The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (177 page)

⁸
Eusebius,
Eccl. Hist.
2.15; 3.1.2, 39.

⁹
Eusebius,
Eccl. Hist.
4.9.2; 16.5; 5.7.2.

¹⁰
See
Scorpiace
12 and 14, as well as
Orat.
20.

¹¹
Eusebius,
Eccl. Hist.
3.3.25.

¹²
Schreiner,
1, 2 Peter, Jude
, 22.

¹³
C. Bigg,
A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude
, ICC (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1901), 7. Cf. D. Guthrie's conclusion on the matter: “This Epistle not only exerted a wide influence on early Christian writings, but it also possessed for them apostolic authority. This makes clear that the primitive Church, as far back as any evidence exists, regarded it as a genuine Epistle of Peter, and thus any discussion of objections to Petrine authorship must sufficiently take account of this fact”
(New Testament Introduction
, 762).

¹⁴
H. J. Holtzmann (
Lehrbuch der historisch-kritischen Einleitung in das neue Testament
[Freiburg: J. C. B. Mohr, 1885], 490—91) listed Semler (1784) and Eichhorn (1818) as the first to deny direct Petrine authorship, as did Cludius (1808) and de Wette (1813) and Reuss (1852, 1864). The Tübingen School followed suit, beginning with F. C. Baur (1856).

¹⁵
E. Boring, “First Peter in Recent Study,”
WW 24
(2004): 359-60. E.g., J. H. Elliott,
1 Peter: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary
, AB (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 127—30.

¹⁶
E.g., E. G. Selwyn,
The First Epistle of St. Peter: The Greek Text with Introduction, Notes and Essays
(London: Macmillan, 1955), 10.

¹⁷
R. E. Brown
(An Introduction to the New Testament
, ABRL [New York: Doubleday, 1997], 719) considered this to be the weightiest argument against Peter's authorship.

¹⁸
K. H. Jobes,
1 Peter
, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005), 6. D. P. Senior
(1 Peter, Jude, and 2 Peter
, SacPag 15 [Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003], 4) mentioned five similar objections, adding the fact that the author did not mention anything from the life of Jesus in the first letter. Most scholars recognize a lack of consistency in rejecting Peter's authorship for 1 Peter for this reason while rejecting the authenticity of 2 Peter, which includes one such major reference (2 Pet 1:16—19) (e.g., Michaels,
1 Peter
, lxvi). The same can be said for the view that if Peter wrote 1 Peter, he would have mentioned Paul (who presumably was with him in Rome at that time) while still rejecting 2 Peter, which does include such a citation. E.g., see G. Krodel, “The First Letter of Peter,” in
Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, Jude and Revelation
, Proclamation Commentaries (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1995), 64.

¹⁹
Ibid., 332. Against Achtemeier
(1 Peter
, 7), who believed that the author was linguistically at home in a Greek environment rather than a Semitic one. Jobes
(1 Peter
, 337—38) applied a methodology she devised in her dissertation on Esther to track Aramaic influence in 1 Peter. She tracked the use of various syntactical markers, statistically weighted, and found that it was unlikely “that the author of 1 Peter was a native speaker of Greek” (p. 337) and that “Josephus had a much better mastery of Greek than did the author of 1 Peter, which is consistent with historical information about him” (pp. 337—38).

²⁰
E.g., J. A. Fitzmyer, “Did Jesus Speak Greek?”
BAR
18 (1992): 58—63; id., “Languages of Palestine in the First Century AD,”
CBQ 32
(1970): 501—31 (esp. 507—18). Fitzmyer noted the discovery of a Greek letter from Simon Bar Kokhba to two of his lieutenants written in Greek, to the effect that “a desire has not been found to write in Hebrew” (ibid., 514).

²¹
Jobes,
1 Peter
, 326.

²²
See the helpful discussion in D. A. Carson and D. J. Moo
(An Introduction to the New Testament
, 2d ed. [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005], 645), who noted that the Greek preposition
dia
(“through”) could convey either notion: that Silas carried the letter or that he served as an amanuensis. While the former seems more likely, this does not mean that Silas (or someone else) could not also have had a part in writing the letter.

²³
E.g., F. G. Downing, “Pliny's Persecutions of Christians: Revelation and 1 Peter,”
JSNT
34 (1988): 105-23. The connection is often made to a letter from Pliny the Younger (Governor of Bithynia) to the emperor Trajan, which outlines Pliny's (mis)treatment of believers in his province (Pliny,
Letters
10.96.6). But it is not at all necessary for the persecution in 1 Peter to be state-sanctioned. See D. Warden, “Imperial Persecution and the Dating of 1 Peter and Revelation,”
JETS
34 (1991): 203-12.

