Comparison of Humans to Animals in 2 Peter 2,10b-22 A striking feature of 2 Peter 2,10b-22 is the author’s multiple references to similarities and differences between humans and animals. In this passage the author of 2 Peter continues and concludes the criticism of the people he calls “false teachers” that he began in 2,1. In 2,12 the author compares the false teachers to irrational animals. In 2,16 he develops the point that the false teachers are followers of Balaam by observing that a voiceless donkey prevented the madness of Balaam, implicitly contrasting the false teachers with the donkey. And finally in 2,22 the author says that a proverb about the behavior of a dog and a sow applies to those who follow the false teachers and by implication to the false teachers themselves. In his critique of the false teachers in 2,1-22, the author of 2 Peter is dependent on Jude 4-16 (1). He has taken the comparison of the false teachers to irrational animals from Jude 10. He has also taken the connection of the false teachers to Balaam from Jude 11. Jude, however, mentions Balaam very briefly and makes no reference to Balaam’s donkey; the author of 2 Peter has described Balaam more fully and specifically included the behavior of the donkey. The author of 2 Peter has added the proverb to the material he took from Jude. Thus, by comparison with Jude the author of 2 Peter has greatly increased the use of animal references in his polemic. This use of animals was probably suggested to him by Jude 10, but he has made it much more prominent than it was in Jude. In what follows I will illuminate this aspect of 2 Peter 2,10b-22 by investigating comparison of humans to animals by writers older than, and (roughly) contemporary with, 2 Peter. This will bring 2 Peter’s references to animals into sharper focus. 1. Like irrational animals (2 Pet 2,12) In Jude 10 the author says that those he criticizes are like irrational animals in that they know some things naturally (o{sa de; fusikw'" wJ" ta; a[loga zw/'a ejpivstantai). The author also says that his opponents are destroyed by these things they know naturally. It is unclear whether or not this is also true of the irrational animals. If it is, this is another way that the opponents resemble irrational animals. 2 Peter’s revision of this in 2,12 explicitly says that the false teachers are like irrational animals in being destined by their nature for destruction. The author of 2 Peter eliminated any reference to irrational animals’ knowing things naturally; perhaps he did not think it appropriate to speak of irrational animals as having knowledge. Instead he says that they are begotten naturally for capture and corruption (wJ" a[loga zw/'a gegennhmevna fusika; eij" a{lwsin kai; fqoravn). To this the author adds that the (1) On this see T. CALLAN, “Use of the Letter of Jude by the Second Letter of Peter”, Bib 85 (2004) 42-64.