The General Epistles and Revelation
Representative of the more irenic end of the spectrum are the “general” or
“catholic” epistles of James, Peter, Jude, and Hebrews. Although Acts and
Galatians remember James as an advocate of ritual Torah observance, the
pseudonymous epistle that bears his name deals only with the ethical
teachings of the Torah. It is a fine specimen of Hellenistic Jewish wisdom
literature, addressed to “the twelve tribes of the Diaspora” (Jas. 1:1), a des-
ignation that ostensibly suggests Jewish believers. The body of the letter
consists of a series of short aphorisms and admonitions followed by a se-
quence of mini essays that pick up and elaborate on the key themes of the
sayings. The work contains no Christology to speak of — and in fact men-
tions Jesus only twice — but it does contain echoes of Jesus’ teachings. It
understands the “royal law” or “law of liberty” (1:24; 2:8, 12) not as a body
of instruction distinct from the Torah but as the Torah’s command to love
the neighbor, now ratified, at least by implication, in the teaching and ex-
ample of Jesus. All of this is stated with absolutely no polemics against
Jews or non-Christian Judaism.
The epistles attributed to Peter and Jude also arrogate Jewish tradition
to themselves without indulging in anti-Jewish invective. The latter is at-
tributed to “Jude a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James” (Jude 1)
and addressed to believers whose location is not specified, though if the at-
tribution is genuine a Palestinian provenance would be likely. As with
James, the authorial attribution to a brother of Jesus is regarded by many
scholars as pseudonymous. The body of this short document condemns
false teachers, evoking various figures and groups in the Jewish Scriptures
as examples of wickedness that merited divine punishment. Among its ac-
cusations is that the ungodly teachers “slander the glorious ones” (v. 8), a
charge that occasions mention of an extrabiblical tradition about the angel
Michael disputing with Satan over the body of Moses (v. 9 ). It also quotes
1 Enochas Scripture (vv. 14-15;1 Enoch1:9).
Most of Jude was taken up into 2 Peter, a letter almost universally re-
garded as a pseudonymous writing of the early second century. Like Jude,
2 Peter shows no concern with Jews or Judaism as it co-opts Jewish tradi-
tion. So also with 1 Peter, a circular letter from Rome (called “Babylon,”
5:13) sent to Gentile believers in Asia Minor who are addressed as “exiles in
the Diaspora” (1:1). Composed by a Roman Christian in the late first cen-
tury, it is a letter of moral exhortation designed to bolster its audience in
the face of slander and ostracism from their pagan neighbors. One of its406daniel c. harlowEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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