Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/robertsn/rwp-1pe/g1pe.int

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                    THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL
                             OF PETER
                          ABOUT A.D. 65

                      BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION

                            THE AUTHOR

        The Epistle is not anonymous, but claims to be written by
"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ" (#1Pe 1:1|), that is Cephas
(Simon Peter). If this is not true, then the book is pseudonymous
by a late writer who assumed Peter's name, as in the so-called
Gospel of Peter, Apocalypse of Peter, etc. "There is no book in
the New Testament which has earlier, better, or stronger
attestation, though Irenaeus is the first to quote it by name"
(Bigg). Eusebius (_H.E_. iii. 25.2) places it among the
acknowledged books, those accepted with no doubt at all. We here
assume that Simon Peter wrote this Epistle or at any rate
dictated it by an amanuensis, as Paul did in Romans (#Ro 16:22|).
Bigg suggests Silvanus (Silas) as the amanuensis or interpreter
(#1Pe 5:12|), the obvious meaning of the language (\dia\,
through). He may also have been the bearer of the Epistle. It
happens that we know more of Peter's life than of any of the
twelve apostles because of his prominence in the Gospels and in
the first fifteen chapters of the Acts. In the _Student's
Chronological New Testament_ I have given a full list of the
passages in the Gospels where Peter appears with any clearness
and the material is rich and abundant. The account in Acts is
briefer, though Peter is the outstanding man in the first five
chapters during his career in Jerusalem. After the conversion of
Saul he begins to work outside of Jerusalem and after escaping
death at the hands of Herod Agrippa I (#Ac 12:3ff.|) he left for
a while, but is back in Jerusalem at the Conference called by
Paul and Barnabas (#Ac 15:6-14; Gal 2:1-10|). After that we have
no more about him in Acts, though he reappears in Antioch and is
rebuked by Paul for cowardice because of the Judaizers (#Ga
2:11-21). He travelled for the Gospel among the Jews of the
Dispersion (#Ga 2:9|) with his wife (#1Co 9:5|), and went to Asia
Minor (#1Pe 1:1|) and as far as Babylon or Rome (#1Pe 5:13|).
Besides Silvanus he had John Mark with him also (#1Pe 5:13|), who
was said by the early Christian writers to have been Peter's
"interpreter" in his preaching, since Peter was not expert in the
Greek (#Ac 4:13|), and who also wrote his Gospel under the
inspiration of Peter's preaching. We are not able to follow
clearly the close of his life or to tell precisely the time of
his death. He was apparently put to death in A.D. 67 or 68, but
some think that he was executed in Rome in A.D. 64.

                             THE DATE

        This question is tied up with that of the genuineness of
the Epistle, the time of Peter's death, the use of Paul's
Epistles, the persecution referred to in the Epistle. Assuming
the genuineness of the Epistle and the death of Peter about A.D.
67 or 68 and the persecution to be not that under Domitian or
Trajan, but under Nero, the date can be assumed to be about A.D.
65.

                    THE USE OF PAUL'S EPISTLES

        There are two extremes about the relation of Peter to
Paul. One is that of violent antithesis, with Peter and Paul
opposing one another by exaggerating and prolonging Paul's
denunciation of Peter's cowardice in Antioch (#Ga 2:11-21|) and
making Peter also the exponent of a Jewish type of Christianity
(practically a Judaizing type). This view of Baur once had quite
a following, but it has nearly disappeared. Under its influence
Acts and Peter's Epistles were considered not genuine, but
documents designed to patch up the disagreement between Peter and
Paul. The other extreme is to deny any Pauline influence on Peter
or of Peter on Paul. Paul was friendly to Peter (#Ga 1:18|), but
was independent of his ecclesiastical authority (#Ga 2:1-10|) and
Peter championed Paul's cause in the Jerusalem Conference (#Ac
15:7-13|). Peter was certainly not a Judaizer (#Ac 11:1-18|), in
spite of his temporary defection in Antioch. Undoubtedly Peter
was won back to cordial relations with Paul if any confidence can
be placed in #2Pe 3:15f|. There is no reason for doubting that
Peter was familiar with some of Paul's Epistles as there
indicated. There is some indication of Peter's use of Romans and
Ephesians in this Epistle. It is not always conclusive to find
the same words and even ideas which are not formally quoted,
because there was a Christian vocabulary and a body of doctrinal
ideas in common though with personal variations in expression.
Peter may have read James, but not the Pastoral Epistles. There
are points of contact with Hebrews which Von Soden considers
sufficiently accounted for by the fact that Peter and the author
of Hebrews were contemporaries.

