The Harmony Chronicle and Order of the New Testament, Part 2 · 1 Peter – Jude
THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER,
yet observing the Chronicall hint of some passages in it, this year may as fairly lay claim thereunto, as any other year that can be asserted. For, to omit that clause Chap. 4.7. The end of all things is at hand [referring to the desolating of the Jewish Commonwealth and Nation] the mention of the fiery triall, ver. 12. and the time now come when Iudgement must begin at the house of God, ver. 17. is but as a comment and accomplishment of that prediction before alledged, Then s…all they deliver up to be afflicted, &c. It is true indeed, that the Church had never wanted persecution since the Gospel arose, and some for its sake had suffered death, as Steven and some at that time, the two Iameses, and some at the time of both their deaths; but in the Countries out of Iudaea, where the stroke of their Sanhedrin could not reach so well, nor light so heavy, there was tumultuousnesse indeed enough, and beating and bitternesse against it, but rare effusion of blood, till the cursed example set last year by the Tyrant at Rome, and now forward in the confusions of the Jewish Nation; when a madnesse was come upon them among themselves, and a desperate fury against all that would not be as they were. And that noc only in Iudea the seat of the Warre, but even through the whole world as farre as they durst, and were able to stirre. Those words of Dion are very remarkable, when speaking of the siege of Ierusalem by Titus, he saith, That the Iews that were in forraign Countries, not onelyonly within the Roman Empire, but also without, did send help to their brethren in Iudaea. lib. 66.
When Cyrus gave leave to the Jews after the 70 years captivity to return to their own Country, multitudes of them found themselves so pleasingly seated, and by continuance of time rooted in Babylonia, that they would not remove the…r habitation, but fixed there. There, in time they grew to so great a Nation, and distinct a people, that they had foreign A Prince of the Captivity or their own blood over them, and three famous Universities, Nehardea, Pombeditha and Soria, which yielded very many eminent Scholars in the Judaick Language.
In the division of the imployment of the three Ministers of the Circumcision, Peter, Iames and Iohn, Peter's lot sell here, and from Babylon it self the very Center of those parts he sends this Epistle. He directs it to the dispersed Jews in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, in which parts the Apostacy from the faith had been exceeding prevalent, and accordingly the trouble of those that stuck to the faith, the most bitter. And in his inscribing it to the Elect, he seemeth to have his eye upon those words of his Master about this Apostasie, Mat. 24.24. They shall deceive, if it were possible, the very Elect.
Among the many divine lessons that he reades to them, he teaches them and us who is the Rock upon which the Church is built, Chap. 2.4, &c. and how accordingly to understand super hanc Petram, Mat. 16. He exhorts them with all earnestnesse to yield obedience to superiour powers, Chap. 2.13, 14. and that the rather because of that spirit of the Zelotae, that walking among the Nation in all parts, urged them not to submit to any Heathen power.
He magnifieth Baptism as a badge and pledge of preservation of those that had received it, and stuck to it, from that vengeance that was coming upon that wicked Nation, Chap. 3.21. It is something a strange recoyling that he makes, leaping back from mention of the death of Christ, ver. 18. over all the story of the Old Testament, and lighteth on the generation that was swept away by the flood: and sheweth how Christs spirit preached unto them. Why? had not the same spirit preached in all the times between? Why are not those times named then as well as these? Because the Apostle doth purposely intend to compare that old world then destroyed, with the destruction of the Jewish Nation shortly coming: and to shew that as Noah and his family were then saved by water, ver. 20. so, foreign, they that had received Baptism were the Antitype to that, and Baptism was a pledge and means of their deliverance now, they sticking closely to it. And this very thing Iohn Baptist taught in that question, Who hath forewarned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore when he cals foreign. An asking of a good Conscience towards or after God, he makes not this its definition, as if none but those so qualified were to be baptized, but he characters its difference from Circumcision, which put away the filth of the flesh in one sense; and Legall and Pharisaicall washings, which did it in another. His whole comparison runnes to this tenour: The old world was disobedient to the spirit of Christ preaching in the mouth of Noah, and therefore they perished. The Jews [whose state the Scripture also calleth an old world] were disobedient to Christ preaching by his Spirit in the mouth of his Apostles, and even visibly and audibly in his own person, therefore they must needs perish: But Noah and his family that hearkeneth after God [whilest others said to the Lord Depart from us, Job 22.16, 17.] were preserved by water: Even so doth Baptism now preserve us, the Antitype of that figure. For Baptism was not barely a washing of the body from filth, as the common Legall washings were, but it was an owning and asking after God, conscienciously, out from a perverse and wicked generation: and therefore not to be started or revolted from. This then being one end of Baptism, and that end taught to them that assumed it, viz. to badge and mark to safety from the approaching vengeance, it may very well raise an argument for Infants Baptism [whereas this text is commonly produced against it:] for if these parents that came in to be baptized, sought hereby to flee from the wrath to come, they would be carefull to bring their children under the same badge of security.
