Texts in Conversation
2 Peter retells the story of Lot to warn against immoral behavior, showing him troubled by the evil around him. The epistle keeps the story simple and avoids the extra details found in other interpretations, though it shares some of the same ideas that also appear in the Wisdom of Solomon.
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Wisdom of Solomon 10:6
Deuterocanon
5 Wisdom also, when the nations in wicked agreement had been put to confusion, recognized the righteous man and preserved him blameless before God, and kept him strong in the face of his compassion for his child. 6 Wisdom rescued a righteous man when the ungodly were perishing; he escaped the fire that descended on the Five Cities. 7 Evidence of their wickedness still remains: a continually smoking wasteland, plants bearing fruit that does not ripen, and a pillar of salt standing as a monument to an unbelieving soul. 8 For because they passed wisdom by, they not only were hindered from recognizing the good, but also left for humankind a reminder of their folly, so that their failures could never go unnoticed. 9 Wisdom rescued from troubles those who served her.
Date: 100-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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2 Peter 2:7
New Testament
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into Tartarus16 and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment, 5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, but did protect Noah, a herald of righteousness, along with seven others, when God brought a flood on an ungodly world, 6 and if he turned to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when he condemned them to destruction, having appointed them to serve as an example to future generations of the ungodly, 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man in anguish over the debauched lifestyle of lawless men, 8 (for while he lived among them day after day, that righteous man was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) 9 —if so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials, and to reserve the unrighteous for punishment at the day of judgment, 10 especially those who indulge their fleshly desires and who despise authority. Brazen and insolent, they are not afraid to insult the glorious ones,
Date: 120-130 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Wisdom of Solomon 10:6 and Josephus' Jewish Wars 4.484 say a total of five cities were destroyed. In Philo’s Abr. 145 it says that four of the five cities of the Plain were destroyed, which is harmonious with Genesis 19:17–22 and the preservation of Zoar, to which Lot fled. The omission of these additional cities in 2 Peter is no more unusual than the majority of references that only mention Sodom and Gomorrah, or those that mention only Sodom and exclude Gomorrah ... In contrast, the parallel verse in 2 Peter 2:6 does not follow this line of condemnation at all. It does not identify the acts that merited the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and therefore does not connect their destruction to the punishment of the angels on the basis of a similar sin. Rather, in 2 Peter the following verses about Lot maintain a strictly biblical and historical context describing them as licentious (2:7) and lawless (2:7,8) ..."
Devivo, Jenny
2 Peter 2:4-16: The Redaction of the Biblical and Intertestamental References Dependent on Jude 5-11 and Their Overall Significance for the Document
(pp. 87-89) Loyola University Chicago, 2014
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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Wisdom of Solomon 10:5 "kept him strong in the face of his compassion for his child". Who is this referring to? As you read through chapter 10, some of the people are evident such as "steering the righteous man by a paltry piece of wood". "Compassion for his child" makes me think of Moses, but t ...
Cheryl, I think you are confusing Abraham with Moses