             THE PERSECUTION PICTURED IN THE EPISTLE

        Peter himself knew what persecution was at the hands of
the Sanhedrin and of Herod Agrippa I (both church and state). If
First Peter was written A.D. 65, there was time enough for the
persecution of Nero in Rome in A.D. 64 to spread to Asia Minor.
The province easily imitated the capital city. Paul's life in the
Acts and his Epistles abundantly show how early persecution arose
in Asia Minor. The Apocalypse, written during the reign of
Domitian, shows that persecution from the state had been on hand
long before and was an old burden. We know too little of the
history of Christianity in Asia Minor from A.D. 60 to 70 to deny
that the fiery trials and suffering as a Christian (#1Pe 4:16|)
can be true of this period. So we locate the persecution at this
time as an echo from Rome.

                       THE PLACE OF WRITING

        Peter states that he is in Babylon (#1Pe 5:13|),
apparently with his wife (#1Co 9:5|). It is not certain whether
he means actual Babylon, where Jews had been numerous, or
mystical Babylon (Rome) as in the Apocalypse. We do not know when
Rome began to be called Babylon. It may have started as a result
of Nero's persecution of the Christians after the burning of
Rome. The Christians were called "evil-doers" (#1Pe 2:12|) in the
time of Nero (Tacitus, _Ann_. XV. 44). So we can think of Rome as
the place of writing and that Peter uses "Babylon" to hide his
actual location from Nero. Whether Peter came to Rome while Paul
was still there we do not know, though John Mark was there with
Paul (#Col 4:10|). "At the time when it was written Babylon had
not yet unmasked all its terrors, and the ordinary Christian was
not in immediate danger of the _tunica ardens_, or the red-hot
iron chair, or the wild beasts, or the stake" (Bigg).

                           THE READERS

        Peter writes "to the elect who are sojourners of the
Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia"
(#1Pe 1:1|). These five Roman provinces are naturally given from
the standpoint of Babylon. In Galatia and Asia Paul had labored,
though not all over these provinces. At any rate, there is no
reason to wonder that Peter should himself work in the same
regions where Paul had been. In a general way Paul and Peter had
agreed on separate spheres of activity, Paul to the Gentiles and
Peter to the Jews (#Ga 21:7ff.|), though the distinction was not
absolute, for Paul usually began his work in the Jewish
synagogue. Probably the readers are mainly Jewish Christians. but
not to the exclusion of Gentiles. Peter has clearly Paul's idea
that Christianity is the true Judaism of God's promise (#1Pe
2:4-10|)

                           THE PURPOSE

        Evidently Peter's object is to cheer and strengthen the
Christians in these five provinces who are undergoing fiery
trials (#1Pe 1:7f.|). There is every reason why Peter, as the
leading apostle to the circumcision, should write to these
believers in the provinces, especially since Paul's long
imprisonment in Caesarea and Rome had removed him from his
accustomed activities and travel.

                     THE STYLE AND VOCABULARY

        Like Peter's discourses in the Acts, the Epistle is
mainly hortatory, with a minimum of argument and little of the
closely knit reasoning seen in Romans. There is frequent use of
the LXX and the Greek is decent _Koiné_ with little of the
uncouth Aramaic of the Galilean (#Mt 26:73|), or of the
vernacular _Koiné_ as seen in the papyri or in II Peter (#Ac
4:13|). This fact may be accounted for by the help of Silvanus as
amanuensis. There are sixty-two words in the Greek of the Epistle
not occurring elsewhere in the N.T. There is verbal iteration as
in II Peter. "One idea haunts the whole Epistle; to the author,
as to the patriarch Jacob, life is a pilgrimage; it is
essentially an old man's view" (Bigg). But it is an old man who
has lived long with Christ. Peter has learned the lesson of
humility and patience from Jesus his Lord.