When he judgeth those that perished in the waters of Noah to be now in prison, ver. 19. he knew he had the consent of his Nation in it: for thus they say in Sanhedr. per. 10. halac. 3. The generation of the flood have no portion in the world to come: neither shall they stand up in Iudgement; for it is said, My spirit shall no more judge with man, Gen. 6.3. Peter teacheth us that the Spirit that strove with the old world, was the Spirit of Messias.
He sends this Epistle by Sylvanus, Pauls old attendant, but now with Peter: He stiles him, A faithfull brother to you, as I suppose: not as doubting but assured. He was to bring this Epistle to the Circumcision, who himself had been a Minister of the uncircumcision: therefore this attestation is the more needfull and material, foreign, I repute him a faithfull brother to you of the Circumcision, and do you also so repute him.
His naming of Mark with him, cals our thoughts back to what hath been mentioned of Mark heretofore: his being with Paul at Rome, and his coming from him into the East. To suppose two Marks, one with Peter and another with Paul, is to breed confusion where there needeth not, and to conceive that for which the Scripture hath not only no ground, but is plain enough to the contrary: It is easily seen how Iohn Mark came into familiarity both with Paul and Peter, and other Mark we can finde none in the New Testament, unless of our own invention: His being in these later times with Peter and Paul, may turn our thoughts to consider how his Uncle Barnabas and he parted, since Paul and Barnabas parted about him. He it was that wrote the Gospel, it may be being with Petor, as Luke did the like being with Paul. In his Gospel he is most exact of all the four in observing the proper time and series of the stories recorded.
CHRIST. LXVI NERO. XII foreign. The warres of the Iews began in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero, in the monethmonth of May. Joseph. de Bell. lib. 2. cap. 25.
If we take a view of the Nation, as it was at the present, and as it had been for thirty or fourty years backward, we shall finde that besides the ordinary and common wickednesse that was among them, they had these four additions of iniquity monstrous and unparalleled, and in which they did, as it were, exceed themselves. 1. In regard that the appearance of the Messias was expected to be about the time that Christ appeared indeed, very many taking advantage of the time and of that expectation, took upon them, some to be Christ, others to be Prophets attending, and relating to his coming, Matth. 24.24. Upon which Iosephus and other Writers of that Nation will give us a very full commentary of experiences. 2. There were multitudes of the Zelotae, and of the sect of Iudas the Galilean, which would not yield any homage or subjection to be due to the Roman power which was now over them: and neither would they now themselves, nor would they suffer others, as farre as they could hinder, to submit unto them. 3. The unbeleeving Jews were generally sworn enemies and persecutors of those that beleeved. And 4. which we have observed before, multitudes of those that had beleeved and imbraced the Gospel fell away, and became either seduced or the greatest seducers, and brought in horrid heresies and pollutions. So that in these various and malignant distempers of men, there had been continuall confusions, tumults, firings, murderings and plunderings among them for many years, and they had been the unquietest and most tumultuous Nation that had been under heaven, and they had often provoked the Roman power against themselves, yet till this year had they never so visibly and professedly taken up Arms and open Warre against that power.
The first spark kindled in Caesarea upon the sea, about an incroachment that a Gentile there made upon the way that went to the Jews Synagogue; and from thence it grew into a flame so fast through the whole Country [Florus the Governour helping it on] that by the 16th day of May, his souldiers by his Commission have plundered Ierusalem, slain 3600 persons: and even Berenice sister to King Agrippa escaped very narrowly with her life.
The Jews and Romans have divers skirmishes: Massada Castle taken and the Roman Garrison put to the sword. The Temple and severall parts of the Cities made Garrisons for severall parties, and suffer much by fire and battery. Twenty thousand Jews slain in Caesarea on a Sabbath: whereupon all the Nation rise all about to avenge this slaughter, and in Syria, Phaenicia, Samaria, Peraea and all round about, destroy Towns, Cities and persons all before them. Cestius the Governour of Syria rises with his forces, and destroys the Jews again, and their Towns all before him, and on the 30th of October enters Ierusalem and fires a good part of the City.
Yet do the Jews give him a brush upon his march away, and cut off above 4000 of his men: with which successe they are so fleshed, that they resolve to fight it out, and accordingly platform themselves into the modell and posture of a long Warre: and the Country is only full of Fire, Sword, Warre and destruction.
The abomination of desolation had now begun to stand in the holy place, Matth. 24.15. when the Temple is made a Garrison, and filled with slaughter; Antonia, the Castle of the Temple, besieged, taken, and the Roman Garrison put to the sword. The foreign Tabernae, or part of the buildings at the East wall of the mountain of the House [the place where the Sanhedrin had once sitten,] fired and burnt down. Ierus. in Peah. fol. 16. col. 3. And in a word, the Temple from this time forward, never but a Garrison, and full of slaughter and confusion till it be raked up in ashes.
Now it was time for those that were in Iudaea, who beleeved Christs prediction, to get into the mountains, and to shift for themselves, for now begins the tribulation beyond parallel, such as was not since the beginning of the world, nor ever must again, Matth. 24.21. It is commonly asserted that the Christians fled to Pella a City beyond Iordan: Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 3. cap. 5. which how to reconcile with Iosephus, who saith Pella was one of the Cities that the Jews destroyed in avengement of the slaughter of the 20000 in Caesarea, De Bell. lib. 2. cap. 33. let the Learned finde.
