Did Peter Know He Was Writing "The Bible"?

Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

In this phrase where Peter is citing “The Bible”, I do not believe he knew or even suspected that he was writing “The Bible”.  “…as it is written…” is citing at least four places in the book of Leviticus, where this ‘holy’ thing is referenced. (11:44, 11:45, 19:2, 20:7).  The Bible, as he was referring to it, was drawn from the Law of Moses.  But, as a citation, it gives special authority to the reference.  We do exactly the same thing when we reference Bible verses today, singling out special authority to make our case. 

Is it significant that Peter did not suspect he was adding to “the Bible” when he wrote these letters?  I think it is.  I believe that it kept him honest to his task, which was not writing an enduring religious tract for the renewed faith established by Jesus, but was an eyewitness testimony of Jesus Christ to a specific bunch of guys that Peter apparently had some connection to as a missionary.

How might it have changed what Peter wrote if he realized that the citations he was making from the Law of Moses would, in turn, be treated just as holy and important as those citations from the Law of Moses?  I think he would have written to a different standard.  I think he would have felt the burden of what was expected of The Bible and we would have lost so much of what makes Peter's letters so valuable to us. 

I believe the value of The Bible is how it expresses the honest truths of its writers, drawing from their times and places to relate to us their experiences of God.  How they understood God and God's mission on the earth has given us our faith today.  They were writing for us, about God.  If they'd known what they were writing would become The Bible, I think they would have spent more time writing for God, maybe about us.

The biblical authors were just like us, people struggling to take their faith in God and the lives they lived and put them together for the betterment of their audiences.  I believe that is how God inspired them to write what they wrote. 

God said, "You shall be holy, because I am holy."  God sanctified their experiences, blessed their writings, and has given to us a guide on how we, in turn, live in the faith we have been given in Jesus Christ.