²⁴
But see W. G. Kümmel,
Introduction to the New Testament
, rev. ed., trans. H. C. Kee (Nashville: Abingdon, 1975), 424.

²⁵
W. Grudem,
The First Epistle of Peter: An Introduction and Commentary
, TNTC (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1997), 31.

²⁶
Schreiner,
1, 2 Peter, Jude
, 36.

²⁷
J. N. D. Kelly,
The Epistles of Peter and of Jude
, HNTC (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), 29.

²⁸
E.g., Michaels,
1 Peter
, lxiii.

²⁹
See I. H. Marshall,
1 Peter
, NTC (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1991), 175. The commentary on Habakkuk in the Dead Sea Scrolls interprets Habakkuk's prophecies about Babylon as being fulfilled in Rome. Moreover, a Roman writer, Petronius, compared Roman decadence with that of Babylon (
Satyricon
, AD 60s). Papias, in the early second century, placed 1 Peter in Rome, viewing the “Babylon” metaphor as a reference to Rome (cited in Eusebius,
Eccl. Hist.
2.15.2).

³⁰
The proposed idea that the pseudepigrapher was speaking of his office and not Peter's is irrelevant to the issue of date. Even granting the supposition, the ecclesiology would be quite early and not late.

³¹
So N. Brox,
Der ErstePetrusbrief
EKKNTXXI (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1979), 43-51.

³²
E.g., J. H. Elliott,
A Home for the Homeless
(Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988), 270-80.

³³
Kümmel,
Introduction
, 423.

³⁴
Ibid.

³⁵
Bigg,
1 Peter
, 15-23.

³⁶
The most striking being “love covers a multitude of sins” (Jas 5:20 and 1 Pet 4:8; ibid., 23). This is a quote from Prov 10:20; however, it does not represent the LXX reading but an independent translation/paraphrase. That the quotes are identical is therefore striking.

³⁷
See J. Herzer,
Petrus oder Paulus? Studien über das Verhältnis des ersten Petrusbriefes zur paulinischen Tradition
, WUNT 103 (Tübingen: Mohr, 1998).

³⁸
The Tübingen theory that Peter and Paul were rivals should be viewed as obsolete. Against M. Goulder,
St. Peter vs. St. Paul: A Tale of Two Missions
(Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1994).

³⁹
See Jobes,
1 Peter
, 11—12; and Selwyn,
1 Peter
, 461—66. Even those denying Peter's authorship have abandoned this line of argument; see L. Goppelt,
A Commentary on 1 Peter
, trans. J. E. Alsup (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 28—30; Achtemeier,
1 Peter
, 15-23; and Elliott,
1 Peter
, 20-39.

⁴⁰
E.g., Goppelt,
1 Peter
, 46; Brown,
Introduction to the New Testament
, 719—22; and F. Lapham,
Peter: The Myth, the Man and the Writings: A Study of Early Petrine Text and Tradition
, JSNTSup 239 (New York: Sheffield Academic Press, 2003),

⁴¹
Jobes,
1 Peter
, 27-32.

⁴²
At the riot in Ephesus, Demetrius the silversmith noted that Paul's mission had been successful “not only in Ephesus, but in almost the whole province of Asia”
(Acts
19:26). Evidence of missionary activity beyond Paul can be found in Colossians where the people had not seen Paul at all (Col 2:1), and Luke could confidently proclaim that all of Asia “heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 19:10).

⁴³
Against Beare
(First Epistle of Peter
, 48), who stated: “The case against the attribution to Peter is overwhelming.”

⁴⁴
See especially T. L. Wilder,
Pseudonymity, the New Testament, and Deception;
Guthrie, “Appendix C: Epistolary Pseudepigraphy,” in
New Testament Introduction
, 1011—28.

⁴⁵
Selwyn
(1 Peter
, 23—24), who attributed these affinities to the author's knowledge of Q.

⁴⁶
R. Gundry, “
Verba Christi
in 1 Peter: Their Implications Concerning the Authorship of 1 Peter and the Authenticity of the Gospel Tradition,”
NTS
13 (1966-67): 336-50; cf. id., “Further
Verba
on
Verba Christi
in First Peter,”
Bib
55 (1974): 211-32.

⁴⁷
E.g., Acts 2:23 and 1 Pet 1:2, 20; 2:4, 5; Acts 2:33 and 1 Pet 1:12; 3:22; 4:1; Acts 2:36 and 1 Pet 1:11; 3:14; 4:12; Acts 2:38 and 1 Pet 3:22; and Acts 10:42 and 1 Pet 4:2.

⁴⁸
Marshall,
1 Peter
, 24.

⁴⁹
J. A. T. Robinson,
Redating the New Testament
(Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976), 164; cf. Marshall,
1 Peter
, 21 (no foe of pseudepigraphy), who rightly stated of 1 Peter, “If ever there was a weak case for pseudonymity, surely it is in respect to this letter.”

