the rock–man—he has been both. But as he writes this epistle, we may be sure of one thing: he is the rock–man now, the man who is to be crucified for Christ. “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle.” The word servant actually means “bond slave.” He doesn’t take an exalted position in the church. He refers to himself as a bond slave—also an apostle (that is his authority), but notice that he does not say the apostle, but an apostle; he was only one of them. “To them that have obtained like precious