Bible Commentaries
1 Peter

First Peter was obviously written by the Apostle Peter himself. The early church fathers as well as other early Christian leaders believed that the letter came from Peter, the most prominent of the Twelve Apostles. In the first century this was without serious dispute.^(F1) It is possible that the very early work, the Didache, refers to First Peter and it may well be that Clement of Alexandria and Irenaeus both refer to his book.^(F2) Of course, Peter himself says that he wrote it and that he was witness to Christ's suffering (cf. 5:1). First Peter was listed by the fourth century church historian, Eusebius, as belonging to the "undisputed books" of the New Testament and a true letter from the Apostle Peter.^(F3)

However, as usually happens, some hyper-critical modern scholars have denied that the book could have been written by Peter. Some of their reasoning runs like this - First Peter displays some of the finest Greek in the New Testament, and an "unlearned" fisherman like Peter thus could not have written it. These scholars seem to forget that Peter was a businessman and had contact with many people. They forget that within approximately five miles (8 km.) of his birthplace in Bethsaida or his workplace in Capernaum, was the Decapolis, a thoroughly Greek-speaking area on the Sea of Galilee's eastern coast. They also seem to forget that most letters were dictated to scribes, who had to know their Greek, since it was the lingua franca of the age.

Quickly, some other primary reasons scholars give for their doubts are these - That Peter quotes from the Septuagint Greek Bible and not from the Hebrew Bible; that the letter is noticeably Pauline in its theology; that the letter says little about the historical Jesus; and that there was no empire-wide persecution in Peter's day – that this only came in the reign of Domitian (AD 81-96) or that of Trajan (98-117).^(F4) There are a number of very good answers for these objections - The Septuagint was the popular Bible of the day; Peter had spent time with Paul and was familiar with his works (2 Peter 3:15-16); James, the brother of Jesus, in his book also says little about the historical Jesus; finally, the persecution of First Peter is never said to be empire-wide.^(F5) As usual, God eventually has the last laugh at the ridiculous, skeptical opinions of some scholars.

After being written by Peter, the book was probably sent from Rome (codenamed Babylon). It was likely written shortly before Peter was martyred by Nero. The book is traditionally dated around the years AD 64-66.^(F6) The epistle declares that it was sent to several areas in today's northern Turkey. It was thus a cyclical epistle and is sometimes referred to as a "catholic" (general) epistle." The recipients were predominantly Gentile, as is clear from several passages (cf. 1 Peter 1:14,18; 2:9).^(F7)

Peter's epistle was written to encourage Christians who were suffering serious persecution for their faith. We might call it an epistle of suffering or one of encouragement to those who are suffering. Because of the content in this little epistle, it becomes a popular one for those many Christians who are being persecuted for their faith today.

CHAPTER ONE