---
title: 2 Peter 3:15
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/2-peter-3-15/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/2-peter-3-15.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 2 Peter 3:15
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 2 Peter 3:15

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Consider also that our Lord’s patience brings salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom God gave him.

## JW Usage

The Watchtower treats 2 Peter 3:15 as a general affirmation of Paul's authority as a fellow apostle ("our beloved brother Paul") without drawing out its decisive implication for canon formation. The verse is referenced in the context of defending inter- apostolic unity but rarely deployed as evidence that canon recognition was happening *inside the apostolic generation itself* — because that recognition undermines the "Jehovah's organisation gave you the Bible" framing of the borrowed-capital argument.

## Protestant Usage

2 Peter 3:15-16 is a decisive data point for canon formation. Peter — writing within the apostolic generation, while the apostles are still alive — refers to "all the letters" of Paul and places them in the category of "the rest of the Scriptures." That phrase in verse 16 (*tas loipas graphas* in Greek) is the standard New Testament term for the Old Testament canon. Peter is therefore recognising Paul's letters as *Scripture*, in the same category as the Hebrew Bible, *within the first-century apostolic period*.
This dismantles the "borrowed capital" argument — the Catholic and Watchtower claim that "the church gave you the Bible, so you owe the church your submission." The canon was not granted by a fourth-century council or by a nineteenth-century organisation. Peter, an apostle, is already recognising Paul's letters as Scripture during the lifetime of the apostles. The Councils of Rome (382), Hippo (393), and Carthage (397) later ratified what the church had already been reading and using for centuries. The process was distributed regional convergence under the Spirit, not a top-down institutional decree. And the Watchtower — founded in 1881 — did not "give us the Bible" fifteen centuries after the canon was settled.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Canon Circularity — Who Gave You the Bible?](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/canon-borrowed-capital.md) — Distributed convergence, not top-down decree, gave the church its 66 books [Authority]
- [Paul Restored Mark — What Did Russell Restore?](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/founder-character-contrast.md) — Apostolic reconciliation vs Bethel schism — the fruit test applied to founders [Authority]