A living hope and a royal priesthood: Peter to the exiles

The letter names its author as 'Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ' (1:1). The early church accepted this without much doubt, and the tradition that Peter was in Rome and died there under Nero is old. It says it was sent through Silvanus (5:12), probably the Silas of Acts and Paul's letters, who may have written it down; this is one explanation offered for its refined Greek. It sends greetings from 'Babylon' (5:13), a name Jewish and Christian writers used for Rome as the world power that oppresses God's people. Many scholars doubt that the Galilean fisherman wrote this Greek, and propose a follower writing in Peter's name from Rome in the 80s or 90s. Others defend Peter's authorship, pointing to Silvanus and to Peter's firsthand knowledge of Jesus' suffering. Those who accept Peter as author usually date the letter in the early 60s.

The readers are chosen exiles scattered across five Roman provinces in what is now northern Turkey: Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia (1:1). They are mostly Gentile converts, as 1:14, 18 and 2:10 show, but Peter speaks of them with the titles of Israel. They are 'exiles' (parepidemoi) and 'resident aliens' (paroikoi), people who do not belong to the surrounding culture. Their former friends are puzzled by their changed behaviour and slander them. The letter does not describe an empire-wide persecution but social abuse and suffering for the name of Christ, with more to come. Peter's purpose, stated at the end, is to encourage and to testify that this is the true grace of God (5:12). Chapters 1 and 2 lay the foundation: who the readers now are, because of what God has done in Christ.

First Peter is a letter, and it moves between teaching (what God has done) and exhortation (what follows). The word 'therefore' in 1:13 introduces calls that depend on the praise of 1:3-12, and 'for' clauses throughout explain why. The commands are not ways of earning a place with God, because the readers have already been given new birth. They are the shape of the life that corresponds to it.

Second, the letter is thick with the Old Testament, quoted and echoed in the Greek version most of the readers knew. The call to holiness in 1:16 quotes Leviticus (11:44-45; 19:2). The contrast of withering grass and the abiding word in 1:24-25 quotes Isaiah 40:6-8. The stone texts in 2:6-8 are from Isaiah 28:16, Psalm 118:22 and Isaiah 8:14, and the titles in 2:9-10 come from Exodus 19:5-6, Isaiah 43:20-21 and Hosea 1 and 2. The suffering of Christ in 2:21-25 is described with the language of Isaiah 53. Peter's method is to say that what was spoken to Israel as God's people is now true of those who belong to Christ, as Jews and Gentiles together.

Third, the passage on household slaves (2:18-25) is advice to people who had no power to leave their situation, in a letter that treats them as full members of God's people and holds up Christ as their pattern. It does not endorse slavery as an institution, and it is not a general instruction to endure abuse in silence. Peter addresses those who are slaves and shows how Christ's way meets injustice.

Chapter 1:1–2

The readers are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling with his blood. All three persons of the Trinity are named in one sentence. The sprinkling of blood recalls the covenant ceremony at Sinai (Exodus 24:3-8): the readers are now in a covenant, sealed by Christ.

Chapter 1:3–5

Peter begins with praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who by his great mercy has given new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The hope is living because it rests on a living Lord, and it is concrete: an inheritance that cannot perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven, while the believers are guarded by God's power through faith. Israel's inheritance language is transferred to what is kept for the church.

Chapter 1:6–9

Trials are real but brief, and they prove faith as fire proves gold. The readers love Christ without having seen him and rejoice with a joy beyond words, receiving the outcome of their faith, the salvation of their souls.

Chapter 1:10–12

The prophets searched carefully into this salvation, asking what time or circumstances the Spirit of Christ in them pointed to when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. They learned that they served not themselves but the readers, and angels long to look into these things. This is how Peter reads the Old Testament: its prophets spoke of Christ's suffering and then glory.

Chapter 1:13–21

'Therefore' begins the commands: prepare your minds for action, be sober, set your hope fully on grace, and do not conform to former desires. The summons to be holy because God is holy (Leviticus 11:44-45) is now addressed to Gentiles. The reason is that they were ransomed (lytroo) from their futile way of life, not with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or spot. The language belongs to the Passover and the sacrificial lamb of the law. Christ was known before the foundation of the world and made manifest in the last times for their sake.