About these times therefore we may well conceive to have been the writing of
THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER:
And that the rather from what he speaks in Chap 1. v. 14. I know that I must shortly put off this tabernacle, as our Lord Iesus Christ hath shewed me. In which words, his thoughts reflect upon what Christ had spoken to Iohn and him about their ends, Iohn 21. where he not only gave intimation to Peter that he should be Martyred, ver. 18. but that he should be so, before his coming in Judgement against Ierusalem, which Iohn must live to see, but he must not, ver. 22. He therefore in Babylon, understanding how affairs went in Iudaea and with the Jewish Nation all thereabout, and reading therein, from the words of his Master, Matth. 24. that the desolation was drawing on apace, concludes that his time was not long: and therefore improves the time he hath remaining the best he can, not only in teaching those amongst whom he was, but by writing this Epistle instructeth those that were remote and at distance from him; in which he doth more especially give them caution against false teachers: and characters the terrour of the judgement coming, and exhorts to vigilancy and holinesse.
The first character that he gives of the false teachers is, that they bring in damnable Heresies, denying the Lord that bought them, Chap. 2.1. which he speaketh from Deut. 32. from whence also he useth other expressions, ver. 6. Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee? not meaning that these wretches were redeemed by Christ, yet became such wretches, as some would interpret it; but by buying is meant his buying out of Egypt this people for a peculiar people: which these wretches boasted and stood upon, yet by their introducing and practising the prophane principles they did, of fornication and communicating with Idols, they denied the true God which bought that people for his peculiar. He cals them spots, ver. 13. from Deut. 32.5. and parallels them with the old world, Sodom, Balaam, nay the very fallen Angels.
He sets forth the destruction of that cursed Nation and their City in those terms that Christ had done, Matth. 24. and that the Scripture doth elsewhere, Deut. 32.22, 23, 24. Ier. 4.23. namely as the destruction of the whole world, The heavens passing away, the elements melting, and the earth burnt up, &c. And accordingly he speaks of a new heaven and a new earth, from Isa. 65.17. a new state of the Church under the Gospel among the Gentiles, when this old world of the Jews state should be dissolved.
He citeth Pauls Epistle to the Hebrews, and giveth an honourable testimony to that, and to the rest of his Epistles: but acknowledgeth that in some places they are hard to be understood, and were misconstrued by some unlearned and unstable ones to their own ruine; yet neither doth he, nor Paul who was yet alive, and well knew of this wresting of his Epistles, clear or amend those difficulties, but let them alone as they were: for the holy Ghost hath so penned Scripture as to set men to study.
And here is the last that we hear in Scripture of this great Apostle Peter. His Martyrdom he apprehends to be near, and it was to be before Ierusalem was destroyed, which was not now full four years to come. We may well conceive him to have been put to death by the Jews in Babylonia where he now was: a madnesse having come upon that Nation in all parts: and a singular raging against the Gospel, the devil bestirring himself in them, now he knew their time was so short.
THE EPISTLE OF IVDE.
As the second Epistle of Peter and this of Iude are very near akin, in style, matter and subject, so it is fairly conjecturable in them that they were not farre removed in time, speaking both of wicked ones and wickednesse at the same height and ripenesse. They are one to another as the Prophesie of Obadiah, and Ierem. 49.14, &c. speaking the same thing, using the same manner of arguing, and oftentimes almost the same words. It may be Iude stands up in his brother Iames his charge among the Circumcision of Iudaea, and directs his Epistle to all those that were sanctified and preserved in those Apostatizing times, as his brother had done to all the twelve Tribes in generall.
In citing the story of Michael the Archangel contending with the devil about the body of Moses, ver. 9. he doth but the same that Paul doth in naming Iannes and Iambres, namely alledge a story which was current and owned among the Nation, though there were no such thing in Scripture; and so he argueth with them from their own Authors and concessions. It is harsh to strain Zech. 3.1, 2. to speak such a story; when neither the name Michael is mentioned, nor any thing like the body of Moses or akin to it. But among the Talmudicks there seems to be something like the relicks of such a matter, viz. of Michael and the Angel of death disputing or discoursing about fetching away the soul of Moses.
His alledging the Prophesie of Enoch, is an arguing of the very like nature, as citing and referring to some known and common tradition that they had among them to this purpose. [The Book Sepher Iesher an Hebrew Writer speaketh of Enoch after such a tenour.] And in both these he useth their own testimonies against themselves: as if he should thus have spoken at large: These men speak evil of dignities, whereas they have and own a story for current, that even Michael the Archangel did not speak evil of the devil, when he was striving with him about the body of Moses, &c. And whereas they shew and own a Prophesie of Enoch, of God coming in judgement, &c. why these are the very men to whom such a matter is to be applied, &c. It is no strange thing in the New Testament, for Christ and the Apostles to deal and argue with the Jews upon their own concessions.