                            SOME BOOKS

Alford, H., Vol. IV. 1 of his _Greek Testament_ (1870).
Baldwin, _The Fisherman of Galilee_ (1923).
Barnes, _St. Peter in Rome and His Tomb on the Vatican Hill_.
Beck, J. T., _Erklarung der Briefe Petri_ (1895).
Bennett, W. H., _New-Century Bible_ (1901).
Bigg, C., _Intern. Crit. Comm_. (1901).
Birks, _Studies in the Life and Character of St. Peter_ (1887).
Blenkin, _The First Ep. General of St. Peter_ (1915).
Camerlinck, _Commentarius in epistolas catholicas_ (1909).
Cooke and Lumby, _Speaker's Comm_. (1881).
Couard, _Commentaire_ (1895).
Couard, _Simon Petrus der Apostel des Herrn_.
Davidson, _St. Peter and His Training_.
Elert, _Die Religiositat des Petrus_ (1911).
Erbes, _Die Todestage der Apostels Paulus and Petrus_ (1899).
Foakes-Jackson, F. J., _Peter Prince of Apostles_ (1927).
Foster, Ora D., _The Literary Relations of the First Epistle
   of Peter_ (1913).
Fouard, C., _St. Peter and the First Years of Christianity_
   (1892).
Gallagher, M., _Was the Apostle Peter Ever at Rome?_ (1894).
Goutard, _Essai critique et historique sur la prem. e'pitre de
   S. Pierre_ (1905).
Green, S. G., _The Apostle Peter: His Life and Letters_ (1880).
Guignebert, _La Primaute' de Pierre et la Venue de Pierre
   a Rome_ (1909).
Gunkel, H., _Die Schriften d. N.T_. 3 Aufl. (1917).
Hart, J. H. A., _Expos. Greek Test_. (1910).
Henriott, _Saint Pierre_ (1891).
Hort, F. J. A., _The First Epistle of St. Peter 1:1-2:17_ (1898).
Howson, J., _Horae Petrinae_ (1883).
Jenkins, R. C., _The Apostle Peter. Claims of Catholics_
   (1875).
Johnstone, _The First Epistle of Peter_ (1888).
Kasteren, Van, _De Eerste Brief Van d. Ap. Petrus_ (1911).
Keil, C. F., _Comm. uber die Briefe des Petrus und Juda_
   (1883).
Knopf, R., _Die Briefe Petri und Juda_ (1912).
Kogel, J., _Die Gedankenheit des Ersten Briefes Petri_ (1902).
Kuhl, E., _Die Briefe Petri und Judae_ (Meyer Komm., 6
   Aufl., 1897).
Lietzmann, _Petrus and Paulus in Rom_.
Lumby, J. R., _Expositor's Bible_ (1893).
Masterman, J. H. B., _Epistles of St. Peter_ (1900).
McInnis, J.M., _Simon Peter Fisherman and Philosopher_ (1928).
Meyer, F. B., _Peter: Fisherman, Disciple, Apostle_ (1920).
Moffatt, James, _Moffatt Comm. on N.T._ (1930).
Monneir, J., _La premiere e'pitre de l'apotre Pierre_ (1900).
Perdelwitz, _Die Mysterienreligion und das Problem des
   ersten Petrusbriefes_ (1911).
Plumptre, _Cambridge Bible_ (1879).
Reagan, _The Preaching of Peter, the Beginning of Christian
   Apologetics_ (1922).
Robinson, C. G., _Simon Peter: His Life and Times_ (1889).
Ross, J. M. E., _The First Epistle of Peter_ (1913).
Salmond, A. D. F., _Schaff's Comm_. (1883).
Scharfe, _Die petrinische Stromung der neut. Literatur_ (1893).
Schmid, _Petrus in Rome_ (1879).
Seeley, _The Life and Writings of St. Peter_.
Soden, Von, H., _Hand-Komm_. (3 Aufl., 1899).
Taylor, W. M., _Peter the Apostle_ (1876).
Thomas, W. H., Griffith, _The Apostle Peter_ (2nd ed., 1905).
Thompson, _Life-Work of Peter the Apostle_.
Upham, _Simon Peter Shepherd_ (1910).
Usteri, J. M., _Wiss. und prakt. Komm. uber den I Petrus-
   brief_ (1887).
Volter, D., _Der I Petrusbrief_ (1906).
Weiss, B., _Die erste Petrusbrief und die Kritik_ (1906).
   _Der petrinische Lehrbegriff_ (1855).
Williams, N. M., _American Comm_.
Windisch, H., _Die Katholische Briefe. Handbuch zum N.T._
   (2 Aufl., 1930).
Wohlenberg, G., _Der erste und zweite Petrusbrief und der
   Judasbrief_. (Zahn Komm., 2 Aufl., 1915.)