Chapter 1:22–25

Obedience to the truth has purified the readers' souls for sincere brotherly love, and they are to love one another earnestly from the heart. They have been born again of imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God. All flesh is like grass, but the word of the Lord endures forever (Isaiah 40:6-8), and Peter says this word is the good news preached to them.

Chapter 2:1–3

They are to put away malice and deceit and long for pure spiritual milk, like newborn infants, if they have tasted that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8).

Chapter 2:4–8

Peter gathers three stone texts. Christ is the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious to God (Psalm 118:22). Believers come to him and are themselves 'living stones' built into a 'spiritual house'. The chosen cornerstone laid in Zion (Isaiah 28:16) means that whoever believes will not be put to shame. To those who do not believe, he is the stone the builders rejected, which became a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence (Isaiah 8:14).

Chapter 2:9–10

'You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation', and a people for God's own possession. Each title was given to Israel at Sinai (Exodus 19:5-6). The purpose is to proclaim the excellencies of him who called them out of darkness into his marvellous light. Verse 10 draws on Hosea: once not a people, now God's people; once without mercy, now given mercy (Hosea 1:6, 9; 2:23).

Chapter 2:11–17

As sojourners and exiles they are to abstain from fleshly passions and keep their conduct honourable among the Gentiles, so that, though slandered as evildoers, they may glorify God on the day of visitation. They are to submit to human institutions, honour all, love the brotherhood, fear God and honour the emperor. They are free, but not to use freedom as a cover for evil.

Chapter 2:18–25

Household servants are to submit even to harsh masters and endure suffering for doing good, which is a grace before God. The ground is Christ: he suffered, leaving an example (hypogrammos, the model of letters a child traces) so that they might follow in his steps. He committed no sin and no deceit was in his mouth (Isaiah 53:9). When reviled, he did not revile in return. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree (compare Isaiah 53:4-6, 12), so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, and by his wounds we are healed. They were straying sheep and have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of their souls.

First Peter teaches election and new birth as God's initiative: chosen according to foreknowledge (1:2), born again by his great mercy (1:3) and through the living word (1:23). It also teaches a demanding sanctification. The grace that gives the new birth calls for holiness, and the letter asks for both without confusing them.

The doctrine of the church is built from Old Testament categories. The people called out of Egypt, constituted at Sinai as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, are now the Jewish and Gentile believers in Christ. This is a strong claim about continuity: the promises to Israel are being fulfilled in Christ's people, and the former outsiders are included. The corporate title 'priesthood' also ties into the New Testament teaching that Christ is the one mediator and that his people offer spiritual sacrifices of praise and obedience (2:5; compare Hebrews 13:15-16 and Romans 12:1).

The death of Christ is described in several ways at once. It is a ransom (1:18-19), a sacrifice of the unblemished lamb (1:19; Exodus 12), a substitution in which he bears sin 'in his body on the tree' (2:24; compare Deuteronomy 21:23 and Galatians 3:13), and an example to be followed (2:21). The letter keeps these together. The example does not replace the atonement, because the one who is followed is the one who bore the sin.

The letter presents Christ as the one in whom the Old Testament's patterns converge. He is the Passover lamb (1:19), the cornerstone of Zion (2:6), the stone of stumbling (2:8), the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 (2:22-25), and the shepherd and overseer of souls (2:25; compare Ezekiel 34; John 10:11). He was known before the foundation of the world and made manifest at the end of the age (1:20), which assumes his pre-existence and incarnation without explaining them. The prophets, Peter says, were guided by 'the Spirit of Christ' (1:11), so Christ was already present and speaking in their words.

The resurrection is the basis of hope. The 'living hope' of 1:3 is a hope given 'through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead', so that the one who suffered is the one who has been raised and is now glorified (1:21). The pattern of suffering followed by glory is the pattern of Christ and the pattern for his people.

The quotation of Isaiah 53:9 and the language of bearing sins in 2:22-24 are among the clearest New Testament appropriations of that chapter. Peter does not argue the point, which suggests that Christians already read Isaiah 53 as fulfilled by Jesus (compare Acts 8:32-35). The tree of verse 24 is the cross. Deuteronomy 21:23 calls one hanged on a tree cursed, and Paul applies that to Christ in Galatians 3:13.