saying that the instruction originated with Jesus.
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This page last updated on August 4, 2010.