The Evangelical Theological Society

Description
The literary relationship between 1 Peter and Hebrews has long been a topic of interest in New Testament studies. The presence of numerous verbal and conceptual parallels between the two books has raised intriguing questions about the nature of the intertextual relationship. Can this phenomenon be explained as mere coincidence or as independent reflections of a common milieu? Or might this be a case of literary borrowing by one of the authors? If so, who borrowed from whom? Scholars largely have acknowledged that 1 Peter and Hebrews exhibit a remarkable degree of parallelism, and even that one of the writings may have been significantly influenced in some way by the other. Nonetheless, there has been little support for the idea that the literary parallels between 1 Peter and Hebrews are the result of intertextual borrowing. Most NT scholars attribute the similarities to indirect sources of influence. However, the research methods employed in the past have proved neither comprehensive nor systematic, and the results are inconclusive. This book presents a comprehensive systematic analysis of the literary parallels between 1 Peter and Hebrews that not only rectifies methodological shortfalls of previous studies, but also reveals the probable nature of the intertextual relationship.

Through the rigorous application of an assessment methodology which applies probability theory to specific features of the parallel texts, Intertextual Borrowing between 1 Peter and Hebrews demonstrates that literary dependence between 1 Peter and Hebrews is highly probable and that the author of Hebrews is far more likely to be the borrower of parallel material. Thus the author of Hebrews very likely knew and used 1 Peter while crafting the epistle to the Hebrews. The book includes a brief survey of the history of scholarly opinion regarding the literary relationship between Hebrews and 1 Peter, identification of a comprehensive list of literary parallels that satisfy pre-defined criteria for inclusion in the analysis, the procedure for applying the methodology, and step-by-step execution of the probability calculation for each successive parallel. The book includes 63 figures, 41 tables, appendices with supporting data, an extensive index of Scripture and other ancient sources, and an index of modern authors.