⁵⁰
Robinson,
Redating
, 164.

⁵¹
State-sponsored persecution of Christians is only attested for the reigns of Nero, Domitian, and Trajan. Robinson (
Redating
, 155—56) noted that Domitian was chosen as a compromise for those who can tolerate neither Nero nor Trajan. He, humorously, went on to say that Revelation, Hebrews,
1 Clement, Barnabas
, the
Didache
, Ephesians, Luke, Acts, Matthew, John, the Johannine Letters, James, Jude, and the Pastorals have all been conveniently relegated by some to the reign of Domitian, not because so much is known about it but because we know so little. He stated, “Hence its attractiveness as a depository: it can accommodate almost anything.”

⁵²
See Robinson (ibid., 162—63), who also named Kelly,
Epistles of Peter and of Jude
, 30; F. L. Cross,
I Peter: A Paschal Liturgy
(London: A. R Mowbray, 1954), 43-44; and C. F. D. Moule, “The Nature and Purpose of I Peter,”
NTS 3
(1956-57): 11.

⁵³
For a more detailed discussion of persecution in 1 Peter, see Schreiner,
1, 2 Peter and Jude
, 28—31.

⁵⁴
See Achtemeier,
1 Peter
, 353. Strabo (c. AD 19) noted that the city “is so deserted that one would not hesitate to say… 'the Great City is a great desert'” (
Geog.
16.1.5).

⁵⁵
Grudem,
1 Peter
, 33.

⁵⁶
See J. H. Elliott, “Peter, First Epistle of,”
ABD
5:277.

⁵⁷
Brown,
Introduction to the New Testament
, 708.

⁵⁸
So Augustine, Jerome, and Calvin. This is a plausible understanding, given that Antiochus III in the third century BC sent 2,000 Jews from Babylon to colonize Lydia and Phrygia (Jobes,
1 Peter
, 23).

⁵⁹
See the virtually identical outlines in Michaels,
1 Peter
, xxxiv—xxxvii; Jobes,
1 Peter
, vii, 56—57; Davids,
First Epistle of Peter
, 28—29; and Schreiner,
1, 2 Peter, Jude
, 46—48. Grudem (
1 Peter
, 44—46) saw no major break in 4:12 and divided the letter into two major units, 1:1—2:10 and 2:11—5:14. Marshall (
1 Peter
, 28) has a major break at 3:13 rather than 4:12. For a discussion and critique of alternative proposals, see Schreiner,
1, 2 Peter, Jude
, 47—48.

⁶⁰
The phrase in 2:1 rendered as a command, “rid yourselves,” actually denotes the prerequisite action to the main command found in 2:2, “desire.” Specifically enumerated are those sins that would destroy fellowship with other believers—the antithesis to the previous imperative (see Jobes,
1 Peter
, 131).

⁶¹
See D. A. Carson, “1 Peter,” in
Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
, ed. G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007), 1023-33; and N. Hillyer, “'Rock-Stone Imagery in 1 Peter,”
TynBul
22 (1971): 58—81. The word “stone”
(lithos)
occurs in 2:4,5,6,7,8. Peter here engaged in a rabbinic practice known as “pearl-stringing,” connecting a series of references on a similar topic (also known as
gezerah shawah).
Characteristically, Peter first paraphrased a given reference and then quoted it.

⁶²
See the discussion in Jobes,
1 Peter
, 144—52.

⁶³
For helpful discussions, see Schreiner,
1, 2 Peter, Jude
, 158—61; Michaels,
1 Peter
, 167—71.

⁶⁴
For a treatment of 3:18—22, see the sidebar below.

⁶⁵
The term “Christian”
(Christianos)
, while extremely common today, is found only two other times in the NT. In Acts 11:26 Luke stated that the disciples were first called “Christians” in Antioch (c. 43/44). In Acts 26:28 King Agrippa used the term “Christian” (c. 58/59). Other names for Christians at the time of the early church were followers of “the Way” (Acts 9:2; 24:14) or of “the name” (i.e., God/Christ; see Acts 2:21; 4:12; Rom 10:13; Phil 2:9-10; Heb 1:4; see 1 Pet 4:16).

⁶⁶
The expression “fiery ordeal”
(pyrōsis)
in 4:12 refers most likely to the refinement and purification that persecution brings with regard to believers' character and confession of Christ (see 1:6—7; see Ps 66:10; Mal 3:1—4). For a helpful discussion and further bibliographic references, see Schreiner (
1, 2 Peter, Jude
, 219—20), citing D. E. Johnson, “Fire in God's House: Imagery from Malachi 3 in Peter's Theology of Suffering (1 Peter 4:12-19),”
JETS
29 (1986): 287-89.