Christians give a lot of air time to the large letters that make up the New Testament. For better or worse Paul's writings have become the chief commentary on the teachings of Jesus and the form the church was meant to take. But the small letters are not to be ignored. In this case we come to two letters, written by a first-person witness of Jesus, and not only that, but by a major player in the gospels and a central figure in the life of the first-generation church--Peter. In addition, these letters weren't written in the rush and adrenaline of the early experience, but tempered by years of teaching the gospel and living in Christian community. For that reason, the two small letters of 1st & 2nd Peter have a special importance for followers of Jesus.

Who was this letter written to?

In the first verse, (1:1) the author identifies his audience as "God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia..." These were Christians living throughout the Roman provinces in northern Asia Minor or modern-day Turkey. It seems from the text of I Peter that these Christians were mostly made up of Christians who had converted from Judaism, although some were present who had come from a pagan background. It also seems from the text that they were very likely poor and marginalized people, either because of their social status or (and?) because of their faith.

Peter addresses them as "aliens and strangers" and many commentators are quick to interpret that as an identification of their spiritual pilgrimage, being natives of God's kingdom and strangers in this current culture. It's the whole "this world is not my home, I'm just a-passin' through" mentality. Certainly that interpretation makes sense, but it also seems from the text that these people were literally aliens and strangers. That is, they were immigrants, resident aliens, and people not welcomed by their immediate culture. This is compounded by the fact that very likely these churches were living in the shadow of the first scattered persecution of Christians. (It's tradition that Peter himself was killed in the Neronian Persecution  in Rome.) So spiritually, ethnically, and nationally these people were living on what felt like the fringe. Scot McNight, one commentator put it like this: "They were disenfranchised workers laboring in the cracks of a network that largely excluded them, but they had found the meaning to their existance in the Christian family."^[1]

Who wrote this letter?

The text claims to have been written by Peter, the apostle of Jesus. (1:1) There is no unimpeachable evidence that Peter did write this letter, but there is also no unimpeachable evidence that he didn't. The content and tone of the the text seems to support Peter's authorship. There are numbers of places where the teaching echoes directly the words of Jesus, as would be the case if the author was someone who had heard Jesus teach. Some scholars doubt that Peter wrote the book because the Greek is fairly sophisticated (or at least, complicated), and the NT presents Peter as having no formal education (Acts 4:13). But this alone is not sufficient to prove different authorship. Peter's speech in Acts 2 shows that he was well able to present his thoughts, and if he had difficulty in writing them down, he could have used a secretary, like Paul did on occasion. It seems safe and likely that Peter is in fact the author of the content of these letters, either writing them in his own hand, or through an scribe or secretary of some kind.

If this is the case, then these two letters are more important than their size and location in the New Testament indicates. Peter, after all, was the foremost figure among the disciples, and one of the three that Jesus brought into a special inner circle. Peter is a large figure in the New Testament, often characterized as hot-tempered and impulsive. What we know for sure, based on the narrative of the Gospels and Acts is that he was integrally involved in the ministry of Jesus and the foundation of the early church.

• Peter was called personally by Jesus to follow him. (Luke 5:1-11)
• Peter seems to have taken some kind of forward or leadership role among the disciples, and is mentioned first when they are listed. (Matthew 10:2)
• Peter was the first person credited in scripture of recognizing Jesus as the Messiah. (Mark 8:27-30)
• Peter had faith enough to try walking to Jesus on the water, (Matthew 14:28-31) even though he failed.
• Peter boasted of his support for Jesus, but denied Him when his life was at stake. (Luke 22:21-71)
• After the resurrection, Peter was personally restored, forgiven and commissioned by Jesus. (John 21:15-19)
• Peter seems to have been the leader of the disciples in Jerusalem in the days following Jesus' resurrection. (Acts 2-5)
• Peter received a vision from God breaking down the barriers between Jew and Gentile, clean and unclean, that enabled the church to become a truly international and inter-ethnic movement. (Acts 10:9 -11:18)
• Peter was arrested by officials for his role in the church and experienced a miraculous rescue. (Acts 12:1-17)

If this man is the author, and these thoughts were written in the latter part of his life, then this would give us a unique perspective on someone who heard Jesus first-hand and then spent a lifetime trying to apply those words to life.

When was this letter written?

If Peter was the author, then the book must have been written before Peter's death in 64 or 65 AD, during the Neronian Persecution. A certain amount of time had to have passed for there to be churches in this part of Asia Minor at all, so the earliest that seems possible is maybe 60 AD. So, with a window of 60-65 AD, that puts 1st Peter right in the heart of the life of the early church, and a mere 30-35 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. That means that the theology represented here is quite early and verly likely representative of the thoughts of the first Christians, especially as it relates to their view of Jesus and the role of the church.

Issues in 1st Peter

Peter is writing to churches that are struggling with how to live in a culture that condescending toward them at best, and often hostile. These were churches far away from the cultural center of Rome, and the religious center of Jerusalem. The converts were people who had moved there, or people who had been Jewish proselytes who had converted. They were living in a time when persecution was just beginning to break out. The largest issue of the two books is how to live as a Christian within this context and still have hope. Along the way, Peter introduces the idea of the church being a new Israel. In unapologetic terms Peter, a Jew who believed that Jesus was the Messiah, uses terms for the church that had been used exclusively of Israel in the Old Testament. It seems that Peter saw salvation--another major theme in the books--as the avenue into this new Israel. God's grace and mercy provided a means of access that had never before been available, and now these little marginalized churches were the living heirs to everything God had ever promised to Israel. This serves, for Peter, as a launching pad into his final theme--holy living. This salvation was the source of hope and the motivation for living a life that conformed to God's will. In fact, this is the only way that kind of life was possible. Wolfgang Schrage summarized Peter's view: "Without new birth, there is no new obedience. Without hope there is no basis for the Christian life."^[2]