1 Peter 1:1-2

The writer opens with a greeting which is equally remarkable for its wealth of idea and for its admirable reflection of the combined gravity, tenderness, and animation of the body of the Epistle. In form it reminds us more of the Pauline type of inscription than is the case with any of the Catholic Epistles, excepting 2d Peter and Jude. It seems cast in the mould of Pauline doctrine, and adopts some of the familiar Pauline phrases. It has, at the same time, an unmistakeable character of its own. Like Paul, Peter refers at once to his apostleship. He dwells less on that, however, than on the standing of his readers. And the terms in which he describes them and their election are chosen so as to suggest thoughts of the believer's dignity and security. Thus with its immediate outset the letter begins to fulfill its high design of comforting and strengthening those tried and threatened Christians.

In 1 Peter 1:1 we have designations of the author and the recipients of the Epistle. The former of these is given in utmost brevity; the latter, as the thing of superior interest, is carried on into the next verse and unfolded in the details of grace. Each of these designations has its peculiar point and intention. The description of the writer, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, is noticeable for its simplicity and reticence. For his personal identification he uses nothing beyond the new name, the name of grace, Peter, which his Lord had put upon him (Matthew 16:8; John 1:42). He adopts the title apostle of Jesus Christ; and of all the Catholic Epistles, Peter's alone thus commend the writer to the readers' attention by putting forward his apostleship in the proem. But he appends to this official title no further title, such as the ‘servant' which Paul adds. Neither does he introduce any explanation of the way in which he came to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, such as is conveyed by the Pauline formula, ‘by the will of God.' This latter would be superfluous in the case of one known to have been of the original twelve, one of the eye-witnesses chosen by Christ to be His ‘messengers,' and commissioned by Him to go ‘into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature' (Mark 16:15). The style of introduction differs, therefore, at once from Paul's and from that of James, John, and Jude, the writers of the other Catholic Epistles. This is not without its reason. Addressing churches with which he had no intimate connection, which were probably unknown to him, and which (as the localities show) were distinctively Pauline, Peter naturally appeals to his apostolic position in explanation of his writing them, as his warrant for taking the place of their founder, Paul, and in order to bespeak their attention. By limiting himself, however, to the one title, ‘apostle,' he also indicates that his claims upon their regard were not personal, but those general, official claims which were common to him with others. It is somewhat different in the Second Epistle. There he can write as one who has come into closer terms of connection with his readers; hence there he prefaces the name of grace, Peter, by the old name of nature, Symeon or Simon, and adds to the official ‘apostle' the wider title ‘servant' (Schott). Here nothing personal to the individual Peter is allowed to come into view. As this description of the writer implies the justification which exists on his own side for addressing these Christians, the designation next applied to his readers suggests circumstances on their side which make his call to communicate with them. They are elect sojourners of the dispersion on which difficult expression, see also the Introduction. The term elect corresponds to an O. T. title of Jehovah's people (Isaiah 65:9; Isaiah 65:15; Isaiah 65:22; Psalms 105:43), and occurs in the N. T. in a variety of connections (Matthew 20:16; Matthew 22:14; Luke 18:7; Romans 8:33; Mark 13:27; Revelation 17:14; 2 Timothy 2:10; 1 Peter 2:9). It is not to be restricted to Jews or Jewish Christians, neither does it apply to the Church only, and not to the individual. Nor, again, does it necessarily refer to what passes in the Divine mind. Taken by itself it may express the gracious standing of those addressed, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether Church or individual, and that standing as the result of an act of God which had grasped them as they were in the world and brought them into a new relation with Him. It may refer to ‘the selecting them out of the world and giving them to the fellowship of the people of God' (Leighton). It is therefore a note of comfort. If evil impended over the readers, they were at least chosen by God out of the world of heathen ignorance and hopelessness, and set by God's own act in a new position which made an abiding standing in grace. The second term, strangers or sojourners, is one used of those who are denizens of a place and not citizens; neither natives nor permanent inhabitants, but temporary residents in a land that is strange to them. It describes the readers as having their true city and centre elsewhere than where they were. It is a natural adjunct, therefore, to the term elect. If they were chosen by God's act out of the world, they cannot have their final home here. The third phrase, of the dispersion, is the familiar term descriptive of Jews outside the Holy Land, the whole body of Jews whose lot was cast among the heathen since the Assyrian and Babylonian deportations, remote from their own political and religious centre. In its literal sense here it would describe Peter's readers as belonging to, or having their residence among, the Israel that dwelt in the bosom of Asiatic heathenism. In its secondary application it may describe them as belonging to the community of the true dispersion under the N. T., the community of Christians who have to live scattered among the heathen. The parties in Peter's view, however, are more particularly defined as those of the dispersion settled within certain geographical limits, viz. those of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. The localities are enumerated from north-east by west and south-east to west and north. This fits in well enough, therefore, with the position of one writing from the distant east, although it would not be safe to make much of that.

Pontus, the extensive territory stretching along the south coast of the Euxine, connected in classical lore with the story of the Amazons and the legend of the Argonauts in quest of the Golden Fleece, is memorable in ancient history for the brilliant reign of the great Mithridates, and in Christian history as the native country of Aquila (Acts 18:2).

Galatia, the country seized by the Gaulish invaders between B.C. 279 and 230, and reduced to a Roman province (apparently with the inclusion of Lycaonia, Isauria, the S.E. of Phrygia and part of Pisidia) by Augustus (B.C. 25), was occupied by a mixed population, mainly Gauls and Phrygians, but with considerable infusions of Greeks and Jews. It was visited twice by Paul (Acts xvi 6; Galatians 4:13), and also by Crescens (2 Timothy 4:10).

Cappadocia, a rich pastoral district of Asia Minor, watered by the Halys, and notable in Church history for the three great Cappadocians, Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caesarea, and Gregory of Nazianzus, became a Roman province on the death of Archelaus, its last king, A.D. 17.

Asia, here, as generally in the N. T., not Asia Minor, but Proconsular Asia, the territory including Mysia, Lydia, Caria, and most of Phrygia, and having for its metropolis the great city of Ephesus, which was the scene of a three years' ministry of Paul (Acts 20:31), as well as of the preaching of Apollos (Acts 18:24). It embraced many churches known to us from Acts and the Pauline Epistles.

Bithynia, the fertile country stretching along the S.W. coast of the Euxine, bequeathed to the Romans B.C. 74, and constituted a proconsular province by Augustus, contained no churches known to us from Scripture. By the beginning of the second century, however, the Christian population must have been considerable. Pliny's letter to the Emperor Trajan (about A.D. 110) graphically describes the multitudes of converts, the deserted temples, and the unsaleable victims. The list of territories shows that the churches addressed by Peter were for the most part, if not entirely, churches planted and cared for by Paul. It shows further that they were churches which did not occupy, in the circumstances of their formation, any peculiarly close relation to the mother church of Jerusalem. It also reveals the fact that there must have been a greater extent of evangelistic effort than we should gather from Acts. We know how the Gospel was carried into Galatia, namely, by Paul and Silas (Acts 16:6; Acts 19:10), and into Asia by Paul without Silas (Acts 18:23; Acts 19:1). But we know not how it was introduced into Pontus, Cappadocia, and Bithynia. Some suppose that Luke may have evangelized both Pontus and Bithynia from Troas (Acts 16:8). All that we learn from Acts is that there were men from Cappadocia and Pontus among the devout Jews who were at Jerusalem on the occasion of the Pentecostal descent (Acts 2:9), and that Paul had thought of going into Bithynia in the course of his second missionary journey, but ‘the Spirit suffered them not' (Acts 16:7).