In Stibbs and Walls commentary on I Peter they cite the finding by P. Carrington in which he highlights the parallels in the writings of three major New Testament leaders: Peter, James, and Paul. Specifically, he notes three passages in which it appears they have either borrowed from one another or, more probably, are all drawing on a common source. Here are those three passages so that you can compare them for yourself:
“In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials so that the genuineness of your faith...is tested by fire and may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (I Peter 1:6-7)
“...we boast in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5)
“...whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because know that the testing of your faith produces endurance....” (James 1:2-3)
All three passages begin with joy or boasting, describe the sufferings and trials that believers must undergo and then proceed to point out the good results from such testing, which include praise, glory, honor, the giving of the Holy Spirit, and/or endurance. And although the parallels between the three passages are not nearly as close as Carrington proposes, there is enough similarity to ask what the common source behind them might be.
Direct Borrowing Between NT Authors
Stibbs and Walls are probably correct in discounting the possibility of some sort of borrowing between Paul, James and Peter. And others agree with this assessment.
L.T. Johnson compares the three passages and says that the resemblance between them “is more apparent than real” since in each of these cases “the logic of the passage moves in another direction. In short, James' voice in these verses cannot without loss be reduced to the common chorus of Greco-Roman philosophy or Christian paraentic [i.e. teaching] tradition.”
Davids says, “While 1 Peter has phrases and ideas common with Paul, there is no convincing evidence that the author had read any of Paul's letters...” In comparing the three passages in question, he recognizes one or two themes in common but says that “there the similarities end.” Each has modified a common traditional form “to bring out his own emphases.”
Goppelt similarly rejects any such direct influence these three authors may have had on each other. He concludes instead “that one must assume a common primitive Christian tradition is behind them.”
The remaining categories reflect guesses as to the identity of that common tradition.
Pre-baptismal Catechism
Carrington's conclusion is that in fact all three passages come from an early catechism, or set form of instruction, used to prepare candidates for baptism. And he goes on to reconstruct the contents of that catechism, consisting of (a) rejection of their former pagan ways, (b) a call to Christian humility, (c) a call to watch and pray, and (d) a command to stand firm against the wiles of the devil.
And, personally, I would extend the James quote through verse 5 so that the following can be added: “and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.” This not only extends the blessings one receives, but also makes an allusion to God as the giver of good gifts to His people, such as the gift of the Holy Spirit mentioned in Romans 5:5.
There are a couple of problems with this proposal.
1. I think that many of us would be hard pressed to see any of those elements in the three passages above. McKnight compares and contrasts the teachings in the three and notes among the latter the fact that “James does not delve into eschatology: the focus is on discipleship as character and moral formation.”
2. In the conversion stories recorded in the Book of Acts, we see virtually none of the above components of teaching given before baptism.
3. The first recognized Christian catechism is the Didache, which dates to around 60-85 AD. It contains none of the elements Carrington lists and concentrates instead on practical moral issues. It does mention baptism in Didache 7, but only to note that the one being baptized and the one doing the baptism should fast for a day or two beforehand. There is no word concerning any sort of necessary teaching in that context.
Selwyn goes even a step further in proposing one or more “persecuting documents” as the original source of the teachings above and even names Silvanus as their author since Silvanus plays a part in other epistles by Paul as well as in the composition of I Peter. Selwyn also isolates two separate forms of the hypothetical baptismal catechism. The cautious criticism of Stibbs and Walls states, “Whether Dean Selwyn's painstaking analysis will bear the weight of this enormous structure remains to be seen.”
4. There is a final problem with the catechism hypothesis. Such requirements for candidates for baptism only became a fixture of the later church, beginning in the 2nd century AD whereas I Corinthians, James, and I Peter are usually dated to 51-70 AD except among some liberal scholars who are doubtful that we know who the real authors were.
Common Personal Experience
Perhaps the real reason behind the similarities in these passages, such as they are, lies in the fact that the early Christians were indeed persecuted, whether they lived in Jerusalem or in the further Roman world. For example, concerning Romans 5:3-4, Fitzmyer feels that Paul is drawing on his own experiences of suffering. And John Murray adds, “He was aware of the tribulations which encompassed his own life as well as the life of other believers and the exultant joy evoked by hope could not discount the realism of the distresses and afflictions in which the pilgrimage to the attainment of that hope was cast.”
The Teachings of Jesus
Davids notes that all three passages use “a traditional form, a chain-saying...Each has applied a common tradition in different way, and the tradition itself is likely based on Jesus' beatitudes (Matt. 5:11-12)...the specific joy-in-suffering form of this tradition that we encounter here is specifically Christian and thus most likely to stem from Jesus.”
Kistemaker also states that in 1:2 “James repeats the thought Jesus expresses in the last beatitude” as well as passages such as Matthew 10:22; 24:13 which stand behind James 1:4.
Other New Testament Teachings
McKnight notes the connections between the three passages listed above and connects them to early Christian tradition as found in Acts 5:41 and II Corinthians 8:1-9.
Intertestamental Jewish Literature
Kasemann locates the source of the three passages in question as a development of Testament of Joseph 10:1, generally dated to the 2nd century AD and feels that its origin may have come from the days of the Maccabean persecution.
On the other hand, Fitzmyer cites the apocryphal book Psalms of Solomon 3:4 as the source of the Romans passage and says that Paul was “modifying slightly his Jewish heritage, for the upright Jew also sensed the value of sufferings.”
Yet two more Jewish works produced between the time of the Old and New Testament writings are felt by Davids to stand behind the passage in I Peter, namely Wisdom of Solomon 3:5-6 and Sirach 2:1-5.
Old Testament Writings
Going even further back in time, L.T. Johnson claims that all three passages are “grounded in the symbolic world of Torah shared by every form of Judaism including the nascent movement rooted in the faith of Jesus Christ.”
My personal feeling is that any or all of the last five options are more likely that the postulate of a hypothetical catechism to be taught or recited before a candidate in the primitive church could be baptized.
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